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About the Founder
Pavan Vaish
Founding Partner
Pavan Vaish has spent over two decades in the Indian Technology sector. As Founder & CEO of IBM Daksh and CXO of high growth organizations such as UnitedLex and Uber, Pavan understands the diverse challenges of building large enterprises. As an entrepreneur, angel investor and mentor/coach, Pavan connects with founders of startups and scaling ventures and helps them traverse their growth journeys through his operational excellence framework and methodology. He is an angel investor in start-ups like CurioEd (Science & Technology Learning Platform), INI Farms (Agri Tech), and Lissun (Mental Wellness).
Pavan is the Founding Partner of Cardinal Advisors, a consulting company that works hands-on with Founders and CEOs of high growth companies to assist them through their scaling journey. Cardinal Advisors’ focus is on building organization capability in key areas like Leadership Evolution, Organization Culture, Talent Development, Scalable Operational Execution and Enhanced Customer Experience.
Pavan is also a Co-Founder of the Artha School of Entrepreneurship, a Section-8 not-for-profit company that works to accelerate the journeys of entrepreneurs in scaling their ventures. At Artha, Pavan also plays the role of a faculty cum mentor for the “Organization and Culture” program with specific focus on building organizations with purpose and driving organizational performance through OKRs.
Prior to Cardinal Advisors, he was Head of Central Operations at Uber for India/SA and responsible for marketplace operations, supply acquisition and retention, driver operations and platform safety. While at Uber, Pavan made material contributions towards making Uber’s platform safer for Riders and Drivers, enhancing the rider experience and making Uber more driver-centric. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit India, Pavan led Uber India/SA’s Covid Response Taskforce supporting the hundreds of thousands of Uber driver partners severely impacted by the lockdowns. He also led efforts to mitigate the financial impact to the company.
Before Uber, Pavan was the Global Chief Operating Officer of UnitedLex Corporation, the leading Outsourced Legal Services company, where he led global operations, technology and shared services across the Americas, Europe and Asia. During his tenure, he grew global revenues 3X, while also being instrumental in making UnitedLex a “Great Places to Work” organization, the first legal services company to achieve this recognition.
Prior to UnitedLex, Pavan co-founded Daksh in 2000. Daksh was the pioneer in the Indian Business Process Outsourcing industry. When IBM acquired Daksh in 2004, Pavan led the integration team in what was to become IBM’s most successful services acquisition in its history. As CEO of IBM Daksh, Pavan scaled the business to annual revenues of $500m supported by 40,000+ employees and drove delivery centers across India, Philippines, Egypt, Costa Rica, USA and Singapore. He led Daksh from a startup through its hyper growth years and then led the company through multiple crises like 9/11 and the global financial meltdown of 2008/2009. Pavan was a member of the IBM Integration & Values Team, a senior leadership team instituted by IBM’s Chairman of Board and CEO Sam Palmisano.
As a business advisor to CEOs and senior leaders, Pavan’s expertise enables companies to traverse their growth journeys and navigate the challenges that come along the way. He leverages his vast experience in scaling operations and provides comprehensive guidance across functions, with special emphasis to those areas that provide maximum leverage.
Pavan is an ardent traveler and dog lover. He is married to Ila and they have two children and a golden retriever. They live in Gurgaon, India.