Principium’s founder and managing director, Damayanti Shahani is a highly experienced compliance consultant. She was one of the early team members of the compliance practice of Duff & Phelps in Singapore where she helped to build the business particularly on the on-going compliance advisory offering. Her practice cuts across MAS / SEC / CFTC / NFA regulatory advice particularly for fund managers, external asset managers and corporate finance services. Damayanti assists clients in establishing their compliance policies and procedures. Separately, she conducts testing / monitoring/ mock audits on clients' compliance programs. In addition, she has worked on bespoke thematic projects for e.g. on AML / KYC and has been published on that topic as well. In an earlier avatar, Damayanti worked at the US SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance in Washington DC.

Previously, Damayanti practiced law in blue-chip international law firms for over a period of 13 years including Freshfields and White & Case in Singapore and Cravath in New York. Her clients included Fortune500 companies, domestic and global top-tier banks and private equity funds. She worked on several “firsts” and award-winning capital markets transactions in Asia and the US. Damayanti started her career in the late 1990s in Crawford Bayley & Co in Mumbai, India.

She is admitted to the bar in the State of New York and India and is a solicitor, England & Wales. Damayanti graduated on the Dean’s List and with Distinction from Georgetown University (Master of Laws in Securities and Financial Regulation) in Washington DC and earned her B.A.LL.B (Hons) degree from India’s premier law school, the National Law School of India.