#263 Gautam Chari: Mumbai Engineer to one of Asia’s Most Senior Investment Bankers | Why Great Careers Aren't Linear

Episode #263 features Gautam Chari, Managing Director and Head of Capital Commitments (Asia Pacific) at Bank of America. Growing up in Mumbai, Gautam thought his path was already written. Like many students of his generation, he became a civil engineer, started work on construction sites and expected to spend his career building physical infrastructure. Instead, a series of bold decisions took him to Australia, into investment banking, and eventually to one of the world's largest financial institutions. In this rare and deeply personal conversation, Gautam reflects on the teachers who changed the trajectory of his life, the culture shock of moving from Mumbai to Adelaide, breaking into investment banking without a finance background, living through 9/11 in New York, and the lessons from building a global career across Sydney, London, New York and Hong Kong.  Vidit and Gautam explore why the best careers are rarely linear, the difference between confidence and conviction, how great leaders develop judgment, why listening is an underrated superpower, the AI investment cycle, and why the Australia-India relationship will be one of the defining economic stories of the coming decades. This is Gautam's first-ever podcast interview. Please enjoy exploring your curiosity.  ________ Get in touch with us via email at [email protected] Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more.  Show notes and more episodes here Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here Contact us via our website ________ The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW. Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), David Haber (a16z Partner), Jodie Auster (Uber's Global Head of Travel), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Jean-Michel Limieux (CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Mark Suster (Partner, Upfront Ventures), Niki Scevak (Partner, Blackbird), Craig Tiley (CEO, USA Tennis), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Paul Bassat (Partner, Square Peg), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica), Philip Green (Australia's Ambassador/High Commissioner to India), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear) and more. Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Macquarie Capital, City of Sydney and more. ________ Welcome to the eleventh episode in our special series with the Australian Government and their Centre for Australia–India Relations (CAIR), spotlighting the growing Australia–India relationship across technology, business, media, culture and sport. Previous guests include Renowned Music Composer Tushar Apte, Australia's High Commissioner to India Philip Green, MUFG's CEO Vivek Bhatia, Ex Secretary of Foreign Affairs Peter Varghese, NAB's EGM Sweta Mehra, Deputy Secretary of Australia's Home Affairs Brendan Dowling, Orica's CEO Sanjeev Gandhi, Sports Journalist Bharat Sundaresan, Cricket Legend Lisa Sthalekar and CAIR's CEO, Ryan Neelam, reflecting the breadth of Indian-Australian leaders at the most senior levels.