Madhav Misra grew up in New Delhi, India where he attended St. Columba’s School, graduated with an Honors degree in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, and led Delhi University’s tennis team. International travel and adventure beckoned and he left for England and Seventies London. Four years later, he had an advanced degree in finance and a job offer in Tehran, Iran. As the chief financial officer of a multinational energy company he experienced both the sybaritic years of the Pahlavi Dynasty as well as the Iranian Revolution. Three weeks before the Shah fled, Madhav left Tehran on one of the last commercial flights of 1978.  

Manhattan was home for the next decade. He graduated from Columbia University’s MBA program in 1980, worked as a strategy consultant with Booz, Allen & Hamilton, and an M&A investment banker with Citigroup. Both his daughters were born in New York. The family moved to Northern California in 1991, attracted by its entrepreneurial culture and natural beauty. Madhav launched a global alternative investment business for Citi in San Francisco, and then co-founded Allianz Hedge Fund Partners, serving as Chief Investment Officer.

Madhav and his wife now divide their time between California, Hawaii, and the Himalayan foothills.  He enjoys participating in the civic life of San Francisco and working to strengthen US-India ties via his position as co-chair of the San Francisco-Bangalore Sister City Initiative that has taken former Mayor Gavin Newsom and the late Mayor Ed Lee to India.  

Labyrinth of the Wind is Madhav’s first novel.