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August - 2008 - issue > Movers and Shakers
On Hunt for Good Talent
Vimali Swamy
Friday, August 1, 2008
With the intent to seize the phenomenal India opportunity aptly backed by growing numbers of entrepreneurs in India, Walden International Group has appointed Rajesh Subramaniam as Managing Director to spearhead the India operations. An M.B.A. from the Richmond University, London, Subramaniam has a rich experience in working in finance, strategy, and investment management space. Starting his career as a financial analyst with Pioneer ITI AMC (later acquired by Franklin Templeton), he moved to KPMG and Ernst & Young in Corporate Finance consulting and eventually joined GIV Venture Partners as the Vice President for Investment. In 2001 he joined ICICI Bank and kick started the BPO initiatives of the bank. Now known as First Source Solutions, he was the Chief Financial Officer and was also responsible for M&A, fund raising and strategy.

At Walden, Subramaniam will take care of the company’s investment initiatives in India. “We have invested about $1.6 billion across Asia and the U.S. Now India is on the cusp of growth with increased focus on domestic market and a new diaspora of entrepreneurs is emerging here. This is an exciting time to be leveraging the core opportunities of sustained growth supported by credible entrepreneurial talent in India,” he explains. At present, Walden has direct investments in Mindtree and Anantara Solutions.
Since the Indian market is an emerging one, the biggest challenge for Subramaniam is hunting for good talent with respect to both entrepreneurial ventures for investment and scaling up an effective team that will help these ventures. Currently, the company’s investment focus is on sectors like education, banking and financial services, healthcare, telecom, media technology, and consumer Internet.

A go-getter and execution oriented person, he believes in a flat line structure of approaching people and problems. “A good leader should have the key attributes of a long term vision for his business, be a great motivator, and have the clear ability to provide clarity of his thoughts and strategy to relevant stakeholders,,” he states. Outside work, apart from spending time with his family, Subramaniam enjoys playing tennis and hitting the gym. Also a very social person, he loves to broaden the horizon of his thoughts by networking and interacting with new people.
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