Columbus Acquisition Corp

Columbus Acquisition Corp

Nov 15, 2024 by Anthony Sozzi

MANAGEMENT & BOARD


Executive Officers

Fen Zhang, 59
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors

Since June 2023, Dr. Zhang has served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Eureka Acquisition Corp (Nasdaq: EURK), a special purpose acquisition company listing on Nasdaq, which is currently in search of a target for its initial business combination. Dr. Zhang has been working at Hercules Capital Group as a founding partner since August 2021, being in charge of the large scale alternative financing solutions for major commercial endeavors. From March 2022 to February 2023, Dr. Zhang served as the Chief Executive Officer of Oak Woods Acquisition Corporation, a special purpose acquisition corporation listing on Nasdaq (Nasdaq: OAKU). He served at UBS from July 2019 to August 2021 as the managing director at UBS AG Hong Kong and then transferred to UBS Securities Shanghai office to led the IBD business. He was in charge of the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, or SMIC (0981.HK)’s US$230,000,000 convertible bonds project and US$500,000,000 investment grade debt issuance project, and has won mandates from Tuhu-a global car aftermarket leader backed by Tencent, Dragonfly FM-the top 2 audio app in China, and Keming Noodle (002661.SZ)-one of the largest noodle brands in China, etc. He has served as the executive director of Shanghai Lianjie Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd. since September 2018. From March 2018 to March 2019, Dr. Zhang was the managing director at the investment banking department of China Merchants Bank International, or CMBI, and, from July 2017 to January 2018, the general manager at SinoPharm-CICC Fund, where he successfully closed the fund project with a size of RMB500 million for China Reform Holdings Corporation Ltd, or the CRHC, one of the largest FOF in China, and a RMB10 billion sized joint fund project between CMBI and Shenzhen municipal government. Under his management, the bank achieved three (3) times ROI on the investment of RMB900 million into Yunda Express (002120.SZ), one of the top express parcel delivers in China. From July 2015 to May 2017, Dr. Zhang served at Oriental Fortune Capital, or OFC, as a partner and vice general manager, where he established OFC’s first US$50,000,000 fund and a joint fund between OFC and Chang Hong Group (600839.SS), a top leading manufacturer of television and other household electronics in China. From March 2012 to July 2015, Dr. Zhang served as a global partner at Capital International Private Equity Fund of the Capital Group, or CIPEF, one of the top long term investors in the world and the largest investor in emerging markets in Hong Kong office. During his work at CIPEF, he achieved a high hit rate on deal closings and initialed and carried out various domestic and cross-border large-sized projects. From July 2010 to March 2012, he served at Credit Suisse as a managing director in IBD China team, where as a sector leader, he led the team on several elephant deals such as China Minmetals Resources (1208.HK), China Railway Logistics, Shandong Iron and Steel Group (600022.SS), XGMG, PICC Property and Casualty Company (2328.HK), etc., as well as other projects in large-tomid-cap IPOs and structured lending and bond issuances. From July 2007 to July 2008, Dr. Zhang served at China International Capital Corporation, or CICC as an executive director, and then at UBS from July 2008 to July 2010 as an executive director in its IBD business sector, where he was responsible for several U.S. and Hong Kong IPO and bond issuance projects as well as reorganization and listing projects. His IPO clients included China Industries Securities (601377.SS), China Spring Airline (601021.SS), Shaangu Power (601369.SS), etc. He also established and developed UBS Shanghai from scratch into a rep office and then evolved into a China CSRC-certified branch. From July 2005 to July 2007, Dr. Zhang served at Deloitte Consulting as an equity partner. He established and managed the Deloitte S&O (strategy and operations consulting) business sector and developed the Deloitte China S&O sector into the first joint venture between Deloitte US and Deloitte China. From May 1995 to July 2005, he served at Bank of Montreal in Toronto of Canada as an analyst, as well as at China eLabs as a consultant and BearingPoint Management Consulting as a senior manager.


Jie Hu, 31
Chief Financial Officer

Ms. Hu has comprehensive financial expertise and extensive experience in investment and financial operations. Since April 2021, Ms. Hu has served as the investment manager and vice president of Hercules Capital Group. From March 2020 to March 2021, Ms. Hu served as the controller at Xi’an Jiaotong – Liverpool University, where she was responsible for internal controls and compliance, strategic financial planning and budgeting and forecasting. From October 2018 to March 2020, Ms. Hu worked as an audit associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Suzhou, China, where she participated in audit work in corporate restructuring, initial public offerings, as well as reporting and statutory auditing for multinational firms and investment companies. Ms. Hu obtained a Master of Science Degree in Accountancy from Bernard M. Baruch College of the City University of New York and a Bachelor Degree in Administration from Sichuan University in China.



Board of Directors

M. Anthony Wong, 70
Director

Dr. Wong has served as the independent director of Eureka Acquisition Corp (Nasdaq: EURK) since July 2024. Since August 2024, Dr. Wong served as the director of TWCO Capital Management Limited. Since January 2024, Dr. Wong served as the president at Intelligaze Tech Development Corp Limited, providing capital markets consulting services. From January 2021 to December 2023, Dr. Wong is head of international equities division at Red Solar Capital Ltd. From January 2017 to December 2020, Mr. Wong served as the chief executive officer of Wearables Investment Holdings. He started his career as a faculty member of the MIT Sloan School of Management, and was a founding member of the MIT Media Lab and MIT Statistics Center. Dr. Wong was one of the earliest quantitative analysts on the Wall Street. He was the author of two financial texts, Fixed Income Arbitrage and Trading and Investing in Bond Options. Dr. Wong was also one of the executives who participated in the establishment of the Morningside Group in Hong Kong in 1993 and has been active in the capital markets since then. In recent years, Dr. Wong has focused his professional efforts on assisting international high-tech commercial projects in their alignment with the capital markets of Hong Kong and the United States. Dr. Wong holds a Ph.D. degree in Statistics & Data Science from Yale University.


Qian Xu, 42
Director

Ms. Xu has more than 10 years’ experience in the financial markets as an investment banker, specializing in US-China cross border transactions. Since November 2024, Ms. Xu has served as the independent director of Horizon Space II, a blank check compamy listing on Nasdaq (Nasdaq: HSPT). Since March 2023, Ms. Xu served as the independent director of Hongli Group Inc. (Nasdaq: HLP), one of the leading cold roll formed steel profile manufacturers with operating subsidiaries in China. Since October 2018, Ms. Xu has served as the founder of HB International Consulting LLC, a firm providing business consulting and financial advisory services. From November 2008 to October 2018, Ms. Xu worked at TriPoint Global Equities LLC (“TriPoint”), an investment banking firm, as an analyst (November 2008 to April 2013), the vice president of investment banking (from April 2013 to May 2017) and the senior vice president (from May 2017 to October 2018), leading effort of the US-China cross border investment, mergers & acquisitions, and initial public offerings. Ms. Xu received her Bachelor’s degree in Telecommunication Engineering from Sun Yat-Sen (Zhongshan) University in 2004 and a Master’s degree in Economics from New York University in 2009.


Kevin McKenzie, 51
Director 

Mr. McKenzie has over 20 years’ global private equity experience in leading firms in the market. Mr. McKenzie has served as the independent director of Eureka Acquisition (Nasdaq: EURK) since July 2024. Since 2024, Mr. McKenzie is a partner of Lakeshore Investors Ltd., a global life sciences private equity firm based in Switzerland, where he leads the firm’s management and investment processes across a range of global transactions. Since 2018, Mr. McKenzie has served as Chairman and President at Alpex Pharma, where he oversees the overall operations of the consolidated company and leads its efforts in developing and implementing strategic plans. Mr. McKenzie has served as a senior partner at RiverWest Capital, a proprietary capital investment firm since 2011, where he is responsible for overall management. From 2006 to 2011, Mr. McKenzie was a senior partner at MKW Capital, a venture capital firm. From 2003 to 2006, Mr. McKenzie was a Vice President at Cerberus Capital Management Asia focused on distressed investing, restructuring, special situations and turnarounds. From 2001 to 2003, he worked at Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund (MSREF) and participated in a groundbreaking series of distressed debt portfolios sold in China by state-owned banks. From 1998 to 2001, Mr. McKenzie worked at the Bank of China and executed a number of syndicated acquisition bridge and term loan financings. Prior to that, Mr. McKenzie worked at the China office of the Royal Bank of Canada from 1997 to 1998. Mr. McKenzie holds an MBA in finance from Wharton Business School and an M.A. degree in Management & International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.