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Sheila Patel poses for a photo following a Bloomberg Television interview in Sydney, Australia, on … [+]
Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg
Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group has appointed Goldman Sachs veteran Sheila Patel as vice chairman as the venture capital firm pursues global expansion, particularly in China.
With over two decades of investment banking experience, Patel was most recently chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management based in London and a member of the bank’s investment management committee.
“Sheila will be instrumental in helping drive the growth of our firm, as we invest in the digitization of large traditional industries and partner with transformative founders and companies,” Saverin said Thursday in a post on LinkedIn where he announced Patel’s appointment.
The appointment comes as B Capital is beefing up its presence in China, where it aims to allocate as much as 40% of its $1.9 billion global fund, half of which is currently invested in the U.S. In April, the firm recruited Daisy Cai, a former SoftBank Vision Fund partner, as China country head to oversee a team that will invest in early and growth-stage Chinese technology companies.
Patel brings her global investment experience to B Capital, which continues to invest in technology. While the past two decades have seen the rise of consumer internet, B Capital said the next two decades will spawn the digital transformation of traditional industries such as healthcare, banking, insurance and industrials.
“I have observed B Capital’s growth and progress for some time,” Patel said in a statement. “They truly appreciate how technology is rapidly digitizing industries such as healthcare and financial services, and these are areas that I am particularly passionate about. Their global presence and deep sector expertise helps them find companies that are the future.”
Founded in 2015 by Saverin with former Bain Capital executive Raj Ganguly and legendary investor Howard Morgan, B Capital currently has $3.5 billion of assets under management. The firm has six offices in Asia and the U.S., across cities such as Beijing Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Saverin cofounded Facebook with Harvard classmate Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. He was ranked Brazil’s second-richest person with a net worth of $14.6 billion when the World Billionaires List was published in April. Saverin, who has been based in Singapore since 2012, still derives most of his wealth from his small but valuable stake in Facebook.