Karan Gupta

Karan Gupta’s passion in life is to help his clients plan and achieve their life goals by providing sound financial services. Karan first found his passion at Sykes & Ray Equities, a firm founded by his father 30 years ago, while in his undergraduate years. He learned the ropes through his many roles at the company including Student Counsellor, Business Development Executive and Junior Associate Financial Planner.

For the past decade, Karan has headed the Sykes & Ray Financial Planning Division (a subsidiary of Sykes & Ray Equities), with more than AUD $100 million in assets under management. As they expand their client base - which currently includes over four thousand families - to international clients, Karan is focused on maintaining scalability.

Karan’s proudest achievement to date has been turning around an almost defunct department of his family business into a leading financial advisory company. He has featured in various newspapers and magazines, in the hopes that by bringing awareness of personal financial planning to the general public, he can contribute to society by showing people how they can take control of their own assets.

Karan Gupta studied a Master of Business at the University of Newcastle, graduating in 2014. The business program was the perfect fit for Karan – he was able to complete the course work in only 9 months at an off-campus program in Singapore. Matched with the University’s high rankings, Karan felt that the world-class education provided by the University of Newcastle was worth taking a sabbatical from work to enhance his management skills.

Karan came into the course with seven years of experience in the field. The highly qualified faculty blended instruction with multiple case studies to analyse and tackle business problems with different perspectives, providing him with a deeper understanding of marketing and accounting. He was able to take his learnings and implement them directly back into his business. The program helped him overcome obstacles of growth and scalability by making business operations more productive and efficient, as well as resolving human resource issues. The University of Newcastle’s business program provided Karan with skills to both manage and expand his business on various fronts with an understanding of global practices and solutions.

About the University, Karan says “the faculty was approachable and helped me deepen my understanding on subject matters. I enjoyed the multi-cultural background as we all brought diverse ideas into the classroom.”

Karan also gives back to the University of Newcastle in his role as a Global Alumni Ambassador, a program that he describes as “the right platform to inspire and kindle the minds of existing or potential students; now I can really contribute back by helping someone seeking guidance”. Global Alumni Ambassadors are voluntary representatives of the University from different cities around the world, who share their wisdom through guest speaking, mentoring current students and sharing their stories of success.

In his spare time, Karan enjoys attending plays and live music of various genres with his wife – he was even a guitarist for his college band! On weekends, catching the sunset while sailing on the harbour is one of his favourite activities.