Leadership Team

Rudy Sahay

Founder and Managing Partner

Rudy Sahay is Founder and Managing Partner of Aquarian Holdings and Chairman of Investors Heritage Life Insurance Company. He is also Co-Founder of 54 Madison Partners, a real-estate private equity investment firm. He was a founding member of the principal investments group and real-estate private equity group at Guggenheim Partners. He also served as Co-Head of Guggenheim’s venture-capital and growth-equity investment platform.

Mr. Sahay joined Guggenheim from private equity firm H.I.G. Capital. He served as an adviser on emerging-markets investments to Albright Capital Management, the private investment fund of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and as an investment professional at Jupiter Partners, a middle-market private equity firm. He began his career as a consultant for The Boston Consulting Group.

He earned an M.B.A., with honors, from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an A.B., cum laude, from Harvard University.

Jagan Pisharath

Partner

Jagan Pisharath is a Partner at Aquarian Holdings. Mr. Pisharath previously served as a Research Analyst at Point72 Asset Management and Vice President at Nomura Securities, focused on public equities. He was also a Consultant with The Boston Consulting Group, working with a range of Fortune 50 companies, and began his career in investment banking and private equity, serving as an Associate at H.I.G. Capital and Analyst at Citi Investment Banking.

He earned an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Rutgers University.

John Frye

Operating Partner

John Frye is an Operating Partner at Aquarian Holdings. Mr. Frye previously served as Chief Strategy Officer at Advisors Excel, a leading insurance marketing firm. He served as Chief Financial Officer at Security Benefit and its life insurance subsidiaries.

He began his career with General Electric, where he spent 20 years in numerous senior positions at GE Capital, the company’s financial services business. He served as Chief Financial Officer for both the GE Employers Reassurance Business – a $25 billion life and health insurance business – and GE’s commercial insurance business, responsible for covering medical, municipal, special lines and catastrophic risk, as well as GE’s European fleet leasing business.

He earned a B.A. in Finance from Michigan State University.

Ben Goodman

General Counsel

Ben Goodman is General Counsel of Aquarian Holdings. Mr. Goodman is an experienced corporate finance attorney and was previously a Senior Managing Director and Head of Legal Transactions at Guggenheim Partners. He worked in the Capital Markets group at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP in New York and began his career in the Business and Finance department at Ballard Spahr LLP in Philadelphia.

He earned a J.D. from William & Mary Law School and a B.A. in Classical Studies from the College of William & Mary.

Brian Cook

Controller

Brian Cook is Controller at Aquarian Holdings, where he oversees the Finance Department. Prior to Aquarian, Mr. Cook was Controller at Investcorp. He served as Manager of Global Fund Accounting at GSO Capital Partners, Fund Accountant at Och-Ziff Capital Management, and Senior Associate in Financial Services and Business Advisory Services at Rothstein Kass. He began his career as an analyst at Huron Consulting Group.

He is a Certified Public Accountant and earned his M.A. in Taxation and B.S. in Accounting from the University of Albany.

Wen Liu

Chief Actuary and Principal

Wen Liu is Chief Actuary and a Principal at Aquarian Holdings. Previously, Mr. Liu was a Senior Consultant at Oliver Wyman. He was an Associate Vice President and Actuary at Vantis Life, and an Actuary at ING.

He earned his B.Sc. in Economics from the University of Toronto.

Scott MacKenzie

Principal

Scott MacKenzie is a Principal at Aquarian Holdings, focusing on investments. Mr. MacKenzie previously served as a Partner at Waypointe, a Greater China-focused public equity manager. Prior to Waypointe, he was a member of the High-Yield Corporate Credit Group at Guggenheim Partners and began his career at ISI Group, where he was an Associate Managing Director.

He earned his B.A. from Williams College and is a CFA charterholder.

Nipun Dua

Principal

Nipun Dua is a Principal at Aquarian Holdings, focusing on investments. Previously, Mr. Dua was a Vice President in the Structured Products Group at PJT Partners, where he focused on special situations and financing of complex assets through bespoke structured solutions. Prior to that, he was an associate in the Structured Solutions Group at Morgan Stanley and began there as an analyst in the Financial Institutions Regulatory Capital Solutions Group.

He earned his B.A. from Dartmouth College.

Ivy Lee

Principal

Ivy Lee is a Principal at Aquarian Holdings, focusing on investments. Prior to Aquarian, Ms. Lee was a Principal at Flexpoint Ford, an investment manager, focused on its Asset Opportunities Fund. She was previously a Director at Fortress Investment Group, A Director of Principal Investments and FIG Advisory at MLV & Co., and a Vice President in Global Private Equity at Merrill Lynch. She has served as a Board Member at MicroFinancial and Paradigm Quest.

She earned her M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and an B.S.Econ/B.A.S from the University of Pennsylvania.

Jad Salha

Principal

Jad Salha is a Principal at Aquarian Holdings, focusing on investments. Mr. Salha joined Aquarian from Parasol Capital, where he was a Principal. He was Founder of OOMA, formerly MyAhmed, a fintech platform; Senior Investment Manager at Pictet Asset Management; Co-Founder and Portfolio Manager of Lelantos Capital; and Partner and Portfolio Manager at Hermitage Capital Management. He began his career as KPMG and PwC.

He earned an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his B.B.A. from the American University of Beirut.

© 2024, Aquarian Holdings LLC.