Usman Akhtar
Partner
BAIN & COMPANY
Usman Akhtar is a partner based in Bain & Company's Jakarta office. He is an expert in the firm's Private Equity and Energy & Natural Resources practices.
Mr. Akhtar has more than 10 years of management consulting experience, advising leading businesses on their biggest opportunities and challenges.
His consulting engagements have included clients in a range of sectors, including oil and gas, consumer products and retail, supply chain management, automotives and technology. He specializes in the areas of growth and portfolio strategy, fund strategy, M&A advisory and due diligence, organizational effectiveness and turnarounds.
As an active member of Bain's Private Equity Group, Mr. Akhtar advises investors and their portfolio companies on strategy, commercial due diligence and portfolio company value creation.
Mr. Akhtar also leads Bain's Southeast Asia social impact practice work as the regional leader for Bain Cares, Bain's pro-bono program providing advice to nonprofit organizations.
Prior to joining Bain in 2008, Mr. Akhtar worked as an associate in investment management and a manager in trade advisory.
He holds an MBA with distinction from INSEAD and a BA in Economics-Philosophy from Columbia University.
Amit Anand
Founding Partner
JUNGLE VENTURES
Amit Anand is the Founding Partner of Jungle Ventures, a Singapore based Venture Capital Firm that invests in and helps build tech category leaders from Asia.
Mr. Anand brings 15 years of experience in Asia having played go-to-market and corporate development roles for startups and corporations alike. He later presided as Deputy Chairman for Business Angels Network South East Asia (BANSEA). A Kauffman Fellow, Mr. Anand is passionate about creating global companies from Asia and currently works with Founders at companies such as RedDoorz (Indonesia) , Kredivo (Indonesia), Livspace (Singapore/India) and Pomelo Fashion (Thailand) amongst others.
Shane Chesson
Partner
OPENSPACE VENTURES
Shane Chesson is Founder and Partner of Openspace Ventures (formerly NSI Ventures), a Singapore-headquartered VC focused on Series A and B investments in Southeast Asia-based technology companies. Selected Openspace investments overseen by Mr. Chesson include Go-Jek, Chope, Tradegecko, CXA, Topica, Oway, HaloDoc, Sale Stock and Pathao. Mr. Chesson was previously Managing Director and Co-Head (Technology Investment Banking, of Citigroup Asia-Pacific.
Mr. Chesson has an MBA with distinction from INSEAD Singapore where he was a recipient of the IAA Asian Campus scholarship.
T.J. Kono
Partner
UNISON CAPITAL
T. J. Kono joined Unison Capital in 2002. He is a founding member of the Seoul office, and is leading Unison's Korea initiative for portfolio company value creation as well as sourcing new investment opportunities. Prior to Unison Capital, he worked at Merrill Lynch Japan, where he was responsible for M&A advisory operations.
Yoshi Okubo
VP Investment
EV GROWTH
Prior to Yahoo! Japan Capital and EV Growth, Yoshi Okubo started a $50mil FinTech business in Singapore and SEA at Sumitomo Corporation, a Japanese conglomerate. He then oversaw FinTech startup investments in the SEA, and was seconded to a remittance startup for new business initiatives and IPO preparation. As a Star Scholarship recipient, Mr. Okubo received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Carleton College in the US with Magna Cum Laude. Mr. Okubo started his first startup whilst in school and sold it to an angel.
Kyle Shaw
Founder and Managing Partner
SHAWKWEI & PARTNERS
Kyle Shaw is the founder and managing partner of ShawKwei & Partners, a private equity fund manager based in Hong Kong and Singapore investing in Asian advanced manufacturing and service industries. ShawKwei is actively involved in managing portfolio companies and has specialist operating skills in areas such as revenue growth, margin expansion, and capital efficiency.
Kyle has managed investment portfolios starting in 1990 with Security Pacific National Bank in Hong Kong, then in 1993 with the Tudor Investment Group in Shanghai, and in 1998 establishing ShawKwei & Partners. Prior to private equity, Kyle worked in the oil industry with Union Texas Petroleum in Houston and Tidewater in Louisiana and Singapore. During his private equity career, Kyle has served on the board of directors of numerous companies in China, Southeast Asia, and Taiwan including Flextronics, China Fangda Group, YongLe Tape, Amos Holdings, and Beyonics.
Kyle received an MBA degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1987 and a BS Commerce from the University of Virginia in 1983. He studied Mandarin Chinese at Taiwan’s National Normal University Language Institute for foreign students in 1985, and has lived over 30 years in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and Taiwan.
Emmett Thomas
Senior Partner, Head of Asia
ADVANTAGE PARTNERS
Emmett joined Advantage Partners in 2007 to lead the firm's activities in Asia ex-Japan. Advantage Partners is one of the leading Private Equity firms in North Asia, having invested over US$ 3.0 billion in more than 70 companies over the last 20 years. Emmett has led investments for Advantage Partners in a variety of industries including media, telecom, retail and business services.
He currently serves as the Managing Partner of Advantage Partners Asia Fund. He is on the Boards of several Advantage Partners portfolio companies. In addition, he oversees Advantage Partner’s portfolio company activities in Asia ex-Japan. Emmett started his career in Tokyo at TSE-listed SMC Corporation, the factory automation manufacturer. Subsequently he spent 18 years at the Monitor Group, the global strategy consulting firm, the last 10 of which he was President of Asia. Currently, he is a Director of the Harvard Business School Association of Hong Kong, and serves on the MBA Advisory Board of Hong Kong University. He graduated from Duke University with a B.A in Economics, and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has resided in Asia for more than 25 years.
Andrew Thompson
Head of Private Equity Asia Pacific, Head of Deal Advisory
KPMG
Andrew Thompson has over 24 years of experience with KPMG principally focused on major Corporate and Private Equity transaction due diligence and deal advisory. In late 2013 he relocated from Sydney, where he led KPMGs Australian Private Equity team, to Singapore to lead KPMGs Private Equity team across Asia-Pacific encompassing M&A deal origination, deal execution services and portfolio value creation activities. Andrew has directly led the transaction execution support work on more than 300 significant transactions with an aggregate deal value of more than $200 billion with the majority being Private Equity sponsored.
His major location experience include: London (5 Years), Sydney (13 Years) and New York (2 Years) and Singapore. In addition he has led deal teams across most SE Asia locations, China, Hong Kong, India and Japan. Andrew has acted for most leading Private Equity sponsors including: KKR, CVC, Blackstone, Carlyle Group, Texas Pacific Group, Macquarie, CHAMP Private Equity, Goldman Sachs PIA, CSFB / DLJ, AMP Capital Investors, Deutsche Bank Capital Partners, TA Associates, Ripplewood, Veronis Suhler, and Morgan Stanley. He has also assisted major Sovereign Wealth and pension funds in analysing direct and co-investment opportunities with Private Equity sponsors.
Yasushi Ujioka
Partner & Head of Climate Change Investments
JUPITER IMPACT PARTNERS
Yasushi Ujioka has dedicated two decades of his career to sustainable development across water and energy sector spanning Asia and Europe, in various capacity from engineering and operation management to principal and private equity investment. Most recently, Mr. Ujioka was a Partner and a member of the Investment Committee at Armstrong Asset Management, manager of the Armstrong S.E. Asia Clean Energy Fund, a USD 162 m private equity fund that has been investing in more than 300 MW utility scale renewable energy IPP projects across SE Asia. Through Armstrong’s investments, Mr. Ujioka has gained a significant hands-on experience in capacity building for local SMEs in the renewable sector including ESG and Corporate Governance practice. Prior to that, Mr. Ujioka spent years in energy efficiency space in Asia, first as Business Development Director of Veolia Energy in Asia, then as Investment Director of China District Energy Fund, closing more than USD 200 million investments. Before coming back to Asia in 2003, Mr. Ujioka spent 8 years as engineer with Degrémont, a world leading water treatment EPC arm of Suez Group, based in Paris and London, becoming Deputy Technical Director in its world HQ in Paris in 2001 providing technical support for the company’s world-wide EPC operations. Mr. Ujioka holds Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Engineering from the University of Tokyo and MBA from Insead. Mr. Ujioka is fluent in French, English and Japanese, and have good command of other regional languages including Mandarin and Bahasa Indonesia.