AAAIM High ELI The Association of Asian American Investment Managers (AAAIM)

Our guest for today’s podcast is Alka Goel, Founding Partner of Alkemi Growth Capital, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage healthcare and wellness focused companies based in Delhi. Alkemi became operational in 2018 and since then has committed to 10 companies in diverse sub-sectors such as hygiene, diagnostics, pharma supply chain, women’s reproduction, data digitization, etc. Prior to Alkemi, Alka was a partner in McKinsey’s global pharma and medical device practice & private equity practice based out of New York. At McKinsey, she worked for more than 100+ health care companies, advising them on a range of business issues - including M&A, go to market, operations, and organization. She completed her MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad in 2000 and BA (Economics) from Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi University.
 
Alka’s mission for Alkemi is to elevate the Health and Well-Being of the Indian consumer while maximizing returns to our shareholders.  Alkemi is interested in passionate entrepreneurs who are inspired by a vision, have boldness in their DNA, are not afraid of taking a few punches, persevere under uncertainty and most importantly build companies that can make an out-sized difference to consumer wellness and healthcare industry.

Joining me on the podcast as co-host is Agnes Tan, who is a 2nd year MBA student at Columbia Business School.  Agnes spent her pre-business school career in Private Equity in the Phillipines and will be co-hosting/hosting a handful of podcasts on behalf of AAAIM in the coming weeks.
 
So what does it take to launch a venture capital firm despite not having a prior track record and how did Alka persevere and secure institutional capital?  Alka shares her approach on this podcast. Without further ado, please enjoy our interview with Alka Goel.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Eunice McHugh, Director of Private Credit at San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System (“SFERS”).  Eunice is responsible for the buildout and management of the Private Credit portfolio, which has a 10% target allocation for the fund.  Eunice has led SFERS' Private Credit efforts (initially as part of the Fixed Income portfolio) since she joined SFERS in early 2013.  Under Eunice’s leadership, the Private Credit portfolio has delivered an annual return of 11% over the past decade, surpassing its benchmark by over 500 bps. 
 
SFERS’ Private Credit portfolio is comprised of multiple alternative credit and credit-related strategies. These include investments in direct lending, mezzanine, credit opportunities, specialty finance including asset-based lending/structured credit and real assets-related credit, real estate debt, distressed/special situations, and other opportunistic strategies. In addition, SFERS’ Private Credit program is a global portfolio with investments across the U.S., Europe, Asia, Latin America, and other emerging markets. Eunice is responsible for portfolio construction and leads investment research, due diligence, and manager selection across all these opportunities.

Joining me on the podcast as co-host is Sylvia Owens who is a Partner at Kennedy Lewis Investment Management, an opportunistic credit manager focusing on event-driven situations in which a catalyst may unlock investment value.
So what does it take to lead one of the top Private Credit portfolios in the business?  Well, Eunice was gracious enough to spend the time with us to share her story.  Without further ado, please enjoy our interview with Eunice McHugh.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Jonathan Xiong, former Asia-Pacific Co-CEO of Millennium.  After a 20+ year career in portfolio management working for some of the top investment houses in the business including Millennium, GSAM, Mellon Capital and Franklin Templeton, Jonathan has taken the bold step to start his own asset management business.
 
I was intrigued with Jonathan’s background after reading a Bloomberg article about him launching his own Asia multi-strategy fund. The platform model is dominated by the largest and most well established firms like Millennium, Citadel, and Point 72.  How could a small guy enter the market and compete with the Goliath’s in the business?
 
Well, I wanted to know and Jonathan was ready to share his story.  Without further ado, please enjoy our interview with Jonathan Xiong.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Amanda Moore, CEO and Co-Founder of Aurora Peak Capital, a mission-driven investment firm, dedicated to alleviating the U.S. housing affordability crisis through investments in below market-rate multifamily housing communities.
 
Amanda's first home in the United States was an affordable housing complex in Los Angeles County. Her family were Vietnam war refugees who were rescued by the U.S. Airforce from refugee camps and flown to California and placed in a Section 8 community. Amanda is grateful for the Section 8 housing complex because it filled her childhood with happy memories where her family had a safe and beautiful environment with a strong sense of community. Amanda is on a mission to ensure affordable housing parallels her childhood experience: provide low -income families a safe environment where they are proud to call home and can thrive against the backdrop of a housing crisis: lack of affordable, safe, and quality housing.
 
Amanda has over 20 years of real estate experience, starting her career as an underwriter and then transitioning to become a capital raiser for Starwood Capital’s notable opportunistic global funds, covering Asia and U.S. institutional investors.
 
So what does it take to launch your own real estate investment firm?  Authenticity, passion, and a fearless, kick-ass leader in Amanda Moore.  Without further ado, here is our podcast with Amanda Moore.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Soo Kim, Managing Partner and CIO of Standard General, an investment firm he started in 2007.  Soo also serves as Chairman of Bally's Corporation.

Soo has been investing in special situations strategies since 1997, including as co-founder of Cyrus Capital Partners from 2005 to 2007 and at Och-Ziff Capital Management from 1999 to 2005, where he was a Principal and co-founder of its fixed income business. Before joining Och-Ziff, he was an analyst for the Capital Management Group at Bankers Trust Company from 1997 to 1999.

Soo holds an A.B. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and is a graduate of Stuyvesant High School, one of the top public high schools in New York City.  I always learn a lot whenever I interact with Soo so I know the audience will get a lot from this conversation.  Joining me on the podcast as co-host is Mike Kim, CIO of Lalia Capital, a single family office focused on private investments.  Without further ado, here is our conversation with Soo Kim.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Eva Ho, General Partner of Fika Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm that invests in founders solving meaningful, systemic problems through the use of data, related AI-enabled technologies, and automation. While this horizontal thesis allows Fika Ventures to be fairly sector agnostic, the firm is especially drawn to innovations in enterprise software, fintech, marketplaces, and digital health.  Fika is investing out of their Fund III and has committed capital of over $300 million life to date.
 
Prior to Fika, Eva was a founding GP at Susa Ventures. She is a serial entrepreneur and founder, most recently a founding executive at Factual, a leading location data provider in Los Angeles. Prior, she was a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Google and Youtube for 5 years. Prior to Google, she was the head of marketing for Applied Semantics, a company that sold to Google in 2003.
Eva holds an MBA from Cornell and a BA from Harvard.  Eva also graduated from one of the top high schools in the country, Boston Latin School.  And for those listeners who know me, I am biased as that is my high school.  In fact, Eva and I were high school classmates and we took many of the same AP classes together back in the day!
 
So, how does one get their start to becoming a great venture capitalist?  There isn’t a clear answer, but I know our listeners will get a lot from this interview.  Without further ado, here is our conversation with Eva Ho.