We welcomed three new members to PBEC in December namely:-
Anthony Chan is Chief Executive Officer, controlling shareholder and a member of the Board of Isola Capital Group. Anthony has extensive experience in asset management, including private equity and venture capital. Anthony enjoyed a career in investment banking with Credit Suisse, Citigroup and Lehman Brothers Asia before transitioning to private investments. He has broad investment expertise across consumer, education, food safety, industrial, and technology sectors.
Anthony attained a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance and Economics) from The University of Sydney and Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from The University of Sydney Law School. He is also a graduate of The College of Law (Sydney) and was admitted to the High Court of Australia and Supreme Court of NSW. Anthony is a graduate from the Financial Engineering Program of Stanford University and attended the Stanford Executive Institute. He is a Responsible Officer for Type 1 (Dealing in Securities), Type 4 (Advising on Securities) and Type 9 (Asset Management) activities licensed by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission.
He is Co-Chair of Cyberport Investors Network Growth Portfolio Sub-Committee, a member of the Limited Partners Committee, Family Office Committee and Wine Committee of HKVCA, a member of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce Taxation Committee and YEC Executive Committee. He is a member of the Hong Kong Securities and Investments Institute. Anthony is fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese, and a keen tennis player, golfer, wine enthusiast and Formula One fan.
Mariana Kou is chairperson and CEO of Cinese International Group (1620:HK). Prior to this role, she was CEO of Research Study Education Group and an award-winning equity research analyst specializing in the China education industry and the global luxury goods sector. Mariana started her banking career in New York at Lehman Brothers, and was most recently Head of China Education and HK Consumer Research at brokerage and investment group CLSA, where she was involved in 12 consumer and education IPOs. In 2020, she published her first book “Investing in Dragons: Education Industry and Capital Markets”. She also serves as board advisor to EDTXU:US and education ventures, and has been keynote speakers and panelists at government and industry conferences as well as interviewed regularly by international media. Mariana was appointed Senator for China by the World Business Angels Investment Forum, an affiliated partner of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) in Jun 2020. She is the founder of Asia Education Society, a member of ForbesWomen Forum, and the founding co-lead of Columbia Venture Community’s Hong Kong chapter. She sits on the board of Zonta Club of NTII and was also a founding committee member of Children’s Medical Foundation’s social impact fellowship program in collaboration with Dwight Hall at Yale.
Mariana is a current student of the University of Southern California’s global executive doctor of education program. She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and is a graduate of Stanford Innovation and Entrepreneurship certificate program. She received her BBA from the University of Notre Dame with magna cum laude and Raymond P. Kent Award. She is a CFA charterholder and a member of global business honor society Beta Gamma Sigma and economics honor society Omicron Delta Epsilon.
Rob Davenport setup his first company when he was 22 selling e-sports products and has always been interested in perusing ventures that were related to his passions. For the last 15 years he has been trading in the consumer electronics and housewares sectors where he launched his own brands of cookware which are currently distributed to department stores and other UK retailers.
Due to his passion for sustainability and the environment he setup TaKe 18 months ago in Hong Kong to be a purpose led, bamboo based consumer products brand which aims to make a difference at a local level. The TaKe Foundation will create jobs in Hong Kong prioritising disadvantaged groups to empower people to make a real difference on themselves and the environment while using bamboo to combat climate change due.
In his free time Rob enjoys taking advantage of the green open spaces and shorelines Hong Kong has to offer with hiking, running, sailing and with a passion for food lots of cooking in-between.