Jeremy D. Paulson-Ellis, Chairman

Jeremy D. Paulson-Ellis was one of the founding directors of the Genesis Group, a specialist investment manager in Emerging Markets, in January, 1989 and he has been Chairman of the Group since then. He is responsible for the overall direction of the company, while also taking part in new country development work.

Prior to the formation of the Genesis Group he was Chairman of Vickers da Costa Limited following its takeover by Citicorp in 1985 until his resignation from the Citicorp Group in June 1988. His career with Vickers da Costa dated from 1964 when he commenced work as an analyst covering European stock markets and companies. In 1968 he turned his attention to the expansion of Vickers’ Japanese equity business, being closely involved with both research and marketing as well as, for some three years, the management of the Nippon Fund – the first offshore fund formed to invest in Japan in August 1968. In 1972 he assumed responsibility for all Vickers’ Japanese business and was concerned with the establishment of the first representative and then the branch offices in Tokyo. Subsequently he took charge of the firm’s international operations including Southeast Asia. He was closely involved in the development and launch of the first country funds for Korea and Taiwan and the second for Thailand and was a member of the advisory boards for two of the funds.

Judd C. Kinne, Director

Mr. Judd C. Kinne has lived and worked in Asia since 1967. After several years with American Express International Bank in Vietnam/Japan, he moved to Singapore in 1973. Since then he has held regional directorships and senior management positions with Vickers da Costa Ltd/Citicorp Scrimgeour Vickers; Peregrine Group and the Kim Eng Group.

His professional experience includes: equity broking/sales and research; direct investments and joint-venture formation in Asian emerging markets. He helped to establish and was a founding director of the first country funds created for Taiwan, Korea and Thailand. For over 30 years he has established relationships with numerous Asian corporations, investors and global institutional funds.

He is a graduate of the American Graduate School of International Management and Colgate University and served in the U.S. Marine Corps. He is 62 years old and a U.S. citizen and permanent resident of Singapore.

Zachary A. Wydra, Director

Mr. Zachary Wydra is a Partner and Portfolio Manager at Beck, Mack & Oliver where he manages a portion of the firm’s $4.8 billion of assets under management. At Beck, Mack & Oliver, Mr. Wydra is responsible for allocating capital to both public and private investment opportunities.

Prior to that Mr. Wydra was employed at Water Street Capital, a long/short, US equity hedge fund where he worked as an analyst. He also has experience in private equity, having worked as an associate at Graham Partners, a middle market LBO fund. Mr. Wydra began his career at BT Wolfensohn, where he was involved in mergers & acquisitions and corporate advisory work.

Mr. Wydra has a BA from Brown University, a MA from Columbia University and a MBA from The Wharton School.

Johanna Klein, Director

Johanna Klein is an Investment Officer in the Asian Development Bank’s Capital Markets and Financial Sectors division, which lends to and invests in financial institutions in the Asia-Pacific region. Her responsibilities include executing investments into private equity funds, and helping to monitor, via board and advisory committee presence, ADB’s portfolio of 42 funds, representing over $600 million of commitments, across Asian emerging markets.

She previously worked in investment banking at Credit Suisse First Boston, and in the microfinance funds unit of the Deutsche Bank Community Development Group. She has a BA from Harvard University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

Claude Barras, Director

Mr. Claude Barras is the Managing Director and founding partner of the Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets (Sifem AG). He has 20 years of experience in development, investment and economic cooperation in developing and transition economies.

Claude began his career as an advisor to the Swiss Government in bilateral economic relations with Asian countries. Subsequently, he served as advisor to the Swiss Executive Director at the World Bank Group in Washington DC. From 1999 until the founding of Sifem Claude was in charge of managing the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs’s investment portfolio in emerging markets. Claude holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

Nathalie Brisbois, Director

Mrs. Nathalie Brisbois is BIO's Investment Officer for Asia.

Before joining the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries SA/NV (“BIO”), Mrs. Brisbois worked in the banking sector at ING Belgique where she was Senior Restructuring Manager advising SMEs, Corporate, Banks and Project Finance on restructuring plans and loans. She had also gained extensive experience in SMEs and Corporate financing as Account Manager. Previously, she had worked in the consulting industry at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Mrs. Brisbois holds a MBA in Finance and Strategy from the Solvay Business School (Brussels) and a degree in Law from the University of Louvain.

Ben Zwinkels, Director

Mr. Ben Zwinkels is a Senior Investment Officer of the Equity Department of the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO) and is mainly responsible for around 15 Private Equity Funds with focus on investing in “Small and Medium Sized Companies” in Africa. Ben Zwinkels has worked with FMO for over 22 years and has initiated a substantial number of projects for FMO, mainly in the financial sector and private equity business in Africa. He holds strong positions as a Board Member in a number of commercial banks and in investment committees. Two of the leading African banking groups, in the region of Central Africa are serviced by him as advisor and Board Member. These include the Bank of Africa Group which is active in 11 African countries and the Afriland First Bank Group, which operates in four Central African countries.

Ben Zwinkels played a key role in initiating the Private Equity Business in Africa through FMO’s first participation in one of the leading funds of the Tuninvest Finance Group. Also, Ben Zwinkels was the principal initiator of the yearly Annual Africa Private Equity Conference and the establishment of the Africa Venture Capital Association.

Chris Freund, Director

Please see Chris Freund's description on the Investment Team page.

K. Dev Joory, Director

Mr. K. Dev Joory is Managing Director of IFS, the Fund’s Administrator. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Dev was until 1993 a Senior Tax Executive at Ernst & Young, London office. He has over 25 years of post-qualification experience in international tax planning and business structuring. His area of specialization includes international banking and financial services including Islamic banking, global fund structuring and administration, intellectual and real property planning, franchising and retail operations.

Adbool Fareed Soreefan, Director

Mr. Abdool Fareed Soreefan, Director of Compliance and head of corporate secreterial services at IFS, the Fund’s Administrator. He is an Associate of the Institute of the Chartered Secretaries and Administrators and holds an MBA (Finance). Fareed has 10 years experience with the firm and was previously Deputy Manager with the secretarial arm of KPMG. He also has 11 years experience in operational administration of justice gained at the Judicial Department of Mauritius. His area of specialization includes fund, company and trust set up and administration and company law compliance.

Tan Pei-San, Alternate Director to Judd C. Kinne

Mr. Tan Pei-San is an Executive Vice President, Special Projects of the Kim Eng Group. In this capacity, he reports to the Managing Director of the Group on a range of matters including strategic initiatives, business development, Group policies and processes and risk controls.

Prior to coming to Kim Eng, Pei-San was in-house legal counsel at JP Morgan overseeing capital markets transactions in South and South East Asia. Before assuming this role at JP Morgan, Pei-San spent four years as an associate in the corporate practice of the Wall Street law firm, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, where he worked on credit, mergers and acquisitions and capital markets transactions.

Pei-San received his legal training at Trinity Hall, Cambridge where he took a Double First in the Cambridge University Law Tripos. He has a Master of Laws from Harvard Law School for which he received the Grace Ballas Scholarship from the Singapore Academy of Law. He was a Justices' Law Clerk at the Supreme Court of Singapore from 1997 to 1998 where he assisted the judiciary in appellate cases.