Awarded the Global Pride Award 2021 for Outstanding Achievement in Financial Crime Prevention by HBW News, Trend Setter of the Year 2021 under the Professional Service Category by Vyapar Jagat Convention and Award and also received the Nationwide Business Award and recognized as Top 30 Under 30 Emerging Industry Expert in the field of Financial Crime Prevention; Mehrzaad Mogrelia is a Certified Financial Crime Specialist who went on to pursue an unwarranted dream. He has also been conferred with the Young Entrepreneur Award at the Indian Startup & Leadership Summit.
Mehrzaad started his professional career in 2014 as an accountant for a start-up in the digital advertising space. After working for two years in this firm, Mehrzaad moved to Dhanbhoora & Co., as and Audit and Tax assistant. Between 2017 to 2019, Mehrzaad pursued his Master of Commerce with a specialization in Accounting & Business Law in Sydney. During this time, he also worked in an audit support role with Bana Consulting. In March 2020, after returning from Sydney, he joined Mazars Business Advisors Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai as an Audit Assistant where he handled internal audits in the hospitality and FMCG sectors along with pre-Assessment audits for trusts.
The biggest turning point in Mehrzaad’s career came in March 2021, when he decided to launch his own freelancing consultancy – MZ Consultancy in the field of Financial Crime Investigation/Forensic Audits/Forensic Accounting where the primary objective was to help companies unearth Financial Frauds within their setup by building financial trails and ensuring there is no revenue leakage through setting up Fraud Control Points.
Mehrzaad has worked with all types of companies right from Sole Proprietary firms to Private Limited Companies. However, his specialization lies with detection of terrorist financing which occurs mainly through donations received by NGOs from unknown sources and its tracking to ensure none of those funds are used for illicit activities. Through hard work and dedication, in less than a year, MZ Consultancy has been able to build a database of 15+ clients and as a result, Mehrzaad also works with various law enforcement agencies like the Cyber Cell as a Cybersecurity Respondent Officer where his major role in an individual capacity is to help individuals recover their lost money through various online scams like job scams, dating scams, among others.
Like any other successful individual, Mehrzaad owes his success to his family who have been by his side throughout his journey. Mehrzaad’s parents and grandparents have always supported him in every single thing and allowed him to experiment with various things and decisions in life, the major ones being the decision to pursue Masters abroad and setting up MZ Consultancy. Though his family did resent him temporarily owing to the uncertainty of the returns the business would yield and whether it would be sufficient to withstand the various challenges and continue for a considerable period of time. However, eventually they believed in his journey.
Mehrzaad also has extremely supportive friends who have stood by him for years. Despite testing times, his friends have always had his back and offered him the right advice. He clearly claims that they celebrate his successes much more than he does. Mehrzaad’s journey would be incomplete without his ladylove Diana. She has been his backbone. Mehrzaad believes her role is the most important in his journey because she has always been by his side and cheered for him.
If there was one thing that Mehrzaad knew, it was that he cannot settle for a mundane 9 – 5 job. This inspired him to build something of his own where he could challenge himself. The thought of pursuing something of his own kicked in 2019 where he was in the final semester of his Masters in Sydney where he had to develop an actual product aimed at solving an ongoing social problem. This idea had to be pitched to a panel of investors. While Mehrzaad did manage to secure funding, the investors backed out due to COVID-19. This was the beginning of challenges for Mehrzaad. However, without looking back he came back and started his own consultancy which received enough recognition in India.
One of the main challenges he faced was when most people questioned the thought of freelancing over a secured job. While these thoughts also came to Mehrzaad, he knew he wanted to build something to achieve his own dreams rather than serving someone else. Therefore, he took the plunge of stepping into the freelancing world and hasn’t regretted it at all. The other challenge was to setup a client base. Mehrzaad resorted to freelancing platforms and speaking to people which would help him increase his outreach. After the initial few clients, his hard work coupled with goodwill allowed him to build a successful client base.
Mehrzaad’s biggest achievement is to be recognized as Top 30 Under 30 Emerging Industry Professionals in the field of Financial Crime Prevention by Business Mint. While growing up, Mehrzaad read various business magazines and lists, and it was finally a dream come true to at least feature in one of them. In the next 5 years, Mehzaad wants to focus on establishing his credentials further in the field of Financial Crime detection. He also wants to look to foray into the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) space, specifically as well as being one of the best professionals in this field across the globe.
While Mehrzaad was young, he was an impatient man and lacked the persistence to wait for things to come his way. He was hesitant with risks and didn’t trust his instincts. Given the opportunity to speak with his younger self, he would ask himself to believe in himself. He would remember that no two days would be the same and therefore the key lies in working hard and persevering with resilience. Success for Mehrzaad is rarely defined by numbers or statistics rather it is defined by how one has progressed today from yesterday and the best part is that when this positive shift happens, numbers and statistics automatically reflect it.
Mehrzaad concludes with a quote by Steve Jobs that he truly believes in which is ‘Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish’. One of the major reasons Mehrzaad achieved success in such an unconventional career path is because of his drive to keep trying new things, the ability to persevere through challenges.
