Kelvin Yap Managing Director HARBOURVEST PARTNERS (ASIA) LIMITED

Kelvin Yap joined HarbourVest’s London office in 2006 to focus on growth equity and buyout co-investments in Europe and Asia Pacific. In 2009, Kelvin transferred to HarbourVest’s Hong Kong team to focus on primary partnership fund investments and direct co-investments in Asia Pacific. Kelvin currently serves as a board observer at APIIT Education Group, and Ascender.

Kelvin joined HarbourVest from Deloitte in London, where he managed merger and acquisition (including demergers and IPOs) due diligence for both private and public transactions. Prior to that, Kelvin was a senior associate at PwC in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

He received a BC with a double major in Accounting and Finance from Monash University in Australia in 2001. Kelvin is a Chartered Accountant with The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia. In addition, he received the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 2007 from the CFA Institute. He speaks fluent Cantonese, Indonesian, and Malay.

Nicholas Bloy Co-Founder & Managing Partner NAVIS CAPITAL PARTNERS

Nicholas Bloy, Managing Partner – is one of the three founders of Navis Capital Partners. Navis currently manages USD 5 billion in private and public equity funds.

Mr. Bloy leads investment teams in making, monitoring and exiting investments, sits on Investment Committee and sits on the boards and/or executive committees of several Navis portfolio companies, and is responsible for fundraising.  He also sits on the International Advisory Council of CIMB, one of the Southeast Asia’s largest banking groups.  

Prior to co-founding Navis, Mr. Bloy worked at The Boston Consulting Group in Asia from 1989 to 1999 after spending 3 years with Bain & Co. In London.

He holds a BA Hons degree from University College, London and an MBA from INSEAD, France.

Simon Pearson Managing Director EMERGEVEST

Simon Pearson is a Managing Director of EmergeVest, where he has led the development of the EmergeVest Operating System (EVOS).  He is also the Chief Strategy Officer of EV Cargo, an EmergeVest company with more than $1.5 billion of annual revenues and global operations.

Mr. Pearson has more than 30 years of logistics industry experience as an international supply chain executive, consultant and investor, operating at every stage of the global retail value chain across product categories and multiple geographies.  Starting at a mid-size UK transport business in 1990, Mr. Pearson then joined NFT Distribution, a leading UK temperature-controlled logistics provider, where he rose through the organization to a board position.  He then spent 10 years in senior supply chain leadership roles at ASDA Stores (Walmart UK), with a remit spanning global inbound logistics, freight procurement, outbound transport and DC operations, network optimization, and supply chain planning and strategy, while also working on global leverage projects across the international Walmart business. In 2012, Mr. Pearson relocated to Shanghai to join Cargo Services, a global logistics business, as Group Strategy and Development Director.  He also founded a boutique supply chain consulting business, Simon Pearson & Associates, advising many leading fashion brands and retailers on optimization of their international supply chain operations. 

Mr. Pearson joined EmergeVest in 2013, initially as an Operating Partner and then as a Managing Director based in Hong Kong.

Mr. Pearson’s current and previous board service includes logistics and technology companies across Asia and Europe.  Mr. Pearson received his Honours degree in Business Management from Coventry University.

Andrew Thompson Asia Pacific, Head of Deal Advisory, Head of Private Equity KPMG

Background

Andrew has 23 years of experience with KPMG principally focused on major IPO and corporate M&A transaction deal execution and project management in multiple major locations including London, New York, Sydney and Singapore.

His principal sector experience is on transactions in the Private Equity and Services sectors.

Andrew has acted as Lead Partner for KPMG on more than 350 significant transactions with an aggregate deal value of more than $150 billion. He has led many of the more complex and demanding projects KPMG has been involved with in Asia over the last ten years.

Professional and industry experience

Private Equity: As Head of Private Equity, Andrew has led projects with most leading financial sponsors including KKR, Blackstone, CVC, Carlyle, TPG, Northstar, CHAMP, CHAMP Ventures, L Capital, Catalyst, TA Associates, Goldman Sachs PIA, TH Lee, and Macquarie Bank Principal Investments.

Complex transactions: Andrew has led the project management and due diligence for many landmark public and private transactions including KKR’s acquisition of Goodpack (SGX), the Seven / Westrac Merger, KKRs acquisition of GenesisCare, the CPPIB acquisition of Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group, Macquarie Media Group IPO, DUET’s IPO, AUSTAR’s refinancing, the global consortium acquisition and listing of Dyno Nobel, the global consortium acquisition of Boart Longyear, the consortium acquisition of the DBNGP, the acquisition by AGL of both Southern Hydro and Powerdirect.

Direct / co-investments: Andrew has assisted SWF, major pension funds and fund of funds on direct or co-investments including CPPIB, Temasek, GIC, Ontario Teachers, CalPERS, CalSTRS and HarbourVest.

Location experience: His major location experience include: London (5 Years), Sydney (13 Years) , New York (2 Years) and Singapore. In addition he has led transaction teams in across South East Asia, China, Japan, India, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Hong Kong.

Brian Lau Managing Director SHAWKWEI & PARTNERS

Mr. Lau is a Managing Director and Partner at ShawKwei & Partners. He is involved in all aspects of deal flow & investments and leverages his operating, sales and strategy background to manage portfolio companies at the board level.  He is a member of the investment committee of ShawKwei and sits on the boards of portfolio companies Beyonics and ICONS Beauty Group. 

Brian has more than 30 years of strategy, sales and operations experience across the industrial supply chain and investment banking industries including with multinational corporations Celestica and Texas Instruments.

Brian received an MBA from the Schulich School of Business, York University and a BA from the University of Waterloo and holds the CPA designation (Chartered Professional Account) from Canada.