The Aura Team has over 100 years experience in the US & India working at multinational corporations including JP Morgan, Lazard, Ernst & Young, Jefferies, ICICI Group, Lockheed Martin, Intel, ThyssenKrupp & TATA Group
Mahinder (MP) Chugh – Partner
Newport Beach, California
Mahinder is a Partner at Aura and has over 25 years experience in financial services in India and 10 years as CEO of operating companies in North America. He has served on the Board of Directors of 15 companies (11 in India, 3 in the US, and 1 in Mexico) and has well established relationships with business owners and CEOs of various companies. Prior to co-founding Aura, he was the Managing Director, Asia-Pacific, of Valiant International, USA where he established Valiant’s operations in India & Thailand. Prior to that, he was the CEO of TATA Auto Components, USA. Prior to moving to the USA, Mahinder was Partner and Head of Corporate Finance at Ernst & Young, India, and Director, Mergers & Acquisitions at Lazard, India. Mahinder started his career at ICICI (now ICICI Bank) and as Head of Project Advisory and M&A at ICICI and ISEC (JV between ICICI and JP Morgan), he advised many mid market and large corporations, as well as governments & international bodies including The World Bank and United Nations Conference on Trade & Development (UNCTAD).
He has addressed audiences on Globalization, Innovation, Product Development and Productivity at various global forums including US Board on Science and Technology, Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), Society of Automotive Analysts (SAA), Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) in the USA, Confederation Of Indian Industry (CII), Auto Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA), and Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) in India. He has also been quoted extensively in the business media. Mahinder graduated with a Bachelor of Science with Honors, and an MBA from The University of Pune, along with PGD (International Trade) from the Indian Institute Of Foreign Trade (IIFT). Selected directorships include Tata Johnson Controls-India, TATA Exports-India, ATX Group-USA, Freedom Group-USA.
Dr. Jean Chugh – Partner
Newport Beach, California
Jean is a Partner at Aura and has over 25 years experience in financial services. She has served on the Board of Directors of 6 companies in India. Prior to moving to the US, Dr. Chugh was Director and India Country Head of Asian Capital Partners, a Hong Kong based Asia focused Investment Bank (formerly a JV with Dresdner Kleinwort Benson). Prior to that, she was Head of Securities Research at ISEC, a JV between JPMorgan and ICICI. Jean initiated, set up, and managed India’s first securities research group consisting of Debt Research, Equity Research and Economic Research. Prior to that, she was Head of Western region operations of ICICI Venture, India’s first venture capital company. She also managed and supervised a credit portfolio of companies in ICICI’s Project Finance division. Dr. Chugh graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with Honors, Masters of Arts and Phd from University of Mumbai, India.
Rajeev Singh – Director
Cupertino, California
Rajeev is a Director at Aura and focuses on the Aerospace & Technology sector. He has over 35 years experience in the industry. Most recently he was Senior Business Development Manager for Savi Technology (Lockheed Martin subsidiary) where he focused on entry into the Indian market in Defense, Aerospace, Energy & Transportation. His notable achievements include resolving $85M aerospace contract dispute with Indian public sector customer resulting in completion of negotiations on $600M follow-up order. He selected and qualified Indian partner companies after conducting technical assessments and necessary legal reviews to ensure fulfillment of US laws; established business relationships to offer RFID solutions for the Defense and Oil & Gas markets. Rajeev also held several senior positions across various divisions at Intel Corporation including, Global Business Planning & Supply Chain Strategy & Sourcing. At Intel, he managed new tool development contracts worth ~$50M. As part of Intel IT’s globalization strategy, he established $20M ROI and implemented project for setting up IT business applications Help Desk in Costa Rica. Rajeev has graduated with a Bachelors from IIT Kanpur and MBA from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.
Amit Somani – Director
Troy, Michigan
Amit is currently a Director at Aura and focuses on the Automotive sector. He has over17 years expertise in the Automotive Sector across various divisions. Amit’s most recent role was Lead Engineer at ThyssenKrupp Budd. Prior to that, he was Director of Product Development at L&W Engineering and Sales and Engineering Director at Indus Engineering Consultancy. He has also worked at Ford and Chrysler in the Product Development and Release Division and Systems Cost and Innovation Engineering Division respectively. Amit’s industry expertise spans across small to heavy-duty trucks and cars in Product Design, Program Management, Prototype Development, FEA Modeling and Simulation, Supplier Relationship Management, Automotive Testing & Continuous Improvement. He also has a strong background in Chassis and Body-in-White structures, chassis structures for Ford, GM, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, Daimler, BMW and Volkswagen. Amit has led teams of engineers in Europe, US & India on turnkey projects. Amit graduated with a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Missouri
Akkshay Chugh – Director
Mumbai, India
Akkshay is currently the Director of Aura in India and manages Aura’s Business Development and client relationships in India. He has over 5 years of experience in Investment Banking and Advisory Services. Prior to Aura, he worked in Ernst & Young’s Advisory Group in India where he advised Indian and multinational companies on fund raising and M&A opportunities. Prior to that, he was in the Oil & Gas Investment Banking Division at Jefferies, Houston, USA where he worked on several capital raising and strategic alternative proposals for mid-cap exploration and production (E&P) companies, including two transactions for GMX Resources – Sole Book-running manager for $125MM, 5% senior convertible notes and for $141MM Follow On Equity Offering. In addition, he worked on multiple co-manager deals including $915MM Follow-On Offering for Chesapeake Energy. Akkshay graduated with a Bachelor of Applied Science from the prestigious University of Pennsylvania.
