AAAIM High ELI

Joining us today is Leena Bhutta, the Chief Investment Officer of the Doris Duke Foundation. Leena leads an internal investment team responsible for managing the foundation's endowment which fully supports the foundation's operating budget – enabling a more creative, equitable and sustainable future. Leena began her career in technology investment banking at Goldman Sachs before transitioning to global equity research at Joho Capital, a multi-billion-dollar, global hedge fund. Following several years as a direct investor, she shifted her focus to mission-driven capital, establishing the investment program for the Hollyhock Foundation—a private foundation created by the founders of Joho Capital. Leena holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wellesley College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Leena also serves on the Board of Directors of TIFF Investment Management and is a member of the Investment Committee for the Robertson Foundation. Leena's journey is truly inspiring, and I am excited to share our conversation with you.

Our guest for today's podcast is Cristina Chen-Oster who is the Founder & CEO of M2M Capital, which provides real-time market-informed valuations and liquidity solutions for private companies. Previously, Cristina served as the Head of Americas Distribution for S64, a global Alternatives Solutions business committed to optimizing private market access. Cristina spent the bulk of her career on Wall Street including tenures at Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Natixis in institutional solutions and equity structured products. Cristina is a CFA charter holder and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from MIT. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Cristina Chen-Oster.

To celebrate our 100 podcast, I invited Brenda Chia, Chief of Capital Development of Paladin Capital Group and one of the original six founding Board Members of AAAIM to talk about all things AAAIM – past, present, future – and what we hope for the community going forward.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Wendy Li, Chief Investment Officer of Ivy Invest. Before founding Ivy Invest, Wendy spent her career as an institutional investor managing billions of dollars for some of New York’s largest endowments and foundations. Most recently, Wendy was Managing Director of Investments at the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation (MCHF). At MCHF, she was responsible for developing the foundation’s investment strategy, sourcing and executing investments across asset classes, and exercising day-to-day management over MCHF’s $4B portfolio. Prior to MCHF, Wendy held similar responsibilities at UJA-Federation of New York. She began her career in the Investment Office of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Wendy is a graduate of Columbia University and a CFA charterholder. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Wendy Li.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Richard Chau, Chief Investment Officer of the Tulane University Endowment. Richard joined Tulane in 2013 and was promoted to CIO in 2021. Prior to Tulane, Richard helped manage a multi-billion dollar global private equity portfolio in Bessemer Trust's Private Equity Funds Group. Before Bessemer, Richard worked in the investment office at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. His previous experience also includes investment banking at Houlihan Lokey and investment consulting at Cambridge Associates. Richard has a BA in Economics and Chinese from Williams College and an MBA from Columbia Business School. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Richard Chau.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Tina Suo, Head of Alternative Credit for the Office of NYC Comptroller. Tina joined the Office of the NYC Comptroller as a Senior Investment Officer in the Alternative Credit Group in August 2019. In this role, she assisted in making investment recommendations and advising on the alternative credit portfolio consisting of public and private non-traditional credit-oriented investments that include below-investment-grade debt. In May 2022, she was promoted to Head of Alternative Credit to oversee the alternative credit portfolio for the five New York City retirement systems. Prior to the Office of the NYC Comptroller, Tina held roles in manager selection, risk management, trading, and portfolio management at leading sell-side and buy-side firms including PIMCO, Goldman Sachs, and New York Life Investments. Tina received her M.B.A. degree from London Business School and B.S. degree in Information and Decision Sciences from University of Science and Technology of China. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Tina Suo.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Sandor Hau, Managing Director and President of Charlesbank Credit. Sandor oversees the firm’s opportunistic Credit team and investing strategy. Sandor joined Charlesbank in 2016 from Nomura Securities, where he was a Managing Director and Head of Corporate Credit and Special Situations. Previously, he was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs and Head of Credit Investing and Private Equity within the principal strategies group. Sandor was born and grew up in rural Lancaster, PA, and is a big Philadelphia sports fan. He currently lives in Rye, NY, and is actively involved with community and sports activities with his four kids. He likes running, basketball and racquet sports. He is actively involved with the Korean American community as co–chairman of The Korea Finance Society. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Sandor Hau.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Michel Lowy, who co-founded SC Lowy in 2009. SC Lowy specializes in non-investment grade credit opportunities outside the United States, focusing on opportunistic corporate lending. SC Lowy has deployed $4.8 billion in capital and manages $1.6 billion in assets, with a presence across nine offices in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Michel has focused on distressed, special situations and private credit investing for his entire career spanning more than 25 years. Before launching SC Lowy, Mr. Lowy founded Deutsche Bank’s distressed and strategic investments group for Asia Pacific in 1999. Based in Singapore, New York and lastly Hong Kong, he built and led a dominant Asia-focused proprietary trading and investment team over the span of 10 years, while later adding Latin America to his mandate. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Michel Lowy.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Philip Yau who is a Managing Director at GI Partners. Phil serves as a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and is head of the firm’s capital formation-business development team. His responsibilities include managing strategic relationships, developing new business initiatives, and overseeing the capital formation efforts. Prior to joining GI Partners, Phil spent over 24 years in investment banking, including 12 years as a senior leader of the UBS Private Funds Group. I met Phil at the most recent AAAIM National Conference held in Los Angeles. Phil sought me out and shared his desire to be featured on the podcast in order to pay tribute to both his parents who served as great role models for Phil and his brother Andrew. Phil’s father, Dr. Stephen Yau, Is a famous professor of computer science who is still teaching after 63 years at 89 years old. Phil’s mother, Victoria Yau, was a well-recognized contemporary artist. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Phil Yau.

Our guests for today’s podcast are Jen Vigilante and Maine Park, Counselors at College Labyrinth. College Labyrinth provides a highly personalized framework for students to pursue genuine interests, enriching the journey to college while finding the right next step. Most recently, Jen spent the past decade working in the Princeton University Undergraduate Admission Office, where she was an Associate Dean primarily responsible for the New York City schools, evaluating more than 2,000 applications each year. Maine is a long time friend AAAIM. During her own children’s college application processes, Maine recognized the incredible value in reassuring and steering parents and students through an often difficult period. In Maine’s own words, “Every child, including my own, has such different interests and strengths. It can feel overwhelming to try and find the right school, the right word, the right deadline! By starting College Labyrinth, I became the guide I wish I had when going through this process. My goal is for College Labyrinth to help students achieve more than just an acceptance letter, but an honest and healthy understanding of who they are and who they might become in the future.” Without further ado, here is our conversation with Jen Vigilante and Maine Park.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Tim Hsia, founder and Managing Partner of Context Ventures, a venture fund that invests in military veteran founders and also in consumer startups. Some of Tim’s startup investments prior to Context Ventures include Workflow (acquired by Apple), Morning Brew (acquired by Business Insider), The Hustle (acquired by HubSpot), and Thredup (which IPO’d). Tim is also the CEO & Founder of Media Mobilize (an online ad network, marketing agency, and media company). Tim is a distinguished honor graduate of West Point and was commissioned as an infantry officer in the US Army. Tim transitioned from active duty in 2010 and graduated from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and Stanford Law School in 2014. While at Stanford he taught ROTC to cadets at Stanford and Santa Clara University. Tim is the eptiome of the word “grit”. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Tim Hsia.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Vishal Bhutani, Chief Investment Officer of AMS Children’s Fund (AMS), a new fund launching in early 2025. Together with David Gaynes, Vishal is forming AMS to capitalize on the growing interest by institutional investors in the Indian equity markets. Vishal believes that the middle market opportunity in Indian equities is one of the best investment opportunities available today. Leveraging his experience as an event driven portfolio manager, AMS believes it will be able to achieve superior risk adjusted returns. Vishal has spent the bulk of his 20 year investment career as an Event Driven investor, investing across the capital structure. Joining me on the podcast is Clark Cheng, CEO and CIO of Merrimac Corp, a large single family office with investments in hedge funds, private equity, venture capital and real estate AND David Gaynes, co-founder of AMS Children’s Fund. So why should investors care about the Indian equity markets now? Vishal provides many insights and answers why in this podcast. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Vishal Bhutani.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Darren Xu, Co-Founder and Portfolio Manager of Questline Capital. Questline Capital is a long/short equity fund focused on the gaming, media and communications sectors. After almost a decade as an investor at Farallon Capital Management, Darren decided to leave his job and will be launching his fund in the 1 st quarter of 2025. Darren started his career in investment banking in Mergers and Acquisitions at Citigroup after graduating with two degrees, one in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania and the other in Business from the Wharton School. I named this podcast “Living the dream: playing video games for fun and for work.” Literally, that is what Darren does. How fun is that? So, how does one create a career playing video games. Well, we are here to find out. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Darren Xu.

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.