Rick Hess will serve as one of our independent directors as of the effective date of the registration statement. Mr. Hess is the founder and a Managing Partner of Cobalt Capital. He leads the firm and is responsible for deal origination and execution, as well as for the management of various Cobalt portfolio company relationships. Mr. Hess founded Evolution Media Capital in 2008, an investment advisory firm created in partnership with Creative Artists Agency and served as its Managing Partner. He then formed Evolution Media, the early growth investing vehicle of TPG, which invested in partnership with TPG from 2012-2019. Prior to Evolution Media, Rick created and led the Film Finance Group at CAA. Under his leadership there, the group packaged, raised financing for, or sold more than 125 feature films, including Academy Award-winning films Crash, Brokeback Mountain, Goodnight and Good Luck and The Tree of Life. Previously, he held executive positions at various film production companies.
Investment Advisory Board
On the effective date of this registration statement, we will form an Investment Advisory Board, who will assist our management team in sourcing suitable acquisition targets following the consummation of this offering, provide business insights when we assess potential business combination targets and as we work to driving additional value in the businesses that we acquire. The members of the Investment Advisory Board will be as follows (in alphabetical order):
David Gowdey has spent over 20 years investing in the tech space in Southeast Asia. He is currently a managing partner at Jungle Ventures in Singapore, where he worked closely with the founders of their later stage investments, including iMoney (exit to iSelect), Pokkt (exit to Anymind), iFlix (exit to Tencent), TradeGecko (exit to Intuit), Finaccel, Pomelo Fashion, Sociolla, KiotViet and Saltmine amongst others. Prior to Jungle, Mr. Gowdey was at TPG Capital where he led internet-focused investments outside of the US within the TPG Growth fund. Mr. Gowdey was involved in several investments at TPG, including Lenskart (India’s largest eyewear brand) and Propertyguru (largest online real estate platform in Southeast Asia) and he continues to be an advisor to TPG Capital in Asia. Prior to TPG, Mr. Gowdey spent 12 years at Yahoo! Inc where he was the head of International M&A on the Corporate Development team, responsible for driving all acquisitions, minority investments and mergers. As part of his role, he also led the investment strategy for Yahoo! outside of North America, including their expansion in to new markets, such as Russia, Turkey, Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. In 2011, Mr. Gowdey was also the managing partner at Xplorer Capital, a growth equity venture capital firm which spun out from Yahoo! to focus on internet and digital media opportunities in the emerging markets.
Meng Xiong Kuok is the founder and managing partner of K3 Ventures, a Singapore-based venture capital investment firm that works to identify and partner with visionary founders to create category-leading companies solving big problems in today’s world. K3 Ventures has invested globally in technology-enabled companies in areas such as digital payments, agronomy AI, social media, alternative proteins, and enterprise software. Some of K3 Ventures’ portfolio companies include Bytedance, Grab, Palantir, SpaceX, Planet Labs and Tuya.
Khailee Ng is a managing partner of 500 Startups, a Silicon Valley based venture capital firm. Beyond investing in Silicon Valley, 500 Startups has set up more than a dozen funds in emerging markets, providing seed capital and growth programs to countries in the Middle East, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Since 2010, the firm has invested in over 2,200 startup companies in over 70 countries, in line with its goal of developing an inclusive and globally connected innovation economy. With the firm, Mr. Ng has led over 180 investments in Southeast Asian tech startup companies, including Grab, Carousell, and other regional champions. Prior to this, he was the founder of Groupsmore (acquired by Groupon) and a leading Malaysian online media company, Says.com (acquired by Media Prima).
Thomas Tsao is a co-founder and managing partner of Gobi Partners, a venture capital firm headquartered in Shanghai and with offices in 13 locations across Asia. Established in 2002, Gobi is a leading investor in digital media, IT and TMT companies in China and ASEAN. Prior to Gobi, Mr. Tsao was a founder of the Beijing Technology Development Fund, sponsored by Beijing Enterprises and Tsinghua University Enterprise Group. Mr. Tsao has around three decades of experience in venture capital investments, operations, fund management and investment banking in China and the United States, and was named to the Forbes list of ‘China’s Top Venture Capitalists’ from 2013 to 2017.
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