Morningside Salon Discussion:

Lessons Learned in Setting up a Start-up

Wed, Jan 26

CUAAHK would cordially like to invite you to our next Morningside Salon discussion with our esteemed alumni Mr. Danny Lee from Blue Pool Capital, our Columbia Law School alumni who is an expert in Private Equity Ms. Lorna Chen from Shearman & Sterling LLP and our Columbia alumni who has been a serial entrepreneur and a tech investor Mr. Alex Cheng on some lessons learned in setting up a Start-up.  This will include resources you can go to get help (free help, online resources for reasearch and start up kit), considerations around partnership structure and arrangement / shareholder agreement, and tips around fund raising and sourcing investors.

Event Details:

Date: Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Schedule:​ 6:30pm – 8.30 p.m.

6.30pm (Discussion)

7:45pm (Q&A)

8:15pm (Conclusion)

Location: Zoom (Zoom link will be sent to registered guests within 24 hours of the event)

PLEASE NOTE THIS WILL BE CONDUCTED UNDER CHATHAM HOUSE RULES.  

Speakers

Ms. Lorna Chen

Lorna Chen is Asia Regional Managing Partner and Head of Greater China of Shearman & Sterling LLP.  She is also a member of the firm’s Executive Group.  Lorna founded and leads the firm’s asset management and investment fund practice in Asia. She has 25 years of experience across the United States, Europe and Asia, including 20 years in the investment funds and PE/VC sector.

Lorna is one of the most senior international legal counsel in Asia for private investment funds and their sponsors.  She also represents investors in the alternative investment space.  Her clients include sovereign wealth funds, wealth management platforms, commercial and policy banks, insurance companies and family offices.  Lorna is active in regulatory reform matters relating to the private equity and venture capital sector. She is also a frequent market commentator through financial and legal media and major industry conferences.

Lorna is an alumni of Columbia Law School and is qualified to practice law in New York, Hong Kong and the PRC

Mr. Alex Cheng 

Alex is Co-founder and General Partner at Ooosh Tech Lab which is an integrated venture capital firm that empowers and de-risks early-stage scalable disruptive startups across Hong Kong and South East Asia.

Alex started out as an investment banker and turned his career focus to become a hotelier, a serial entrepreneur and a tech investor.  After leaving JP Morgan and HSBC, he joined Langham Hospitality as their Head of Digital.  His background in Computer Science and digital strategy for hotels enabled him to create successful startups such as Ooosh Tech Lab, Business Creation and Telkie, among others, while his knowledge in structured finance brings on the table tangible value in tech startup investing.

Having a passion for coaching the next generation in the ecosystem, he enjoys mentoring and coaching startups.  He is also a lecturer on Entrepreneurship at School of Design of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Alex holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Columbia University.

Moderator: Mr. Danny Lee

Danny Lee is a Senior Advisor to Blue Pool Capital where he was a partner in charge of private equity investment globally since 2015. He has over 24 years investment experience spanning venture, growth capital, and buyout globally. Before Blue Pool, Danny was a Managing Director at Bain Capital and Vice President at Investor AB, the largest industrial holding company in the Nordic region. He started his career at Lehman Brothers in NY. Danny has a BA in Economics from Columbia University.

He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst, Aspen Finance Fellow and Edmund Hillary Fellow. Danny sits on the investment committee for New Zealand Elevate Venture Fund, on the board of HK Venture Capital Association, and the board of Seed Foundation, a youth development education NGO led by Alibaba Entrepreneur Fund.

Danny further serves the education community through his role as an independent director at Hong Kong Chinese Women Club College and as a guest lecturer at Columbia Business School, HK University of Science and Technology and Lingnan University. He also donated scholarships to Columbia College, United World College and Brooklyn Technical High School.