Sunil Sabharwal

He was born in 1964 in New Delhi, India to Baldev Raj Sabharwal, a printing entrepreneur who founded the New Roxy Press in New Delhi, and Gabriella de Bessenyey, of Hungarian descent. The de Bessenyey clan is one of the oldest Hungarian noble families tracing its lineage back to at least the 14th century, with documentary evidence of it being given a right to a Coat of Arms by the monarch from the 15th century. On occasion, literature refers to Sunil as Sabharwal de Bessenyey.[3] He attended the Frank Anthony School in New Delhi, India and the Dob Utca Elementary School and Imre Madach High School in Budapest, Hungary.

Sabharwal's mother struggled in Hungary under the communist regime because she refused to join the communist party. When she tried to sell pottery to feed her family, authorities would not grant her a vendor's license. The family went to Vienna during the summer of 1983 under the auspices of a cultural tour and pleaded for asylum at the US Embassy, citing political and religious oppression. They gained sponsorship from the Upper Arlington Lutheran Church in Columbus, Ohio with particular support from The Ohio State faculty member Professor of Finance David Cole and his wife Edie and arrived in Columbus, Ohio in December 1983.[4] Once in the Columbus Hungarian-American network, Sabharwal met OSU fencing coach and Hungarian Charlotte Remenyik.

Sabharwal enrolled at The Ohio State University in January 1984, excelling in both business administration studies and fencing. He was OSU's 1984 Big Ten Champion and NCAA All-American in 1984 and 1986.[5][6] In 1988 he won OSU's Jack Stephenson Award[7] for Outstanding Scholastic and Academic Achievement at the College of Business and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree with Distinction in Marketing. He earned his Master of Science degree in Management at London Business School in 1996 and a diploma in Company Direction from UK's Institute of Directors in 2009.

In 1992 he returned to post-Communist Hungary to set up the Budapest office of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), an international finance institution created specifically to foster the transition of post-Soviet economies backed by the developed world. Soon after its establishment the EBRD became the largest investor in Central and Eastern Europe and Hungary, one of its largest fund recipients.[8][9]

Sabharwal had a 10-year private equity and mergers and acquisitions career with GE Capital in London and First Data / Western Union, in London and Paris.[10] He served on the board of Euromedic Euromedic, Central Europe's largest private healthcare services organization.

Sabharwal resides in Washington, D.C. independently advising and co-investing with private equity firms and financial services corporations. He is married and has two children.

He is a member of the International Olympic Committee’s Sport and Environment Sustainability & Legacy Commission[11] chaired by HSH Prince Albert of Monaco II. Sabharwal is Secretary General, of the UNESCO- and IOC-affiliated International Fair Play Committee. He also has served on the board of Peace & Sport USA and the USA and International Fencing Federation. He was Chairman of the International Fencing Federation's (FIE) first annual Congress held in the USA, in Philadelphia in 2011[12] and was Chief of Mission to the US Olympic Fencing team at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.