Women in Business Law Virtual Forum 2020

Errol Bong

Head of compliance & legal counsel, Noble

Errol Bong is head of compliance & legal counsel, Noble Group Holdings.

Bong is an experienced lawyer qualified in Australia, Washington State, New York, Hong Kong and England. He has spent over 17 years advising on legal and regulatory issues relevant to global markets and investment banking.

Bong has worked on numerous transactions related to commodities, restructuring, asset management, derivative securities, OTC derivatives, futures, securities, repos and stock borrowing and lending.

 Speaking session 

M&A outlook and opportunities in the wake of unprecedented times

Monday, June 15 - 11.00-12.00 HKT

Garth Bray

Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell

Garth Bray is a member of Sullivan & Cromwell’s mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance groups and has extensive experience in complex cross-border M&A, joint venture and capital markets transactions, as well as in corporate governance and compliance matters. He has been based in Asia since 2009 and focuses on matters arising out of S&C’s Tokyo, Beijing and Hong Kong offices.

Representative recent assignments include acting for Advance in its definitive stock purchase agreement with Wanda Sports Group to acquire The IRONMAN Group; the shareholders of Woowa Brothers Corp. (Korea) in their agreement with Delivery Hero SE (Germany) in connection with Delivery Hero’s announced acquisition of Woowa; Signify (The Netherlands) in its acquisition of Cooper Lighting Solutions from Eaton (U.S./Ireland); Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI) in the formation of joint ventures with Jebsen Beverage Company Limited to manufacture and distribute Blue Girl brand beer in China and to manage the Blue Girl beer brand internationally; Deutsche Bank, Citi and Morgan Stanley as placement agents for Ant Financial in its approximately US$14 billion Series C equity financing; and Booking Holdings in various investments in the Asia-Pacific region.

 Speaking session 

Deal making lessons learned from the Covid-19 crisis

Friday, June 19 - 11.30-12.30 HKT

Wilson Chu

Conference chair, IPBA

Partner, McDermott Will & Emery

Wilson Chu focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions (M&A), joint ventures and other strategic transactions, as well as related corporate governance, for clients ranging from Fortune 500 serial acquirers to private equity funds and high-growth, high-profile technology companies in the United States and abroad. While he has experience in a wide range of industries, his practice is heavily weighted in the technology and health care sectors, with an emphasis on the converging fields of healthtech and fintech.

 Speaking session 

The importance of deal protection mechanisms

Wednesday, June 17 - 11.00-12.00 HKT

Richard Climan

Partner, Hogan Lovells

Richard E. Climan is an M&A partner in the Silicon Valley office of the international law firm of Hogan Lovells. He has handled some of the most prominent and industry-changing acquisitions in the technology and life sciences sectors over the past three decades. He has been described as "one of the best legal minds in M&A" and a "gold-standard transactional lawyer."

Since joining Hogan Lovells in 2017, Climan acted as lead transactional counsel to Walmart in its US$16 billion cross-border acquisition of a 77% stake in India-based Flipkart (the largest e-commerce M&A transaction in history) and as lead transactional counsel to Marvell Technology Group in its US$6 billion acquisition of Cavium.

 Speaking session 

Negotiating contentious M&A issues in US-style acquisition agreements

Friday, June 19 - 10.00-11.00 HKT

Erika Evasdottir

Director, Hong Kong Corporate Counsel Association

Erika Evasdottir is currently director and co-chair of the Association of Corporate Counsel's Hong Kong chapter. She currently contracts out as in-house counsel and compliance officer, and often operations as well, all to ensure clients have the licensing, governance regimes and other procedures in place to allow the business to concentrate on what they do best. The goal is to promote the growth of the company and its ability to explore new products and markets quickly and efficiently without sacrificing internal controls. By bringing her experience in corporate and fund transactions to bear, Evasdottir also reviews investment opportunities and structures funds and downstream investments with an eye to avoiding regulatory, compliance and legal pitfalls.

Evasdottir began her legal career as a ECM/DCM (underwriter’s counsel) capital markets lawyer at Milbank and Paul Hastings, but quickly found her true calling in private equity, M&A and funds structuring at Weil Gotshal. Her practical and real work experience comes from being seconded as business development to an infrastructure fund to take them from a small Australian fund to a global behemoth while complying with relevant marketing rules, and then as general counsel and compliance officer (Asia) of two US headquartered hedge funds (and thereby fully experiencing both the up and down cycles). She then became interested in fintech through working at Origin-X Capital as an outsourced GC and compliance officer for start-ups and funds in the fintech space.

Evasdottir additionally teaches at CUHK, has a PhD from Harvard in anthropology and archaeology (China), a JD from Columbia, and is admitted in New York and Hong Kong. Her book is titled “Obedient Autonomy: Chinese Intellectuals and the Achievement of Orderly Life”.

 Speaking session 

Getting private equity deals done in a brave new world

Thursday, June 18 - 10.00-11.00 HKT

Joel Greenberg

Senior counsel, Arnold & Porter

Joel Greenberg concentrates in US and cross-border mergers and acquisitions of public and private companies, representation of financial sponsors, and securities transactions. He also advises publicly held and private companies on a wide variety of corporate governance and day-to-day corporate as well as transactional matters. He is a former chair (2006-2009) of the Committee on Mergers & Acquisitions of the American Bar Association Section of Business Law.

Greenberg is a frequent lecturer on mergers and acquisitions topics, and has spoken at programs sponsored by the American Bar Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the Association of Corporate Counsel, the Center for International Legal Studies, Columbia Law School, Cornell Law School, Harvard Law School, the Inter-Pacific Bar Association, International Financial Law Review, Law Journal Seminars, Penn State Dickinson School of Law, Practising Law Institute, Stanford Law School, UCLA School of Law, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, University of Miami School of Law and University of Texas School of Law. He co-chairs the annual National Institute on Negotiating Business Acquisitions, presented by ABA's Section of Business Law.

 Speaking session 

Negotiating contentious M&A issues in US-style acquisition agreements

Friday, June 19 - 10.00-11.00 HKT

Joel Greenberg

Senior counsel, Arnold & Porter

Joel Greenberg concentrates in US and cross-border mergers and acquisitions of public and private companies, representation of financial sponsors, and securities transactions. He also advises publicly held and private companies on a wide variety of corporate governance and day-to-day corporate as well as transactional matters. He is a former chair (2006-2009) of the Committee on Mergers & Acquisitions of the American Bar Association Section of Business Law.

Greenberg is a frequent lecturer on mergers and acquisitions topics, and has spoken at programs sponsored by the American Bar Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the Association of Corporate Counsel, the Center for International Legal Studies, Columbia Law School, Cornell Law School, Harvard Law School, the Inter-Pacific Bar Association, International Financial Law Review, Law Journal Seminars, Penn State Dickinson School of Law, Practising Law Institute, Stanford Law School, UCLA School of Law, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, University of Miami School of Law and University of Texas School of Law. He co-chairs the annual National Institute on Negotiating Business Acquisitions, presented by ABA's Section of Business Law.

 Speaking session 

Negotiating contentious M&A issues in US-style acquisition agreements

Friday, June 19 - 10.00-11.00 HKT

Areej Hamadah

President, Legal Challenges Group

Areej Hamadah is a Kuwaiti lawyer with more than 20 years of experience. She worked as a lawyer for Ahli United Bank for 13 years. She moved to work for the government sector for a full year, In 2017, she established her own office under the name of Legal Challenges Group. In 2019, the Legal Challenges Magazine was established to be part of the activity of the law office.

Hamadah was honoured by the World Bank in appreciation of her contribution to doing the business 2020 report.

She was honoured by the Jahra Governorate in Kuwait.

 Speaking session 

Presentation: Corporate M&A in the Arab Gulf States

Tuesday, June 16 - 15.00-15.30 HKT

Laura Hannon

General counsel, CompareAsia Group

Laura Hannon is General Counsel for CompareAsia Group. In her role as general counsel, she leads CompareAsia Group’s cross-jurisdictional legal department and advises the company on a wide range of legal and business issues across all six of its Asian markets.

Prior to joining CompareAsia Group, Hannon was in private practice at the international law firm, Maples and Calder, in Dublin, Ireland where she was a member of the firm’s corporate practice group, representing private companies in cross-border mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, venture capital, securities and corporate governance matters. Hannon also has extensive experience advising institutional financial investors and private equity investors investing in and acquiring Irish assets.

Hannon received both her bachelor’s degree and post-graduate degree from the National University of Galway, Ireland. She qualified as a lawyer in Ireland in 2013. Hannon currently resides in Hong Kong.

 Speaking session 

How tech companies have changed the M&A game

Wednesday, June 17 - 11.00-12.00 HKT

William Hay

Managing director, William Hay & Co

William Hay is advisor to private investors and their portfolio companies on legal and related stra-tegic issues arising from fund raising, mergers & acquisitions, leveraged finance and stock market listings and other forms of exit.

Hay's previous experience includes serving as general counsel of Baring Private Equity Asia, a lead-ing Asia-based private equity firm with US$10 billion under management. Prior to joining Baring, he held similar positions in with GE Capital Asia and Colony Capital. He has acquired and turned around a distressed hotel in China, and represented Chinese firms in their offshore investments. Will was a partner in a Wall Street law firm before relocating to Hong Kong in 1995.

Hay's transactional experience includes private equity, real estate, distressed debt, venture capital and other acquisitions and investments across greater China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia. He has structured and managed private equity and real estate funds in Asia, and is an expert in risk and compliance issues in the region.

Hay received his BA from UC Berkeley in 1973, his AM from Harvard’s East Asian Regional Studies program in 1978 and his JD magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1982. Hay is a qualified lawyer in Hong Kong and New York and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

 Speaking session 

Opportunistic M&A for distressed companies

Tuesday, June 16 - 10.00-11.00 HKT

Patricia Ho

Acting general counsel, WeLab

Patricia Ho is the acting group general counsel for WeLab, a leading home-grown fintech company with one of the first virtual banks established in Hong Kong. WeLab provides seamless digital financial services to over 40 million individual customers, as well as B2B enterprise solutions to offer fintech-enabled solutions in Hong Kong, Mainland China and Indonesia.

As part of the WeLab group executive committee, Ho is the lead legal advisor on WeLab Group’s fundraising activities, business partnerships, corporate governance, data privacy compliance framework and intellectual property strategy. Ho is a founding member of WeLab virtual bank and key contributor on regulatory, compliance and risk issues leading up to the grant of the virtual bank licence. She built the legal and compliance function of the WeLab virtual bank from the ground up, setting up a full team of legal, regulatory and AML compliance professionals. She also actively manages key stakeholders relationship, including the dialogue with regulators and engagement with board members.

Prior to joining WeLab, Ho was head of regulatory for private wealth solutions at HSBC Private Bank and senior legal counsel at HSBC Global Banking and Markets. Before going in-house, Ho was with Linklaters in London, Hong Kong and Shanghai, where she specialised in derivatives, structured finance, financial regulations and PRC cross-border financial markets infrastructure.

 Speaking session 

How tech companies have changed the M&A game

Wednesday, June 17 - 11.30-12.30 HKT

Michael Horman

Director of corporate finance & legal, NISI

Michael Horman has more than 17 years of experience advising on transactions and investments in APAC and EMEA, specialising in mergers & acquisitions, corporate finance, start-up funding, joint ventures and private equity. He is currently the director of corporate finance & legal at Hong Kong-based medtech company NISI.

Prior to joining NISI he was a corporate partner in Baker McKenzie's Hong Kong office and has been based in Hong Kong for over 10 years.

 Speaking session 

How tech companies have changed the M&A game

Wednesday, June 17 - 11.30-12.30 HKT

Bo Huo

Senior legal counsel, M&A, Tencent

Bo Huo is a senior legal counsel of Tencent Holdings and constantly advises the group on complex cross-border mergers and acquisitions, public takeovers, growth equity investments and fund incorporation & management matters. Huo’s experience covered various jurisdictions including the US, Canada, UK, France, Sweden, India, Korea, Japan, Greater China, etc. and expands a wide range of industries, including fintech, telecommunications, entertainment, healthcare and consumer goods, etc. Huo is qualified to practice laws in Hong Kong and New York.

Before joining Tencent, Huo worked as the GC of a New York based venture capital fund and practiced laws with a US Biglaw firm for several years, with her practice focused on M&A, funds and acquisition financing, and capital market transactions. Huo is fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese.

 Speaking session 

Getting private equity deals done in a brave new world

Thursday, June 18 - 10.00-11.00 HKT

Kenneth Koo

Deputy general manager, Citi Orient

Kenneth Koo is deputy general manager & Citi’s chief representative at Citi Orient Securities, where he is a key member of its senior management committee, transaction approval committee and transaction selection committee. He also heads the cross border department which is responsible for international and domestic corporate clients, particularly clients of Citi. Koo was managing director in the chairman’s office for Citigroup Asia Pacific and spearheads Citi’s strategic cooperation with Orient Securities, including the negotiation and formation of the Citi Orient joint venture. He has held several senior positions at Citi, including Asia co-head of strategic M&A, Asia co-head of corporate finance, investment banking division, Asia IBD chief operating officer, and was a member of the management and operating committees for Asia corporate & investment banking.

Koo has over 20 years’ experience in investment banking in Asia and the US and has advised on numerous capital markets transactions, privatisations, and M&A for US, European and Asian corporations across multiple industries, including Legend Holdings (Lenovo), Ping An Insurance, Shandong International Power, SinoTrans, China Aluminum, Mass Transit Railway Corporation, Hutchison Telecom and Hopewell Holdings.

Prior to joining Citi in 2001, he was an executive director in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong and New York. During 1990-1993, he was deputy head of the listing division at The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (HKEx), and head of the China Listing Affairs Unit, where his responsibilities included the negotiation and establishment of the HKEx's landmark regulatory framework for the international “H shares” equity offerings by mainland Chinese state-owned enterprises. Prior to working at the HKEx, he was a banking & finance attorney with two major law firms in New York advising on a wide range of financing transactions, including LBOs, leveraged recapitalisations and corporate restructurings.

Koo holds B.A. and J.D. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pennsylvania School of Law.

 Speaking session 

Opportunistic M&A for distressed companies

Tuesday, June 16 - 10.00-11.00 HKT

Ying Liu

Executive director, APAC regional head of escrow sales and business development, J.P. Morgan

Ying Liu is an executive director and the APAC regional head of escrow sales and business development at J.P. Morgan.

Prior to her current role with the escrow team, Liu was an executive director in J.P. Morgan's investment banking department with a focus on M&A and capital market execution. Previously, Liu was a managing director at CSIP Group, a China cross-border M&A boutique and private equity joint venture between CITIC Securities in China and Evercore Partners in the US. Before CSIP, Liu was with UBS’s investment banking department in New York and Hong Kong as an industry coverage banker and M&A banker. She started her investment banking career at Salomon Brothers and then BT Wolfensohn in New York.

Liu graduated from Wellesley College, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, with a BA in biochemistry and economics, and from Harvard Business School with an MBA.

 Speaking session 

The importance of deal protection mechanisms

Wednesday, June 17 - 10.00-11.00 HKT

Sara Marchetta

Partner, Chiomenti

Sara Marchetta joined the firm in 2008, became a partner in 2011 and since then she has been the Beijing resident partner of the firm.

Marchetta mainly provides assistance to Chinese and Italian and clients in cross-border mergers and acquisitions, cross border contracts (joint ventures, technology transfers) and other transactional matters. She was involved in the assistance for the major Chinese investments into Italy and she regularly advises a number of Italian MNCs in their cross-border investments into China, including investment agreements, corporate governance and compliance matters./font>

Her expertise includes investment agreements, corporate governance and shareholders agreements with relevant disputes, international commercial contracts and technology transfers, including joint ventures and cooperation projects between Italian and Chinese companies, in different industrial sectors..

 Speaking session 

The importance of deal protection mechanisms

Wednesday, June 17 - 11.00-12.00 HKT

Michael Maté

Director, Seawood Resources

Michael Maté is currently a director at Seawood, a Manila-based private equity firm. Prior to Seawood, Maté was the head of structured finance and debt products at BPI Capital, the leading Philippine investment bank, where he advised on some of the most significant leveraged and management buyouts, acquisition finance and structured finance transactions in the country. Maté began his career as an M&A lawyer, working both at Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco and at Romulo Law Office in Manila.

Maté holds an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, a B.A. from Duke University, and a J.D. from Ateneo Law School.

 Speaking session 

Getting private equity deals done in a brave new world

Thursday, June 18, 10.00-11.00 HKT

Ong Eu Jin

Head of capital markets and M&A, Rosli Dahlan Saravana Partnership

Ong is actively involved in various M&A as well as debt and equity capital market transactions in Malaysia including transactions with cross-border elements. His practice encompasses fundraising exercises such as initial public offerings (IPOs), rights issues as well as bond and Sukuk issuances. He has advised and acted for listed corporations, REITs, investment banks as well as applicants for listing to both the Malaysian and foreign stock exchanges. Aside from Malaysian IPOs, he has also acted as the Malaysian solicitor for local companies seeking listing in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and he was recently involved in a client’s successful listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange amidst the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to her current role with the escrow team, Liu was an executive director in J.P. Morgan's investment banking department with a focus on M&A and capital market execution. Previously, Liu was a managing director at CSIP Group, a China cross-border M&A boutique and private equity joint venture between CITIC Securities in China and Evercore Partners in the US. Before CSIP, Liu was with UBS’s investment banking department in New York and Hong Kong as an industry coverage banker and M&A banker. She started her investment banking career at Salomon Brothers and then BT Wolfensohn in New York.

Ong served a seven year stint as chief operating officer of a subsidiary of a financial services group before returning to legal practice. He has been both executive and independent director of companies regulated by the Securities Commission Malaysia. He has also previously served on the Board of the Financial Planning Association of Malaysia as its Honorary Secretary.

Ong is qualified as a solicitor (England & Wales) and holds an LLM degree from University College London.

 Speaking session 

Deal making lessons learned from the Covid-19 crisis

Friday, June 19 - 11.30-12.30 HKT

Martin Rock

Director M&A, Commerzbank

Martin Rock is a director in M&A at Commerzbank in Hong Kong. He focuses on Asia-Europe cross-border transactions with clients in healthcare, chemicals and industrials sectors in China, Japan and Southeast Asia.

Prior experience in heading the Dresdner Kleinwort chemicals and related industries sector group based in London before moving to Asia. He has previous experience in corporate finance, M&A and PMI working for Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) based in continental Europe. Before that, was a vice president for J.P. Morgan in M&A and worked at the strategy consultancy Nexant.

He holds a Ph.D from Cambridge University.

 Speaking session 

M&A outlook and opportunities in the wake of unprecedented times

Monday, June 15 - 11.00-12.00 HKT

Frédéric Ruppert

Attorney at law, FR Law – Avocat; co-chair of CBIC, IPBA

Frederic Ruppert's practice mostly focuses on M&A and private equity and also extends to other corporate and business matters: joint ventures, strategic corporate investment, corporate reorganization, structured financing, corporate governance.

Managing partner and founder of FR Law – Avocat, Ruppert collaborates with lawyers of all trades worldwide with one goal in mind: successful business and corporate transactions for the clients, whether they are corporations, financial investors, managers or high net worth individuals.

Ruppert is a graduate of University of Law of Paris – Panthéon Assas and holds an MBA in Finance from California State University East Bay.

Ruppert is a member of both the California and Paris Bars as well as holds dual French and US citizenship.

A recognized practitioner, he is co–chair of the cross–border investment committee of the Inter–Pacific Bar Association, where he regularly speaks and moderates panels on various topics interesting M&A and private equity.

 Speaking session 

Deal making lessons learned from the Covid-19 crisis

Friday, June 19 - 11.30-12.30 HKT

Brent Snyder

CEO, Competition Commission (HK)

Brent Snyder was appointed to the position of chief executive officer of the Competition Commission (Hong Kong) in September 2017.

Prior to joining the Commission, Snyder served in the antitrust division of the United States Department of Justice from 2003 until 2017, first as a trial attorney playing a key role in the division’s criminal matters, and as deputy assistant attorney general (DAAG) from 2013 until 2017. In his capacity as DAAG, Snyder headed the criminal enforcement function overseeing enforcement, prosecutions, leniency and other policy work. Snyder twice received the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service and was awarded an Antitrust Division Award of Distinction.

Prior to joining the government, Snyder practiced law at Paul Hastings in Los Angeles and Perkins Coie in Seattle where he was a partner.

 Speaking session 

Keynote address: Competition Commission Hong Kong

Monday, June 15 - 10.00-10.30 HKT

Brian Snyder

of Counsel, Morrison & Foerster

Brian Snyder is of counsel in the Corporate Department of Morrison & Foerster’s London and Hong Kong offices.

Brian’s practice focuses on international M&A and private equity matters, including mergers, acquisitions, sales, joint ventures, strategic investments, pre-IPO financings, and related corporate and securities matters. Brian also has experience in financing and restructuring transactions.

Brian has worked in New York, Hong Kong and London for corporate and financial sponsor clients in a range of industries, including TMT, biotech, food and beverage, financial services, energy, retail and manufacturing. He is a registered foreign lawyer with the Law Society of Hong Kong.

 Speaking session 

The importance of deal protection mechanisms

Wednesday, June 17 - 10.00-11.00 HKT

Chloe Sung

General counsel, ZhongAn

Chloe Sung is an accomplished in-house counsel with extensive experience advising multinationals in mergers and acquisitions, strategic investments and joint ventures. Sung is currently working as general counsel of a unit of ZhongAn - China’s largest online insurance company, where she is heavily involved in the forefront of Hong Kong’s developing fintech industry. Sung’s work focuses on virtual banking, virtual insurance, and the group’s joint ventures and strategic investment.

Prior to joining ZhongAn, Sung acted as in-house counsel for a global bank where she counselled on its mergers and acquisitions, investment and joint ventures in the Asia Pacific region. Thereafter, she joined an international firm in their alternative legal services division, where she was seconded to a global investment bank advising on its divestments and disposals in the Asia Pacific region.

Whilst in private practice, Sung advised in the areas of corporate, mergers and acquisitions, strategic investments, restructuring and investment trust, where her clients included sovereign wealth funds, government-linked investment companies, global banks, public listed companies and multinational corporations.

 Speaking session 

How tech companies have changed the M&A game

Wednesday, June 17 - 11.00-12.00 HKT

Gen Takahashi

Partner, Anderson Mori & Tomotsune

Gen Takahashi is a partner at Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, and his practice focuses on M&A and corporate transactions. He is currently based in Tokyo, Japan.

Takahashi handles a variety of corporate matters with a particular focus on cross-border (both inbound and outbound) M&A transactions involving Japanese entities. He provides thorough and practical legal advice based on his experience of working in Singapore and Australia, as well as at a major securities firm in Japan.

Takahashi’s other major areas of practice encompass domestic M&A deals including public deals, joint venture/ start-ups, general corporate, anti-trust and commercial contracts. He also regularly advises on labor and dispute resolution matters for domestic and overseas clients.

Takahashi is a graduate of Columbia Law School (LL.M., 2013) and the University of Tokyo (LLB, 2006), and is admitted as a lawyer in Japan and New York. He has an experience of working for an M&A advisory department of a major securities firm in Japan as a secondee, and was associated with Clayton Utz, Sydney, Australia, for one year. He also worked at the Singapore Office of Anderson Mori & Tomotsune from 2015 to 2016, before he returned to Tokyo.

 Speaking session 

Deal making lessons learned from the Covid-19 crisis

Friday, June 19 - 11.30-12.30 HKT

Peter Wittmann

Managing director, Asia-IO

Peter Wittmann is a managing director with Asia-IO, the international investment office of ACE Equity Partners, a Korean-headquartered private equity manager.

Wittmann has more than 20 years’ experience in technology and technology investments, particularly in Asia and Europe where he worked for some of the most renowned investors in this space. In Asia, Wittmann has been focusing on cross-border technology transactions, having worked for some of China’s largest investors in this field, including the international investment arm of Tsinghua’s TUS Holding (AUM US$ 30 Billion) and outbound private equity firm Sailing Capital. Prior to that, Wittmann has been working in venture capital for Fraunhofer, Germany’s premier government research institution. He remains a venture partner with FTTF, Fraunhofer’s newly launched VC focusing on research-driven technology transfer. He started his career with BMW Group where he worked on numerous transformative global supply chain projects for more than seven years.

Wittmann holds an MBA from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and an MSc in Computer Science from TUM Germany.

 Speaking session 

M&A outlook and opportunities in the wake of unprecedented times

Monday, June 15 - 11.00-12.00 HKT

Eric Xin

Senior managing director, managing partner, private equity, CITIC Capital

Biography coming soon.

 Speaking session 

M&A outlook and opportunities in the wake of unprecedented times

Monday, June 15 - 11.00-12.00 HKT

Stanley Yang

EVP, head of Group M&A, First Pacific

Stanley Yang received a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He oversees the Group’s corporate development activities including mergers and acquisitions, strategic investments, joint ventures, and other portfolio company growth initiatives. Prior to joining First Pacific, Yang worked at Deutsche Bank where he led investment banking coverage for the diversified industrial sector in Asia. He also previously served as a director in Deutsche Bank’s mergers and acquisitions department, where he advised clients on mergers and acquisitions, divestitures and leveraged investment transactions in Asia and the United States. Yang began his career in New York where he gained transaction experience in principal investments and investment banking. He joined First Pacific in 2013 and is currently a Director of PacificLight Power.

 Speaking session 

Getting private equity deals done in a brave new world

Thursday, June 18 - 10.00-11.00 HKT