Gehan Talwatte
Entrepreneur
Gehan Talwatte was most recently the CEO of ASCEND (www.ascendworldwide.com), the
world’s leading provider of data, analytics and advice to investors in aircraft. Gehan
founded ASCEND by spinning it out of its parent company in 2006 with private equity
financing from Lloyd’s Development Capital (LDC). Under his leadership the business
witnessed rapid global expansion and the launch of industry leading online products and
workflow solutions. Ascend was sold in June 2011 to Reed Business Information (a division
of Reed Elsevier).
Gehan was previously Managing Director of Hoover's Online Europe, a subsidiary of the US
business information company. In 2001, he led a buyout of the European business and
later sold it to D&B in 2004.
In the late 1990s, Gehan was a founding partner at eccelerate.com, a Silicon Valley startup specialising in real-time decision support solutions for e-business. He was also a
director of D&B UK [NYSE: DNB], where he ran several global and European business
divisions. Earlier in his career, he was instrumental in setting up D&B’s software business
in India, now Cognizant Technology Solutions [NASDAQ:CTS].
Gehan holds an MBA and a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University, New
York, and a BA (Honours) from Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania. He is an Ironman
triathlete and an avid marathon runner. Gehan is currently on a global quest to find the
perfect Martini (martinimandate.com).