Ritesh Desai, Chairperson

Email : ridesai@icaitoronto.com

Ritesh is the Chief Internal Auditor at Shinhan Bank Canada responsible for the Internal Audit Department. Ritesh joined the Bank in June 2023. Prior to joining Shinhan Bank Canada, Ritesh worked as Senior Audit Manager, Corporate Audit Division with BMO Financial Group and specialized in the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing area.

He has about 18 years of internal audit experience with financial institutions in Canada and India, including in areas like financial crime compliance, risk management, governance, data analytics and climate risks.

As part of his volunteering activities, Ritesh is actively engaged in mentoring new immigrants Chartered Accountants from India for their successful personal and professional journey in Canada. Prior to becoming the Chair, he served as the Vice-Chair and Secretary of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Toronto Chapter.

Ritesh is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist, a CPA from Colorado State, U.S. and a Chartered Accountant (ACA) from India.

Vivek Kapoor, Immediate Past Chairperson

Email : vivekkapoor7@yahoo.com

Vivek is a qualified Chartered Accountant and an MBA in finance. Presently, CA. Vivek works with Scotiabank in Toronto, Canada.

Vivek served as the Chairperson of the Bahrain Chapter of ICAI in 2016-17 and till date is the youngest ever Chairperson of Bahrain Chapter of ICAI. Under his leadership, the Chapter attained new heights and was recognized as the "Best Overseas Chapter for 2016", for the first time since inception of the Chapter. This award was given by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India from amongst more than 30 overseas chapters of ICAI.

Vivek has an aggregate work experience of more than 20 years primarily in the area of Financial Advisory including in IPO advisory, handling capital market transactions like Rights Issues, Open Offers, Buyback, Delisting, Private Equity transactions, Valuations, M&A transactions and Corporate Governance. Vivek has worked with Ernst & Young, KPMG and in the banking sector in the past.

Akhil Kapoor, Director and Secretary

Email : akapoor@icaitoronto.com

Akhil specializes in Corporate Restructuring and Insolvency and is currently working with MNP Ltd. as a Manager in this practice. He has previously worked at EY (New Delhi, India) in Corporate Insolvency and Assurance practice. His expertise enables companies to implement solutions to overcome short-term financial challenges through the balance sheet and/or operational restructuring.

Akhil is a Chartered Accountant (India) and CFA (US) and has been building professional experience for over 15 years. He is also a Chartered Insolvency Restructuring Professional (CIRP) and Licensed Insolvency Trustee (LIT), the two designations mandated to practice and provide insolvency and restructuring services in Canada.

Akhil has been actively participating in the Chapter initiatives since 2020 and was instrumental in forming the regional professional circles in February 2021 which enabled members to connect with their peers in their neighbourhood and resulted in a series of virtual technical and networking sessions. He makes a conscious effort to mentor newcomers and assists them in navigating the job market. Akhil is looking forward to leveraging the "Directorship Platform" to connect with members extensively and help our Toronto Chapter to scale further heights.

Tanmay Kelkar, Director

Email : tkelkar@icaitoronto.com

Tanmay Kelkar is a Realtor with Century21 People's Choice Realty. Tanmay has over 19 years of experience in private equity, mergers and acquisitions and real estate investment management. He has worked in multinational settings in India, USA and the Middle East. He is the winner of several awards including Diamond Award, Masters Ruby Award from Century 21, ACCA Canada Award of Excellence 2021 from Sheridan College Pilon School of Business. Tanmay is a Chartered Accountant (ACA) from India and an MBA in Finance from XLRI School of Business, Jamshedpur, India.

Akhil Iyer, Director

Email : aiyer@icaitoronto.com

Akhil Iyer works for GENPACT-Headstrong Canada Ltd. as delivery lead for digital solutions. With more than 20 years of experience, Akhil has a wide range of skills in areas including operations delivery, finance, auditing, program management, project execution, and lean digital transformation. An excellent communicator with remarkable interpersonal abilities.

Akhil holds degrees in Project Management (PMP) from PMI, USA, Chartered Accountancy(CA) from ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India), and Bachelor of Commerce(B Com) from M.S. University. In addition, Akhil holds Lean, Green Belt and Black Belt certifications in Lean Six Sigma.

For over six years, Akhil has been involved with the chapter. She has been instrumental in the establishment of the ICAI Toronto chapter's toastmaster's club. Additionally, Akhil has been actively involved with the community's youth-coordinating events for youth toastmasters club, planning leadership activities, and delivering content for the Junior Achievement (JA) program.

Ankit Varma, Director

Email : avarma@icaitoronto.com

Ankit is a qualified Chartered Business Valuator (CBV), Fellow Chartered Accountant (ICAI) and Certified Public Accountant (CPA, CA - Ontario) and works as the Managing Partner at Valuation Support Partners.

With over 19 years of experience, he assists the business and legal communities with matters involving business valuation, litigation support and succession planning advisory services. Ankit actively works to help business owners and professionals understand value, how to increase value, prepare for ownership transition and minimize or avoid potential disputes over value.

Ankit has completed numerous valuations and expert reports for various purposes, including: share transactions, tax planning, corporate reorganization, succession/exit planning, bank lending, financial reporting, commercial and shareholder disputes, matrimonial disputes, collaborative family law & breach of contract. He has experience working with emerging to large corporations across sectors & industries including Technology, Services, Manufacturing, Retail, Energy, Real Estate, Media and Entertainment.

He has written articles and lectured at various professional development sessions on topics related to business valuation. Over the years, Ankit has been actively working on mentoring new immigrants and Indian Chartered Accountants for their successful personal and professional journey in Canada.

Ankit is a member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario, The Canadian Institute of Chartered Business Valuators (CICBV), The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), The Toronto Chapter of ICAI and the Indo Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC). He also holds a Diploma in International Financial Reporting from ACCA (UK), a Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Management from Annamalai University and a Honours degree from the University of Delhi where he specialized in Business and Finance.

Professional Qualifications: CBV, FCA (ICAI) & CPA, CA (Ontario)

Shambhavi Sharma, Director

Email : ssharma@icaitoronto.com

Shambhavi is a qualified Chartered Accountant from India, a fellow at ACCA UK and a CPA, CGA Canada. She currently works for Harris Computer in Ottawa, Canada.

Shambhavi has been associated with the Toronto Chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India since she moved to Toronto in 2018. She enthusiastically participates in various events organized by the Chapter. For the last 3 years, she has been an integral part of the Editorial Team of the Chapter’s annual publication published during the annual gala events. After joining the Editorial Team in 2018, Shambhavi endeavored to introduce fresh ideas in the magazine every year and also effectively communicate the various initiatives taken by the Chapter. She has also helped with the other initiatives taken by the Chapter such as introducing the quarterly newsletter publications, actively participating in the Toastmasters Club, and hosting virtual professional development sessions. She plays a key role right from designing and motivating members to contribute towards the magazine, editing the content, to printing the magazine.

Gaurav Kumar, Director

Email : gkumar@icaitoronto.com