Advent hires ICICI Venture pro for India

Global mid-market firm Advent International has hired Shweta Jalan as a director for its nascent Indian operations, Advent India PE Advisors. 

Jalan was formerly a director at ICICI Venture, one of India’s largest private equity and real estate firms. At ICICI Venture, she was part of the initial team that built the firm over a ten-year period. In her former role, she was involved with investments, portfolio management, exits and fundraising, Advent said in a statement.

Shweta Jalan

Prior to ICICI Venture, Jalan worked in the corporate finance division of Ernst & Young for a year, where she was focused on private equity placements and valuations.

Advent has received its company registration in India and is setting up its first office in the country in the financial hub of Mumbai.

“Following the receipt of the company registration, Advent is on track with its plans to expand the Advent International global network with Advent’s operations in India from this month,” Georg Stratenwerth, Advent managing director, said in a statement.

To date, Advent has made one investment in India. In October 2007, it invested an undisclosed amount in Computer Age Management Services, which offers transaction processing and investor record keeping services to the financial services sector.

Advent is one of the later entrants among the large global buyout firms to set up an office in India. The Carlyle Group, TPG, The Blackstone Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Warburg Pincus and Bain Capital have all established offices in the country over the last few years. 

In July, the firm appointed P. Jayendra Nayak as an operating partner for India to help source deals, particularly in the financial services sector. Nayak was hired from Axis Bank, where he was the chairman and chief executive officer.

The upper mid-market firm has recently been adding to its vast stable of operating partners, having made six new hires in the past several weeks. 

Today the firm said it hired Michael McShane to work with Advent’s US deal team in oil and gas sectors. McShane was previously the chairman and chief executive Officer of Grant Prideco, a drill stem technology company.

Ex-IBM pro Richard Atkins, former Oracle executive Sergio Giacoletto and John Hughes, who has worked for groups including Lucent Technologies and Hewlett Packard, were also recently hired to advise its tech and telecoms team. 

Nance Dicciani, most recently CEO of Specialty Materials, a $4.9 billion division of Honeywell, was hired to advise on investment opportunities in the chemicals and materials industry.

Richard Baker, previously group chief executive at Alliance Boots, was hired to advise the firm on investment opportunities across the retail and consumer sectors.