After passing out with top marks from Street Xavier"s Collegiate School, Dhawan went on to graduate magna cum laude from Yale University with a dual bachelor"s degree. In 1997, he completed an Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School (Harvard Business School), graduating with distinction. He currently serves on the advisory board of Harvard Business School Club of India and is a member of Yale’s Development Council.
He has served on the company’s board since 1999, but left his full-time position at ChrysCapital in 2012 after twenty years in the investment management business to found Central Square Foundation (Cerebrospinal fluid), a grant-making organization and policy think tank focused on transforming the quality of school education in India. In 2014, he spearheaded the launch of India’s first liberal arts university, Ashoka University, a philanthropic effort of over forty leaders in education and industry. In 2012, Dhawan was recognized as the NextGen Leader in by Forbes India for his charitable work.
He also placed 15th on the 2014 Hurun India List, a ranking of the most generous individuals in India produced by China-based Hurun Research Institute.
Dhawan started his career in 1992 as the only Indian analyst working for Mergers Group at Wasserstein Perella & Company, a boutique investment bank on Wall Street. From 1993-1995, Dhawan worked as a junior associate at McCown DeLeeuw & Company, a small private equity firm in California, where he met George McCown, who encouraged him to study leadership at Harvard Business School.
Through the mid-nineties, Dhawan invested proprietary capital in the Risk Arbitrage Group at New York’s blue chip investment bank Goldman Sachs. Despite some initial challenges and market pressures, ChrysCapital endured and emerged as one of the strongest players.
In 2010, Dhawan co-founded the Young India Fellowship, a one-year residential multidisciplinary postgraduate programme with a focus on experiential learning and an aim to develop the next generation of India’s leaders.
In June 2012, Dhawan transitioned from venture capitalist to educator, founding Central Square Foundation, a philanthropic fund and policy think tank focused on transforming the quality of school education in India by making early and growth stage grants to education-focused Non-governmental organizations and by conducting research on critical issues facing India’s education system. With the support of more than forty philanthropists in 2014, Dhawan launched Ashoka University—India’s first liberal arts university—located outside New Delhi. Ashish also serves on the board of several non-profits including Akanksha Foundation, 3.2.1 Foundation, Teach Foreign India, Centre for Civil Society, Janaagraha, India School Leadership Institute and Bharti Foundation.
He currently serves on the advisory board of Harvard Business School Club of India and is a member of Yale’s Development Council.
