PostGrad Dip in Strategy & Innovation, University of Oxford (UK)
IME Class of ’04, Harvard University (USA)
Grad.MQ, University of New South Wales (Australia)
B.E (civil), Victoria University (Australia)
Raj Kannan is the founder and managing director of Tusk. He has over 25 years hands-on experience in developing and advising on US$15 billion worth of transactions in infrastructure and development projects in the Asia Pacific region. He is a chartered engineer and a specialist in Public Private Partnership transactions and infrastructure M&As.
Raj has advised governments, state owned enterprises and private corporations on deals in toll roads, power, railways, ports, urban transport, water treatment, public housing, industrial townships and commercial developments in Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and The Philippines. He has led transformation of SOEs, the establishment of infrastructure coordinating agencies, infrastructure regulators and infrastructure bank and he has also led infrastructure related M&As for multinationals and investment funds. He recently led the development of Indonesia’s 5-year development plan called RPJMN 2015-2019 and he is currently the lead strategic adviser to the Indonesian Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs on the delivery of the government’s priority infrastructure projects.
Before founding Tusk, Raj was the executive director of an Australian infrastructure transaction management firm and prior to that he was the executive director of a Malaysian infrastructure conglomerate, listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. Raj was previously the lead advisor to the Indonesian Ministry of Public Works under a 2-year World Bank technical assistance.
Raj holds a postgraduate Diploma in Strategy and Innovation from the University of Oxford’s Said Business School and an executive program certificate from Harvard University in “Infrastructure in a Market Economy”. He is an alumnus of the Australian Graduate School of Management at the University of New South Wales, Sydney and holds a degree in civil engineering from Victoria University in Melbourne. For his exemplary achievements in his chosen field he was inducted as a Legend by Victoria University as part of its “90 Years and 90 Legends” commemorations in 2006. In 2016 the University established the Raj Kannan Leadership Scholarship which is funded by Raj, as a way of growing and fostering leadership skills in promising young people.