Ashish Dhawan

Ashish Dhawan (born March 10, 1969) is an Indian philanthropist and former private equity investor who co-founded and ran one of India's leading private equity funds, Chrysalis Capital (ChrysCapital).[1] He is the founder-CEO of the Convergence Foundation,[2][3] founder-chairperson of the Central Square Foundation,[4] and a founder-trustee of Ashoka University.[5][3]

Ashish Dhawan
Head and shoulders photo of Ashish Dhawan
Dhawan in 2020
Born
Ashish Dhawan

(1969-03-10) March 10, 1969
New Delhi, India
Alma materHarvard Business School
Yale University
Occupation(s)Philanthropist
Former private equity investor
Known forFounder-trustee of Ashoka University
Co-founder of ChrysCapital
Board member ofBill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Spouse
Manisha Dhawan
​
(m. 1998)​
WebsiteCentralSquareFoundation.org ConvergenceFoundation.org

Dhawan has served on the board of trustees of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation since 2022.[2] His net worth is approximately $800 million.[6]

Education

Dhawan attended St. Xavier's Collegiate School, followed by St. James' School in Kolkata.[7][8] He is a graduate of Yale University, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in applied mathematics and economics, and Harvard Business School, where he earned an MBA.[7][9]

Career

From 1992 to 1993, Dhawan worked on Wall Street at boutique investment bank Wasserstein Perella & Co., where he was the only Indian analyst.[8] He then moved to McCown DeLeeuw & Co., an eight-person private equity firm in California, where he was the junior-most associate.[8]

After completing his MBA in 1997, Dhawan went to work at Goldman Sachs, where he was part of the Risk Arbitrage Group.[8] At the age of 29, he decided to leave New York to return to India.[10]

In 1999, Dhawan co-founded ChrysCapital in Mumbai with Raj Kondur, a classmate from Harvard Business School.[8][11]

Philanthropy

In 2012, Dhawan left his career as a private equity investor to found Central Square Foundation (CSF), a grant-making organization and policy think tank focused on transforming the quality of school education in India.[12][13][14] In 2014, he spearheaded the launch of Ashoka University, billed as India's first "Ivy-league-caliber" liberal arts university,[5] together with other Indian entrepreneurs.[9][15]

Other organisations launched by Dhawan include the India Leaders for the Social Sector (ILSS), which he set up with Anu Prasad in 2017; the Air Pollution Action Group (APAG) in 2019; and the Centre for Effective Governance of Indian States (CEGIS). a joint effort with economist Karthik Muralidharan.[1]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dhawan and CSF set up the ACT EdTech Ambition Fund, an organisation dedicated to helping deliver education to underprivileged children.[1] He and his wife Manisha set up the Convergence Foundation as an umbrella organisation and grant-making incubator dedicated to promoting growth in India by solving complex socioeconomic problems.[1][3]

Dhawan endowed the Renu and Anand Dhawan Professorship at Yale University to bolster scholarship in India and South Asia Studies.[16]

Accolades

In 2012, Dhawan was recognized as the NextGen Leader in Philanthropy by Forbes India for his charitable work.[17] He also placed 15th on the 2014 Hurun India Philanthropy List, a ranking of the most generous individuals in India produced by China-based Hurun Research Institute.[18]

Selected articles
  • Dhawan, Ashish (September 16, 2022). "Education policy cannot be business-as-usual after Covid". Financial Times.

References
  1. Bhargava, Anjuli (April 10, 2022). "Convergence Man: Former ChrysCapital chief Ashish Dhawan embarks on an ambitious set of goals". Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  2. "Gates Foundation appoints Indian philanthropist Ashish Dhawan". The Times of India. August 18, 2022. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  3. "Advisory Board". The Convergence Foundation. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  4. "Our Team". Central Square Foundation. Retrieved August 14, 2023.
  5. Bearak, Max (November 26, 2013). "A New University Offers Liberal Arts as Higher Education Alternative". The New York Times. Retrieved August 14, 2023.
  6. "Ashish Dhawan Portfolio: 6 stocks clock double-digit returns in 2023". Economic Times.
  7. Sridharan, R. (January 13, 2008). "Private Equity Pasha: Ashish Dhawan". Business Today. New Delhi. Retrieved August 15, 2023 – via ProQuest.
  8. Mitra, Moinak (December 20, 2013). "Lessons learnt: Why foresight foreshadows all else for Ashish Dhawan, CEO of Central Square Foundation". The Economic Times. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  9. Kazmin, Amy (March 8, 2018). "Ashoka University: Ivy League, Indian-style". Financial Times. Retrieved August 14, 2023.
  10. Sahad, P. V. (July 17, 2005). "One-Man Industry; Not counting institutional investors, Ashish Dhawan has brought in the most money into private equity in India over the last seven years. What is it about the 36-year-old that makes global investors put millions behind him?". Business Today. New Delhi, India. Retrieved August 15, 2023 – via ProQuest.
  11. Sengupta, Snigdha (March 21, 2011). "Ashish Dhawan's New Ambitions". Business World. New Delhi, India. Retrieved August 14, 2023 – via ProQuest.
  12. Rai, Mridu (February 10, 2014). "Take a lot of risks and do something different: Having given up a successful and lucrative career as a venture capitalist to work towards revamping the education sector in India Mridu Rai finds out more about the man with a vision. Ashish Dhawan/ CEO, CENTRAL SQUARE FOUNDATION". India Today. Retrieved August 14, 2023 – via ProQuest.
  13. "CSF Official Website - Our Team". Central Square Foundation.
  14. "Economic and social reform with Ashish Dhawan - KPMG Global". KPMG. March 14, 2022. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
  15. "Ashish Dhawan to raise Rs.400 crore for Ashoka University". Live Mint.
  16. "Sunil Amrith named the Dhawan Professor of History". YaleNews. April 20, 2020. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  17. "Forbes India - Ashish Dhawan: Next Gen Leader in Philanthropy".
  18. "胡润百富 - www.hurun.net". Archived from the original on May 16, 2015. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
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