Varkki Chacko is the Chief Investment Officer and the Managing Principal of Credit Capital Investments (CCI). CCI seeks investment opportunities across the capital structure with a focus on the publicly traded markets in the US and India.
He has extensive experience in the global credit markets. Prior to moving to the buy-side in 2003, he spent approximately 16 years, initially at Salomon Brothers and then at Goldman Sachs. While at Goldman Sachs, Varkki was a Managing Director serving in various roles including Co-Head of Global High Yield Research, Head of European and Asian Credit Research and Head of Global Credit Strategy. Varkki was a top-ranked analyst in the Institutional Investor All-America Fixed Income Research Team from 1994 to 1998 and again in 2000. The 2000 and 2002 Euro money Credit Research Polls named the teams led by Varkki as top-ranked in Credit Research and in High-Grade and High-Yield Credit Strategy respectively.
Varkki was significantly involved in proprietary credit trading activities both at Goldman Sachs and Salomon Brothers. Varkki’s work in the real time index area has been awarded U.S. and European patents and is the basis of one of the $36 billion Ishares $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond Fund ETF. His research work in the polymer science industry, upon completing his graduate studies in engineering, also resulted in eight industrial patents being awarded.
Varkki completed his M.B.A. in Finance from New York University in 1987, a Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts in 1982, and a B.E. (Hons) and M.S. (Hons) in 1978 from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India. Varkki is an Advisory Board member of the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.