Finance Panel
Turmoil in Global Financial Markets – Implications for Asia.
As the financial turmoil has spread through global financial markets and dominated headlines, we explore how it affects Asia and the region’s response. In addition, does Asia have an opportunity to play a greater role and change the shape of global finance? What are the opportunities and risks? What have been some of the lessons learnt from prior Asian financial crises?
Panelists
Mr. Ken Tsang, Managing Director and Co-Founder, The HINA Group
Mr. Ken Tsang is a co-founder of The Hina Group, a leading China focused
investment bank and private equity firm with 60 professionals across offices
in the US, China and Singapore. The Hina Group has advised on over 35
transactions valued at over $2 billion over the last 3 years. Before
establishing Hina, Mr. Tsang was at Credit Suisse First Boston, where he
launched and headed up the Technology Group Investment Banking division for
several key sectors in Asia. During his tenure, CSFB was ranked "Best Technology
Team" by Finance Asia. Prior to forming the CSFB Asia Technology Group, Mr. Tsang
was part of CSFB's M&A Group. Before joining CSFB, Mr. Tsang was at PWC and Arthur
Andersen.
Mr. Tsang holds an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a BA (Honors) from the University of Waterloo, Canada. He is also a CFA charter-holder and a Chartered Accountant from Canada.
Thomas J. Smith, Managing Director, Lombard Investments Inc.
Thomas Smith is a Managing Director of Lombard based in San Francisco and Bangkok. He has been active in the investment field since 1979 and joined Lombard in 1997. His investment and management experience in Asia and North America includes operational and financial restructurings, financial services, manufacturing, large scale urban public and private sector projects, mixed-use real estate development projects and residential construction. Prior to Lombard, Mr. Smith held positions as the CEO and CFO of ACI, Inc., a construction products manufacturer; Executive Vice President, WSGP Group, an investment partnership formed by former U.S. Treasury Secretary, William E. Simon, that pursued LBOs, bank acquisitions and real estate; and Senior Vice President, PSB Realty, a diversified real estate investment firm. He began his career with The Rouse Company, a publicly-held real estate investment and development company that was the first to develop the enclosed shopping mall. Mr. Smith graduated cum laude from Harvard College (A.B. 1975).
Shin Inoue, Director of Retiree Services, Financial Engines, Inc.
For the past decade, Mr. Inoue has been focusing on researching and developing innovative retirement solutions in Japan and the U.S. Keenly aware of the problems arising from aging populations and inevitable shifts of retirement financial responsibilities to individuals in both countries, Mr. Inoue currently leads the effort to develop retirement income solutions at Financial Engines, Inc. Past experiences include development and successful deployment of the “do-it-for-me” managed accounts solution for 401(k) participants in the U.S. and extensive research on retirement income opportunities with the Monex Financial Group in Japan.
Mr. Inoue holds an M.A. in Operations Research and a B.S. in Mathematical and Computational Science from Stanford University.
Henry Zili Zhang,Senior Vice President, Director of Research, American Century Investments
Dr. Zhang is a Senior Vice President, Director of Research and Fund Manager with American Century Investments, a premier money manager and top mutual fund company in the US with assets under management of about $70B. With more than 14 years of direct money managing experience and public track records. Dr. Zhang and his portfolio team manages the American Century Income & Growth, Equity Growth, Small Company, Disciplined Growth, Long-Short Equity and International Core Equity funds totaling more than $10 Billion.
Besides directly managing various funds and supervising portfolio managers, Dr. Zhang also directs the whole equity research group responsible for investment strategies, stock selection models, and quantitative systems for global stocks. Prior to joining American Century Investments in 1995, he was a Research Fellow with Ilya Prigogine Centre for Statistical Mechanics and Complex Systems at the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Zhang has a B.S. degree in Physics from the University of Science and Technology of China and a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Texas at Austin with Nobel Laureate Professor Ilya Prigogine. Dr. Zhang has publications in financial economics and co-authored a book on finance and investing. Working from American Century's Silicon Valley office, Dr. Zhang is a Chairman of the Chinese Finance Association (California), a member of the Executive Club of HYSTA.
Moderator
Daniel J Kreps 
Mr. Kreps assumed the role of Senior Country Executive with overall responsibility for American Express Bank’s activity in Japan in May of 2004. Subsequent to the acquisition of AEB by Standard Chartered Bank, he successfully managed the integration of the two institutions’ Japanese operations before retiring at the end of 2008. Prior to this assignment, he served three years in the New York head office of American Express Bank as Chief Administrative Officer of the Financial Institutions Group. He joined AEB in June of 1997 to open the bank’s representative office in Moscow.
Mr. Kreps began his banking career in 1978 with Chemical Bank. Over his 10 years with Chemical he filled a number of management positions in Tokyo, Singapore and Sydney. In 1988 he joined the Stanford Research Institute as a Principal Consultant to provide strategic planning and risk management consulting services to major global financial institutions. In 1992 he joined the Secura Group, a regulatory risk consulting group based in Washington, D.C. In 1994 he was seconded to Arthur Andersen’s Office of Government Services to manage the World Bank funded Financial Institutions Development Project in Russia.
Mr. Kreps is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley
where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English Literature in 1975
and a Masters in Business Administration in 1979.