Equiti Group appoints Gaurang Desai as Managing Director of Strategy

4 January 2022

Gaurang-Desai

4 January 2022 - Equiti Group announces the appointment of Gaurang Desai as Managing Director of Strategy.

Mr Desai brings over 25 years of experience working across financial exchanges, market infrastructures and with regulators. Establishing and managing various exchanges across asset classes and building Clearing Houses/CCPs has provided him with an understanding of the needs of today’s financial markets and appropriate strategies to meet regulatory challenges.

He is a founding member of the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX Group) and previously held the role of Chief Operating Officer for almost ten years. Mr Desai established and managed the operations for the Dubai Commodities Clearing Corporation (DCCC), the largest CCP in the MENA region to offer a full range of clearing services to its customers. At DCCC he worked to establish and nurture an ecosystem of banks, custodians, collateral managers, warehouses, vaults, assayers, security, and network service providers to support its clearing and settlement framework.

Mr Desai was promoted to the role of Chief Executive Officer of the DGCX Group in August 2014 where he led the development and execution of the DGCX Group’s long-term strategy. Under his leadership, the DGCX Group achieved numerous business milestones, industry accolades and regulatory recognition. Key among them was the authorization as a Third Country CCP (TC-CCP) by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) and the ADGM-FSRA for the DCCC.

Since July 2018 he served as an Advisor for Financial Markets to the UAE’s Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) to support the SCA to continue to be one of the best regulatory agencies globally.

Iskandar Najjar, Equiti Group CEO, said: “We are very pleased to welcome Gaurang to the Equiti Group, and highly value his experience and knowledge of global best practices in the implementation of new generation products and delivery models, different aspects of licensing, and working with exchanges in regulated markets.

“Equiti Group has ambitious plans to roll out new offerings in 2022, as well as enter new global markets, and regulatory requirements are a key part of all our new offerings.”

Gaurang Desai, Managing Director of Strategy for Equiti Group, said: “My key mission will be to support the ambitions of Equiti Group and the expansion of its global footprint, building new partnerships, adding business lines, and expanding its services portfolio.

“Leveraging on the learnings of the pandemic, 2022 and beyond will be important years for rolling out new generation products and service delivery models across geographies to create a significant value proposition for our clients and all of Equiti Group’s stakeholders.”

Gaurang has an MBA in Finance and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Mumbai.