Harvard's vision for expanded engagement with South Asia is crafted by senior scholars and administrators from across the University, and by public- and private-sector leaders from around the world. The South Asia Founders Club - a team of distinguished volunteer leaders - provides strategic counsel and support.
SYED BABAR ALI, AMP ‘73 is the Founder of Packages Limited (Pakistan’s largest paper & board mill), Milkpak Limited – now Nestle Pakistan Limited - (the largest food processing company in Pakistan); Tetra Pak Pakistan Limited, IGI Insurance Company Limited, Tri-Pack Films Limited, and IGI Investment Bank. He is Chairman of Sanofi-Aventis Pakistan Limited, Siemens Pakistan Engineering Company Limited, and Coca-Cola Beverages Pakistan Limited. He established and is the first Pro-Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in 1985. LUMS is Pakistan’s premier management education institution. In 1992, he founded Ali Institute of Education for training of primary and secondary school teachers. He is a member of the Board of the following important educational institutions of Lahore: Aitchison College, F.C. College, Kinnaird College, and Lahore School of Economics. He is a member of the Regional Advisory Board of London Business School and a Member of the Initiative on Social Enterprise of Harvard University.
ASHISH CHORDIA, NH, Chief Executive Officer/Founder of SHREYANS has played significant role in transforming luxury retail in India. After obtaining his Bachelor of Science from the Marshall School of Business (University of Southern California), Ashish Chordia started working with Deloitte in the management consulting field in the United States of America. While pursuing his career at Deloitte Consulting he foresaw a tremendous opportunity in luxury retail in India and started planning the creation of India’s first luxury retail brand “SHREYANS.”
Ashish Chordia entered the luxury goods business by acquiring exclusive rights from renowned European luxury companies and began to establish the foundation of the luxury conglomerate which would retail luxury products including but not limited to: cars, yachts, super bikes, fashion articles, jewelry, etc. After several successful years, the group now represents some of the world’s renowned brands such as: Porsche, Audi, Ducati, NetJets, Van Cleef & Arpels, Fendi, Dolce & Gabbana, Etro, and many more.
ESHWAR DAS, PA is founder and managing partner at Landmark Banyan, a private equity Fund based in New York, and former vice chairman of investment banking at Merrill Lynch, where he focused on corporate finance and investment banking for 20 years. Since 2000, he has invested in or financed numerous Indian and U.S.-based companies. Eshwar is president of E.S.P. Das Educational Foundation and a former trustee at Brown University.
MARK FULLER, AB ’75, MBA ’78, JD ‘79 is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Monitor Group, a firm he co-founded in 1983. The Group currently competes in three different businesses: general management consulting, principal investing, and information services, including research and software solutions. Mark formerly served as an Assistant Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, where he taught courses in strategy formulation and implementation, as well as industry and competitive analysis. Mark graduated from Harvard College where he received a BA degree in history with High Honors and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He later received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a JD from Harvard Law School with Honors.
VIKRAM GANDHI, MBA ’89, Exed ‘00 is a managing director and global head of the Financial Institutions Group at Credit Suisse, where he manages many of the firm's most important client relationships in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He is currently based in Hong Kong. Previously, he spent a decade with Morgan Stanley, including service as president of Morgan Stanley-India. Vikram serves on the board of directors of the Grameen Foundation, which supports microfinance programs that help the poor—mostly women—start self-sustaining businesses to escape poverty. He is a 1989 graduate of the Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar.
MALA GAONKAR HAARMANN, AB ’91, MBA ‘96 is the managing director at an investment fund. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, Mala and her husband, Oliver, have been longtime supporters of the University, where they have established the Global Health Effectiveness Research Fund, researching best practices in the delivery of high quality yet cost-effective medical care in areas where there are few options today. They support a variety of public health initiatives in India and Africa.
ANAND MAHINDRA, AB ’77, MBA ‘81 is the vice chairman and managing director of Mahindra & Mahindra Limited, the flagship company of the US $6.3 billion Mahindra Group, which is among the top 10 industrial houses in India. The Group has a leading presence in key sectors of the Indian economy, including automobiles, tractors, financial services, trade, retail and logistics, automotive components, after-market, information technology infrastructure development and two wheelers. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, Anand and his wife, Anu, are active in community and non-profit activities in India and around the world. Anand has served on the Board of Dean's Advisors and the Asia Pacific Regional Advisory Board at Harvard Business School, and on the board of the University's Asia Center.
SANJEEV MEHRA, AB ’82, MBA ‘86 is a managing director and partner of Goldman Sachs, where he leads the Business Practices Committee and Operating Committee for its Principal Investment Area, and serves on its Investment Committee. He is also a member of the Firmwide Business Practices Committee. He serves on numerous corporate boards, including those of ARAMARK, Burger King, Hawker Beechcraft, and SunGard Data Systems. A trustee of Brunswick School, Greenwich, CT, Oakham School in England and of The Doon School in India, Sanjeev also serves on the board of Trout Unlimited and is a Fellow of the Foreign Policy Association. He and his wife, Karen, a 1982 graduate of Harvard College, are trustees of the Mehra Family Foundation. Sanjeev serves as gift co-chair of his Harvard College class and sits on the Harvard College Fund Council.
VICTOR J. MENEZES, PA is a Senior Advisor with New Silk Route Partners LLC, an international private equity firm. He was formerly Senior Vice Chairman of Citigroup Inc., and after a 32-year global career in the company, retired in January 2005. He Chairs the American India Foundation, is a Vice Chairman of Catholic Charities, Chairs the Executive Committee of the Eisenhower Fellowships and Co-chairs the Trustees Emeriti of the Asia Society. He is a board member of Educational Testing Service and the MIT Corporation and is on the advisory boards of IIT, MIT Sloan and INSEAD. Victor is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
PARESH PATEL, MBA ‘00 is CEO of Sandstone Capital, an India-focused hedge fund. Sandstone is a value-oriented investment partnership focused on long-term opportunities in India, with a preference for deep value, special situations, midcaps and complex opportunities. Sandstone Capital has an office Boston. Prior to Sandstone Capital LLC, Paresh Patel was Managing Director of Sparta Group, the private investment office of Gururaj Deshpande, founder of Sycamore Networks. At Sparta, Paresh invested with Desh in early-stage ventures in the US and India - including A123 Systems, Indian Lotus, Relicore and Tejas Networks. Paresh is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Boston College.
DALIP PATHAK, NH manages the Warburg Pincus London office and is responsible for the firm's investment activities in Europe and India. Prior to joining Warburg Pincus in 1994, he was Chief of Mission of the International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group) in Thailand. Mr Pathak received his BA and MA in economics from Delhi University and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a director of FiberNet Communications. He is also a member of the International Advisory Board of the Center for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the Board of Overseers of the University of Pennsylvania's School of Arts and Sciences. Mr Pathak has recently been appointed to the Board of Trustees of Asia House in London and to the Advisory Council of the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association in Washington DC.
ARVIND RAGHUNATHAN, NH is the CEO and CIO of Roc Capital Management, formerly managing director and head of global arbitrage at Deutsche Bank in New York, where he managed a large part of the bank's proprietary trading and investments in global financial instruments. He served as a consultant for a number of corporations, including IBM, Hewlett Packard, and Xerox. Today, he is actively involved in a number of non-profit organizations, serving on several advisory committees and boards. He and his wife, Sribala (Bonnie) Subramanian, lead fundraising efforts for hospitals, colleges and universities, and other charities.
GAURAV SWARUP, MBA ‘80 is Managing Director, Paharpur Cooling Towers Limited in Kolkata. Paharpur is a well-diversified business house with interests in industrial process cooling equipment, flexible packaging, saw milling & forestry, realty and investments. Gaurav is Chairman, KSB Pumps India, a joint venture between KSB of Germany and the Swarup family, and is also currently a member of the Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata. Gaurav holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Engineering from Jadavpur University, Kolkata.
ARSHAD ZAKARIA, AB ’85, MBA ‘87 is the Chief Executive and Founder of New Vernon Capital LLC. New Vernon Capital was founded in 2004 and has approximately $2 billion under management, with a focus on emerging markets, particularly India. Mr. Zakaria received his B.A. degree, summa cum laude, in applied mathematics, from Harvard University in 1985. He received his M.B.A. with high distinction from Harvard Business School in 1987 where he was a Baker Scholar and a recipient of the Loeb-Rhoades Fellowship for Finance. He is currently on the Board of the Cancer Institute of New Jersey and on the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, India.
