In his extensive work as a CEO, private equity advisor and corporate Board member, Pankaj brings more than 25 years of leadership and operational experience in the healthcare, telecommunications, financial services and business service sectors. Pankaj is a thoughtful, insightful and intellectually curious advisor who has a solid grasp on process as much as product.
Pankaj currently serves as a board member of MUBIC, a makeup joint venture launched by Intercos, a 6000-person global makeup manufacturer headquartered in Italy and portfolio company of private equity firm L Catterton. Pankaj brings financial oversight, growth strategy, and consumer products experience to the company’s board. Pankaj also currently serves as a board member of Enzo Bevande, a beverage company that is bringing popular European products to the mass market in the United States. Pankaj represents the interests of two European investors.
Pankaj is Founder and a Managing Director at SC Ventures. The firm serves as investors, management executives, and board advisors to companies in need of renewal and growth strategies. For over 18 years, the firm brings insight into culture and process as it transforms businesses and effects operational revitalization. Pankaj’s activities at SC Ventures include being retained by boards to serve as Interim CEO or President of companies in distress. Most recently, Pankaj was retained by the board of Patient Planning Services, a healthcare program company, to lead an operational turnaround, identify growth in new product categories, and select the permanent CEO. Pankaj has also been an advisor to boards on strategic execution. For example, Pankaj was retained by the Board and a large shareholder of Sellas Life Sciences Group (NASDAQ: SLS), a clinical stage drug development company, to lead operational processes during the company’s reverse merger, assemble the public company Board of Directors, and hire a CFO, General Counsel, and investor relations firm. Finally, Pankaj has served private equity clients in operating roles. For example, Pankaj was retained by a private equity firm to serve as a consultant to the United States Army, to execute its merger of a $3.5B program of record with similarly sized United States Navy program.
SC Ventures began as a search fund, where Pankaj was an investor and a manager as CEO of Affinitel, a telecommunications company headquartered in San Francisco with several thousand business customers. Pankaj acquired the company, led its operations for 8 years and delivered in the first 24 months 100% revenue growth and over 200% cash flow growth, paying off debt 3.5 years ahead of schedule.
Prior to SC Ventures, in 2000 and 2001, Pankaj worked at Model N (NYSE: MODN), an enterprise software company funded by Accel-KKR that went public in March 2013. Pankaj began his career in equity research at Goldman Sachs and in the telecommunications and electronics strategy group at Booz-Allen & Hamilton.
Pankaj is currently President of the New York chapter of the Turnaround Management Association, a professional association for the restructuring industry. From 2016 to 2019, Pankaj served on the national board and research institute advisory board of the Cancer Support Community, an international non-profit entity dedicated to providing support, education, and hope to people affected by cancer. Since 2012, Pankaj has been an adjunct professor in the MBA program at Rutgers Business School in New Jersey. From 2001 – 2008, Pankaj served, most recently as President, on the board of the San Francisco Community Television Corporation.
Pankaj has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Corporate Board, Axial, Harvard Magazine, and the Journal of Corporate Renewal. Pankaj graduated cum laude from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering and earned a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.