The short version
Who Harsh is
Harsh has spent over twelve years on both sides of the table that mentees are trying to get across. He trained as a Chartered Accountant, worked in tax and transaction advisory, then moved into markets — where he independently ran an options book of about ₹4,500 crore at JM Financial.
He later worked on balance-sheet strategy at Kotak Mahindra Bank and co-headed investment banking at RBL Bank, closing M&A deals. In 2020 he founded Leonem Advisory, where he still invests.
Teaching & academia
He also builds the programmes employers hire from
Harsh built India's first BBA in FinTech at NMIMS, teaching roughly 500 students a year at an average rating of 6.5 out of 7. He has taught tokenised assets and machine learning at the University of Wollongong in GIFT City, and now leads the MSc Finance & Investment at the University of Bristol's Mumbai campus.
Along the way he has trained over 800 chartered accountants on taking their practice international.
Recognition & advisory work
Where he sits when programmes get designed
Named a 30 under 30 FinTech Leader and awarded the Outstanding Leader Award by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. A global champion in Vedic Maths (awarded in Malaysia) and a Grade 6 pianist certified by the London College of Music.
He sits on the Advisory Council of ICAI's Global Trade and Services Committee, advises Aditya Birla Capital, serves on the Advisory Council of Harvard Business Review, and is on the editorial advisory board of Inspirepreneur Magazine. He has judged FinTech cohorts for the RBI Innovation Hub, and has served on the Board of Studies at both NMIMS University and Narsee Monjee College — the rooms where degree programmes are designed and where employers say what they actually want from graduates.
Track record
Where his mentees have ended up
Students and young professionals he has mentored have gone on to a range of top financial institutions, groups and startups:
One he has followed the whole way: Manav came to him in his third year of undergrad. Harsh worked with him through his first job at KPMG, through the FRM and the CFA, through his MBA at SPJIMR, and up to a high-finance role at HSBC in Hong Kong. Seven years, one thread, many decisions where the wrong turn would have been easy to take.
"Reading the newspaper daily had become second nature on his advice — and it paid off when I was asked about that morning's news in my interview."
— MSc Finance student, now placed at Abakkus Asset ManagerSmall habit, given early, still there years later. That is usually what the advice looks like in practice.
Two moments that say the most
Why students keep showing up
The BBA that students chose first
When he launched the BBA in FinTech, he spent months in conversation with students and parents about what the programme was actually for and who it suited. In its first year, 450 students named it their first preference and 75 were selected — demand new Indian programmes rarely see in year one.
The one-hour session that ran six
At SP Jain School of Global Management in Dubai, he was booked for one hour with Masters in Global Business students on careers abroad. It ran for six. The students kept asking, and he kept answering — the honest version of sponsorability, free-zone rules and what a foreign employer will and won't take on isn't something they'd been given before.
In a session
What you can bring to Harsh
- Working out what you actually want to do, when every option looks reasonable
- The last push — when you're close to a goal and stuck, or losing conviction
- Getting into MBA programmes: where to apply, what your profile needs, how to tell your story
- CA, CFA, FRM, MBA or a masters abroad — what each actually buys you, and in what order
- Day-to-day survival in an office: managing a boss, being useful in year one, what gets you noticed
- Which finance & FinTech roles are genuinely open to your profile, and which are not
- Working abroad: visas, sponsorship, and why the job title matters less than whether a firm can hire you at all
- Interview prep for finance roles, and how your CV reads to the person screening it
Pick his brain before the decision, not after
Most of the people Harsh has helped came to him at the fork — the job, the exam, the move abroad. Book a session or catch the next webinar.