Our Mission

Eveline Varin

Trainer and Mentor
Consumer and Retail analyst

Eveline worked at Morgan Stanley as a sell side equity research analyst in the beverages sector for several years. Before that she was an analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in the general retail sector. Eveline holds a master’s degree in international management from ESCP-EAP, European School of Management, conducted her “classes préparatoires aux grandes écoles” at Ste Genevieve, Versailles, and holds a scientific Baccalauréat.

Gian Luca Manca

Trainer and Mentor
Consumer, Retail and Luxury Goods analyst

Gian Luca has over 20 years of research experience. He has covered several consumer staples and consumer discretionary sectors including food retailers, household products and cosmetics, food, beverages, tobacco, luxury goods and fashion retailers at UBS Wealth Management, HSBC and Bryan Garnier. Gian Luca has also worked as an Italian equity analyst at Robert Fleming Securities, Baring Securities and Paribas (Italian Equity Strategist, Head of Italian Equity Research). He holds a degree in Economics from the University G. Marconi in Italy.

Usha Back

Trainer and Mentor
Healthcare and Real Estate analyst

Usha worked at Capital Group in London for several years as an investment analyst responsible for the coverage of the European biotech, mid cap pharma and real estate sectors. She currently also provides research into the FinTech sectors. She is an honorary lecturer at UCL university in London on Drug Commercialisation and holds a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical excipients from the University of London, School of Pharmacy. Usha also conducted the corporate finance and investment management evening programs at the London Business School.

Catharina Hillenbrand von der Neyen, CFA

Trainer and Mentor
Energy analyst

Catharina has more than 25 years of experience as an equity research analyst. She worked on the sell side at Nomura International as an Executive Director on the Energy sector and as the head of Utilities. She joined CA Cheuvreux as the head of cross sector thematic research in Energy and climate change. She was a top 1 and top 3 ESG ranked analyst in global independent surveys. She then moved to the buy side at Allianz as a senior sector analyst, heading the Energy, Resources, Industrials and ESG sectors. For the last few years, she worked at the Carbon Tracker Initiative as a Managing Director and head of research where she developed research in the Oil & Gas, Power, Clean Tech and Transport sectors and on the Energy transition strategy. Catharina is a CFA charterholder. She holds a MBAeq from ESSEC, France and a Diplom Kaufmann from University of Mannheim Business School, Germany.

Alok Katre, CFA

Trainer and Mentor
Industrials and Aerospace analyst

Alok has more than 20-years of experience in the field of accounting, investment research and academia. Over the course of his career at Société Générale CIB, HSBC Global Research and an S&P affiliate, he has covered firms across several industries such as Capital Goods, Aerospace & Defence, Building Materials and Natural Resources. During his time at Société Générale, he was also ranked amongst the top 10 percentile of European capital goods analysts in the Extel Surveys. Prior to this, he worked at Merrill Lynch India in investment banking. He is engaged as a Faculty of Finance at SCMHRD, part of one of India’s leading universities, conducting various courses such as accounting, corporate finance and securities analysis for the MBA Programme. He is also a mentor for teams participating in the CFA Institute Research Challenge. Alok is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and is a CFA charterholder.