Our Team
Josefina Shen
CEO
Josefina is a veteran in private equity. Prior to co-founding Sky Venture Partners, she served as Senior Advisor and General Manager of the China Region at Asia Pacific Land, a real estate private equity investment company; Managing Director at Sierra Asia Partners, a boutique merchant bank; and in senior positions involving multiple asset classes in her private equity career, at such firms as RimAsia Capital, Newbridge Capital and Equinox Group.
Josefina earned a bachelor’s degree in East Asian Studies from Columbia University and an MBA from the Anderson School of Business at UCLA.
Mike Ren
Managing Director
Mike has close to 20 years of private equity investment and fundraising experience with leading international investment firms in Asia and the USA.
Previously Mike worked at Headland Capital (HSBC Private Equity Asia) as Associate Director, and also at SAIF Partners (Softbank Asia Investment Fund) as Investment Manager, focusing on private equity and venture capital investments in Greater China. Prior to that, he worked at Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity in New York, focusing on global buyout investments, after completing the Investment Banking Analyst training program at Merrill Lynch. Mike also has experience in investor relations, corporate finance, and mergers and acquisitions.
Mike has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Columbia University in New York. He also attended Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Harry Lambert
Managing Director
Harry has almost 20 years of private markets experience from principal investment, capital raising, and client-facing roles.
Previously he was a Partner at a Swiss-headquartered fund advisory boutique and fund placement agent firm, leading fundraising mandates for VC, buyout and infrastructure GPs. Before that, he built out the fund placement platform and family office investments at DeBere Capital Partners, successfully raising institutional capital for several global alternative mandates.
Much of his career was spent at Hermes GPE where he played a key role on manager selection across the £2bn+ alternatives portfolio of private equity buyouts, venture capital, private debt and infrastructure for some of the largest UK corporate pension funds.
He has also held positions at Coller Capital, Pantheon Ventures, and Impax Asset Management in various capital raising, investor relations, and portfolio management capacities. Harry started his career as a consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the Valuation & Strategy team.
Harry graduated from the University of Warwick in the UK with a degree in Economics, Politics and International Studies.
Randy Chee
Senior Advisor
Randy has spent the past 25+ years in Hong Kong and Singapore and held various Senior Level roles with leading international companies including Disney Trading Company, The Walt Disney Company Asia Pacific, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Universal Music (formally MCA Records).
He has had a successful track record of identifying and executing strategies that have generated quantifiable outcomes including revenue gains and global brand recognition. This has been demonstrated with roles in the areas of business development, sponsorship, account management, and partnership marketing.
Randy has also been able to identify and capitalize on new opportunities during 25+ years’ experience of business practices across Asia through utilization of excellent negotiation and communication skills.
He is currently advising a number of Asia and US companies and fund managers on market strategy and fundraising.
Brian Stewart
Senior Advisor
Brian is a seasoned investor in venture capital, buyouts, real assets and natural resources with a broad network of relationships among investors, service providers and top tier general partners in North America, Europe and Asia. He co-founded Eye Destinations, a streaming video platform and served as Chairman of LTI Advisory, assisting Japanese companies gain listings on Canadian stock exchanges.
Brian was previously Senior Partner at Long-term Industrial Investments, Japan, a boutique fund management and advisory business, Chief Investment Officer of Japan West Asset Management a private equity fund of funds, and Managing Director, Private Markets at University of Toronto Asset Management Corp. Prior to that, Brian worked at the Ministry of Finance, British Columbia and then at British Columbia Investment Management Corp, where he led the effort to diversity the province’s pension fund, developed and managed a private equity program, and invested approximately $70 billion assets of six public sector pension plans.
Brian earned a master’s degree in international business from Sophia University in Tokyo and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Saskatchewan.
Ruel Aldecoa
Project manager
As Project Manager, Mr. Quintin Ruel Aldecoa is responsible for reviewing and evaluating investment opportunities. Ruel is a Certified engineer with a focus on engineering, design and software.
Prior to joining Sky Venture Partners, Ruel was a civil engineer at ASP Engineering and Associates where he focused on the design and construction of residential and commercial buildings.
Out of love for music, Ruel set up his own Bandz Studio, a professional recording studio in Shanghai. In his own right, Ruel has also served as conductor, choral director and principal symphonic flutist, and he still teaches music in his spare time.
Ruel earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Nueva Caceres University in Naga City, Philippines, and a teaching certificate from the Naga College Foundation in Naga City, Philippines.
Ted Hartnell
CTO
Ted Hartnell is the Founder of Revenue Watch (http://radar.revenue.watch) and the Chief Architect of its RADAR eCommerce Optimization software.
Prior to RADAR, Ted was the Managing Director who brought PROS (Price and Revenue Optimization Software) to China and East Asia. Before PROS, Ted was at a Goldman Sachs subsidiary developing Wall Street’s high-frequency pricing and trading platforms.
Ted has an Engineering degree and Law degree from Sydney University, and an MBA from UC Berkeley. Ted’s post-graduate research in Market Science was conducted at Dartmouth College.
Karl Wu
Advisory Board
Karl Wu is a China expert & qualified CPA with over 30 years’ experience across a diverse range of industries, where he has held roles in senior management in China. Karl possesses extensive expertise and experience in strategic planning, risk management, financial planning and control, operations optimization, change management & human resource management.
Karl is currently the Chief Legal Representative & Managing Director for greater China of Besins Pharmaceutical Company. Prior to Besins, he founded a consultancy firm specializing in cross-border financial services with China.
Karl earned a bachelor’s dgree in Business Administration from University of Washington, where he majored in Accounting and Finance. Fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese, he is a Chartered Financial Accountant.
Ian Driscoll
Advisory Board
Ian Driscoll is the publications and communications director at AmCham Shanghai. Previously, Ian worked at Reuters and as a freelance journalist. His writing appeared in the Financial Times, Weekend Financial Times, Asiamoney, Global Capital, the BBC website, and elsewhere. Among other things, he wrote about China’s financial system and reform of the state-owned sector.
Born in Singapore, Ian has lived and worked in Beijing, Hong Kong, London, New York, Shanghai and Sydney. He holds a master’s degree from Columbia University, where he concentrated in East Asian studies with a focus on China.
Ella Gao
Legal Counsel
Ella has over 10 years of legal practice experience in foreign direct investment, cross-border transactions, multi-national company general corporate matters, private equity fund raising and investment.
Previously, she was engaged in private practiced at both top tier domestic and international firms and held General Counsel roles at multi-national companies and foreign private equity funds.
