Jacob Kurian

Bio

Jacob joined New Silk Route Advisors in April 2007 and focuses on private equity opportunities in the Indian sub-continent out of the Bangalore office. Prior to joining NSR, Jacob was one of the Partners of the India Consumer Growth Fund which aimed to take advantage of the opportunities created by the strong consumption growth in the Indian economy. Previously, in 2003, as President of the Indian operations of Laureate Inc., he led the effort to establish India’s largest multi-disciplinary private university. Previously, Jacob worked for the Tata Group as an officer of the prestigious Tata Administrative Service. In mid 2000, Jacob was named COO and SVP of Tanishq, a fine jewelry business. He led a dramatic turnaround of this business, making it one of the fastest growing consumer franchises in the country. Jacob engineered a multi-dimensional restructuring, repositioning Tanishq as a retail business and growing revenues at over 40% CAGR over the next three years, with steadily increasing profits and cash flows. Tanishq is one of the largest specialty retailers in the country and a “Superbrand” as well as the winner of multiple industry awards. During this period, Jacob was also the Chief Strategy Officer of Titan Industries, served on the Tata Group Strategy Forum and as a Mentor CEO to various group companies. Previously, in 1996, Jacob became Chief Marketing Officer of the watch business at Titan. His team rejuvenated the flagging watch business with the launch of multiple new brands that are India’s largest volume and youth watch brands. Under his stewardship, a widely respected annual poll ranked the Titan brand as India’s top consumer brand in 2000. In 1993, Jacob joined Titan Industries to lead a pioneering attempt to take an Indian consumer brand into international markets. The Titan watch brand sells in over 35 countries and is one of the world’s top ten watch brands by volume. Previously, during a ten year period with Tata Unisys Limited (a pioneering joint venture between Tatas and Unisys Corporation), he helped create the blueprint for India’s flagship IT services business and led the development of several outsourcing best practices that have become the norm in the industry. He worked in multiple geographies in Asia, Europe and America. Jacob has a degree in engineering (B.E. EEE) from the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapalli and an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur. He was voted “Exceller of the Year” – the outstanding graduating student by his class at business school. He received the Distinguished Alumni Award from NITT in 2008.