Team

From left: Ajay B. Pradhanang, Amod Rajbhandari, Suman Joshi, Niranjan Shrestha, and Ajay Shrestha.

Accomplished entrepreneurs with illustrious track records, they are the key shareholders of True North Associates.

Suman Joshi

Founder and Managing Partner
Suman has intimate knowledge of commercial and investment banking having started his career in the sector in 1990. He held various senior positions with ANZ Grindlays and Standard Chartered Bank in India and Nepal for more than a decade. He moved on to become the founding CEO of Laxmi Bank where he completed 3 consecutive tenures during which he conceived, managed, and scaled various subsidiaries for the bank. Suman is widely regarded as one of the most innovative and creative banking experts in Nepal. He received his education on Private Equity & Venture Capital from Harvard Business School. He is the Inaugural Chair of Nepal Private Equity & Venture Capital Association.

Suman is constantly looking to push boundaries of existing financial and entrepreneurial landscapes in Nepal.

Nidhaan Shrestha

Investment Manager
Nidhaan’s experience encompasses sectors such as Banking, Energy, Petrochem, Fintech, Development & Management Consulting, M&A and Alternative Investments in Nepal, India, and the Philippines. He earned his MBA in Finance & Strategy from the Asian Institute of Management, Philippines and Behavioral Economics, Finance and Marketing from Yale School of Management. He has worked in various capacities for organizations such as Standard Chartered Bank Nepal Ltd, NMB Bank Ltd, Meralco Powergen Corporation (Philippines), Manali Petrochem Ltd (India), and UNCDF. He led our portfolio company Foodmandu for about 2 years (under secondment from TNA) and helped company grow multifold and successfully raise the Series B investment.

Arpan Khanal

Investment Manager
Arpan, CFA, started his career in the Investment Banking Division of J.P. Morgan. He moved back to Nepal and founded two Quick Service Restaurants, which he successfully exited in 2017. He sits on the board of Foodmandu – Nepal’s largest food delivery business.

Arpan is also the Co-Founder and the Managing Partner of an equity research and investment management company, Khanal Pradhanang Investment Services.

Luja Mathema

ESG Officer
Luja was a Gender and Social Associate at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), where she worked to improve working conditions in brick industries through grassroots initiatives and stakeholder discussion. With the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), she studied women’s health, education, and nutrition, and the legal issues women face at the Forum for Women Law and Development (FWLD).

She holds a master’s degree in Gender, Development, and Globalization from the London School of Economics, as well as a B.Sc. in International Relations. She is active in philanthropy. She also assists the Nepal India Chamber of Commerce and Industries with research and outreach.

Sujan Shrestha

Finance Officer
Sujan is a qualified ACCA member since 2016. and also holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Westcliff University. He started his career in audit and assurance and then joined TNA as Finance Executive.

Sujan is currently on secondment to One To Watch – a portfolio company – as Finance Manager.

Satish Khadka

Analyst

Satish is an MBA graduate from Kathmandu University School of Management with a specialization in Finance. Before joining TNA he was involved in an audit firm and a startup incubation program. Satish has worked with numerous startup companies helping them with their financial models, plans, valuation etc. He also co-founded a tech-enabled business.

Anushka Bhattarai

Legal Counsel
Anushka’s area of expertise is commercial law and arbitration. Her expertise is in project development, banking, lending, negotiation, and project financing. She is a partner at Vidhi Legal Conern.

She has worked on legal restructuring projects for for-profit and non-profit organizations, as well as negotiations and reviews of finance and transaction documents, as well as taxation and arbitration matters. She has also collaborated closely with national and international clients and regulators on data privacy, ecommerce, and payment system issues.

Mandeep Bashistha

Chartered Accountant
Mandeep is a qualified chartered accountant with an IFRS diploma from ACCA UK. For almost a decade he has worked for public and private sector companies and international agencies. He is currently the managing director of Pathfinder Advisory Services.

He has experience in business consulting, compliance, FDI, and due diligence through his work with PKR T R Upadhaya and Co., One to Watch Nepal, and Marie Stopes International. He is also a director of LeafPlus, a biodegradable cutlery manufacturer exporting to Europe and Australia.