Raj Alva

Rajesh, also known as Raj, is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Avtar Investments. Prior to founding Avtar with Chirag and Chintu, Raj was a Managing Director at New Mountain Capital, a private equity firm with over $20 billion under management. He currently serves as a Senior Advisor to New Mountain Capital.

Prior to New Mountain Capital, Raj worked with several family offices looking at investment opportunities in a broad range of industries. For 5 years, Raj was also a Managing Director at Credit Suisse where he held several leadership positions for the firm including the Head of Healthcare Mergers & Acquisitions and the Head of Financial Sponsors, Mergers & Acquisitions.

Before joining Credit Suisse, Raj was a Partner at Lazard, where he spent more than 15 years doing financial advisory, restructuring, and M&A work in healthcare and various other industries. Raj has been involved in a diverse group of transformative healthcare transactions over his almost 30 year career, including Abbott’s acquisition of Knoll Pharmaceuticals (including the blockbuster drug Humira) and Guidant Vascular, Zimmer’s acquisition of Biomet and a near decade long transformation of Fisher Scientific from a pure distribution company to a self-manufacturing leader in high-end laboratory consumables and equipment to its eventual $11 billion merger with Thermo Electron. Prior to his time at Lazard and graduate school, he worked in Mergers & Acquisitions at Kidder Peabody.

Raj has been very active in numerous non-profits including the Leadership Council of the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute, Chair of the Day School Committee of The Brick Church School, Board of Summer Steps, Incarnation Children’s Center and the Wayuu Taya Foundation. Raj has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree with High Distinction from the University of Michigan.