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 | |
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Born | Ashish Dhawan March 10, 1969 New Delhi, India |
Alma mater | Harvard Business School Yale University |
Occupation(s) | Philanthropist Former private equity investor |
Known for | Founder-trustee of Ashoka University Co-founder of ChrysCapital |
Board member of | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation |
Spouse |
Manisha Dhawan (m. 1998) |
Website | CentralSquareFoundation.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]
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]
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]
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]
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]