Faculty, Harvard University
A. Background Professor Viney Sawhney has 25 years of executive experience at Citicorp, National Bank of Bahrain, and Kuwait Asia bank (1967- 1993) where he held senior-level positions (Senior/Executive Vice President) managing a group of over 100 employees and was responsible for meeting profit center earnings targets. Professor Sawhney has three decades of financial services industry experience prior to joining Harvard University. He launched three start-ups during his working career one of which was in India and the other two were in the USA and the Middle East.
B. Professional Qualifications He has a Master's of Science degree from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and has authored a thesis on the “Privatization of Energy Sector in India” under the supervision of MIT’s Center of Energy. In addition, he has an (i) MBA, (ii) Bachelor of Laws, and (iii) Bachelor of Accounting & Commerce from the University of Delhi, India. He is a frequent speaker at Harvard Business School and MIT’s energy forum.
C. Knowledge Sharing & Training Venture Capital and Fund Raising, Private Equity and Investment Banking, Technology and Innovation, Strong Networking, Creative and Resourceful, Leadership, Strong Work Ethics & Team Work.
D. Strong Independent Ventures and Start-ups Professor Sawhney, as Chairman and CEO, launched his first independent venture involving the floatation of a publicly quoted financial services company made up of 10,000 shareholders at the Mumbai (India) stock exchange in the year 1986. He successfully exited the firm in 1989 making significant capital gains. Profession Sawhney articulated the design and concept of a “Development Bank” under the supervision of Bahrain’s Ministry of Finance and National Economy dedicated to serving the underserved community of the Island state. The project was completed in record 9 months and continues to flourish as a viable financial institution. His third start-up included setting up a venture-funded finance boutique in Boston devoted to promoting energy-related infrastructure projects in emerging market countries. The firm assembled a workload of $2.2 billion over a 7-year period. He manages a boutique investment banking practice in Massachusetts and has strong networking amongst investors, lenders, and leading corporates within and outside the country.
E. Academic experience As a key member of the Finance team in the faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, Professor Sawhney teaches four finance courses namely “Project Finance”, “Investment Banking”, “Private Equity” and “Venture Capital”. He has earned top honors by appearing on the Dean’s List at Harvard several times and has received “excellent” student reviews for the past 7 years. He has delivered high-level “Project Finance” related seminars at Pratt and Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies, Mann of Germany & Exim Bank of France, Paris, and several other leading corporates around the world. Professor Sawhney is frequently invited as a Key Note Speaker in international forums and travels frequently to China and India for this purpose.