Koonal Gandhi

Koonal Gandhi is the Chief Investment Officer of Berggruen Holdings, the single-family office of German-American billionaire investor and philanthropist Nicolas Berggruen. He joined the firm in 2018 and is responsible for the management and oversight of more than 50 direct investments spanning the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Berggruen Holdings, founded in 1984, deploys proprietary capital across a wide range of industries, continents, and asset classes — including direct private equity, real estate, alternative energy, financial instruments, and early-stage industrial ventures — and has made well over 100 investments over its history, with the capacity to commit up to roughly $200 million per transaction.

Before Berggruen, Gandhi spent nearly eight years (2010–2018) as Chief Investment Officer, CFO and Senior Vice President of the Kaiser Family Foundation, where he oversaw the foundation's endowment and pension assets. Earlier, he worked at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC, now the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation) from 2005 to 2010, where as a Director he structured anchor and seed commitments to investment funds in emerging markets.

Gandhi also served as a senior government appointee under both the Bush and Obama administrations. Notably, he worked as an Investment Specialist on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) at the U.S. Treasury during the 2009 financial crisis. His public-policy and development-finance background distinguishes him from a typical venture investor and informs the firm's institutional, long-horizon approach to capital.

He earned a dual undergraduate degree in economics and political science from the University of Michigan and a Master of Public Policy from the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, where he was a Presidential Management Fellow. He has served on the McCourt School's Advisory Board and spoke at Stanford Law School's NVCA Venture Capital Symposium in 2019.

• Invests as the CIO of a single-family office using proprietary capital, which the firm states allows for "longer investment horizons, flexibility in financing, and swift investment decisions" — i.e., patient, hold-oriented capital rather than fund-cycle timelines.
• Pursues "long-term, value-oriented investments, acquisitions, and partnership management opportunities," in the firm's own words, with a hands-on, operational approach to building portfolio companies.
• Deploys capital across stages and asset classes: direct private equity buyouts, real estate development, alternative/clean energy, financial instruments, and early-stage ("seed") industrial and basic-industry startups.
• Truly global mandate — direct investments across North America, Europe, and Asia, supported by regional managing directors in Europe, Turkey, India, and elsewhere.
• Background in development finance and endowment management (OPIC, Kaiser Family Foundation) suggests a preference for durable, cash-generative or strategically significant assets over speculative bets.