Kanad Virk is a Principal and Head of Private Equity at The Chertoff Group, a premier global advisory firm that focuses exclusively on the security and risk management sectors…
…by providing business strategy, risk management, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisory services and growth capital to clients seeking to secure and grow their enterprises. He also serves as Chief Operating Officer and is responsible for the firm’s Operations, Finance and Legal/Compliance functions. Mr. Virk joined The Chertoff Group after a career spanning more than twenty years in corporate law, finance, investment banking, private banking, and private equity.
Prior to joining The Chertoff Group, Mr. Virk was a Managing Director in the Private Equity team at Standard Chartered Bank, where he made growth capital investments in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Mr. Virk joined as Chief Operating Officer of Standard Chartered’s Private Equity Group and was later elevated to Head of the Energy, Resources and Infrastructure investment team. In addition, Mr. Virk served as COO and later, Co-CEO, of the $658m Standard Chartered IL&FS Asia Infrastructure Growth Fund, one of the largest pan-Asian infrastructure funds, which focused on investments in power, transportation, waste management and related sectors. While at Standard Chartered, Mr. Virk was responsible, personally or jointly, for the structuring, diligence, approval, execution, management and divestment of over $1bn of investments. He has served on the Board of Directors of several public and private companies, including Malakoff Corporation Bhd. (Malaysia), Energy World Corporation Ltd. (Australia), Copperbelt Energy Corporation Plc (Zambia) and Greathorse Chemical Ltd. (China).
Before joining Standard Chartered, Mr. Virk spent a decade at Goldman Sachs, where he worked in Mergers & Acquisitions in the Investment Banking Division in Singapore, Hong Kong and Menlo Park, advising on transactions primarily in the tech, telecom, consumer and manufacturing sectors, with an aggregate deal value in excess of $30bn. From 2003-08, Mr. Virk served as the Chief Operating Officer of Goldman Sachs’s Private Wealth Management Division, first in Asia (including Japan), based in Hong Kong, and then of its Europe/Middle East/Africa business, based in London.
Mr. Virk started his career as a corporate lawyer specializing in mergers & acquisitions, project finance and corporate finance at Cravath, Swaine & Moore (in New York) and Skadden Arps (in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, London and Vienna). These positions followed one year of service as a law clerk for Judge Roger L. Wollman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Mr. Virk graduated from Pomona College in 1988, with a double major in Mathematical Economics and History. He earned a J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1992, from which he graduated magna cum laude and Order of the Coif and served as Articles Editor of the Minnesota Law Review. He currently holds FINRA Series 24, 63, 79 and 82 registrations.
