Executive Officers

Stephen CuUnjieng, 62
Co-Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Financial Officer

He is a senior financier and board member with deep relationships throughout Asia within the financial sponsor, entrepreneur, and corporate communities. From 2011 to 2020, Mr. CuUnjieng served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Evercore Asia, a subsidiary of Evercore Inc. (NYSE: EVR), a global independent investment banking advisory firm. At Evercore, Mr. CuUnjieng built up Evercore’s Asian franchise from scratch as the first employee; under Mr. CuUnjieng’s leadership, within five years the franchise was recognized as Best Independent Advisory Firm in Asia by The Asset in 2016. Prior to Evercore, Mr. CuUnjieng was at Macquarie Group from 2004 to 2009, where he most recently served as Vice Chairman—Association of Southeast Asian Nations (“ASEAN”). While Mr. CuUnjieng was at Macquarie Group, they were awarded the Best Smaller Investment Bank in Asia and Best Equities House in the Philippines from EuroMoney, and Best Foreign Investment Bank in the Philippines from FinanceAsia in 2005. Mr. CuUnjieng was also a Managing Director and Head of Power and Energy at Merrill Lynch Asia Pacific, from 1996 to 2000, and has held senior investment banking positions at Salomon Brothers Hong Kong, Morgan Grenfell Asia, and PCIBank (formerly PSE: PCI). During an illustrious career spanning over 35 years, Mr. CuUnjieng has advised on numerous transactions for both financial sponsors and corporate clients, winning multiple Deal of the Year awards by Finance Asia, The Asset, The Banker, and several other leading financial services publications in Asia. These include awards for advising SM Investments Corporation (PSE: SM), a Philippines conglomerate with operations in retail, banking, and property development, on its $530 million initial public offerings, San Miguel Corporation (PSE: SMC), a Filipino multinational publicly listed food, beverage, and packaging conglomerate, on its acquisition of 49% plus management control of Philippine Airlines (a trading name of PAL Holdings, Inc.) (PSE: PAL), Udenna Corporation, a Philippines-based holding company, on the acquisition of 2Go Group, Inc. (PSE: 2GO), and Century Pacific Food, Inc. (PSE: CNPF) (“Century Pacific Food”), one of Philippines’ largest consumer enterprises, on the acquisition of Shakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures, Inc. (formerly PHS: PIZZA). Mr. CuUnjieng is a trusted advisor, having led transactions throughout Asia for over 35 years while maintaining lasting relationships with companies over the long-term. Mr. CuUnjieng has advised AvePoint, Inc. (Nasdaq: AVPT) (“AvePoint”), a leading SaaS company focused on digital collaboration innovations, starting from 2019, when he helped facilitate their $200mm Series C. After the Series C, Mr. CuUnjieng joined the board of directors in February 2020, and guided AvePoint as it considered going public via an IPO or a SPAC merger, advising AvePoint on its eventual merger with Apex Technology Acquisition Corp. (formerly Nasdaq: APXT) and entrance into the public markets at an approximate $2 billion valuation with a $140 million PIPE in July 2021. AvePoint’s implied equity value as of December 2019 was around $540 million and during Mr. CuUnjieng’s tenure, AvePoint’s shareholder value increased approximately 3.7 times at the close of the merger with APXT. Mr. CuUnjieng helped mentor the team on preparing for the public markets and continues to offer guidance as a trusted board member. Mr. CuUnjieng currently serves on a number of additional public and private boards of directors, including First Philippine Holdings Corporation (PSE: FPH), a holding company that invests in industries such as healthcare, education, construction, real estate clean and renewable energy, since 2018, Phoenix Petroleum Philippines (PSE: PNX), an independent oil company in the Philippines, since 2015, Century Properties Group, a Philippines-based real estate development company, since 2015, and Golden Springs Group, an agriculture and healthcare investment company, since 2019. Mr. CuUnjieng has also served on the Wharton School of Business’s Executive Advisory Board for Asia since 2015. Mr. CuUnjieng earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ateneo De Manila University, a LL.B. (Philippine equivalent to J.D.) from Ateneo School of Law and M.B.A from the Wharton School of Business from the University of Pennsylvania.

Christopher Po, 51
Co-Chairman

Mr. Po is currently the Executive Chairman of Century Pacific Food (PSE: CNPF), one of Philippines’ largest consumer enterprises that has global presence across Southeast Asia, U.S., Europe, Japan, and the Middle East, and has been since 2015, and also serves as Chairman of Century Pacific Group, Inc., the investment holding company of Century Pacific Food and a diverse mix of businesses, since 2020. Previously, Mr. Po served as President in 2007 and then Chief Executive Officer of Century Pacific Food from 2013 to 2018. During Mr. Po’s tenure as Chief Executive Officer, Century Pacific Food successfully expanded and diversified the business into meat, dairy and other businesses throughout several geographies. Furthermore, Mr. Po concurrently spearheaded the company’s initial public listing onto the Philippine Stock Exchange in 2014 and secured a pivotal partnership with GIC Private Limited (“GIC”), Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, as a minority investor, raising a combined total of nearly $150 million which valued the company at $600 million; this transaction was awarded Deal of the Year for the Philippines by The Asset. As CEO and later as Executive Chairman in 2018, Mr. Po continued to grow the company’s revenue at a CAGR of 12% from $448 million in 2013 to over $1 billion in the last twelve months as of September 30, 2021, and delivered more than 200% increase in shareholder value from IPO through the end of 2021, per Century Pacific Food investor relations filings and FactSet market data and currency conversions. Prior to his leadership roles with Century Pacific Food, Mr. Po served as a Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners, a global investment and advisory financial services firm, from 2002 to 2006, where he set up the Asian office in Hong Kong. From 2000 to 2002, Mr. Po was the Head of Strategic Planning and Business Development at JG Summit Holdings, Inc. (“JG Summit”) (PSE: JGS), one of the largest conglomerates in Asia with interests across airline, financial services, food production, petrochemicals and property. Prior to JG Summit, Mr. Po worked as a management consultant at McKinsey and Company’s Hong Kong and Manila offices from 1998 to 2000 and focused on corporate finance, financial strategy, and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Po has served as the Chairman of Shakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures Inc. (PSE: PIZZA), Philippines’ largest operator of chained full-service restaurants, since 2016, where he led the acquisition and eventual IPO together with Arran Investments Pte. Ltd., an affiliate of GIC, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore. Mr. Po has served on the board of directors of ArthaLand Corp (PSE: ALCO), a Philippines-based sustainable real estate development and leasing company, since 2011, AB Capital and Investment Corporation, an investment house focused on corporate finance, fixed-income securities dealership and fund management, since 2021, Maya Bank, a digital bank in the Philippines, since 2021, and Kraver’s Canteen, a cloud kitchen startup based in the Philippines, since 2022. Mr. Po also serves as a member of the board of trustees of Ateneo de Manila University and of Asia Society Philippines. Mr. Po graduated summa cum laude with a B.S.E. in Finance, Wharton School of Business and Bachelor in Applied Science, School of Engineering, University of Pennsylvania and M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Board of Directors

Lance Gokongwei, 55
Director

Mr. Gokongwei has served as Chief Executive Officer and director of JG Summit Holdings, Inc. (PSE: JGS), one of the largest conglomerates in Asia with interests across airline, financial services, food production, petrochemicals, and property, since 2018, and previously served as President and Chief Operating Officer from 2002 to 2018. Mr. Gokongwei has also served as President, CEO and director at Cebu Air, Inc. (PSE: CEB), a subsidiary of JG Summit Holdings, Inc., a Philippines-based low-cost airline company since 1997. He is currently the Chairman of Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. (PSE: RRHI), one of the largest multi-format retailers in the Philippines, since 2016, Universal Robina Corporation (PSE: URC), one of the largest branded consumer food and beverage product companies in the Philippines, previously serving as Chief Executive Officer from 2013 to 2018, Robinsons Land Corporation (PSE: RLC), a leading real-estate and mixed use developer, previously serving as Chief Executive Officer from 2012 to 2019 and as Vice Chairman and Deputy CEO before that, and Robinsons Bank, a commercial bank in the Philippines. Mr. Gokongwei also currently serves as a director on the boards of several public companies, including Oriental Petroleum and Minerals Corporation (PSE: OPM), an exploration and production company based in Philippines, since 1994, Singapore Land Group Ltd. (SGX: U06), a real estate company based in Singapore, since 1999, as Vice Chairman of Manila Electric Company (PSE: MER), an electric power distribution company based in Philippines, since 2013, as Chairman of Altus Property Ventures, Inc. (PSE: APVI), a real estate development company, since 2021, Shakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures Inc. (PSE: PIZZA), Philippines’ largest operator of chained full-service restaurants, since 2021, RL Commercial Reit (PSE:RCR), a Philippine-based real estate company and the largest REIT to list on the PSE, since 2021, and AB Capital and Investment Corporation, an investment house focused on corporate finance, fixed-income securities dealership and fund management, since 2021. Mr. Gokongwei earned a B.S.E. in Finance, Wharton School of Business and Bachelor in Applied Science, School of Engineering, University of Pennsylvania.

Ken Poon, 56
Director Nominee

Mr. Poon currently serves as Founding Partner of XCap Partners Limited, a boutique advisory firm specializing in advisory, origination and placement across equity and debt private markets in Asia. Previously, Mr. Poon served as the Head of Asia Pacific Capital Markets Origination at Citigroup Global Markets Asia Limited (“Citigroup”), leading the equity and debt capital markets, and acquisition finance businesses for all of Asia ex-Japan. Prior to Citigroup, Mr. Poon served as Managing Director and Head of Equity Capital Markets for Merrill Lynch (Asia Pacific) Limited. Mr. Poon has led a series of landmark transactions across the region, including Samsung Biologic’s US$2 billion IPO on the Korea Stock Exchange, Chungwha Telecom Taiwan’s US$1.6 billion IPO on the NYSE, TSMC’s US$2.0 billion registered ADR offering on the NYSE, and many more. He also advised on numerous billion-dollar capital raises for select multi-national and state-backed companies such as Korea Telecom (now KT Corporation, NYSE: KT), Quanta Computers Incorporated (TPE: 2382) and Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SGX: Z74). Mr. Poon is also the President, Co-Chief Investment Officer and a director at Summit Healthcare Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: SMIH), a blank check company focused on a business combination within the healthcare industry that completed its IPO in June 2021. Mr. Poon earned a Bachelor in Commerce (Finance) degree from the University of British Columbia, Canada.

Mohan Rajasooria, 45
Director Nominee

He is an experienced senior investment professional who has built deep relationships and expertise through a multi-decade career investing across all major Asian geographies, including both public and private markets and across multiple market cycles. Since 2016, Mr. Rajasooria has been the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Zaaba Capital, an Asian multi-strategy investment firm investing across India, Southeast Asia and other geographies within Asia. Prior to setting up Zaaba Capital, Mr. Rajasooria was a founding partner at Azentus Capital Management Ltd. (“Azentus”), a hedge fund, and was focused on global financials, credit, India and ASEAN investing. Prior to setting up Azentus, Mr. Rajasooria served as a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS) in the Principal Strategies group, where he was responsible for Capital Structure Arbitrage activities in Asia and helped manage the Asian Equity Long-Short business. From 2004 to 2007, Mr. Rajasooria served at the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, Khazanah Nasional Berhad (“Khazanah”), where he was part of the senior investments leadership team. At Khazanah, he was responsible for their regional financials and India investments, which spanned sectors including healthcare, financials, telecommunications and infrastructure. Mr. Rajasooria sat on several public and private company boards, including the Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited (NSE: IDFC). Mr. Rajasooria started his career at McKinsey & Company in 1997, working across Asia, Australia and Europe serving clients on issues ranging from strategy to corporate finance and operations. Mr. Rajasooria was born and raised in Malaysia and earned a B.Eng degree in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College, London, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.