Harinder Sawhney, managing director of JM Financial’s private equity business, has died of a cardiac arrest on Monday night. The 45-year-old is survived by his wife and two children.
With more than 15 years of experience in the industry, Sawhney joined JM Financial in 2006. Prior to that, he had sewn up deals for IndAsia Fund Advisors, along with Pradip Shah.
Sawhney had managed investments across diverse sectors such as microfinance, retail, farm equipment and offshore logistics. In the past, he had represented clients on both buy and sell sides in India and the US. Some of the major deals he had handled include Samson Maritime, International Practice Ltd, Spandana and South Indian Bank.
An avid golfer and cricketer, Sawhney’s colleagues remember him as the most health-conscious and fitness-savvy person in the team. The sudden death was all too shocking and his colleagues could not come to terms with it.
“A person who would dive on the cricket ground to catch the ball even at his age is struck by a heart attack… it’s really difficult to believe it,” a person close to Sawhney said.
Sawhney is the fourth private equity executive who passed away in the last one year. Last August, Milestone Reilgare PE’s owner Ved Prakash Arya died in a freak accident after a coconut tree fell on him during morning walk. And just 10 days before that, Mayukh Mitter, senior vice-president at Government of Singapore Investment Corp or GIC, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore, died of a heart attack. In June this year, IndiaCo PE’s MD Rahul Patwardhan also passed away due to heart failure.
(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)
