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Commence Technology
Partners has
a team of over fourteen partners in the U.S. and Asia, all with significant
senior executive level experience in China. Our partners have impressive
track records and experience across most technology segments. They are
seasoned executives who have managed pan-Asian operations, financed
start-ups, built management teams and completed stock listings throughout
Asia. Our partners’ experience includes serving in senior management
roles and consulting to early stage and well established companies such as
Compaq, AMD, Veritas, Texas Instruments, Cadence, Allied-Signal, Novell,
Hitachi, Qualcomm, EDS, PowerFile, FMC, Visual Numerics (VNI), Lockheed and
Kodak.
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Anthony
Golamco
Managing Partner &
Founder
Upon receipt of his MBA from Harvard in 1968, Anthony was
one of the original team to set up the Asian Institute of Management, a
graduate school of business, where he was Dean of External Affairs and
where he held The PLDT Professorial Chair. In 1971 he joined Carter
Semiconductor in Hong Kong and expanded its manufacturing operations to
the Philippines, India, and Malaysia. He then joined Coltronics, an
electronic calculator manufacturing subsidiary of Cable & Wireless,
London, where he was in charge of worldwide marketing. In 1974, as
Managing Partner, he established the Hong Kong operations of The SGV
Group which was, at the time, the largest Asian auditing and consulting
firm. He left The SGV Group in 1980 to develop his own firm, Commence
which provides strategic planning and roll-out services to multinational
companies in establishing their Asian operations.
Anthony brings to Commence more than 30 years of
experience in doing business in Asia. He has extensive
contacts throughout Asia and is an Angel Investor.
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Philip
Leung
Managing Partner
Philip Leung is an executive with extensive experience
in information technology, including computer, data storage, internet and
semiconductor.
Mr. Leung is President of Greater China in Rackable
Systems, a Silicon-Valley based provider of high-density computer
servers. He spearheaded Rackable’s entry into China with sales channels,
strategic alliances, and service/manufacturing partnerships.
He cultivated global accounts (Microsoft, Amazon and Yahoo, and others)
as well as local customers in internet, oil & gas, telecom, and other
industry verticals. He is implementing plans for R&D in China, as
well as for sales and service coverage in Japan, Singapore, India, Australia
and other parts of Asia-Pacific, in an expanded role as President of
Asia-Pacific.
Previously Mr. Leung served in senior executive
positions in Compaq Computer, including Managing Director of East Asia,
Deputy Managing Director of Greater China, and board member of China,
Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea. Under his leadership Compaq was the
best-selling computer brand in Greater China. Other positions he had held
include: President for the US$600 million Asia-Pacific business of
Quantum Corp.; CEO of Vtech Computer; CEO of Chinese Books Cyberstore;
CEO of ITVentures; and Taiwan Manager for AMD, where he grew the business
from US$5 million to US$200 million.
Mr. Leung is chairman of China Business Committee in
AmCham, and was previously Chairman of its IT Committee as well as past
VP of its Board of Governors. He is Adjunct Professor in City University
of HK. He was President of the Harvard Business School Association in HK,
and was Advisor in the HKSAR Legislature's I.T. functional constituency.
He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a Bachelor's degree in
Engineering from HKU. He was born in China, lived in various cities in US
and Asia, and currently resides in Hong Kong.
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Naresh
Batra
Advisor
Naresh Batra has over 30 years of high technology
(Semiconductors, Communications & Networking) industry experience in
Design & Development, Marketing, P&L management. He also has
extensive experience in Start-Up companies during which time he was a
Board member and consultant to Display Research Lab. From 1998-2000
Naresh served as Interim Chief Executive Officer of UptimeOne Inc. Prior
to UptimeOne, Naresh was President and CEO of XaQti Corp. San Jose CA, a
Gigabit Networking Chip company that he co-founded. XaQti was acquired by
Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. in July 1999. Before XaQti, he was Vice
President and General Manager, Multimedia Group at Sierra Semiconductor
(now PMC Sierra). Prior to Sierra, he was Vice President and General
Manager at Brooktree Corp. (now Conexant), San Diego for over five years.
He was part of the team which took Brooktree public. Before joining
Brooktree, he spent 11 years at Texas Instruments, Dallas (1977-1988), in
various Executive positions. From 1985-1988, Mr. Batra directed the
Worldwide Linear Strategy at Texas Instruments under Tom Engibous, who is
now the Chairman, President & CEO of Texas Instruments. Naresh’s career started at A.B. Dick Co. (now a
division of GEC) in 1973, where he
spent four years as Project Manager designing advanced office information
products.
Naresh holds MSEE and MBA degrees. He is a member of
the IEEE and also a registered professional engineer from the State of
Illinois. From 1996-1998, he was Chairman, Scientific Advisory Committee
of IMSC, USC Los Angeles. He is a Partner in Sand Hill Angels, LLC and a
limited partner in Satwik Ventures LLC
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Con
Conway
Partner
Con is Chairman of I. Tel Holdings Ltd, an investment holding
company for I. Tel telecommunication executive recruitment companies
throughout Asia Pacific. Prior to this, he was a Director at Hong Kong
Telecom for 11 years, and Director of New World Telephone. He was
previously chief executive of U.S. computer companies including NCR,
Sperry, UNIVAC, Data General and Honeywell Information Systems.
Con is a well known figure in the IT industry in Asia.
He is a Council Member of the Hong Kong Management Association and
Chairman of the Hong Kong Management Association and Chairman of is IT
Committee. He also sits on a number of government, tertiary institute and
vocational/community service boards.
Con is a Fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of
Directors, the Institute of Management, British Computer Society, and the
Hong Kong Institute of Engineers. He is also Vice President of the
Olympic Committee of Hong Kong.
Con graduated from the Harold's cross
National/Technical College, Dublin, U.K.
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David
Kiang
Partner
Prior to becoming the CEO of First Sino Bank, a joint venture
commercial bank in Shanghai, David was Managing Director of Rothschild
& Sons, responsible for the Group's investment banking activities in
Greater China and other Asian countries. His key focus is on merger and
acquisition, "back-door" listing, IPOs, private equity and
privatization advisory services.
Before that, David was Chief Operating Officer of Ka
Wah Bank, in-charge of the 37 retail and wholesale branches. He also held
the position of Chief Executive of Ka Wah International Merchant Finance
Co.
Other positions he has held during his 25-year banking
career include Executive Advisor to President at Bangkok Bank, where he
was responsible for the management of core banking activities and
strategic development of new businesses, focusing on capital market and
merchant banking capabilities. He was also a Managing Director at
Standard Chartered Bank and a Senior VP and General Manager at First
Interstate Bank.
David holds an MBA Degree from Harvard, and an Master
of Science from M.I.T.
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Kevin
Amazon
Advisor
Mr. Amazon's 25 years experience in high-technology
includes executive and senior-level assignments in sales, marketing,
business development and general management. In his current assignment,
Kevin is the General Manager – China Operations for an industry leader in
backup, recovery and digital asset protection for the enterprise market.
Prior to joining Commence Technology Partners, Kevin was the Managing
Director and co-founder of Python Marketing a 13 year old, international
strategic marketing consulting company focusing on the
telecommunications, networking and enterprise software markets. In this
capacity, Kevin has developed compelling strategies that have allowed
clients to expand into new markets, reach their customers more
effectively, enhance productivity and provide a substantial return on
investment. Kevin has worked with many high-technology companies and
government agencies including Lucent Technologies, China Unicom, Lenovo,
China’s
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), NTT DoCoMo,
KIDDI, China’s
State Agency of Radio, Film and
Television, Hitachi, Verity, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Digital China,
China Mobile and China Telecom as well as many system integrators and
resellers in China and Japan.
During a sabbatical from Python Marketing, Kevin was
the President and CEO of Omnitrix Technologies, a core technology
provider of Enterprise-based messaging, collaborative computing and
performance measurement applications and tools for the emerging wireless
market in China and Japan.
Prior to Python Marketing and Omnitrix Technologies,
Kevin held numerous senior and executive level sales and marketing
positions with technology companies in the San Francisco Bay Area
including Novell, The Wollongong Group, Memorex and Hughes Network Systems.
Kevin received his Bachelor of Science Degree in
Computer Science and completed post graduate business education at
California State University. He has been doing business in China for the
last 10 years, has lived there for three years and is conversational in
Chinese Mandarin and French.
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Erik
Klee
Advisor
Erik
Klee provides business development and executive search services to technology
companies entering Asia or building out their Asian operations. He
has 27 years of experience building and funding companies in Silicon
Valley and China, including that gained through living and working in
Mainland China for 16 years, and several years in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Erik’s China experience began when he worked with the Presidents of the
Chinese Joint-Ventures of AMC, FMC, Allied Signal, and Lockheed on
projects including the Beijing Jeep, the Norinco NFV-1 Fighting Vehicle,
and the Lockheed PRC 105 Aircraft. Later, as China Country
Manager for several European trade-finance companies, he directed and
successfully concluded over $850 million in physical trades, debt
restructures and financings for 47 of the 100 largest companies in China.
In addition he successfully led the financing of 17 Chinese local and
provincial government Joint Ventures, including the World Plaza in
Shanghai, and the Beijing and Shanghai Metro subway systems. Through this
experience Erik developed business and personal relationships with many
of the most senior business and government officials across China.
Since returning to Silicon Valley, Erik has led fundraising and helped
create strategic partnerships in China for a number of companies,
including Zilog, YesVideo, PowerFile, MedioStream, Stryon, Eoplex,
Display Research Laboratories, Seven Networks, Nomadix and Atempo.
He also advised on the successful acquisition of Polyhedra (U.K.) by Enea
Data Systems (Sweden).
Erik holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s of Science from San Jose State
University. He is fluent in
Mandarin Chinese and French.
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Abid Malik
Advisor
Abid
Malik has over
20 years of sales, marketing, finance, and business development
experience. Most recently his startup, eBanyan successfully launched a
turnkey e-commerce application for small and mid-size businesses. eBanyan
is Microsoft and Intuit certified partner with offices in USA, Malaysia,
and Pakistan. In 1995 he co-founded Nexlogic, where he served as CFO and
member of the board for 10 years. Nexlogic provides prototype design,
fabrication, assembly, and testing of printed circuit boards with 50
employees and 10 million in annual revenues.
In 1990, he founded and successfully ran Unibyte until 1993. Unibyte
provided IT hardware and software solutions to corporate clients such as
Samsung, Harris, Xerox, Pacific Bell, IBM, HP, and NASA. The company
built value-added servers and workstations. Unibyte also developed strong
channel partnership with vendors/ manufacturers such as IBM, Intel,
Compaq, HP, Cisco, Toshiba, and Microsoft.
At the age of 21, he was running a small paint manufacturing facility in
Pakistan and discovered poster color formula that rivaled German’s
Pelican brand. His longing for higher education brought him to California
at the age of 24 where he completed his Bachelor in Electrical &
Electronics Engineering at Sacramento State University, California.
Having passion for technology, he started his first business from home
and successfully ran or managed two more IT businesses since 1990
He served as member of the board of a parochial school for 6 years,
served as vice chair of Minaret Business Organization (MBO), Silicon
Valley (California) Chapter. MBO is a Chicago, USA based non-profit organization with chapters
in USA, Europe, Asia, and in Gulf regions. He is an independent trustee
at a socially responsible Amana Funds Trust (www.amanafunds.com) that manages over a billion dollars in stock assets.
He is fluent in English, Urdu and knows basic German
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Joseph
Lung
Advisor
Joseph is the managing director of Advanced
Technology.com Company Ltd. (ATC). ATC is in the following activities:
Supporting hi-tech startups with IT system design, financial planning,
funding, CEO training, networking with strategic partners and e-business
development, rejuvenating existing companies/factories with new
e-commerce processes, new appropriate technology, and well known
technologist for new market positioning. Before ATC, Mr. Lung was the
Managing Director of Dataquest Hong Kong, a leading global hi-tech market
research company. Before Dataquest, Mr. Lung was the Managing Director of
Teradyne SE Asia, the world's number one Semiconductor Test Equipment
supplier. Joseph is active in valuation of hi-tech business and lecturing
on current business trends and developments.
Joseph holds a B.S.E.E. from California State
University at Fresno, an M.S.E.E. from Stanford University, and an M.B.A.
from Harvard University.
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Robert
P. Piccus
Partner
Bob Piccus has over 40 years of general management and
consulting experience in Asia Pacific, Europe and the US. He spent the
last 32 years in Asia Pacific, focusing on area management, market-entry
strategies and strategic alliance development. He moved to San Francisco
at the end of 1999 where he heads up Commence's representative office.
Bob began his career with ITT in 1959. After six years
in Europe in marketing and product planning at Bell Telephone and ITT
Europe headquarters followed by three years in New York as worldwide
Director of Telecommunications Market Planning, he was posted to Hong
Kong in 1968 as ITT's Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific.
In 1974, he was appointed ITT's Director of China Trade. Bob initiated
the Shanghai Bell telecommunications and semi-conductor joint venture in
Shanghai, now known as Shanghai Alcatel and Shanghai Belling. Signed in
1984, these were among China's earliest and largest advanced technology
joint ventures in the telecommunications and integrated circuit sectors.
They are among the most successful and profitable foreign ventures in
China today.
Bob left ITT in 1977 to establish Continental Can's
regional headquarters in Hong Kong, where over the next six years he
established major packaging joint ventures in Hong Kong, Korea, China,
Taiwan and Indonesia.
Since 1983, he has concentrated on strategic
consulting, first with The MAC Group and since 1992 as a partner in XRG.
He has advised major multinational companies on their Asia Pacific
activities and the critical issues in establishing viable positions in
this dynamic, rapidly changing area. His particular areas of expertise
are market entry strategy, joint venture development and strategic
alliances.
Bob is the author of Strategic Alliances with Japan -
Cross Border Options for Asia Pacific, published by the Economist
Intelligence Unit. Bob holds degrees in chemical engineering and
economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from
Harvard Business School. He also completed studies in advanced financial
management at Stanford Business School. He has been a frequent speaker at
international conferences and a visiting lecturer at the Chinese University
of Hong Kong and Jiaotong University in Shanghai China.
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Chee
Lung Tham
Partner
Chee-Lung Tham has over 20 years experience in sales,
market-research, human resources and general
management with US Multinationals and Asian start-up companies. Chee-Lung
has worked extensively in the US, Latin America, Europe and Asia, on
market-entry as well as market-defence strategies, new market launches
and frontline sales and distributor management.
Over a 12-year period as Regional Director, Chee-Lung
helped grow the Gore business in the Far East region ten-fold with teams
in eight locations. He has been intimately involved in the development of
a regional apparel retail chain, start up of an environmental control
equipment manufacture in the PRC, and the introduction of new
technologies to the region in the fields of apparel, electronics
manufacture, surgical implants and industrial production. Chee-Lung then
served as CEO of Magically Asia Limited – a leading communication and collaboration
service provider to telecommunication companies and enterprises, as well
as director of PCCW Schoolteam Limited; which provides a community
platform to schools in Hong Kong.
Committed to contributing towards the community, he
has served as Vice President on the Executive Committee of the American
Chamber of Commerce, and is currently on the Board of Governors and Chair
of the Community Relations Committee. He is a Past President of the
Harvard Business School Alumni Association of Hong Kong and is a Director
of the Association. He is on the Executive Committee of the AHKEA – American Hong Kong Electronics
Association and chairs the HR Working
Group. He has served on the Lucent Global Science Scholar selection panel
for the last five years.
Educated in Malaysia and the US, Chee-Lung has a
First-Class Honours undergraduate degree in Agricultural Science from the
University of Malaya and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
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Carl
Tong
Advisor
Carl is CEO of Nasdaq-listed Creative Master, the
world's largest collectible replica manufacturer which also produces game
controllers and e-entertainment content. Carl's expertise is in business
development and marketing. For the Lai Sun Group, he was involved in
acquiring Crocodile Garments and in the take-over of ATV, one of HK's
main television stations. He increased ATV's licensing of programs
five-fold and its market penetration from seven to 20 countries.
Carl was an Automotive Engineer with Howells of UK, an
Institutional Banker with Citibank, and a Chartered Accountant with
Citibank. He was an elected member of the District Board, and in 1985/86
was the youngest member of HK's Legislative Council.
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Don
Vong
Advisor
Don's area of practice revolves around the internet,
electronic commerce and internet related telecommunication. He has
advised various entities ranging from Start-Ups to established
corporations in matters relating to the internet and telecommunications.
He has assisted in the structuring of various technology and
communication businesses in Greater China. In addition to legal advice,
he provides advice as to the commercial, technical and marketing fields,
including web designing for an effective online business and fund raising
and structuring. Carl gives seminars and contributes articles on areas of
electronic commerce and intellectual property issues relating to the Internet.
Don graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (LLb) degree
from the University of London and is admitted as a Solicitor in Hong
Kong, England and Wales and currently practices at Stephenson Harwood
& Lo, an international law firm.
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Carson
Wen
Advisor
Carson Wen is a partner of Siao, Wen and Leung, which
has one of Hong Kong's most active corporate law practices. He has
advised Internet start-ups gaming, online stock trading, entertainment,
eCoupons, ASPs as well as B2B and B2C e-commerce. His firm also advises
many of the leading corporate Groups in Hong Kong on their Internet
acquisitions and was Hong Kong counsel in the NASDAQ listing of
Chinadotcom. Carson has particular experience and insight in the
structuring of Internet deals in China. Carson has been named variously
in Who's Who of the Law, Asia Pacific Legal 500 and China Top 200 as a
leading adviser on Chinese law.
On the community service front, he is a Deputy to the
National People's Congress of China, member of the Selection Committee of
the First Government of the HKSAR, and sits on a number of government
boards and tribunals.
Carson obtained his MA from Oxford University and BA
from Columbia University.
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