Chairman's Journey

An HR Professional, Entrepreneur and Career Guru

From working for a multi-national company in India, Mammen Varghese now helps tens of thousands realize their dreams of working for professional companies around the globe. Jerry Varghese International, with a bouquet of services, is today a preferred choice for recruiters and job-seekers worldwide. When the glittering history of Indian expatriates bringing wealth back to their homeland from the desert sands of Arabia is written, that awesome tale will have an important footnote: That of an individual who can take pride in having played a role in helping over 150,000 people from India find jobs in the Gulf Co-operation Countries alone, and thus sustaining that many families back home.

Helping the qualified find jobs is indeed a noble way to help oneself, but Mammen Varghese, Chairman and Managing Director of the Dubai, UAE Regional headquarter JIC Management, could have decided to look after himself with his comfortable well-paid HR job with the reputed Larsen & Toubro in India. Instead, he opted out of the much-trodden path to pursue his own dreams.

Major shifts in life
Looking back, Mammen Varghese can see three major shifts in his life. “All of them were destined by God, and have made me what I am today”, says Varghese who can sense God's act and purpose behind it all. The first of those was when he was with L&T in India, aged 28, in 1978 he had the opportunity to host the general manager of a major Saudi company in Mumbai, and at the end of his visit he offered Varghese the opportunity to head his company's HR department. Varghese, who did not even have a passport then, managed it within three days and was on his way to Saudi Arabia.

The second shift in life came six years later, when he was feeling the heat of inequality in his work environment. A visit to India, during this period, Varghese was approached by someone with an offer to sell a recruitment consultancy in Mumbai.

However, by the time he could muster the required investment the offer was off. But the incident prompted Varghese to reflect on the very purpose of his life, and he had by then done enough research on the recruitment agency business, all of which led to JVI's first office being opened at Nariman Point, Mumbai.

His third major shift, too, was inspired by a challenge. In 1991 his business was doing quite well, but the restrictive business environment and the Economic shifts of the Gulf War forced him to relocate to Dubai. “That shift helped JVI to specialize, expand and create this regionally integrated recruitment and executive search company”, says Varghese.

JVI is today a preferred choice among scores of companies and millions of job-seekers worldwide,with its bouquet of services that include global executive search, global employment communications, employment publication, corporate travels & tours services, and Forex services.

Committed to the community
If helping others earn their dream jobs is a noble profession, JVI would be respected globally for that very reason. To complement the group's recruitment business, JVI publishes Employment & NRI times, a not-for-profit weekly newspaper from Mumbai, offering over 2,000 international opportunities every week to its readers and empowering them through news and information required to make informed decisions regarding life and jobs in the GCC.

Providing jobs for the needy in society has been a passion built into Varghese by his father. Says he: “When I started the business in 1983, my father insisted that we make our village prosperous by providing employment to one member of each needy family. Rather than simply donating money, he wanted me to empower them to lead a respectable life forever. I see the result of his vision now”.