Carlyle appoints Anuj Poddar as co-head of Global Portfolio Solutions for Asia

Carlyle Group created the post to enhance focus on business in South East Asia.

Global investment firm Carlyle on September 9 announced the appointment of Anuj Poddar to the newly created role of co-head of Global Portfolio Solutions (GPS) for Asia, focusing on India and South East Asia.

Poddar will work closely with Carlyle Asia’s country investment advisory teams, Janine Feng, vice-chair of Carlyle Asia, who oversees value creation strategies and initiatives in Asia, as well as with Richard Elder, global head of GPS in the US, to help drive transformational change and performance with portfolio companies. He will be based in Mumbai.

Poddar has over 30 years of corporate leadership and management consulting experience where he has demonstrated success in driving organisational transformation and business growth. He joins from Bajaj Electricals, a leading consumer appliances and lighting solutions company in India, where he served as the CEO and spearheaded the turnaround and transformation of the 80-year-old company.

“We are extremely excited to welcome Anuj to the team. His new role dovetails with our increased focus on enhancing portfolio company value creation and as we look to increase the number of control buyout deals that we do in Asia. We look forward to leveraging Anuj’s extensive experience, particularly in India, as we work with our portfolio companies, with the goal to strengthen and improve their operations, accelerate growth, and drive impact,” Greg Zeluck, managing director and co-head of Carlyle Asia, said.

“I am pleased to join Carlyle... Value creation is becoming increasingly complex and multifaceted across the region, and I look forward to working with the team and building on Carlyle’s global GPS capabilities to help portfolio companies seek to optimise performance in today’s fast evolving business environment,” Poddar said.

Prior to Bajaj Electricals, Poddar was a member of the senior leadership team at Viacom18 Media in India, where he played an integral role in the growth of the company, including its successful foray into mass entertainment and expansion into regional and international markets. While at Viacom18 Media, he also led the strategy for MTV Networks Asia for South East Asia and China, based out of Singapore. Prior to Viacom18 Media, he spent nearly a decade with KPMG and Arthur Andersen, where he provided consulting, M&A and other services to companies across sectors.