Overview
Excelsior is managed by a group of partners most of whom have worked together for over 15 years. With professionals located in Hong Kong, Seoul and Ho Chi Minh City, Excelsior's investment team combines a broad and complementary array of legal, financial and operational skills with significant principal investing expertise. Professionals include Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese nationals with extensive experience and capability in their respective core markets. Investment professionals invest in portfolio companies alongside Excelsior's investors and take an active role in sourcing, monitoring and advising portfolio companies through Excelsior's collaborative approach.
Gary LawrenceChairman
 | Gary Lawrence is the Chairman and founder of Excelsior. He previously served on the Boards of Office Depot Korea, CJ Hello Co., Ltd. and DC Chemical in South Korea, Tony Wear (Shanghai) Fashion Co., Ltd in China, Sanlih E-Television and Tainan Enterprises in Taiwan, Zest Health Clubs and Downer EDI in Australia and Nation Multimedia Group in Thailand. Prior to Excelsior, Gary was a Managing Director in the Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking Group, based in Hong Kong. He also worked with Tiger Management in New York as a Managing Director, and prior to joining Tiger, was in the Mergers and Acquisitions Department of Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York. Prior to joining Goldman, Gary was an attorney with White & Case. He holds an L.L.B. from the McGill University Faculty of Law and a B.A. from Yale University. In addition, he received an M.A. from Oxford University, attending as Rhodes Scholar. In January 2005, Mr. Lawrence was selected by the National Collegiate Athletic Association as one of six NCAA Silver Anniversary Honorees, an award given annually to six former U.S. collegiate student-athletes who have made significant business and community contributions in the twenty-five years since graduation. |
Seungki MinManaging Partner
 | Seungki Min is the Managing Partner with Excelsior and is the Head of the Seoul office. He currently serves on the Board of Sunjin Control and Access and Office Depot Korea and serves as the CEO of Excel Financial Services in South Korea. Prior to joining Excelsior, Seungki was Senior Managing Director of Keystone Private Equity Korea. Before Keystone, he was the CEO of HTC Asset Management, a north Asia-focused investment business, and a Senior Managing Director with Hyundai Securities where he oversaw proprietary trading. Prior to this, Seungki was Senior Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of Heungkuk Financial Group, which included Heungkuk Life Insurance, the fire and marine insurance businesses, two mutual savings banks and Heungkuk Investment Management Trust. Earlier in his career, Seungki also worked at Salomon Smith Barney and Rothschild Asset Management. Seungki holds a B.A. in Business Administration and an M.A. in Financial Engineering from Korea University. |
John YangPartner
 | John Yang is a Partner with Excelsior. He currently serves on the Boards of Lida Holdings and Jinhua Edible Oil in Greater China and previously served on the Boards of Globe Union Industrial, Taiwan Green Point Sanlih E-Television, CKH Food & Health, Sunrex Technology, Ya Dong and United Pacific. Prior to Excelsior, John was an investment director of PrimePartners Asset Management Group, a private equity firm focused on the Asia Pacific Region. Prior to PrimePartners, John was an equity analyst at Cazenove Asia Limited, where he analyzed listed companies in China and Hong Kong. John also worked in the transaction support and audit departments of PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young in Hong Kong and Toronto, Canada. John holds a B.A. from the University of Toronto. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario, Canada and is qualified as Chartered Financial Analyst. |
Chinh Xuan HoangPartner
 | Chinh Hoang is the Managing Partner of Vietnam with Excelsior, based in Vietnam. He serves as a member of the Investment Committee. Prior to joining Excelsior, Chinh worked as a Managing Director of Kusto Investment Management, a global natural resources and agri-business investor, where he ran a number of domestic Vietnamese portfolio companies. Before Kusto, Chinh was a Director at Saigon Asset Management and before this, he was at Mekong Capital, a private equity firm focused on Vietnam investments, where he worked on, among other things, the Mobile World deal. Over his private equity career in Vietnam, Chinh has been actively involved in the investment of $141mn into 15 Vietnamese companies of which the majority have been realised or partially realised. Before private equity business, Chinh had seven years working for Ford Motor Company in Vietnam, where he was trained and worked as Six Sigma Black Belt, Lean/Process improvement specialist. Throughout his career, he has been an active investor, has been involved operationally in a number of businesses and has deep experience exiting investments including through listing on the HoChiMinhCity Stock Exchange and trade sales. Chinh has Engineering Degree and holds an MBA from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia. |
Michael KentSenior Advisor
 | Michael Kent is a Senior Advisor of Excelsior. He previously served on the Boards of InnoChips Technology and Galaxia Electronic in South Korea, Downer EDI and Zest Health Clubs in Australia and Indonesia Online in Indonesia. Prior to joining Excelsior, Michael was a consultant to Peregrine Direct Investments in Hong Kong and Australia. From 1980 to 1991, Michael served as Finance Director for the Adelaide Steamship Company Group, a large Australian based conglomerate. During his career at Adsteam, Michael was involved in numerous public market acquisitions, investments and divestments. During this period, he also served as a Director of a number of associated public companies in Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. Michael obtained a B.A. and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the Australian National University and an M.B.A. from the University of New South Wales. |
Jonathan ChungInvestment Partner and Senior Advisor
 | Jonathan Chung is Investment Partner and Senior Advisor to Excelsior and brings over 30 years of investment banking experience, providing advice to corporates and private equity firms. He is the Chairman of State Fortune Capital, a Hong Kong and China based advisory boutique that he co-founded in 2011. Jonathan has worked closely with Excelsior team members on numerous projects over the past twelve years. Prior to State Fortune Capital, Jonathan was Chairman of Standard Bank Asia responsible for origination. He was Managing Director at UBS heading Equity derivatives in Asia, and managed derivatives trading at Bankers Trust Company and Merrill Lynch. Jonathan holds a B.Soc.Sc in management from the University of Hong Kong and an MBA from the Columbia Business School. He is a charter-holder member of the CFA Institute. |
Kihong RyuManaging Director
 | Kihong Ryu is a Managing Director with Excelsior. He currently serves on the Board of Glotech in South Korea. Kihong has 20 years of investment and investment banking experience at various firms in the financial institution, asset management, and life insurance industries. Prior to joining Excelsior, he was a Managing Director at Keystone Private Equity Korea, where he was in charge of investment activities. Before Keystone, Kihong was responsible for managing the principal investment opportunities at Hyundai Securities. Prior to this, he managed variable life insurance funds at Heungkuk Life Insurance. Earlier in his career, he also worked at Regent Securities and Korea Long-Term Credit Bank Investment Trust. Kihong holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Yonsei University. |
Van NguyenManaging Director
 | Van Nguyen is a Managing Director with Excelsior based in Vietnam. Prior to joining Excelsior, she was the CEO and CIO of BIDV-Vietnam Partners Investment Management (“BVIM”) (known as BVIM Fund Management JSC since July 2019), a private equity investment company where she had worked for 15 years, having joined as an Investment Manager in 2006. Over her time at BVIM, Van was responsible for investing and monitoring investment opportunities primarily in the banking, insurance, consumer goods and retail sectors, serving on the Boards of several companies and helping investee company managements to develop business strategies, improve corporate governance and financial management, and recruit key persons. Prior to joining BVIM, Van worked for the Finance Department of the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand as a Senior Finance Officer, where she directly assisted the Chief Financial Officer in financial reporting and dealt with senior management of the Institute. Before that, Van was an International Banking Officer at the BIDV International Banking Department in Vietnam. Van obtained her Master of Finance degree from ESCP-EAP in France and an MBA from the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand. She is also a Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) and holds a Fund Management Certificate issued by the State Securities Commission of Vietnam. |
Dicken ChiuSenior Principal
 | Dicken Chiu is a Senior Principal with Excelsior. Prior to joining Excelsior, Dicken was a Business Development Manager of Dairy Farm, a member of the Jardine Matheson Group headquartered in Hong Kong. While with Dairy Farm, Dicken was responsible for projects involving business expansion through mergers and acquisitions and greenfield investments in the foodstuff and retail sectors. Prior to Dairy Farm, Dicken was a Manager in Ernst & Young's Hong Kong corporate finance group. He also worked for several years as an engineer with MTR Corporation. Dicken holds a Master of Engineering (First Class Honors) from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London, England. |
Jed BarronPrincipal
 | Jed Barron is a Principal with Excelsior in South Korea, bringing 20 years of international experience across multiple industries, analyzing investment opportunities and evaluating corporate strategy in a variety of financial, investment and advisory roles at global institutions. Prior to joining Excelsior, Jed was a Director at Accolade Inc, a Seoul-based advisory firm, where he focused on financial and investment strategy, cross border M&A deal sourcing, structuring and execution. Previously, Jed was an analyst at Fidelity Investments and sell-side analyst at Citigroup / Smith Barney and Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown in New York and Seoul. He began his career at Bankers Trust in New York after graduating from Boston University with a BSBA degree. He is a CFA Charterholder, Vice President of CFA Society Korea and Secretary of Boston University Alumni Association of Korea. |
Toan NguyenSenior Principal
 | Toan Nguyen is a Senior Principal with Excelsior and brings to the team 15 years of business experience in Vietnam and in the United States. Prior to joining Excelsior, he worked as Strategy and Investment Manager for Masan Group, Vietnam’s largest consumer-focused conglomerate. Before that, he was the Deputy CFO at Seedcom Group, a leading “new retail” group in Vietnam that invests in and operates various businesses across retail, technology and consumer goods segments. At Seedcom, Mr. Nguyen was responsible for initiating and executing strategic corporate M&A transactions in addition to being responsible for Group corporate finance, budget planning and subsidiary performance management. Prior to Seedcom, he was an Associate Director of M&A at KPMG Vietnam, responsible for sourcing and driving the execution of key M&A advisory projects across various sectors, including retail, F&B, manufacturing and technology. Before KPMG, Mr. Nguyen worked for Mekong Capital, where he was a key contributor to the investment into Nhat Tin Logistic, one of the leading B2B logistic providers in Vietnam. Before returning to Vietnam, he worked as an auditor for Ernst & Young in New York. He is qualified as a Certified Public Accountant® (CPA®), certified by US-based AICPA. Mr. Nguyen obtained his Bachelor in Accountancy degree from City University of New York, Baruch College |
Hahnsang SongPrincipal
 | Hahnsang Song is a Principal with Excelsior based in the Seoul office. Prior to joining Excelsior, Hahn was an Assistant Relationship Manager for Korean local conglomerates providing tailor-made structured financing solutions at Corporate & Intuitional Banking (CIB), Standard Chartered Bank Korea. He also worked as a Credit Risk Analyst at CIB Risk and an Account Manager at Group Special Asset Management working on portfolio management and distressed debt investments & managements in North East Asia. Hahn graduated with Dual Degree in Operation Research and Economics from Carnegie Mellon University and holds CAIA, FRM and ERP designations. |
Thanh NguyenESG and Compliance Officer
 | Thanh Nguyen is Excelsior’s ESG and Compliance Officer in Vietnam. Before joining Excelsior, she worked as CSR Consultant and Operations Manager at Srops Consulting, a local boutique advisory firm specializing in corporate social responsibility (CSR), environment social governance (ESG), and sustainability. Prior to Srops, she was a Senior Officer in charge of CSR implementation at the Vietnam manufacturing facilities of Hansoll Textile, a Korean textile producer. Thanh started her career as Assistant to the Production Manager at OPV, a Vietnamese pharmaceutical manufacturer, after earning a Bachelor degree in Business Administration from University of Economics in Ho Chi Minh City. In addition to Vietnamese and English, Thanh is also fluent in Korean. |
Nam TranPrincipal
 | Nam Tran is a Principal with Excelsior, based in Vietnam. Prior to joining Excelsior, Nam was a Deal Leader at Mekong Capital, a private equity firm focused on consumer-oriented investments, where he led various aspects of investments, from deal origination to value creation during post-investment. Before working in private equity, Nam spent five years at Techcombank's Financial Markets Division, dealing foreign exchange, financial derivatives and advising corporate clients in treasury management. Nam majored in Economics with Dual-degree from Foreign Trade University - Vietnam and Colorado State University - USA. In addition, he obtained MSc Banking & International Finance from University of Leeds - UK, attending as Chevening Scholar. |