Ritu Kochhar leads Spencer Stuart’s Financial Services and drives the Boards practice in India and Private equity practice in Asia-Pacific. She also co-leads the Financial Officer practice for the Asia Pacific region. She is based in Mumbai and focuses on board recruitment as well as CEO searches in India. Ritu brings several years of capital markets and financial advisory experience to her search work. Before joining Spencer Stuart, she was a principal with another leading international executive search firm and a member of its global financial markets practice. Prior to her career in search, she held various roles within the financial services industry, including executive director at JPMorgan’s institutional equities sales desk in Mumbai, where she provided services to several private equity and U.S.-based institutional funds investing in Indian equities. Earlier, Ritu was a senior economist at Bear Stearns, focusing on Indian markets within the firm’s equity research business in New York. At Bear Stearns, she advised institutional clients on investment strategy, managed relationships with key policymakers and Indian companies, and spearheaded the firm’s annual India Conference. Ritu also worked with John Hancock Financial Services in Boston, and began her career with Arthur Andersen in the audit and business consulting practice in New Delhi. Ritu is a chartered accountant in India and passed the CPA exam in the U.S. She received an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and a Bachelor of Commerce from Shriram College of Commerce in Delhi.