Ajay Kapur
Ajay Kapur is Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific & Global Emerging Markets Strategy Research at Bank of America. His team's key products include The Asia Inquirer and The GEMs Inquirer. Ajay is one of the best-known and most respected names in the industry, having worked in equity research and strategy on both the buy and sell-sides since 1989. He has one of the most highly regarded franchises in equity strategy and has been consistently top-three rated in a range of major global and Asian external surveys over the years. Prior to joining BofA Merrill Lynch, Ajay served as Head of Asia strategy at Deustsche Bank and held senior equity strategy roles at Mirae Asset and Citigroup. At Citigroup, Ajay wrote extensively on economies with significant income and wealth inequalities under the expression Plutonomy, a term referring to a society where the wealth is controlled by a select few and where economic growth becomes dependent on that same wealthy minority.
Ajay Kapur Professional Experience / Academic History
Professional Experience
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Managing Director, Head of Asia Pacific & GEMs Strategy Research
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Head of Asia Strategy
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Chief Global Equity Strategist
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Head of Asia-Pacific
Academic History
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Master in Public Affairs
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PGDM (MBA-equivalent)
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Bachelor's Degree, Economics, St. Stephen's College
PLUTONOMY
The term was popularized by Ajay Kapur and his research team in 2005 to describe the incredible growth of the U.S. economy.
15 years later, he suggested that the U.S. finally appears to be addressing vast inequality.
The now widely-used term became the subject of a cover story in Barron's magazine and has been referenced by filmmaker Michael Moore.
EXPERTISE AND EARLY CAREER
Ajay and his BofA team's other innovative work includes concepts like Risk-Love, the Demi-Ashton Ratio, and Free Liquidity.
At Deutsche, he was responsible for building the firm's Asian equity strategy capabilities and research product offering.
He joined Deutsche Bank from Mirae Asset Securities, where he was Chief Global and Asia Strategist.
He was Head of Asia-Pacific regional strategy at Salomon Smith Barney then Chief Global Equity Strategist at Citi in New York
Prior to joining SSB, Kapur, who is a chartered financial analyst, was head of equity strategy at Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong.
He also worked as an Asian equity strategist at UBS, Chief Economist at Peregrine Securities in Hong Kong and an economist at the WEFA Group in the US.
EDUCATION
Bachelor's Degree, Economics, St. Stephen's College Delhi University
PGDM (MBA-equivalent), Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
Master in Public Affairs, Princeton University