2024 Malaysia Institutional Investor Roundtable

May Cheong

Senior Vice President, Investments, Khazanah Nasional Berhad

May oversees Khazanah’s External Fund Programme especially in Public Markets spanning across various markets and styles. She was one of the founding team members for Khazanah’s Public Markets division and was instrumental in operationalising and institutionalising the division since 2019.

Before taking up her role in Public Markets, she was covering the country’s Semicon supply chain in the northern region, and spent a decade in Corporate Finance and Equity Capital Markets advising companies on transactions and capital structure, and successfully led several of Asia’s award-winning IPOs. Her diverse career encompasses roles as accountant at the start of her career and more than 15Ys experiences in the equity space spanning public equity, private equity and VC in both sell and buy side.

May is a CFA Charter holder, CIPM designation holder and holds a BSc in Actuarial Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Thomas Deinet

Executive Director, SBAI

Thomas Deinet was appointed Executive Director of the SBAI (previously known as the HFSB) in 2008. In 2007, Thomas joined the working group to project manage the development of practice standards proposed by 14 leading international alternative investment managers that led to the establishment of the SBAI.

Prior to joining the SBAI, he was a senior manager at Oliver Wyman, where he extensively worked with major financial institutions in Europe covering asset management as well as corporate and investment banking. Thomas also worked as an analyst in energy trading for a major commodities trading firm.

Thomas is a graduate of the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, with a major in industrial engineering and holds an MSc from Purdue University, USA. Thomas is a CFA charterholder.

Hisham Hamdan

Chief Investment Officer , Khazanah Nasional Berhad

Hisham Hamdan joined Khazanah in April 2011 from Sime Darby Berhad. He was appointed as Khazanah’s Chief Investment Officer (CIO) in March 2024, In addition to his role as CIO, he has also led Public Markets since 2018, which has a mandate to invest in more than 10 countries worldwide. Prior to Public Markets, he was responsible for the Auto, Agrifood and Iskandar Malaysia in Khazanah’s portfolio and served as Executive Director of Research. Datuk Hisham also serves as the Chairman of UEM Group and UEM Sunrise and the Board of Trustees of the Khazanah Research Institute.

He has over 30 years of working experience in senior leadership and board positions. His expertise spans a variety of corporate structures, encompassing businesses in various sectors and multiple countries. During his career, he spent 12 years in the capital markets, focusing on equity research and investment banking, working with various international investment banks.

During his tenure at Sime Darby, he served in various capacities since 2004, covering strategy and business development, healthcare, energy and utilities, and China. Previously, he held the position of Chairman of UDA Holdings Berhad, a member of the Board of Directors of Iskandar Investments Berhad, and a member of the Board of ValueCap.

He holds two degrees in Chemical Engineering and Industrial Management from Purdue University, United States. He has also attended the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Programme.

Wai Leng Leong

MD & Regional Head of Asia Pacific , CDPQ

Leong Wai Leng is responsible for the regional management of CDPQ Global in Asia Pacific. Based in Singapore, she coordinates all CDPQ activities in the region and ensures optimal positioning and outreach. CDPQ has offices in Singapore, New Delhi, Shanghai and Sydney in the Asia Pacific region.

Ms. Leong has over 30 years of experience in the finance and banking sectors, including 13 years in China, where she built a commercial banking business from the ground up. She has an extensive business network in China and in South-East Asia, including in Singapore. Over the course of her career, she has worked in both the buy and sell sides of the industry, in developed and developing financial markets.

Before joining CDPQ in 2018 as Managing Director, Strategic Partnerships, Asia, Ms. Leong was Managing Director and Head of Business Management Unit at the Bank of Singapore, a wholly owned subsidiary of OCBC Bank. Prior to that, she was the Chairman and CEO of OCBC Bank (China). In 2010, she became the first banker from a non-Japanese Asian bank to win a Gold Magnolia Award, one of the highest recognitions from the Shanghai government. Perhaps most noteworthy was the fact it was the Chinese regulatory body, CBRC (Central Banking Regulatory Commission), that nominated her for this award.

Ms. Leong was also Managing Director and Head of Corporate and Institutional Banking at HSBC China. Previously, she held senior positions at multinational corporations such as Philips Electronics China Group, as well as at JP Morgan Bank and at Citibank, in Singapore.

Trevor Persaud

Group Head of Investment Strategy and Solutions, AIA Group Limited

Mr Persaud is Head of Investment Strategy and Solutions for the AIA Group where he is responsible for Strategic and Tactical Asset Allocation, Derivative Strategies, Private Market Strategy, New Investment Product Development, Portfolio Construction Oversight and Quantitative Investments.

Prior to joining AIA, Trevor worked with a number of large insurers, asset managers and other asset owners in the region as an independent consultant. He left Standard Chartered Bank at the end of 2017, where he was responsible for their Commercial and Institutional Banking business (Financial Markets, Transaction Banking and Corporate Finance) for Insurers across Asia.

Mr Persaud is a trusted investment advisor to many of the leading Insurers and Asset Owners in the region and has a distinguished 28 year career spanning Banking, Asset Management, Insurance and Consulting globally with the last 14 years in Asia. Prior to Standard Chartered, Mr Persaud held senior investment roles at Stradegi (a specialist investment consultancy), Russell Investments (leading their business in ASEAN, HK and Taiwan, focused on multi asset outcome oriented investments, strategic and tactical asset allocation and investment governance advisory for asset owners and in particular insurance companies), Prudential, Insight and Schroders (where he had been responsible for their Investment Risk and Performance Globally) and MSCI.

Mr Persaud is a Chartered Management Accountant, has been conferred the Distinguished Fellow designation by the Institute of Banking and Finance in Singapore and is a past Chair of the Global Investment Performance Standards Executive committee. He is also an advisor to the Investment Management Association of Singapore and Chair of their Risk and Performance committee and is actively involved in industry efforts to promote and further innovation, best practice and transparency in Investment management.

Thomas Deinet

Executive Director, SBAI

Thomas Deinet was appointed Executive Director of the SBAI (previously known as the HFSB) in 2008. In 2007, Thomas joined the working group to project manage the development of practice standards proposed by 14 leading international alternative investment managers that led to the establishment of the SBAI.

Prior to joining the SBAI, he was a senior manager at Oliver Wyman, where he extensively worked with major financial institutions in Europe covering asset management as well as corporate and investment banking. Thomas also worked as an analyst in energy trading for a major commodities trading firm.

Thomas is a graduate of the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, with a major in industrial engineering and holds an MSc from Purdue University, USA. Thomas is a CFA charterholder.

Thomas Deinet

Executive Director, SBAI

Thomas Deinet was appointed Executive Director of the SBAI (previously known as the HFSB) in 2008. In 2007, Thomas joined the working group to project manage the development of practice standards proposed by 14 leading international alternative investment managers that led to the establishment of the SBAI.

Prior to joining the SBAI, he was a senior manager at Oliver Wyman, where he extensively worked with major financial institutions in Europe covering asset management as well as corporate and investment banking. Thomas also worked as an analyst in energy trading for a major commodities trading firm.

Thomas is a graduate of the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, with a major in industrial engineering and holds an MSc from Purdue University, USA. Thomas is a CFA charterholder.

Charmaine Chin

Managing Director , Blackstone

Charmaine Chin is a Managing Director in Blackstone Multi-Asset Investing (BXMA) and the Head of Asia Manager Selection. Ms. Chin is based in Singapore and leads BXMA’s investment activities across Asia.

Before joining Blackstone, Ms. Chin worked at Fullerton Fund Management in Singapore where she was involved in managing a global portfolio of hedge funds, private equity and private credit funds. She also led due diligence for co-investments and late-stage growth investments. Prior to Fullerton, Ms. Chin spent 12 years as a Partner and Managing Director at K2 Advisors in New York, part of Franklin Templeton’s Alternatives division. There she oversaw all of K2’s investments in Asia, as well as all investments globally in credit and event-driven strategies. Prior to K2, Ms. Chin worked at Goldman Sachs in the Special Situations Group, focused on opportunistic investing across equities and credit.

Ms. Chin began her career in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs in New York and Hong Kong. Ms. Chin received a BA from Harvard University, where she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

William Chow

Investment Officer, Singlife

William Chow began his investment career in 1996, primarily on the buy-side. As an Investment Officer at Singlife, he oversees portfolio management and external manager selection for public and private investments, in particular private credit and infrastructure equity. His diverse career encompasses roles as an equity portfolio manager, fund of hedge funds portfolio manager, and positions at various banks, insurers, and manager research firm across London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore.

William holds a PhD in Finance from the University of Reading, UK, and is a CFA and CAIA Charterholder.

Atul Lele

Head of Strategist Group, Bridgewater Associates

Atul Lele joined Bridgewater in 2018 as a Portfolio Strategist and is responsible for leading the Portfolio Strategist group. A senior member of the research group, Atul works closely with our Co-CIOs, and also partners with Bridgewater’s clients on their most important investment priorities, including developing investment strategies to meet their goals and providing insight into the research group’s thinking on global markets and economic conditions.

Atul is a 20+ year investment industry veteran. Prior to joining Bridgewater, Atul spent five years as the CIO of Deltec International Group, where he was responsible for their investment management and advisory activities, focusing on the investment strategy, portfolio management and analytical processes behind the firm’s strategic and tactical global macro funds. In this role, Atul was the primary author of the firm’s global macro research publications, with a specific focus on the interaction of global growth, liquidity conditions and asset prices. Prior to that, Atul spent five years as the Head of Strategy, Economics and Quantitative Research for Credit Suisse Australia, where his research was top ranked by clients and external surveys over multiple years. Before that, he spent eight years as a Portfolio Manager and Partner at White Funds Management, a multi-asset class investment manager, where Atul focused on Equities, Listed Real Assets and Credit. Atul has regularly appeared in the financial media and in investment-related books.

He is also a CFA charterholder and holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting and Finance from the University of New South Wales.

Ashish Tiwari

MD, Head of Alternatives Partnerships, APAC, PIMCO

Mr. Tiwari is a managing director and head of alternative partnerships for the Asia-Pacific region. He also leads product strategy for PIMCO’s discretionary hedge fund business.

Prior to his current role, he led the firm's client solutions and analytics efforts for the Americas and served as the lead product strategist for asset allocation and alternative risk premia strategies.

Prior to joining PIMCO in 2008, Mr. Tiwari held roles in investment banking, product management, and engineering in the technology sector and has 21 years of investment experience. 

Thomas Deinet

Executive Director, SBAI

Thomas Deinet was appointed Executive Director of the SBAI (previously known as the HFSB) in 2008. In 2007, Thomas joined the working group to project manage the development of practice standards proposed by 14 leading international alternative investment managers that led to the establishment of the SBAI.

Prior to joining the SBAI, he was a senior manager at Oliver Wyman, where he extensively worked with major financial institutions in Europe covering asset management as well as corporate and investment banking. Thomas also worked as an analyst in energy trading for a major commodities trading firm.

Thomas is a graduate of the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, with a major in industrial engineering and holds an MSc from Purdue University, USA. Thomas is a CFA charterholder.

Adam Kamyar

Head of MENA & APAC, Winton

Adam is responsible for Winton’s business development in the Middle East & APAC. This includes institutional and wholesale client relationships and regional product development. Adam also serves as the Senior Executive Officer for Winton Capital Management (Abu Dhabi).

Adam joined Winton in 2006 and worked in senior trading roles in the London and Hong Kong offices before taking up his current role and relocating to Abu Dhabi in 2019. Adam also held the role Head of Hedge Funds and Asset Managers, APAC at the CME Group in Hong Kong between 2013-2015 before returning to Winton.

Adam holds various academic and industry qualifications, including an Executive MBA from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in Finance and Investment from Bayes Business School, University of London & the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology.

Rebekah Pang

Head of Investor Relations, Astignes Capital

Rebekah Pang has over 20 years of experience in the financial services sector, with a focus on hedge and alternative investments. Currently, she serves as the Head of Investor Relations at Astignes Capital, an alternative investment management firm based in Singapore, where she is responsible for managing investor relations for the firm’s liquid macro strategies.

Prior to her current role, Rebekah was Managing Director and Head of Hedge Fund Sales and Capital Introductions for APAC at Société Générale based in HK and Singapore. She has also held positions as an allocator focusing on Asian hedge funds at KBC Alpha (now PAAMCO) and as an analyst and sales professional at JPMorgan in Sydney.

Rebekah is an active member of the Development Committee for AIMA Singapore and is Head of the Executive Committee for the Singapore Chapter of the Chartered Alternative Investment Association.

She holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Sydney University, postgraduate qualifications in Applied Finance, an MBA from Kellogg/HKUST, and is a CFA and CAIA Charterholder.

Benjamin Pollock

Chief Operating Officer, Jasper Capital Hong Kong Ltd

Benjamin Pollock is Chief Operating Officer at Jasper Capital Hong Kong Limited. In this role he leads the daily operations of the firm and oversees the strategy and development of the offshore business . He was formerly Head of Business Development and Investor Relations at Jasper Capital Hong Kong Limited.

Prior to joining Jasper Capital in March 2017, Mr. Pollock was Senior Vice President at CEBM Group, a Shanghai-headquartered macroeconomic research and consultancy firm. Prior to CEBM, Mr. Pollock spent over five years living in China where he studied China’s real estate sector and macroeconomy as a Property Sector Research Analyst at Cushman Wakefield (previously known as DTZ).

Mr. Pollock holds a master’s degree in International Relations and Economics from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a bachelor’s degree from Providence College.

Juan Tan

Head of Investor Relations, Asia Pacific ex-Japan, Two Sigma

Mr. Tan joined Two Sigma in 2013 and is responsible for the Firm’s fundraising and relationship management efforts across Asia Pacific ex-Japan.

Prior to joining the Firm, Mr. Tan worked in various roles at Deutsche Bank, the Boston Consulting Group and Towers Watson.

Raj Dhown

Advisor , Cheyne Capital Management

Raj is an advisor to Cheyne Capital based in Singapore Raj is also the founder of iCapital Advisory Limited, an advisory firm that works with GPs in both APAC and London looking to raise AUM from Family Offices, Private Banks and institutional investors in Asia.

Prior to this, he was a senior Managing Director at Citigroup where he was responsible for the Financial Institutions Solutions business in APAC (ex-Japan). His role at Citi involved extensive engagement with CFOs, CIOs and regulators of financial institutions regionally to identify key problems & issues and propose cross-asset class solutions including the delivery of derivative solutions and alternative investments.

Raj was also responsible for the Citi International Funds Distribution business in APAC. Raj has over thirty years of experience dealing with and advising financial institutions in both Europe and Asia in respect of a wide mandate that covers risk & capital management, various forms of financing and investments into alternative products. Raj has held various senior client-facing roles at Lehman Bros, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan in Europe and Citibank Asia.

He is a qualified UK Chartered Accountant (having previously worked at Price Waterhouse Coopers) and holds a BA Hons in Economics from Manchester University.

Yut Wah Leong

Partner and Senior Portfolio Analyst, Albourne Partners

Yut Wah is a Partner and Senior Portfolio Analyst, Albourne Partners Singapore. She joined Albourne’s Singapore office as a Portfolio Research Analyst in 2008.

Prior to that, Yut Wah was a banker with Citicorp Investment Bank’s Global Wealth Management Group. From 2004 to 2007, she spent three years in Citibank China’s Shanghai office in the Global Transaction Services Group as a banker for foreign multinational corporations operating in China. Prior to that, she was with the Enterprise banking Group of the Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation (Singapore). Yut Wah started her career in the Treasury Department of Citibank N.A. (Singapore) in 1997, moving on thereafter to the Global Relationship Banking and Commercial Banking Groups.

Yut Wah graduated from the University of Warwick (UK) with BSc. in Economics in 1997. She attained the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designation in 2011.

Jason Tan

Head of APAC, Orchard Global

Mr. Tan is Head of Asia Pacific of Orchard Global. He also serves as Chief Executive of Orchard Global Asset Management (S) Pte Ltd, the firm’s Asia affiliate and heads the firm’s legal structuring group globally.

Prior to joining Orchard Global, Mr. Tan held various origination, structuring, and distribution leadership roles. He established and led the fund solutions group in the securities division at Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong as well as the structured funds business at HSBC Global Markets in London, before co-heading the same group in Asia. Mr. Tan began his career at Allen & Overy LLP in London, specializing in structured finance and derivatives law.

Mr. Tan has an MA in Jurisprudence from Trinity College, University of Oxford, and is an alumnus of Harvard Business School. He is a qualified Solicitor in England and Wales and an Advocate and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore.

Max Wong

Managing Director, Investor Relations, Group, Hong Kong, PAG

Mr. Wong joined PAG in 2023 as a managing director responsible for Group investor relations in the Asia Pacific region.

He formerly spent 18 years with AllianceBernstein, Franklin Templeton, Oaktree Capital, and Leucadia Asset Management in related functions.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and is a CFA and CAIA charterholder.

Gita Advani

Senior ODD Analyst , Albourne Partners

Gita Advani is an Operational Due Diligence (ODD) Senior Analyst in Albourne Partners Singapore. She conducts ODD reviews on alternative asset managers across APAC. She started her career 12 years ago in audit in the Big 4.

She graduated from the University of Southern California and is a CPA and a CAIA designation holder.

Debra Ng

MD, Asia Region Head, Albourne Partners

Debra Ng is a Partner and Shareholder of Albourne Partners. She joined Albourne as Portfolio Analyst in 2006 and heads the Albourne Singapore office.

Prior to that Debra was Regional Business Director of Strategy and business development at LFC Management Ltd (Singapore), (an Asian FoHF), for two years. Debra worked for four years at Citigroup Asset Management (Singapore) as Director, Institutional Advisory from 2000. Before that she worked at Capital International (Singapore) as Assistant Vice-President with Portfolio Management support and institutional client relationship management responsibilities from 1994 to 2000. Debra started her career as an Investment Analyst covering the Technology, EMS, Autos and small conglomerate sectors at DBS Investment Research (Singapore) from 1991 to 1994.

Debra graduated from the California State University, Los Angeles (USA) with a BSc. Business Administration in Finance with Economics in 1990. She attained the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designation in 2006.

Wai Leng Leong

MD & Regional Head of Asia Pacific , CDPQ

Leong Wai Leng is responsible for the regional management of CDPQ Global in Asia Pacific. Based in Singapore, she coordinates all CDPQ activities in the region and ensures optimal positioning and outreach. CDPQ has offices in Singapore, New Delhi, Shanghai and Sydney in the Asia Pacific region.

Ms. Leong has over 30 years of experience in the finance and banking sectors, including 13 years in China, where she built a commercial banking business from the ground up. She has an extensive business network in China and in South-East Asia, including in Singapore. Over the course of her career, she has worked in both the buy and sell sides of the industry, in developed and developing financial markets.

Before joining CDPQ in 2018 as Managing Director, Strategic Partnerships, Asia, Ms. Leong was Managing Director and Head of Business Management Unit at the Bank of Singapore, a wholly owned subsidiary of OCBC Bank. Prior to that, she was the Chairman and CEO of OCBC Bank (China). In 2010, she became the first banker from a non-Japanese Asian bank to win a Gold Magnolia Award, one of the highest recognitions from the Shanghai government. Perhaps most noteworthy was the fact it was the Chinese regulatory body, CBRC (Central Banking Regulatory Commission), that nominated her for this award.

Ms. Leong was also Managing Director and Head of Corporate and Institutional Banking at HSBC China. Previously, she held senior positions at multinational corporations such as Philips Electronics China Group, as well as at JP Morgan Bank and at Citibank, in Singapore.