Director of
Business Development
Mr. Ali is the U.S. representative of TMT Frontier Ventures, responsible for
creating strategic alliances and exploring international growth opportunities
for TMT's portfolio companies. Mr. Ali has worked closely with Ali Ansari
since 1999 to develop AKD's corporate finance and venture capital strategy
and played an important role in identifying and executing several of TMT's
investments in Pakistan.
Mr. Ali has extensive professional experience in the investment banking, energy, technology and media industries. He was previously an Associate in Jefferies & Company's corporate finance group, where he successfully executed over 30 merger and acquisition and financing transactions totaling approximately $6 billion. Prior to joining Jefferies, Mr. Ali was an Analyst Intern at Credit Lyonnais' equity derivatives sales and trading group in New York.
Mr. Ali received his Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School of Business and his Bachelor of Applied Science from the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Ali was a teaching assistant for an MBA derivatives course at Wharton, where he also did supervised research on cutting edge trading technologies.
Mr. Ali is currently pursuing his Juris Doctor degree at Columbia Law School in New York. As Publisher of the Columbia University Law School News "ranked the leading law school newspaper in the U.S. by the American Bar Association." Mr. Ali has been successful in doubling advertising revenues. He is currently working on the launch of an online version, www.lawschoolnews.org.
Head of TMT Ventures Prior to his foray into technology, Mr. Banatwala worked in his family business,
Asiatic Shipping Agencies, representing the Japanese Liner Mitsui OSK Lines
(MOL) in Pakistan. In an executive capacity, he got a chance to employ creative marketing
strategies that helped build an impressive client portfolio of blue chip companies.
Mr. Banatwala also has international experience in Investment Banking from his days in
San Francisco at Robertson Stephens where he worked as a Mergers and Acquisitions Analyst
in the Technology sector. Mr. Banatwala received his Bachelor of Science in Economics with dual concentrations in Finance
and Marketing from the Wharton School of Business. He graduated with honors and was
the recipient of several academic awards.
Founder of yEvolve, a successful offshore web development company, Mr. Banatwala brings
with him strategic insight and a deep entrepreneurial knowledge of Pakistan’s
IT industry. After forging yEvolve’s strategic partnership with TMT Ventures,
he accepted the challenge of expanding his role by heading TMT Ventures. His
assignment no more limited to yEvolve, Mr. Banatwala helps the Venture Capital
fund identify, finance and support entrepreneurs and existing companies in
the Technology, Media and Telecommunications sector.