The Heart of the Deal: Sudhin Roy's Passion-First Approach to Finance

Sudhin Roy’s journey is indicative of just how important the heart is when pursuing a career. 

Roy never planned for his career in finance, serving as proof that a path doesn’t have to be linear for success to happen. In fact, he began his journey studying Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), graduating and earning a Bachelor of Technology in 1986. However, Roy stated a dislike for the path of study he spent his time at IIT pursuing.

His time at the University of Texas, Austin, made him pivot his focus into finance. His experience at graduate school differed greatly from his undergraduate experience — he began to develop an interest in finance after his time with the university’s professors and courses, and that was when a spark of passion that wasn’t there before found a way into his career. 

Roy started his finance journey working for Pricewaterhouse Coopers Securities as a Managing Director, providing financial advising services to financially distressed companies, before becoming Chief Executive Officer in 2006. He then founded Kinetic Advisors in 2008, choosing to go on his own path. 

In an interview with Roy, he stated the origins of Kinetic were mostly credited to his love for working with people. He stated that with a big firm, “A lot of what you do is not what you started doing; what you’re doing is managing people, managing groups, dealing with budgets, [and] talking to other groups within your firm. You’re not really working with clients anymore.” 

Kinetic Advisors continues to share Roy’s values of the client through their approaches to guiding their clients. Kinetic is built on two businesses: a client business and an investment business. They advise and invest in both publicly traded and privately traded companies. Their guidance process begins by developing a close understanding of their client’s business and how it will develop in the future. Their meticulous and strategic approach and close attention to their clients have become their signature in both of their businesses.

Roy credits Kinetic’s strengths to their team’s knowledge of how the market works and its expansive network. This has helped them evaluate risks strategically and communicatively, and develop a plan for the future. Roy hopes that Kinetic will strategically grow their portfolio more as their growth largely comes from investments. He expressed his hope by saying, “Money has been tough in the couple past of years. The cost of money has been high since inflation started. But, liquidity will come back into the market.” Adding on, Roy looks forward to discovering different opportunities in the future and where Kinetic Advisors can make investments.

Despite Roy’s turn-filled path to where he is now, one thing about his journey stays true: He has always put his passions first, whether it be what he studies, what he values, and where he works. To people hoping to join him in the finance industry, he lists three pieces of advice he hopes they can take away. The first one, aimed particularly at undergraduate students, is to “separate yourself from the crowd.” He encourages them to think about what can make them different from others with the same skill set. Roy then emphasizes the importance of building networks. He says, “If you want to be in the business world, business is about that. It’s all about the relationships.”

The last piece of advice perhaps speaks the most to Roy’s journey — it is to persist and never assume failure. “Don’t leave the playing field,” Roy said. “If you don’t leave, you can’t lose. When the time is right, opportunities will break your way. And then, seize them and do a good job.”