Debtwire Asia Pacific Forum 2023
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Ken Ho, Managing Director, is the Asia Credit Strategist within our Economics, Commodities and Strategy Research. Prior to taking on this role in August 2010, he was a member of the Asia Credit Trading team in the Fixed Income division from 2005 onwards. Ken had previously worked at Goldman Sachs in 2000-2003 as a fixed income research analyst in Hong Kong, and held a similar role at Citigroup during 2003-2005. Ken began his career in the United Kingdom, working at the Prudential Group in the fund management and insurance divisions. He graduated from the London School of Economics with a B.Sc. in Actuarial Science and an M.Sc. in Analysis, Design and Management of Information Systems. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries.
Mr. Nitish Agarwal has more than 25 years of experience in private debt markets across Asia. Last year, he led two back-to-back strategic transactions: management buyout of the credit platform that he had set up backed by Olympus Capital Asia private equity, and investment by OMERS as a significant shareholder. Earlier this year, the firm was awarded “Best of the Best Midcap Private Debt House” by South Korea’s pension funds and other major institutional investors in the “Best Asset Managers by Korean Investors 2020” awards by The Korea Economic Daily (based on ranking of global managers and not limited to Asian managers).
Mr. Agarwal has completed private debt investments of more than US$5 billion in Asia Pacific spanning various economic cycles. Prior to founding the credit platform nine years ago, Mr. Agarwal was Managing Director in Global Financing Solutions at Barclays Capital in Singapore. Earlier, he was head of the Asian telecom financing business for ING. He started his career with Bank of America in Mumbai before relocating to Hong Kong.
Mr. Agarwal holds a degree in electronics engineering and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India.
Kathleen Aka (formerly Kathleen Berkeley) leads Weil’s Asia Restructuring practice. Based in Hong Kong, she has nearly 20 years of experience advising both debtors and creditors in relation to contentious and non-contentious restructuring and insolvency matters in the Asia-Pacific region. Dually qualified in Hong Kong and New South Wales, Australia, Kathleen is skilled in guiding clients through the most challenging and complex processes of financial restructuring, creditor enforcement, formal insolvency, insolvency litigation, distressed M&A, and distressed secondary debt trading.
Kathleen’s diverse experience and comprehensive skillset straddling both contentious and non-contentious work earn her recognition as one of the top restructuring lawyers in Asia. She has been recognized as a Next Generation Partner by Legal 500 Asia-Pacific in 2020 and 2021 and a Rising Star Partner by IFLR1000 Asia Pacific in Restructuring & Insolvency in 2022. She was also named an Asia Future Leader by IFLR in 2021 and was selected as one of the “40 Under 40” honorees by Asian Legal Business in 2019.
Kathleen has a reputation for her unique capability in advising a wide range of clients across the full gamut of distressed situations, including bondholders, trustees, credit and distressed investment funds, banks, insolvency practitioners, shareholders, and distressed corporations. Her industry experience covers banking and financial services, insurance and reinsurance, health, infrastructure, energy, mining and agriculture, shipping and transportation, retail, and property.
Mr. Alam is a Managing Director in the Ares SSG Group based in Singapore.
Prior to joining Ares in 2022, Mr. Alam was a Chief Investment Officer and Managing Director - Investments at a family office in Indonesia.
Previously, Mr. Alam was the Co-Head of the Asia-Pacific Financing Group at Credit Suisse, where he was responsible for deal sourcing, analysis and investing across the Asia-Pacific region. In addition, Mr. Alam held various roles at Credit Suisse A.G. from 2000 to 2016.
Mr. Alam began his finance career as an Assistant Manager on the Investment Banking Team at Citibank, NA Pakistan.
Mr. Alam holds a B.B.A., with honors and an M.B.A. from the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, Pakistan and an M.Sc. in Finance and Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.
Birendra Baid, Managing Director is the Head of Loan Syndication for Asia. Birendra is additionally Head of Loans & Structured Credit (South East Asia). He has been with DB for 14 years.
Mr. Bajpai has been in the finance industry for over 28 years with wide ranging investment experience in Debt and Equity Markets across sectors and geographies. His spectrum of responsibilities have included senior roles in origination, execution, syndication, risk management, recoveries and proprietary trading of high grade, leveraged finance and distressed credits through multiple global and regional financial crises.
Mr. Bajpai is currently a Partner in the Ares SSG Group, where he leads the asset management for the fund portfolios. Additionally, Mr. Bajpai serves as an investment committee member for various Ares SSG funds. Mr. Bajpai also sits in the board of various companies in the region as part of his portfolio management activities within Ares SSG.
Before joining Ares SSG in June 2016, Mr. Bajpai was with Bank of America Merrill Lynch for over 15 years, with various roles in Hong Kong and Singapore. At Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Ares SSG, Mr. Bajpai has successfully led complex recoveries and restructurings, many of which involved complex negotiations, judicial proceedings, and arbitrations across multiple jurisdictions. Mr. Bajpai is passionately involved with various charity efforts within Ares SSG as well as independently. He holds a Bachelor (Honors) Degree in Civil Engineering from the National Institute of Technology and a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur.
Prior to joining Debtwire, Ashley was a Partner at DLA Piper in Hong Kong with a practice focused on contentious cross-border restructuring and insolvency matters. Ashley regularly advised financial institutions, investors, debtors and insolvency practitioners in connection with a range of high-profile restructuring matters in Asia involving schemes of arrangement, contested winding-up proceedings, light-touch offshore proceedings, debtor-in-possession matters and cross-border recognition applications.
Mr. Kei Chua joined Bain Capital Credit in 2016. He is a Managing Director based in Bain Capital Credit’s Hong Kong office and is a member of the Distressed and Special Situations team focused on special situations and portfolio investing. Previously, Mr. Chua was the co-head of Asia for Mount Kellett Capital focused on special situations and distressed investing. Prior to that, Mr. Chua was a partner with Unitas Capital (fka J.P. Morgan Partners Asia) where he was responsible for investments in Greater China and Southeast Asia. Prior to that, Mr. Chua worked at Cerberus Capital and DLJ in Hong Kong and New York.
Education: Mr. Chua received a B.A. from Columbia College.
Robert Ciemniak has been studying the China housing markets for the past 10 years, as the Founder and Chief Analyst of Real Estate Foresight, a Hong Kong-based independent research boutique specializing in the sector, from macro forecasts to detailed project/market due diligence.
Since the onset of the distress among Chinese developers, Real Estate Foresight has been assisting foreign investors/funds with the detailed monitoring of the situation and in-depth analysis of the progress, quality, and value of the underlying projects of major developers.
Robert is also the founder of an AI technology startup in automation of research - Robotic Online Intelligence, helping clients build their armies of robo-analysts, the technology originally designed for internal use at Real Estate Foresight.
Earlier, his 13-year career with Thomson Reuters included two major roles as Global Head of Real Estate Markets in London and Hong Kong, and as Head of Corporate Foresight in Group Strategy in London.
Robert holds a dual MBA degree from London Business School and Columbia Business School in New York, and an MSc from the Warsaw School of Economics. He is also an international master in chess.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-ciemniak-52734/
Bennett Cupit is a managing director at Kroll's Hong Kong office and is part of the Portfolio Valuation practice. Before joining our Hong Kong practice, Bennett spent over nine years in our San Francisco office, providing valuation and consulting services to private equity funds, hedge funds, venture capital firms, business development corporations, and corporate clients covering numerous industries across the world.
Chaim Estulin has been covering Asia for more than two decades, including as Debtwire senior editor since October 2007. He helps oversee more than two dozen reporters and analysts in the region focused on corporate distress and restructurings as well as the primary issuance of high-yield bonds, loans and private debt. Before joining Debtwire, Chaim was a business editor at the South China Morning Post and a Hong Kong-based reporter at Time magazine covering politics, culture and business.
Ms. Gnock Fah has over 15 years of Emerging Markets special situations and distressed debt and equity investing experience. Based in Hong Kong, Ms. Gnock Fah is currently Head of Asia and Managing Director at Contrarian Capital Management, which she joined in 2007. Ms. Gnock Fah has led and overseen numerous complex cross-border restructurings and financings in China, Asia and other Emerging Market jurisdictions. Representative transactions include court-supervised processes under US Chapter 11, US Chapter 15 and UK Schemes of Arrangement, out-of-court restructurings, rescue financings and sponsorship of corporate spin-offs and related strategic initiatives. Ms. Gnock Fah has led and served on numerous steering and ad hoc creditors’ committees. Ms. Gnock Fah started her career as an investment banker at JPMorgan in New York.
Ms. Gnock Fah graduated from the University of Notre Dame, Summa Cum Laude and Beta Gamma Sigma, with a B.A. in Business Administration and Finance, double majoring in East Asian Languages. Ms. Gnock Fah is originally from Mauritius and is fluent in multiple languages including English, French, Creole and Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka).
Zhi Wei is a senior credit research analyst at Loomis Sayles Investments Asia Pte. Ltd., covering the Chinese corporate sector. She joined Loomis Sayles in 2018 and has more than 20 years of relevant experience in the investment industry and real estate sector. Previously, Zhi Wei was the executive director of credit research at Standard Chartered Bank, where she also covered Asian high yield credits, and later covered Chinese credits, across a wide industry and rating spectrum. Prior to this, she was the associate director of credit research at Barclays Capital, where she began as a desk analyst for the principal investment unit and then became a publishing analyst in credit research. Zhi Wei has previously worked as director of research and consultancy for Jones Lang LaSalle Property Consultants, leading a team that covered the property sector in Singapore and other major Southeast Asian cities. She earned a BSc from Shanghai Jiaotong University and a CDipAF from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
Mr. Ferrier is a Managing Partner of Navis Private Credit. Mr. Ferrier has more than 30 years of experience, which includes more than 20 years as a credit investor, portfolio manager and business leader.
Previously he was a Managing Director at BlackRock where he played a pivotal role in building BlackRock’s Asian-Pacific Private Credit business, growing AUM to $700m and developing a successful regional strategy focusing on Southeast Asia and Australia.
Prior to BlackRock, he was the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Myo Capital. The fund delivered 14% gross returns. Prior to Myo Capital he was a Director / Investment Committee Member with ADM Capital and a Corporate Finance Executive with Peregrine Capital and SG Warburg Group.
Mr. Ferrier holds an MBA, majoring in Finance and Accounting from Monash University and a Bachelor in Science from the University of South Australia.
Owen joined DB in November 2021 and leads the APAC credit trading desk analyst team which produces the widely-read Credit Weekly and Credit Daily sales/trading commentaries. Owen has over 20 years holistic sell-side and buy-side corporate bond market experience across London, Tokyo, and Singapore. Top Ranked at different times in both Asian and European credit markets, Owen has persistently Top 2 Ranked for Asian Credit with global investors in The Asset benchmark polls. Recognized by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission’s AFCA as a Fellow of the Asian Financial Think Tank (AFTT), CFA and UN PRI certified in ESG investing. Previous to DB, Owen was Global Head Credit Trading Strategy at ANZ, Director Special Sits Citi, Partner Head APAC Credit Analysis Cheyne Capital, and Head APAC Credit Strategy RBS.
John Han is an international claim monetization strategist who enables clients to achieve business objectives in Hong Kong, mainland China, and offshore jurisdictions. He has deep experience as lead counsel monetizing claims related to Greater China for distressed debt and non-performing loan investors in both the non-contentious and contentious contexts.
He regularly advises investors pre-trade, designs strategy to improve terms in consensual restructurings, and leads global teams on large-scale cross-border activist campaigns. He has deep experience identifying and penetrating vulnerabilities across complex offshore and onshore holding structures, as well as devising effective strategies focused on decision makers.
Most recently, he represented a Hong Kong-based hedge fund in monetizing a US $200 million+ position against a publicly-listed technology provider. Here, he lead the successful global strategy that included obtaining conservatory arrest over assets in the Netherlands, gaining receivership over assets in the U.S., and launching contempt of court proceedings against the company’s founder and Chairman, among other measures.
His commentaries on distressed scenarios and special situations have been cited in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Financial Times.
Mr. Han is admitted as a Solicitor Advocate in Hong Kong, in the United States, in the Dubai International Financial Centre Courts and in the Astana International Financial Centre Court. He obtained his JD from the University of Chicago Law School where he was Executive Editor of the Law Review.
Desmond How has over 26 years of investment experience. At GaoTeng, he has won Outstanding Manager (Emerging Markets Fixed Income) by BENCHMARK and Star Manager (Hedge Fund, Hong Kong) of the Year by Insights & Mandate in 2021. His flagship Long/Short Credit Strategy has been awarded as Best in Class (Credit Focus in Alternatives) by BENCHMARK, Best Credit Hedge Fund by Bloomberg Businessweek and Best Performing Fund in 2020 (Emerging Market Long/Short Fixed Income) by Hedge Fund Journal over the course of 2021.
He has also won the Most Astute Investors by the Asset for Asian G3 Bonds 14 times from 2006 through to 2021, 8 of which were ranked No.1. Prior to joining GaoTeng, he was Managing Director, Head of Global Capital Management (GCM) at Nomura International (Hong Kong) Limited, a proprietary investment desk that was ranked No.1 Top Investment House (Hedge Fund) in Asian G3 Bonds by The Asset in 2015 and 2016. Served as Senior Portfolio Manager for Prudential Investment Fixed Income-Emerging Markets Sector team at PGIM, Mr. How won the Best Asia Fixed Income Fund (3-Year Risk Adjusted) from Asian Investor in 2007. He holds a Master of Science (Financial Engineering) degree, a Bachelor of Business Administration (Second Upper Honor) from the National University of Singapore.
Ms. Jain has 26 years of experience across financial markets in Europe & Asia across deal origination, structuring, underwriting, portfolio & risk, and fundraising. Prior to joining BPEA, Ms. Jain spent 8 years focused on the mid-market corporate sector in India, most recently heading Indian Private Debt Fund at Religare Credit Advisors LLP (RCAL), and prior to that as Chief Risk Officer for Religare Finvest Limited, a mid-market focused NBFC, responsible for managing risk across all businesses. Before joining Religare, Ms. Jain worked for 10 years in London mainly as Managing Director at HSBC, and prior to that as Director at Barclays Capital in the Structured Credit business. Before her time in London, she worked in debt capital markets covering Asia, based out of Hong Kong with Peregrine Fixed Income Limited across debt syndication, loan trading & risk function.
Ms. Jain has lived and worked in India, Hong Kong & the UK and holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from VNIT and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.
At Barclays, Mani runs the Asia Special Situations business deploying capital into structured lending opportunities across Asia Pacific. He is also involved in the distressed trading space.
Jason Kang is a PRC/Hong Kong dual-qualified lawyer who focusses his practice on cross-border debt monetization and asset recovery connected to Greater China, the U.S., UK, BVI, and Cayman Islands. He is particularly skilled at navigating international investors through the complexities of the Chinese legal environment to assist in the monetization of debt/equity claims, judgments and arbitral awards including against State Owned Enterprises.
Jason has also been the leading partner in a number of matters involving proceedings in Hong Kong and offshore jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands. His recent work includes representing syndicated lenders to monetize a US $255 million position against a major Chinese conglomerate. He has been quoted extensively in both English and Chinese media on his cross-border enforcement work.
Mr. Kang obtained his JD from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and obtained an LLB in Chinese law from Nanjing University.
Ms. Danielle Li has around 10 years’ experience in finance. She joined Value Partners in 2015 and is currently a Fund Manager, managing different high yield portfolios with a focus on China and Asian credits. Thanks to Value Partners’ important market position in China USD high yield bond market, Ms. Li has gained significant experience in investing in both public and private bonds and was directly involved in many cross border restructuring situations.
Ms. Li graduated with a Master Degree in International Commerce from IAE de Grenoble, France and has a bachelor degree in Economics from Xiamen University, China. She is native speaker of Mandarin and fluent in English and French
Luc has over 20 years of experience as a financial journalist in Asia covering fixed income, credit derivatives and distressed debt markets. He joined Debtwire in 2006 as Managing Editor for the Asia-Pacific region and now is responsible for a team of 14 journalists and five analysts that cover primarily the stressed/distressed debt, high yield and primary debt markets. Luc first started covering distressed debt markets in 1989 as a reporter for IFR in Japan. In 1998 he initiated and developed coverage of the Asian distressed debt markets for IFR Asia.
Ms. Park is a Managing Director of Lending Ark Asia Secured Private Debt Fund and a member of the Investment Committee. Ms. Park has over 28 years of experience across investment banking, private equity, and private debt investments in New York and Hong Kong with J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Henderson Global Investors and CLSA Capital Partners. Ms. Park has extensive experience in originating, structuring and investing in structured private debt financings and is an expert in evaluating specialty finance and consumer lenders in Asia. Ms. Park currently is a director on the board of Techmate Korea Daebu Co. Ltd, a Korean consumer finance company and an observer on the board of Peoplefund Company Inc., a leading Korean marketplace lender. She speaks fluent Korean and received a BA in economics from Vassar College.
Beaux Pontak is an American national and has lived in Asia for approximately 19 years. He has been with Deutsche Bank for the past 14 years, mostly in Hong Kong and Tokyo.
Beaux is currently co-head of GFCT in Asia Pacific and is a member of DB’s Global GFCT Executive Committee. He has broad responsibility for a wide range of public and private credit trading, lending and investment businesses. Beaux also has executive responsibilities in DB’s FIC and Hong Kong branch operations.
Prior to co-heading GFCT in APAC, Beaux’s previous roles at DB included serving as the head of Portfolio Investments for GFCT’s Distressed Products business in APAC, the head of GFCT in Japan, and co-head of GFCT in Asia.
Deutsche Bank's GFCT is a global leader in credit investing, structuring, dealing and investing in credit and other securities, including structured credit, flow credit, commercial real estate, aviation and asset finance, corporate credit, stressed and distressed debt, hybrid credit, local and global currency denominated credit and selected equity investments.
GFCT specializes in taking an active role in its portfolio investments, with dedicated professionals in Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Beijing, Mumbai and Manila.
Deutsche Bank in the Asia Pacific region was instrumental in re‐opening credit markets that were closed during the global financial crisis and, more recently, the COVID-19 crisis. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, Beaux was a Senior Manager in Transaction Advisory with Ernst & Young and had been based in Beijing, Manila, New York and Los Angeles.
Beaux graduated summa cum laude from Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a second Bachelor of Arts in International Studies.
Graham Price is a UK and Hong Kong qualified lawyer with a focus on banking and leveraged finance in Asia. Based in Hong Kong, Graham has extensive experience advising private equity sponsors, private credit providers and corporate borrowers on debt finance transactions with a focus on leveraged and acquisition finance, fund level financings, debt restructurings and specialist credit opportunities.
Prior to joining Weil, Graham worked at leading international law firms in Hong Kong and London where he also undertook a secondment to the Corporate and Investment Bank of Barclays Capital.
Graham’s wide-ranging experience include representing consortium members and financial sponsors in the financing aspects of the largest landmark take-privates of US-listed Chinese companies in recent years, including 51job.com, 58.com and CAR Inc.. Graham also acted for Noble Group in relation to its restructuring in Hong Kong, Singapore and London, Advent International on the leveraged financing for its acquisition of a controlling stake in ZCL Chemicals Limited and TPG in connection with the multi-jurisdictional restructuring of financial indebtedness and the provision of new money for its investment in Dream Cruises Holding Limited.
Scott previously served as Director, Asset Servicing at Madison Pacific Trust Limited where he focused on servicing private credit managers dealing with a broad range of debt capital market transactions. Scott also served as Regional Managing Director and Head of Business Development for international trustee companies including Harney’s Fiduciary and Appleby Fiduciary.
Scott has experience in a variety of debt capital markets transactions including: private credit, structured credit, medium term notes (MTN), bonds (high yield and investment grade), alternative credit deals, securitization, collateralized loan obligations (CLO) and derivatives such as credit default swaps (CDS), complex workouts and restructurings.
Scott has been based in Hong Kong and Shanghai since 2007 working in asset servicing, trustee and legal roles. He is a qualified Australian lawyer and chartered secretary and speaks fluent Mandarin and can read and write Chinese to a professional standard. Scott graduated from the University of Newcastle with two Bachelor’s degree in Commerce and Law. He is working on a Master’s degree in Banking and Finance Law from the University of Melbourne and hopes to graduate later this year. Scott also joined Harvard Business School’s General Management Program (GMP 24) back in 2018.
Sam Tai is a managing director based in the Hong Kong office and is the co-head of the Restructuring business in PRC. He has over 20 years of professional experience in formal and informal corporate restructuring, insolvency, crisis and interim management, and turnaround work. He works with clients on commercial, operational and financial due diligence and operational performance improvement.
He advises clients across a range of industries, including private equity, manufacturing, transportation, trading and distribution, distressed debt and asset management in the Asia region.
He has extensive professional and corporate experience in managing financially distressed companies, negotiating with investors, creditors, government and regulatory authorities, asset recovery, operational improvement and turnaround work.
In his previous role in the corporate world, Sam acted as the CFO and Strategic Planning Director of two Hong Kong conglomerates with operations in China, where he was respectively responsible for finance, corporate and strategic planning.
Josh leads the Alvarez & Marsal Southeast Asia Restructuring Practice in Singapore. He has +20 years of experience working in Australia, the Caribbean and Asia. Josh specialises in insolvency and restructuring, and has deep experience with formal appointments such as liquidator, receiver, judicial management, scheme of arrangement, as well as out of court processes. Josh has worked with a range of stakeholders, including boards, creditors, investors, bondholders and financial institutions. In addition, Josh has undertaken litigation funding matters in the Singapore courts and through arbitration processes. Josh is a licensed insolvency practitioner in Singapore. He is also a Certified Practising Accountant (CPA) in Australia, a Chartered Accountant in Australia and New Zealand, Chartered Accountant in Singapore and a member of The Australian Restructuring Insolvency and Turnaround Association.
Shabad joined Arkkan Capital, a special situations credit fund based in Hong Kong, prior to its launch in 2014. Arkkan has a global mandate with a focus on emerging market credit, deploying capital into direct lending situations, as well as secondary loans and bonds. Shabad has over 15 years of experience in high yield and distressed credit globally, and is currently responsible for sourcing, diligence and active management of the fund’s investments.
Shabad has profitably invested capital in multiple jurisdictions, including the US, UK, Europe, and most of the major markets in Asia including leading Arkkan’s recent efforts in India. Prior to joining Arkkan, Shabad was a credit analyst at Claren Road Asset Management in New York covering numerous sectors including metals & mining globally. Shabad holds a bachelor of arts in Business Economics from the College of Wooster (Ohio), and has been a CFA charterholder since 2011.
Ron Thompson is a Managing Director of Alvarez & Marsal Asia and leads Asia’s Restructuring Practice. Mr. Thompson is based in Hong Kong.
With close to 30 years of experience in China and Asia, Mr. Thompson brings expertise in finance, credit and restructuring in Asia. Mr. Thompson’s primary expertise lies in financial restructuring and has significant experience acting in the capacity as a creditor, investor and advisor related with in court restructurings and liquidations as well as out of court processes or government influenced restructurings. Mr. Thompson has extensive experience as an investor in sourcing, valuing, acquiring and managing NPL portfolios in addition to having managed the sale process of individual credits as well as non-performing loan portfolios. Mr. Thompson, in the capacity as an investor and as a board member, has participated in multiple operational turnaround situations. Mr. Thompson’s has broad industry expertise including fast moving consumer goods, power generation, metals and mining, construction, manufacturing, telecom and technology and financial institutions.
Prior to joining A&M, Mr. Thompson was at Standard Chartered where he headed the workout team in Taiwan, worked in the Mezzanine and Alternative Solutions Team for Principle Finance and most recently was the Chief Credit Officer for China. Prior to Standard Chartered, Mr. Thompson worked in corporate finance at Bear Stearns and Bank of China International and oversaw the China business for Clearwater Capital.
Mr. Thompson graduated Magna Cum Laude from Colby College, studied Chinese literature at Peking University and holds an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University. Mr. Thompson is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
Emily Tillett is a Vice President at Burford with responsibility for leading its investment activity and operations in Hong Kong. A Hong Kong, Australian and New Zealand qualified lawyer, Ms. Tillett has multijurisdictional expertise in complex commercial disputes.
Prior to joining Burford, Ms. Tillett was Of Counsel at Allen & Overy in Hong Kong, where she focused on representing clients in litigation, regulatory investigations and arbitration, including contentious insolvency and fraud matters. She began her career with Minter Ellison lawyers and has since advised and acted for corporate and individual clients, including corporations, investment banks, financial services and brokerage firms and professional service providers, on high value, complex disputes in a variety of sectors.
Ms. Tillett earned her law degree with first class honors together with her degree in Arts (Psychology) from the University of Otago in New Zealand.
Mr. Wang is the CEO of TIH Investment Management Pte Ltd which is a Singapore based multi strategy investment management firm with focuses on private credit, special situation in both private & public equity and distressed investments in Asia.
Previously, he was a Managing Director at Argyle Street Management where he was responsible for origination, research and execution for special situation investments.
Mr. Wang holds an MA in Statistics from Columbia University and a Bachelor in Accounting from the British Columbia Institution of Technology. He is also a CFA charter holder.
Mr Wong is an Executive Director in Argyle Street Management Limited. Mr Wong is specialize in distress and private credit investment in Asia. He previously worked at KPMG and FTI Consulting in Hong Kong. Mr Wong is a Fellow member of the HKICPA. He holds a Bachelor of Business from the Queensland University of Technology, a Juris Doctor from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a Master course in Financial Engineering from Stanford University.
Ms. Xia joined Houlihan Lokey in 2012 and is currently the Co-head of China Restructuring, responsible for deal sourcing, execution and staff management. She has extensive experience advising clients in Asia on restructuring situations, M&A and capital raising across different industries. Her recent transactions include company-side mandates for China Evergrande, Kaisa, Fantasia, Modern Land, Sunac, Tahoe and Luckin Coffee; and creditor-side mandates for Shimao Group, Yestar Healthcare, Sichuan Languang, GCL Energy, Hilong Group, Huachen Energy, China Shanshui Cement, Winsway Enterprises, Bumi Resources, Paladin Energy and Oro Negro. Before joining HL, Ms. Xia was at J.P. Morgan’s investment banking division where she focused on M&A and capital raising. Ms. Xia started her career as an analyst at Morgan Stanley in New York.
Ms. Xia graduated magna cum laude from Duke University with a B.S. in Mathematics and Economics, and a Certificate in Markets and Management Studies. She is a native speaker of Mandarin and Cantonese and fluent in English.
Ping Zhou leads a China journalists team writing distressed and event-driven corporate credits for Asia high yield fix income investors and restructuring advisories, covering both onshore and offshore Chinese restructuring and liquidation situations for Debtwire APAC since 2013. She started her journalist career with Financial Times in 2011 and won SOPA 2012 award in Hong Kong for breaking news on Wukan Guangdong protests. She has Korean literature background and lived in Pyongyang, Seoul, before moving to Hong Kong.