Samaaj is committed to promoting inclusion within finance by supporting and providing resources to a network of diverse investment professionals.
Diverse Investment Professionals
The asymmetry of opportunity and employment in finance is well documented and often prevents qualified candidates with non-traditional backgrounds from entering the industry. In order for the finance industry to best serve its community and for constituent firms to accurately represent the demographics of the communities that they serve, the industry needs to ensure that there is a diversity and inclusion of voices and perspectives.
Promoting Inclusion Within Finance
We want to make it easier for students from diverse backgrounds to break into finance and build successful careers as investment professionals. Breaking into finance is a fiercely competitive process to begin with, and this is especially true for students from non-traditional or minority backgrounds who might not have had the same opportunities growing up or access to Wall Street professionals in their family and friend’s networks.
Building a career in finance is highly competitive for a reason — successfully “breaking in” offers the opportunity for smart, diligent, and ambitious candidates to enter a high-paced industry that rewards people who are fast learners and can frequently develop new skills. Additionally, these jobs are lucrative and offer the opportunity down the road for quick advancement and varying career paths.
Join us as we drive tangible change in this industry by improving its ecosystem for diversity and inclusion.
Supporting A Network
Firms that are focused on hiring diverse talent end up adding a handful of such candidates to their firm; however, these candidates are often left without a strong network to share and discuss their experience with other professionals with similar backgrounds and perspectives. This does not allow for their best performance on or off the job and can often leave people feeling out of their comfort zone or without a sense of belonging, thereby impacting the culture of the firm and their ability to perform to the best of their ability.
We want to address this by creating and supporting a network of diverse investment professionals that lets people network with people from various backgrounds, whether that means finding insight in a different perspective you otherwise would not have encountered, or finding resonance in a perspective you have had but not been able to share and discuss.
Our Team
Siddharth Gupta
CO-FOUNDER
Siddharth (also goes by Sidd) is currently a Private Equity Associate at FFL Partners. He previously worked at Jefferies as an investment banker, Crane Street Capital, and Audax Private Equity. Sidd grew up in Fargo, ND and graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Economics with Honors. In his free time he enjoys playing tennis, watching Formula 1, and cooking.
Suman Padhi
CO-FOUNDER
Suman is currently a Private Equity Associate at Shamrock Capital. He previously worked at Jefferies as a Tech IB Analyst and Tata Consulting Services as an Associate Consultant. Suman grew up in Niskayuna, NY and graduated from UCLA with a degree in Business Economics. In his free time he enjoys cooking, producing music, and managing his record label.