Ashish Dhawan, founder of ChrysCapital Investment Advisors, a leading private equity firm, announced his decision to step down last year, everyone thought it was too early. But Dhawan, one of the most prolific dealmakers in India’s private equity industry, can hardly be expected to take a wrong decision. He is known for marquee deals involving the BPO firm Spectramind and the wind energy company Suzlon. Needless to say, he had already planned his future venture: working for social causes, particularly education. “ I plan to focus my energy eventually on not- for- profit K- 12 education in India and social issues I feel strongly about,” Dhawan says.
True to his business skills, he has prepared his exit well in advance by redistributing his responsibilities among the six continuing managing directors. His plan worked to perfection as the team managed to finish the fund- raising for its sixth vehicle, raising $ 510 million as hard cap without Dhawan.
Dhawan received an MBA with distinction from the Harvard Business School and before that, a BS in Applied Mathematics and Economics with magna cum laude honours from Yale University.
After graduating from Harvard, he worked with the mergers group at Wasserstein Perella, McCown De Leeuw & Co., a private equity firm focused on middle- market buyouts, and GP Investments, a private equity fund in Brazil.
He co- founded ChrysCapital in 1999 with Harvard buddy Raj Kondur.
Right from his first big- ticket domestic deal — Spectramind — Dhawan has led ChrysCapital’s to be one of the most successful private equity companies with a series of high- value deals such as the $ 200- million investment in Infosys Technologies.
The firm, at present, manages assets worth $ 2.5 billion.
WAYFORWARD
Ashish Dhawan’s next bigmission is to use his fund of experience to overhaulschool education in thecountry. He will work toshift the access- orientededucation policy to a more quality- driven approach.THANKS MT