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Rakesh Sachdev
Rakesh Sachdev is a Co-Founder and Partner of Vidavo Ventures. Rakesh has more than three decades of leadership experience as a CEO and senior executive of large companies in the industrial and mobility sectors, giving him a wide breadth of experience across many industries and geographies, including significant expertise in strategy, finance, operations, and M&A.
Rakesh's Story
Rakesh has also been a Senior Advisor to New Mountain Capital since 2019 and is an experienced board member, currently serving as Chairman of electric motors maker Regal Rexnord Corporation (NYSE: RRX) and Aceto Chemicals. He is also a board member of Edgewell Personal Care Company (NYSE: EPC), Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE: AXTA), equipment rental company Herc Holdings (NYSE: HRI), ILC Dover, and financial service firm Ascensus. Rakesh is also a former Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and a Board of Trustee of Washington University in St. Louis.
Rakesh was CEO of global specialty chemicals firm Platform Specialty Products Corporation from January 2016 to 2019. Earlier, Rakesh led the global life sciences tech and Fortune 500 company Sigma Aldrich Corporation as its President and CEO from 2010 until 2016, when the company was acquired by Merch KGaA for $17 billion. Before joining Sigma Aldrich, Rakesh spent nearly two decades in global leadership roles with Arvin Meritor Inc, a global supplier of automotive systems and components, and Cummins Inc.
Rakesh holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, and an MBA from Indiana University.