->AnomieBOT at 02:08, 29 December 2021

2021-12-29T02:08:39Z

New page

{{EngvarB|date=February 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name = 
| image = 
| alt = 
| caption =
| birth_name = 
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1936|03|04}}
| birth_place = [[Bombay]], [[British India]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2017|12|08|1936|03|04}}
| death_place = United States
| nationality = American
| other_names =
| occupation = Business person
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse = Amrita Nigam (1960–1984)<br/>[[Helen Armstrong (violinist)|Helen Armstrong]] (1996–2006)
| children = Nikhil, Vivek and [[Ravi Hutheesing|Ravi]]
| mother = [[Krishna Hutheesing]]
| father = "Raja" Gunottam Hutheesing
| relatives = See [[Nehru–Gandhi family]] and [[Hutheesing family]]
}}

'''Ajit Gunottam Hutheesing''' (4 March 1936 – 8 December 2017) was the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of International Capital Partners Inc.<ref name="times">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/24/style/ajit-hutheesing-helen-e-armstrong.html|title= Ajit Hutheesing, Helen E. Armstrong|date=24 November 1996|accessdate=17 June 2008 | work=The New York Times}}</ref> (ICP). ICP commenced investment activities in 1992, providing private placement equity to finance the growth of successful smaller companies. After a successful record of investments in small private and public companies, ICP began winding down its activities.{{when|date=December 2017}} Hutheesing was a member of the Greenwich Roundtable, a group of 100 invited members who collectively manage $1 trillion plus.

==Early life and education ==
Hutheesing was an [[Indian American]]. He was born in [[Mumbai, India]] into the prominent [[Hutheesing family]]. His mother, [[Krishna Hutheesing|Krishna]], a well-known author, was the sister of India's first Prime Minister, [[Jawaharlal Nehru]].<ref>The scope of happiness: a personal memoir
Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Crown Publishers, 1979, Page xiii</ref><ref>I want to conduct in Kashmir: Zubin Mehta
Published: Sunday, 5 October 2008 http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_i-want-to-conduct-in-kashmir-zubin-mehta_1195630</ref> His father, [[Gunottam Hutheesing]], was part of one of the larger industrial families in India, the Lalbhai Group; he served India as a politician, journalist and businessman.{{fact|date=December 2021}}

Hutheesing was educated at the [[Scindia School]] in [[Gwalior]] and later at the [[St. Mary's School, Mumbai|St. Mary's School]] in [[Mumbai]], before he attended the [[Cambridge University]] in England where he received his bachelor's degree in chemistry, physics, metallurgy and mathematics and a master's degree in chemical engineering. He received his [[MBA]] from [[Columbia Business School]] in [[New York City|New York]].<ref name="Obituary">{{cite web|title=Obituary: Ajit Hutheesing|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/greenwichtime/obituary.aspx?pid=187531164|publisher=[[Greenwich Time (newspaper)|Greenwich Time]]|accessdate=19 February 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219053159/http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/greenwichtime/obituary.aspx?pid=187531164|archivedate=19 February 2018|date=17 December 2017}}</ref>

==Career==
Hutheesing was one of the first Indians in Wall Street when he started his investment banking career in 1960 with [[Loeb, Rhoades & Co.]] In 1962, he joined S.G. Warburg & Company in London as part of his investment banking training. He returned to India in 1963 to start the first investment bank but when his cousin, [[Indira Gandhi]], became Prime Minister and started nationalising banks and insurance companies, he decided to leave India.<ref name="Obituary"/>

Following the advice and introduction of Sir Siegmund Warburg, Chairman of S.G. Warburg & Company, he joined the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector investment banking arm of the World Bank in 1965. He spent 10 years at IFC during most of which he headed IFC's investment activities in the southern cone countries of South America. In 1972 he became the youngest director of IFC (at that time) heading the department responsible for management, syndications and dispositions of its rapidly growing equity and loan portfolios representing over 200 investments worldwide and valued in 1975 at $900 million.

In 1975, at the invitation of an old friend, [[James D. Wolfensohn]], then President and CEO of Schroders USA (ex-President of the World Bank), Hutheesing joined J. Henry Schroder Corporation (JHSC), New York, as its managing director and as Director of Schroder International. JHSC was the investment banking arm of Schroders PLC in the US Its main activities were M&A, private placements and managing a venture capital pool. Hutheesing spent considerable time in Brazil developing business for Schroders. He was named vice-chairman of J. Henry Schroder Corporation in 1982.

He joined [[The Sherwood Group]], New York, in 1986 as chairman to help the company raise substantial new capital and to build its corporate finance capabilities. Sherwood (later National Discount Brokers bought by [[Deutsche Bank]]) was one of the major wholesale [[market maker]]s in the over-the-counter market and an underwriter and distributor of securities to the retail sector of the investment industry. While at Sherwood, Hutheesing was the only non-American Chairman of a Wall Street investment banking and securities trading company. Upon the death of the founder and majority shareholder, Hutheesing presided over the sale of Sherwood and left the company in February 1988,<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/05/business/executive-changes-963988.html EXECUTIVE CHANGES] ''[[The New York Times]]'', 5 February 1988.</ref> to start ICP.

During his life, Hutheesing was committed to using his connections in and knowledge of India and the United States to build both philanthropic and business bridges between these countries. On the investment front, his interest was to bring private equity capital to India from the United States and to eventually channel capital from high-net-worth families in India to the United States.

==Personal life==
[[File:Helen ajit wed.jpg|right|210px|thumb|[[Helen Armstrong (violinist)|Armstrong]] and Hutheesing at their wedding, 1996]]
Hutheesing married Amrita Nigam in 1960 in [[London]]. They had three children together: sons Nikhil, Vivek and [[Ravi Hutheesing|Ravi]].<ref name="Obituary"/> The family lived in [[Arlington, Texas|Arlington]] and [[McLean, Virginia]] between 1965 and 1975 before moving to [[Greenwich, Connecticut]]. Their marriage ended in a divorce in 1984. Amrita Hutheesing died in 2015, aged 77.<ref>{{cite web|title=Obituary: Amrita Hutheesing|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/greenwichtime/obituary.aspx?pid=174694862|publisher=legacy.com|accessdate=19 February 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219094706/http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/greenwichtime/obituary.aspx?pid=174694862|archivedate=19 February 2018}}</ref>

In 1996, Hutheesing married [[Helen Armstrong (violinist)|Helen Armstrong]], a violinist. Armstrong was the founder and artistic director of Armstrong Chamber Concerts in Washington, Connecticut, and a graduate of the [[Juilliard School of Music]], from which she also received a master's degree.<ref name="times" /> She died in 2006 at the age of 63.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/05/classified/paid-notice-deaths-armstrong-helen.html Helen Armstrong] ''[[The New York Times]]'', 5 May 2006.</ref> In her memory Hutheesing wrote the memoir ''The Shadow of Her Smile''.<ref>{{cite web|title=New Memoir, 'The Shadow of Her Smile' by Ajit Hutheesing, Is Released|url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwbooks/article/New-Memoir-The-Shadow-of-Her-Smile-by-Ajit-Hutheesing-Is-Released-20140409|publisher=broadwayworld.com|accessdate=19 February 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219055458/https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwbooks/article/New-Memoir-The-Shadow-of-Her-Smile-by-Ajit-Hutheesing-Is-Released-20140409|archivedate=19 February 2018|date=9 April 2014}}</ref> Hutheesing was diagnosed with [[idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis]], before he died on 8 December 2017, aged 81.<ref name="Obituary"/>

{{Nehru-Gandhi family tree}}

==Further reading==
* ''With No Regrets – An Autobiography'', by Krishna Nehru Hutheesing, Published by READ BOOKS, 2007. {{ISBN|1-4067-7661-0}}.
* We Nehrus – A family history by Krishna Nehru Hutheesing, Published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967
* The Great Peace – An Asians Candid Report on Red China by Raja Hutheesing, Published by Harper & Brothers,1953

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/24/style/ajit-hutheesing-helen-e-armstrong.html |title=Ajit Hutheesing, Helen E. Armstrong |website=[[The New York Times]]}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hutheesing, Ajit}}
[[Category:American Jains|Jain]]
[[Category:American businesspeople of Indian descent]]
[[Category:American chief executives of financial services companies]]
[[Category:Columbia Business School alumni]]
[[Category:Nehru–Gandhi family]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:1936 births]]
[[Category:2017 deaths]]
[[Category:American people of Kashmiri descent]]

Ajit Hutheesing - Revision history

->AnomieBOT at 02:08, 29 December 2021