About Virtua

Andy Detwiler

Co-founder, CEO,
Board of Directors

Andy is CEO and co-founder of Virtua Research.  Previously he was a consultant providing institutional equity research to select buy-side investors. Before that Andy was President and Director of the regional investment bank Detwiler, Mitchell & Co., and President of their broker-dealer subsidiary, Fechtor, Detwiler, Mitchell & Co. Andy was employed by Fechtor for 19 years. He also volunteered as a committee member for NASD District 11, served as Vice Chair of the National Institute of Investor Relations (NIRI) 2020 Annual Conference Committee and is currently the sitting board member representing the service provider community for NIRI. Andy has a B.S. from the University of Vermont.

Venkat Chalasani, CFA

Co-founder, President, CPO,
Board of Directors

Venkat is President and Chief Product Officer of Virtua Research, which he co-founded in 2004. He is also a board observer of OpenExchange Inc. Between 2015 and 2022, Venkat was at GlobeFlex Capital where he was responsible for all research, project development and management of GlobeFlex’s Boston office and its wholly-owned subsidiary in India working on big data models and fundamental research. Previous to that he was a partner at Concordia Capital Associates, LLC, a Boston-based hedge fund investing in global equities and related derivatives before establishing Virtua. Prior to joining Concordia, Venkat was with State Street Global Advisors, where he was the head of global equity strategy, a fundamental portfolio product that he helped develop. While at State Street, Venkat also developed a new hedge fund strategy involving quantitative models.  Venkat has an MBA from Boston College, and a Bachelor of Technology degree, with honors, from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur. He also holds the CFA charter.

Prasanna Walimbe

Co-founder,
Board of Directors

 Prasanna is currently focussing on developing AI / ML based solutions. He specialises in deploying scalable cloud solutions for large scale data based insight generations. Previously Prasanna was Director, GlobeFlex Research India Pvt. Ltd. managing research operations and solution architecture where he setup the quantitative research desk. Before that he was employed by Infosys Technologies Limited as a solutions architect, heading up a technology-based solutions team that assisted in implementing Basel II, Sarbanes-Oxley and similar initiatives. Previous responsibilities at Infosys included serving a leading global investment bank as program manager and participating in setting up a dedicated delivery team for a leading credit card provider. Prasanna has an MBA in Finance and Technology from the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta, and a Bachelor of Technology, with honors, from Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur. He is a speaker at various AI forums and works as honorary secretary to the IIT Kharagpur Alumni Association.