VENKAT KASTHALA

**** * ********** **., ***. ** • Iowa City, IA 52240

508-***-**** • abnxd0@r.postjobfree.com

EDUCATION AND CERTIFICATIONS

CFA LEVEL II CANDIDATE – JUNE 2009 (Passed Level I in June 2008)

• Recipient of scholarship from “CFA Society of Iowa”

HENRY B. TIPPIE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, UNIVERSITY OF IOWA Iowa City, IA

Master of Business Administration - Finance & Investments, May 2009

• Equity Research Analyst for “The Henry Fund”, a $1.5 million equity portfolio managed by 12 MBA students

o Evaluated and made recommendations within the technology sector representing 15.2% of portfolio

o Developed valuation models using DCF, EVA, and Relative multiple valuation techniques

o Created company research reports incorporating an extensive economic, industry & company specific analysis

• Awarded merit based scholarship as a finance research assistant with Dr. Jon Garfinkel

• Student consultant for AEGON emerging markets team

• Won MBA student portfolio competition, Fall 2007

NATIONAL STOCK EXCHANGE (NSE) CERTIFICATIONS Mumbai, India

• Modules in Financial Markets, Derivatives and Commodities Market, July 2007

NAGARJUNA UNIVERSITY Guntur, India

Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering, May 2002

• Graduated in top 5% of class; top 2% in state entrance examination for engineering

EXPERIENCE

PRINCIPAL GLOBAL INVESTORS Des Moines, IA

MBA Intern - International Equities May 2008 – August 2008

• Assisted equity analysts in developing valuation models and in researching companies

• Created and back-tested quantitative models using Factset to compute the fundamental beta and marginal ROE

• Actively participated in daily analyst meetings and attended training sessions conducted by Fixed Income division

INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED Hyderabad, India

Software Consultant for Payless Shoesource

Project Lead and Programmer Analyst Nov 2006 – May 2007

• Received “On the Spot” award for outstanding performance and significant contribution to Retail Business Unit

• Led 5-member team that successfully implemented Tax Reporting Project under tight deadlines

TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LIMITED (TCS) Seattle, WA and Chennai, India

Software Consultant for Qwest Communications

Project Lead and Onsite Coordinator Dec 2002 – Nov 2006

Client Development

• Acted as an interface between business users and the technology division

• Won testing project for TCS by building a case and persuading customer to send project offshore. Secured in

excess of $300,000 as annual revenue on project for TCS and saved $400,000 annually for Qwest communications

• Proposed technical solutions to improve performance; accepted proposals included consolidation of different

systems, database conversions and replacement of old technologies

Leadership & Teamwork

• Led 6-member team and analyzed Qwest applications to reduce CPU time. Achieved over $400,000 in annual

savings for Qwest communications

• Assisted Project manager in leading a 24x7 maintenance support team for the Qwest Billing system

• Led a 5-member Quality Assurance team to monitor project’s adherence to quality standards

Other accomplishments

• Received “Hats Off” award in recognition of dedicated service to organization, August 2006

• Promoted twice in 4 years from team member to module leader and then to project leader

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Strong user of Factset, Bloomberg, VBA, Crystal ball, StatTools, Matlab and Microsoft Excel

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Software skills: IBM Mainframes, UNIX, COBOL, JCL, C, C++, DB2, IMSDB, SQL, PL/SQL, TestDirector

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Founded “Vitharana,” charity organization formed by 25 friends to help underprivileged children in India

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Pitched a stock to Jim Cramer in Mad Money show on CNBC

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