Shailesh Mehta

Shailesh Mehta, an Operating Advisor at WestBridge Capital, is based out of Silicon Valley. He looks at investment opportunities in financial services. Shailesh currently serves as a General Partner at Granite Hill Capital Partners, a venture capital firm focused on investments in Silicon Valley technology startups and select India related opportunities.

Previously, Shailesh served as Chairman and CEO of Providian Financial, which he built from a small team into a Fortune 300 company – one of the country’s top five credit card issuers. Prior to Providian, Shailesh was Executive VP of AmeriTrust (now KeyCorp), the largest bank in Ohio. Upon leaving Providian in 2001, Shailesh joined WestBridge Capital (Sequoia Capital India) as Operating General Partner, where he invested in India. Shailesh served on the boards of Master Card, PayPal Corp.,Providian corp., Hannovar Direct, Account Now,Manappuram Finance, Safari Industries and FirstSource. He was GP at Invesco Private Capital.

Shailesh currently serves on the Board of three of the Fund’s portfolio companies - Aptus Value Housing, India Shelter Finance, and Vistaar Finance. He also serves on the Board of NetaFim Agro Finance (NAFA), Manappuram finance and Safari Industries.

Shailesh founded the SJM School of Management at IIT- Bombay and serves on its advisory board.. He served as Trustee of California State University System appointed by the Governor of California and continues to be trustee emeritus.He is member of IIT Bombay Advisory Council, and Case Western Reserve University President’s Council.He served as trustee of the Asian art Museum of San Francisco. He was instrumental in creating India stusies chair at University of California, Berkeley.

He holds B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from IIT-Bombay, and MS & PhD in Operations Research and Computer Science from Case Western Reserve. He received hon. Ph. D - Doctor of Humane Letters from California State University.