Passion for making money

Soaring growth sums up Kenneth Andrade's rise from running a Rs 30-crore equity portfolio in 2002 to managing Rs 3,000 crore of equity funds and overseeing an equity and bond corpus of Rs 25,000 crore today.

One of his most challenging moments was the move from equity-dominated Kotak AMC to fixed-income player Standard Chartered AMC in 2005. His task was to shore up the equity funds performance. Then, IDFC bought Standard Chartered AMC in 2008 and renamed it.

"Our funds had done well in the previous year and in 2008 we could protect our investors," says Andrade, whose passion for making money started off in college when a bet on Digital Equipment gave him a 100 per cent return. He started his career as a reporter in a stock market magazine in 1990. As the financial sector opened up, Andrade switched over to NBFCs and asset management companies.

His big break came at brokerage SSKI Investor Services, where he got a chance to head the portfolio advisory business in 2000. That was a tumultuous year for stock markets, and he had to face irate investors and keep team morale high.

Kenneth Andrade, 39, Head—Investments, IDFC Asset Management Co.

• EDUCATION: B.Com.
• EXPERIENCE: Fund Manager, Kotak Asset Management (2002-2005), Head of Portfolio Advisory, SSKI Investor Services (1999-2002).
• ‘AHA' MOMENT: Getting promoted as head of portfolio advisory services at Sharekhan in 2000. It was a transition from being an analyst to a fund manager role in a similar profile and set up.