Jay Desai

Jay Desai

Partner



Jay is a partner of the firm and has over 15 years of principal investing, investment banking and strategy experience in the food and consumer products sector.  Jay joined the firm as a managing director in 2016 to lead the firm’s business development efforts. He is a people person, and he appreciates the people with whom he works because they make Kainos feel like family. Jay is proud of leading the evolution of the firm’s business development function, which enables the team to continuously source fresh, strategic opportunities.

Prior to joining Kainos Capital, Jay was most recently the senior vice president of strategy at CROSSMARK, a leading sales and marketing services company focused on the consumer industry.  Prior to joining CROSSMARK, Jay was a director in the Mergers & Acquisitions department at Deutsche Bank Securities where he concentrated on consumer opportunities.  He also managed the acquisition function for Global Brands Acquisition Corporation, a consumer/retail-focused investment company. Jay began his career at Merrill Lynch before joining Andrew Rosen and other members of the Kainos team at Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst as an investment associate from 2005 to 2008.

When he is not crisscrossing the country on behalf of Kainos, Jay supports groups like Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center and Vogel Alcove.  Jay is the father of two young boys, and he stays in shape to keep up with them by playing hockey every week. He received his B.S. in Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University.

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