AAAIM High ELI

Our guest for today’s podcast is Dave Lu, Managing Partner of Hyphen Capital, an early stage venture capital firm focused on Asian American founders. Dave is a veteran of the technology industry, having founded two prior companies: Expo and Fanpop, as well as having worked at Apple, eBay, Cisco, Yahoo and Sony. Dave produced the Emmy-winning HBO documentary 38 at the Garden about Jeremy Lin. Amidst the rise of anti-Asian hate during the pandemic, Dave led a movement with an open letter signed by 8,000 leaders including President George Bush and the CEOs of Google, DoorDash, Zoom and others that was published in the Wall Street Journal and launched Stand with Asian Americans. Dave sits on the advisory board of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific Center and the Asian Pacific Fund. Dave received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and his BA from the University of Pennsylvania.

To say that Dave is a role model would be an understatement.  I applaud Dave for his selfless efforts to help inspire and galvanize change for the AAPI community.   

Without further ado, here is our conversation with Dave Lu.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Raymond Chan, Partner at Atalaya Capital Management, a leading private credit firm.  Ray is responsible for the firm’s investing in Financial Assets, which focuses on sourcing and executing specialty finance and other private asset-backed transactions. Prior to joining Atalaya, Ray was a Partner and Co-Founder of TTM Capital, LLC, an investment firm focused on acquiring and lending against portfolios of financial and other assets. Previously, he was a Managing Director and co-head of the Assets Group at Highbridge/Zwirn Capital Management.  

Earlier in his career, Ray was a member of the Principal Transaction and Principal Finance teams at Lehman Brothers and worked on numerous securitizations across multiple asset classes at Salomon Brothers. He began his career as a consultant at Price Waterhouse, followed by internal consulting and operations roles at Lehman Brothers. He holds a BA in Economics and Political Science from Columbia University.

As our podcast listeners know, I have a bias for featuring successful Columbia alumni, my alma mater.  Ray’s success hits home for me as I knew him as a peer over 30 years ago and I am so happy for all the contributions he is making for the AAPI community, both professionally in his firms’s support of AAAIM and personally as a Board Member for Apex For Youth. 

Without further ado, here is our conversation with Ray Chan. 

Our guest for today’s podcast is Tem Tumurbat, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Nomadic Venture Partners (NVP), where he focuses on fund strategy, fundraising, portfolio construction, valuation, and financial analysis.

Prior to co-founding NVP, Tem was an investment professional at Resource Capital Funds (RCF), a mining focused private equity investment firm, managing early to late stage investments. He de-risked companies, commercialized their businesses and successfully completed M&As that delivered hundreds of millions of dollars to investors.

Prior to RCF, Tem worked for Newmont Mining Corporation as a mining engineer and then project engineer. Tem also co-founded MNG Summit, a non-profit organization supporting Mongolian students and early career professionals.

Tem started his professional career as an entrepreneur where he started and operated a transportation company in college to help pay for college tuition and support extended family.

I found Tem’s story to be fascinating.  Joining me on the podcast and my guest co-host is Brian O’Neil, former CIO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and long time supporter of AAAIM.  

Without further ado, here is our conversation with Tem Tumurbat.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Glenn Hosokawa, Director of Fixed Income at CalSTRS.  After over 25 years serving CalSTRS, Glenn will be retiring at the end of August 2024 and riding off into the sunset.  If you google or search for Glenn’s biography, you won’t be able to find anything.  I tried.  Glenn is as old school as they come and doesn’t have a social media profile.

For those that know Glenn, he is credited for building a world class Fixed Income investment division at one of the most admired places to work.  Glenn isn’t looking for any accolades as he just enjoyed coming in, day in day out, working hard to generate returns to help secure the retirement benefits of all the great teachers that serve the State of California.  Great mission, great guy, great career.

So who is Glenn and what is he known for?  Well, Glenn was gracious enough to share his story with me and my guest co-host Sylvia Owens from Kennedy Lewis Investment Management.  

Without further ado, here is our conversation with Glenn Hosokawa. 

Our guest for today’s podcast is Gino Reina, Principal at SECOR Asset Management.  Gino is a portfolio manager and member of the client advisory team at SECOR, responsible for client relationship management and business development.  Gino has over 20 years of investment management industry experience, including time at Segal Advisors as Director of Research, UBS Paine Webber, and Neuberger Berman as a portfolio manager on the mutual fund wrap platform. Gino holds a Bachelors of Business Administration (BBA) in Banking and Finance from Hofstra University. In addition, he is a member of the CFA Society New York and Vice Chair of the CFA New Jersey Chapter.

I’ve always found Gino to be very pleasant to be around.  In addition to his full time job, Gino is also a co-owner and restaurant entrepreneur of two pizza restaurants and an avid long distance runner, having completed a 100 mile ultra marathon.

Needless to say, Gino is an interesting person to get to know!  Without further ado, here is our conversation with Gino Reina.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Bordon Lai, Managing Director at Beach Point Capital Management.  Bordon joined Beach Point in 2021 to help build out the firm’s private equity and special situation investing capabilities.

Bordon has been in the industry for over 20 years and was previously at Quilvest Private Equity, a global multi-family office with $5B of AUM. Prior to Quilvest, Bordon worked at Pegasus Capital Advisors and Vision Capital, where he invested under a flexible mandate in opportunistic investments in the middle market.

Bordon started out his career as an investment banking analyst at Wachovia Securities and Credit Suisse First Boston. Bordon earned his bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and MBA from The Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania.

Joining me on the podcast as co-host is Agnes Tan, who recently graduated from Columbia Business School and will be co-hosting/hosting a handful of podcasts on behalf of AAAIM in the coming weeks.

So what does it take to be a successful private equity investor?  We asked Bordon and he was gracious enough to share good insights on how he differentiated himself.  Without further ado, please enjoy our conversation with Bordon Lai.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Ingrid Yin, Co-Founder, Managing Partner and Majority Owner of MayTech Global Investments, a New York–based firm that specializes in managing global growth portfolios. Yin started her career as a research scientist and then made a leap to the finance industry, where she worked as an analyst and honed her focus to identifying investment opportunities in Asia and in healthcare. In 2017, with her extensive global investing experience, Yin launched MayTech with her business partner, Nels Wangensteen.

The investment team, based in New York City, has been investing globally on average for more than 20 years. MayTech believes that focusing on deep research, big long-term trends, and clients’ needs are the most important things for an investment firm. MayTech has significant research expertise in technology, healthcare, and emerging consumers sectors, where they see innovations will accelerate, therefore driving the growth of the global economy.

Ingrid earned her B.S. from Beijing University, an M.B.A. from MIT Sloan School of Management, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from SUNY-Stony Brook.

So who is Ingrid Yin, one of only a few Asian female led GPs?  We are grateful to Ingrid for sharing her story. Without further ado, please enjoy our interview with Ingrid Yin.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Pam Chan, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Mosaic, a new private market strategy within Lingotto that will invest across asset classes, industries, and capital structures, and will be anchored by Exor.  Pam’s mandate will be to invest in what she calls “the weird and wonderful” as she believes that flexible capital will create differentiated opportunities and sustained performance over the long term.

Prior to joining Lingotto, Pam was the Chief Investment Officer and Head of Direct Private Opportunities at BlackRock. While at BlackRock, Pam co-founded and led the firm’s Alternative Solutions group which grew to over $12bn assets under management across a range of private market strategies and investment themes.

Pam is a graduate of Harvard College magna cum laude and Harvard Business School with high honors. In 2020, Pam was recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader and was appointed a member of that organization’s Global Future Council on the Future of Responsible Investing and Women in Finance community. In 2022, Private Equity International included her on their list of Women of Influence in Private Markets.

Joining me on the podcast as co-host is Agnes Tan, who recently graduated from Columbia Business School and will be co-hosting/hosting a handful of podcasts on behalf of AAAIM in the coming weeks.

So what does it take to launch your own strategy and be seeded by one of the top investors in the world?  Well, Pam shares her secrets.  Without further ado, please enjoy our interview with Pam Chan.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Alka Goel, Founding Partner of Alkemi Growth Capital, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage healthcare and wellness focused companies based in Delhi. Alkemi became operational in 2018 and since then has committed to 10 companies in diverse sub-sectors such as hygiene, diagnostics, pharma supply chain, women’s reproduction, data digitization, etc. Prior to Alkemi, Alka was a partner in McKinsey’s global pharma and medical device practice & private equity practice based out of New York. At McKinsey, she worked for more than 100+ health care companies, advising them on a range of business issues - including M&A, go to market, operations, and organization. She completed her MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad in 2000 and BA (Economics) from Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi University.

Alka’s mission for Alkemi is to elevate the Health and Well-Being of the Indian consumer while maximizing returns to our shareholders.  Alkemi is interested in passionate entrepreneurs who are inspired by a vision, have boldness in their DNA, are not afraid of taking a few punches, persevere under uncertainty and most importantly build companies that can make an out-sized difference to consumer wellness and healthcare industry.

Joining me on the podcast as co-host is Agnes Tan, who is a 2nd year MBA student at Columbia Business School.  Agnes spent her pre-business school career in Private Equity in the Phillipines and will be co-hosting/hosting a handful of podcasts on behalf of AAAIM in the coming weeks.

So what does it take to launch a venture capital firm despite not having a prior track record and how did Alka persevere and secure institutional capital?  Alka shares her approach on this podcast. Without further ado, please enjoy our interview with Alka Goel.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Eunice McHugh, Director of Private Credit at San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System (“SFERS”).  Eunice is responsible for the buildout and management of the Private Credit portfolio, which has a 10% target allocation for the fund.  Eunice has led SFERS' Private Credit efforts (initially as part of the Fixed Income portfolio) since she joined SFERS in early 2013.  Under Eunice’s leadership, the Private Credit portfolio has delivered an annual return of 11% over the past decade, surpassing its benchmark by over 500 bps. 

SFERS’ Private Credit portfolio is comprised of multiple alternative credit and credit-related strategies. These include investments in direct lending, mezzanine, credit opportunities, specialty finance including asset-based lending/structured credit and real assets-related credit, real estate debt, distressed/special situations, and other opportunistic strategies. In addition, SFERS’ Private Credit program is a global portfolio with investments across the U.S., Europe, Asia, Latin America, and other emerging markets. Eunice is responsible for portfolio construction and leads investment research, due diligence, and manager selection across all these opportunities. Joining me on the podcast as co-host is Sylvia Owens who is a Partner at Kennedy Lewis Investment Management, an opportunistic credit manager focusing on event-driven situations in which a catalyst may unlock investment value.

So what does it take to lead one of the top Private Credit portfolios in the business?  Well, Eunice was gracious enough to spend the time with us to share her story.  Without further ado, please enjoy our interview with Eunice McHugh.