Dan Auerbach, Managing Partner of Fidelity Asia Ventures, was in need of a person to head FIL Capital Advisors (India), Fidelity’s Private Equity and Growth Capital Fund focused on India.

The position clearly needed someone native to India, but who also had a strong Western educational influences in finance and healthcare.  Not an easy position to fill.  But luckily, Dan knew Bill Holodnak at J. Robert Scott. 

When Fidelity Asia Ventures needed someone to head FIL Capital Advisors (India), a Private Equity and Growth Capital Fund,  they knew that finding the right person would be a challenge. “We were looking for someone with a very specialized skill set,” concedes Fidelity Asia Ventures Managing Partner Dan Auerbach. “We needed someone born and raised in India, who would understand the local business culture, and with strong connections in the life sciences sector. At the same time, they would need to have western financial expertise and be ready to manage a high-profile equity and growth fund.”

To find the right person with that rare combination of skills, Auerbach wanted to enlist a search firm. Auerbach was well acquainted with Bill Holodnak, Founder and President of J. Robert Scott. Holodnak has years of executive search success in both the financial and health care industries. However it wasn’t the relationship with Holodnak alone that made up Auerbach’s mind. “When we looked at their venture capital expertise combined with their global reach – they were our first choice.”

After working with Dan Auerbach to develop a full understanding of FIL’s requirements, both in terms of experience and skills, as well as the type of person who would fit the culture, Bill Holodnak set up a coordinated search team both in the U.S. and in Singapore.

“While our Singapore office had the local connections, the U.S. had the richer network of venture capital connections,” says Holodnak. The two offices worked closely together, with a team of researchers scouring the extensive JRS database, and leveraging creative outreach techniques in order to identify some qualified candidates who wouldn’t have turned up on the standard radar. One of those candidates was Jasmin Patel.

When Bill Holodnak met him, Jasmin Patel was serving as Chief Operating Officer for the Indian business of leading pharmaco Novartis. Prior to assuming these general management responsibilities Dr. Patel was the Head of Disease Area Strategy and M&A Assessments for 2 years at Novartis global headquarters in Basel. He has a B. Pharm degree from Bombay University, a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry with honors from the U.S., and an MBA from Wharton. He also spent 2 years as a PPG Post-doctoral Fellow at the world renowned Scripps Research Institute in California. “If we hadn’t done so much work to get there, it would have felt a little like hitting the lottery,” says Holdnak. “Finding one person whose skills and experience match the position so perfectly is a great feeling.”  

Dan Auerbach quickly saw Patel’s strength’s as a candidate, saying, “Jasmin was just the person we were looking for. He had deep healthcare experience in Basel and Mumbai, as well as experience and education from the US.”  Since joining FIL Capital Advisors, Patel has made significant contributions. As Auerbach puts it, “I can’t imagine anyone else being as successful in our managing director position...He’s helped us make great strides in the Indian markets.”