Haresh Chawla appointed partner, India Value Fund Advisors

Chawla will join the firm from June 1 and will build and scale up businesses owned by IVFA across sectors including the company's media and entertainment investments in the country.

Haresh Chawla, former Group CEO of Network18 and Viacom18, has been roped in by India Value Fund Advisors (IVFA), a private equity firm, as partner for its India operations.

Chawla will join the firm on June 1 and will be responsible for building and scaling up businesses owned by IVFA across sectors including the company's media and entertainment investments in the country.

Announcing the appointment, Vishal Nevatia, managing partner, IVFA, says in an official communiqué, "Haresh brings with him unique experience, having built several world-class brands in the media and entertainment space. He blends professional management with entrepreneurial drive and the combination will be invaluable in helping IVFA scale up and further build its portfolio of businesses."

Network18 grew from a single business news channel (CNBC-TV18) and solitary portal (Moneycontrol.com), with revenues of Rs 15 crore in 1999, to a diversified media group with revenues in excess of Rs 2,500 crore in 2011 under Chawla's leadership. He was also instrumental in scaling up Viacom18 from a Rs 150 crore business to a Rs 1200 crore conglomerate.

Commenting on his new assignment, Chawla says, "India Value Fund Advisors is a uniquely positioned firm that not only infuses capital but also the mindset and strategic management thinking, that is required to scale up mid-sized businesses into large professionally-run enterprises. This operating model was particularly appealing to me as a chance to leverage my experience in building up businesses and helping management teams perform to their true potential."

Chawla's previous assignments have all been with start-ups including the HCL Group, where he headed business development for HCL Comnet; ABCL, where he set up the film distribution business and at the Times of India Group, where he launched the music label, Times Music.

For the record, IVFA was established in 1999 with US$1.3 billion under management across four funds in India. IVFA is focused on identifying and investing in mid-sized businesses, and then helping them transform into large admired businesses over five to seven years. Its current investments include Radio City, Meru Cabs, RDC Concrete, InLogistics, Mahindra Hinoday, Atria Convergence Technologies (ACT), DM Healthcare and RoboSilicon, amongst others.

In the past, IVFA has also invested in Shringar Films, Biocon, DQ Entertainment, TTK Healthcare, Epicenter and HDFC Bank.

The other partners at IVFA are Sanjay Arte, Pramod Kabra, Sunil Theckath, Vikram Nirula and Mahesh Krishnamurthy.