We have lost a friend and valued Merchant & Gould colleague, Kitu Bindra, 57, who died suddenly on August 28. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Denise, who he was married to for 30 years, and his two children, Nikolas and Nina. He was a loving husband and father, as well as a golfer, sportsman and, as we all know, a great attorney.

Kitu was born February 13, 1961, in Ludhiana, India.  He started boarding school when he was six years old, which he attended until age 16.   He received his undergraduate degree in economics and his law degree from Delhi University.  Kitu moved to the United States in 1983, where he met Denise.  He later completed the Private Equity and Venture Capital Program at Harvard Business School.

After practicing law for more than two decades in the United States and in India, Kitu focused on business development opportunities for Merchant & Gould. His areas of focus included India, where he spent time and was active with a number of large and small companies, as well as a number of industry groups in life sciences, manufacturing, IT and emerging technology.  Kitu also focused on business development opportunities for the firm in the renewable energy and clean tech areas, where he co-founded organizations such as the Clean Technology and Sustainable Industries Organization, the MIT-Stanford-Berkeley Nanotechnology Forum and the Atlantic Emerging Technology Forum.  And, he worked closely with members of The Indus Entrepreneurs and Silicon Valley Indian Professionals Association, of which he was one of the founding members.

Kitu had a sense of adventure inside and outside of the office, including some interesting milestones in India.  He was among the few pioneers of adventure tourism in India. He was among the first to be trained for river rafting in India; one of the first to cut trekking trails in the Manali region taking international groups for treks; and amongst the first to do long-distance camel safaris in Rajasthan.  It’s no surprise that Kitu’s adventurous and entrepreneurial spirit took Merchant & Gould to a new level of business development, too.  

Kitu was a valued member of the M&G team, and he will be missed by his colleagues and clients.  We are keeping his family in our thoughts, as they go through this difficult time.