Fink Center for Finance

David Ackert

MBA '82 | Managing Member, Crystal Lake Capital

Since 2010, Ackert has been the Managing Member of Crystal Lake Capital and was previously an Operating Director at Paine + Partners. From 1994 until 2007 he was an executive vice president at AIG Financial Products Corporation, where he served as head of corporate marketing for North America and global head of the transaction development group and the energy practice. From 1986 until 1994 Ackert was a VP in the capital markets department at Goldman, Sachs & Co. From 1983 to 1986 he was an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell, a New York City law firm.

Ackert earned his B.A. (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), MBA and J.D. (Law Review, Moot Court Honors) degrees from UCLA. He also attended Hong Kong University as a Rotary Foundation Fellow. Ackert and his wife, Charlotte, have one son, Nicholas.

Taylor Beaupain

MBA '05 | Managing Partner, K1 Investment Management

Taylor Beaupain is a Managing Partner at K1 Investment Management, where he is a member of the investment committee, board member for K1’s portfolio companies and advisor to K1’s management teams. Previously, Mr. Beaupain was a partner in the growth equity practice at Kayne Anderson where he managed growth equity and buyout investments. Mr. Beaupain started his career in the financial sponsors investment banking group of Merrill Lynch where he focused on mergers, acquisitions and financings for the portfolio companies of global private equity firms. Mr. Beaupain is a graduate of the UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he received an MBA and was a Dean’s Scholar, and of Washington and Lee University, where he received a B.S. in business administration, summa cum laude.

Jeffry P. Brown

MBA '81 | CEO, Azimut Alternative Capital Partners

Jeff Brown is currently CEO of Azimut Alternative Capital Partners. He has over two decades of investing, due diligence and operating management experience in the alternatives asset management industry. Jeff was previously a Managing Director at Dyal Capital Partners (one of the leading minority stake investors in alternatives asset management businesses globally, part of Neuberger Berman), and joined in its early days of formation. He founded and for five years led Dyal’s Business Services Platform which drove value creation in the Dyal portfolio companies across three private equity funds totaling $ 9bn in AUM. Prior to Dyal, Jeff was a Senior Managing Director at Bear Stearns Asset Management (“BSAM”). During his tenure at BSAM, he was Chief Development Officer and led the strategic expansion of the firm from $23bn AUM to $ 55bn AUM in four years.  Prior to joining BSAM, Jeff held senior roles at Morgan Stanley Asset Management. In addition to his M.B.A. from the Anderson School, Jeff holds a B.A. cum laude from the University of Wisconsin and a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School.

John R. Casaudoumecq

MBA '85

John Casaudoumecq is a private investor and consultant based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Previously, he served as a member of Citigroup’s Global Markets Management Committee and European Markets Management Committee and, from 2003 to 2006, was global fixed income’s chief operating officer. As managing director and global head of commodity trading, sales and research, Casaudoumecq restructured and built the commodity business from a small boutique to an integrated and diversified trading, sales and capital markets effort. During his tenure, Citigroup established itself in a top five position in commodity derivatives. Casaudoumecq led Citigroup’s investment in and served on the boards of Ipreo, Markit and FXall, as well as several other FinTech companies. He currently serves on the advisory board to the Fink Center for Finance at UCLA Anderson School of Management and is a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma honor society. Casaudoumecq holds an A.B. in economics from Dartmouth College and an MBA from UCLA Anderson.

Jeffrey S. Deutschman

MBA '81 | Former Managing Director, Apollo Global Management

Jeffrey Deutschman has spent more than 30 years in the turnaround, private equity and lending business. He graduated from Columbia University and the Anderson Graduate School of Management, and started his career with Grisanti & Galef/The Spectrum Group in 1981, playing a hands-on role managing and turning around companies the group had acquired.

Deutschman was a co-founder of Aurora Capital in Los Angeles and a co-founder of Crown Capital in New York before joining Stone Tower as a partner in 2006. Deutschman joined Apollo in 2012 when Apollo acquired Stone Tower. He was a managing director in Apollo's opportunistic credit group, which is focused on a wide variety of lending strategies that include lending to companies acquired by private equity sponsors and financial entrepreneurs, middle market energy and natural resource companies, specialty finance companies, and companies experiencing financial challenges. The opportunistic credit group is part of Apollo's $105 billion credit business, which, along with Apollo's private equity and real estate groups, manages in excess of $180 billion in assets. Deutschman retired from Apollo in 2016. Since then, he has advised various companies on capital raising and restructuring their operations and balance sheets.

Thomas Fang

MBA '99, Head of China Global Markets, QFII Representative, UBS AG

Thomas Fang is a member of the APAC Equities Management Committee, APAC Equity Distribution Committee and Chair for China Equities Management Committee.

Thomas was appointed as China QFII Representative of UBS AG in June 2012, and in October 2015 he was appointed as Head of China Equities and also took up the role of Chairman of UBS Futures Co., Limited. He is also a Board member at UBS Securities since 2018 and most recently appointed as the Head of China Global Markets for UBS in November 2019.

Thomas rejoined UBS Hong Kong in June 2009 as Greater China Equities Derivatives Sales Head. He led the teams in structuring and marketing structured products for financial intermediaries in Asia including insurers, retail and private banks, securities houses and other institutions. Prior to rejoining UBS, Thomas was Head of Retail and Third Party sales team for all asset classes of Goldman Sachs. Between 2003 and 2008, he worked at the UBS Equity Intermediary Risk Management Products sales team. Between 1999 and 2003, he worked for Morgan Stanley New York and Hong Kong.

Thomas Fang has a Bachelors degree in World Economy from Fudan University, Shanghai. He holds the CFA charter, a Master of Economics from the University of Ottawa and an MBA from the Anderson School at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also a Board member of the Fink Center at UCLA.

Lisa Fridman

MBA '04 | Head of Blockchain Strategy, Spring Labs

Lisa Fridman is Head of Blockchain Strategy at Spring Labs. Prior to joining Spring Labs, Lisa served as a Portfolio Manager and Co-Head of Alternative Beta at Martlet Asset Management. She was previously the chief executive of PAAMCO Europe and the global head of research at PAAMCO. Throughout her career, she has worked closely with institutional investors, designing bespoke portfolio solutions. Ms. Fridman has contributed to various publications, including The Economist, Financial Times, HFMWeek, Institutional Investor and Investment & Pensions Europe.

Ms. Fridman is an active participant in the industry associations. She serves on the Fink Center Board and previously was a member of the London Board of 100 Women in Finance and of the AIMA's Investor Steering Committee. Lisa has been named to the Financial News 100 Influential Women list multiple times; included in the 50 Leading Women in Hedge Funds list, published by the Hedge Fund Journal and Ernst & Young; and recognized among 40 Under 40 Rising Stars in Hedge Funds by the Financial News.

Ms. Fridman received her MBA from UCLA Anderson, where she was awarded a dean's fellowship. She graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in business economics from UCLA. She is a CFA charter holder and has received a CQF designation.

William O. Grabe

MBA '63 | Advisory Director, General Atlantic LLC 

William O. Grabe joined General Atlantic in 1992 and retired as a Managing Director in 2010. He continues to support GA in an advisory capacity.

Mr. Grabe brings broad international operational experience and an extensive sales and marketing background to General Atlantic. He has been an integral part of GA’s global expansion, initially in Europe and later in India and China. Mr. Grabe currently serves on the boards of Quality Technology Services, Lenovo Group Limited, Gartner, Inc., and Covisint Corporation. He also serves as a member of the UCLA Anderson School of Management Board of Visitors, a member of the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute Advisory Board, a member of the Board of the Grand Canyon Trust, and as a member of the Board of Trustees of The Nature Conservancy in Florida.

Prior to his affiliation with General Atlantic, Mr. Grabe retired from the IBM Corporation as an IBM Vice President and Corporate Officer. In his last position he was responsible for US Marketing and Services and was a founding member of the board of ISSC, the precursor to IBM Global Services. Earlier in his IBM career he was President, National Accounts Division and in 1988 was responsible for the worldwide launch of the AS 400.

Mr. Grabe holds a BS in Engineering from New York University and received his MBA from the University of California at Los Angeles.

David Hou

MBA '92 | Managing Partner, Evoke Wealth

David has served as a Financial Adviser to wealthy families and institutional clients since 1992. He began his career in the Goldman, Sachs & Co. Private Client Services Group and six years later joined Merrill Lynch to help build the Private Banking and Investment Group. In 2008 David and his partners founded Luminous Capital, which First Republic Bank acquired in 2012. While at First Republic, David served as a Senior Managing Director and was a member of the Alternative Investment Committee, the bank’s private investments platform. Barron’s and Forbes have ranked David perennially as one of the Top 100 Wealth Advisors in the country.

David received a BS in economics/business from UCLA and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He is an advisory board member of the UCLA Anderson School Fink Center for Finance and Investments. He also is a trustee and chair of the Finance Committee at Carlthorp School in Santa Monica. David is an active supporter of SCS Noonan Scholars, a foundation providing funding and support for inner city college-bound youth. David lives in Pacific Palisades with his wife and four children.

Christopher (Kit) D. Jennings

MBA '80 | Partner, Liquid Venture Partners

Christopher D. (“Kit”) Jennings is principal at Liquid Venture Partners. Previously, he was managing director of Roth Capital Partners, co-Chief Executive Officer of Global Euro Net Group and a managing director of Cruttenden Roth Incorporated. Before joining Cruttenden Roth in 1995, Jennings was a managing director at Sutro & Co., and a principal and senior managing director of Maiden Lane Associates, an equity fund organized to arrange and invest in management buyouts. Jennings was previously associated with Dean Witter Capital as a managing director, where he was responsible for major corporate clients in Southern California. Prior to joining Dean Witter, Jennings was an investment banking officer with Warburg Paribas Becker. Jennings graduated with a BA in economics and public policy from New College in 1975, and received his MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management (1980).

Chris M. Kanoff

MBA '84 | Executive Vice President, Jefferies and Company Inc.

Chris Kanoff is Executive Vice President and Co-Head of Investment Banking at Jefferies & Company. With more than 25 years of investment banking expertise, Kanoff joined Jefferies in 1991 and currently serves on the Executive Committee. Kanoff has worked on Wall Street since 1984, having started his career in the Corporate Finance Department of Drexel Burnham Lambert. He received an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management and a BA from the University of California at Berkeley. He and his wife, Mary Ellen, were married in 1988 and have four children.

Dennis J. Keegan

MBA '80 | Principal, Karkiden, LLC
Chairman, Digital Asset Strategies

Dennis Keegan is an experienced financial industry executive. He is particularly knowledgeable with regard to alternative investments and the management of market risk with respect to bonds, equities and derivatives. After getting his MBA from UCLA Anderson in 1980, Mr. Keegan began work at Salomon Brothers, where he became a member of the firms’ Executive Committee in 1993 at the age of 41. While at Salomon, Mr. Keegan was in charge of the firm’s proprietary trading activities, in addition to being Head of Risk Management and Co-Head of Fixed Income.

Since leaving Salomon in 1995, Mr. Keegan has run a family investment company, Karkiden LLC, co-authored the book Reality Check, and managed the macro hedge fund Auspex LLC, which closed in 2008. He also currently serves as Chairman for Digital Asset Strategies.

Mr. Keegan has sat on the board of many local charities in his hometown of Greenwich, Connecticut. He also remains deeply involved with the Anderson School and has been on the Advisory Board for many years. He sits on the Executive Committee of the Anderson Board of Advisors and co-chaired the recent Anderson Centennial Campaign that raised $320 million dollars. In addition to his MBA, Mr. Keegan also holds a bachelor of arts in economics from UCLA. He served in the U.S. Army from 1974 to 1978.

Raymond Kennedy

MBA '88 | Portfolio Manager, Hotchkis & Wiley

Raymond Kennedy has had 34 years of experience in the Finance Industry and has spent 11 years with Hotchkis & Wiley. In his role as portfolio manager and founder, Mr. Kennedy plays an integral part in the investment research review and decision-making process. He coordinates the day-to-day management of all High Yield bond portfolios and represents the strategy to current and prospective clients. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Kennedy was a Managing Director, portfolio manager and senior member of PIMCO's investment strategy group. At PIMCO, he headed the global high yield business along with managing and overseeing High Yield funds, bank loan trading and collateralized debt obligations. Mr. Kennedy was formerly associated with the Prudential Insurance Company of America as a private placement asset manager where he was responsible for investing and managing a portfolio of investment grade and high yield privately placed fixed income securities. Prior to that, he was a consultant for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) in Los Angeles and London.

Mr. Kennedy, a CFA charterholder, was nominated for Morningstar's 2010 Fixed Income Manager of the Year. He received his BS from Stanford University and MBA from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles.

O. Kit Lokey

MBA '67 |Chairman Emeritus and Founder, Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin

O. Kit Lokey is the chairman emeritus of the board of directors and a founder of Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin, Inc. In addition to being chairman, Lokey was Houlihan Lokey’s CEO and president until 2002. His activities within the firm currently involve business development and strategic initiatives, including geographic expansion, acquisitions and strategic partners. He sits on a number of corporate and charitable boards, with the latter including the largest independent theatre group in the city of Los Angeles.

Lokey holds a bachelor of science degree in engineering and earned his MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Thomas E. McCarthy

MBA '80 | Co-President, McCarthy Cook & Company LLC

Thomas McCarthy is the co-president of McCarthy Cook & Co., a commercial real estate investment, management and development company. Founded in 1995 by McCarthy and Edward W. Cook III, McCarthy Cook & Co. has completed more than $3 billion of transactions involving office, medical research and mixed-use properties in California and Arizona. The firm specializes in large compelx assets that afford a value-added opportunity.

McCarthy Cook & Co. invests its own capital together with its joint venture partners, including JP Morgan, RREEF, the Blackstone Group, and Stockbridge Capital Partners. The firm maintains offices in Los Angeles, Orange County, Phoenix, Sacramento and San Francisco.

Prior to founding McCarthy Cook & Co., McCarthy was a senior executive with Maguire Thomas Partners (now Magquire Properties), a major Los Angeles-based commercial real estate company, where he was responsible for the debt and equity financing of the firm's 12 million square foot portfolio.

McCarthy is vice chairman of the board of directos and serves on the executive committee of Junion Achievement of Souther California. Through Junior Achievement, McCarthy teaches economics and entrepreneurship classes principally in inner city public schools.

McCarthy earned his MBA in finance from UCLA Anderson School of Management in 1980. He is a member of the board of Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. McCarthy is a member of the Pension Real Estate Association and the Urban Land Institute. He graduated with honors from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. He is a native of Evantson, Ill.

Karlheinz Muhr

MBA '85 | Executive Vice Chairman, Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Karlheinz Muhr is executive vice chairman of Global Corporate & Investment Banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Mr. Muhr is a member of the Global Corporate & Investment Banking Leadership team and focuses on the bank’s most strategic relationships across all industries and client segments globally.

In the past 32 years, Mr. Muhr has managed investment banking and trading divisions at Credit Suisse First Boston and SBC Warburg, co-founded and ran an independent asset management company and advised corporate and institutional clients around the globe on capital markets, strategic transactions, as well as financings and risk management solutions. He has also served as an independent director on public company boards.

Mr. Muhr serves on the boards of the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C., where he is also a Crown Fellow, and the Institute of International Education (IIE) in New York. He is a member of the advisory board of the Fink Center of Finance at UCLA Anderson and a member of the Economic Club of New York.

Mr. Muhr has a Mag.rer.soc.oec. degree from the University of Business and Economics in Vienna, Austria, and an M.B.A. from the UCLA Anderson School of Business in Los Angeles.

Christopher Myers

MBA '91 | Former President and CEO, Citizens Business Bank

Christopher D. Myers joined Citizens Business Bank on August 1, 2006 as President and Chief Executive Officer. Citizens Business Bank is the 11th largest bank headquartered in California with $7.42 billion in assets and 49 branch locations. The holding company for Citizens Business Bank is CVB Financial Corp. which trades on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the symbol ‘CVBF’. The company has produced positive earnings in 149 consecutive quarters and paid a cash dividend in 99 consecutive quarters. In August 2014, CVBF was ranked as the 4th highest performing bank in the United States based on financial metrics determined by Bank Director Magazine for banks and thrifts with assets between 5 and 50 billion.

Prior to his tenure at Citizens, Mr. Myers served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mellon First Business Bank, where he spent a total of ten years in various assignments. Chris began his banking career with First Interstate Bank in 1984 where he completed extensive commercial loan training and progressed through their management ranks. He also spent six years with Sanwa Bank California (now ‘Bank of the West’) as a Vice President and Commercial Banking Center Manager. Mr. Myers is presently a Board Member for the California Bankers Association and the UCLA Anderson School of Management’s Fink Center for Finance and Investments.

Chris received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Harvard University in 1984 and a Master of Business Administration in Finance and Marketing from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1991.

Joan Payden

President and Chief Executive Officer | Payden & Rygel Investment Management

Joan Payden, CFA, is the president and chief executive officer of Payden & Rygel, the global investment management firm that she founded in 1983.

Payden has overseen the firm’s international expansion and its growth to more than $50 billion in assets under management. In 1992, the firm launched Payden & Rygel Investment Group, a family of mutual funds, of which she is chairman and chief executive officer. Subsequently many of these strategies were duplicated in offshore funds domiciled in Ireland. In 1998, Payden & Rygel Global Ltd. was founded in London. At the same time, the firm established Metzler/Payden LLC, its joint venture with Metzler Bank, Germany’s oldest private bank. She is a member of the Payden & Rygel investment policy committee and serves as chairman of the board.

Prior to founding Payden & Rygel, Payden was managing director of West Coast operations for Scudder, Stevens & Clark as a national partner of the firm.

She serves as a trustee of the University of Southern California and Loyola Marymount University. She is also a member of the board of directors of the John Tracy Clinic, the California Chamber of Commerce, the Amateur Athletic Association and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. She is past chairman of the Investment Counsel Association of America.

Payden holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. She is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School and earned a bachelor of arts degree from Trinity College in Mathematics and Physics.

Robert W. Schult

Co-Founder and Managing Director, VMG Equity Partners, LLC

Prior to co-founding VMG Partners, Schult spent almost three decades in the consumer products industry. Schult has held key positions managing more than 50 leading consumer brands and $8 billion in sales across diverse segments including food, beverage, pet care, health and beauty, lifestyle, nutritional and auto care. His experiences include serving as President and Chief Operating Officer of Nestle USA, Inc., founding, managing and selling Novopoint, Inc. as the Company’s Chairman and CEO, a supply chain management technology company for the food and beverage industry.

Served as the Chairman and CEO of The Shansby Group’s Food Products Group. Schult’s responsibilities for the brands he has managed span functional areas from sales and marketing to operations and finance. He has played critical roles in such well known brands as Nestle, Stouffer’s, Hills Bros, Libby’s, Carnation, Buitoni, and Friskies. Schult has served on numerous boards including The Times Mirror Company, owner of the Los Angeles Times, and the Grocery Manufacturers of America where he was Chairman of the Industry Productivity Council. Schult received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina.

Leland L. Sun

MBA '86 | Founder and Managing Director, Pan Asian Mortgage Company, Ltd.

Leland is Managing Director of Pan Asian Mortgage Company, an innovative non-banking financial services company specializing in residential mortgage financing in Hong Kong.

Leland was appointed by the Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong SAR Government as the first Chief Operating Officer of the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation (HKMC). Previously, Leland was a Senior Managing Director, Bear Stearns Asia Ltd. and an Executive Director, Goldman Sachs (Asia) Ltd.

He is an independent non-executive director of Chevalier International Holdings Ltd (25) and Quanzhou Huixin Micro-Credit Co. Ltd. (1577), both listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In addition, Leland is Chairman, Audit Committee and an independent non-executive director of Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd.

Currently, Leland is Vice Chairman, Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce (HKGCC); Executive Committee Member and Treasurer, Servicemen’s Guides Association. Previously, he was the President of The American Club in Hong Kong; past Treasurer and Board of Governor, The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.

Leland was elected as one of the 1,200 members of the 2017 Hong Kong Election Committee (Commercial First Subsector) which selected Hong Kong’s current Chief Executive.

Leland graduated from the UCLA Anderson School of Business with a MBA (Finance) – recipient of the 2017 Outstanding Alumni Service Award and recognized as one of the 100 Most Inspirational Alumni. He is also a Board member of the Fink Center for Finance and UCLA Asia Advisory Council member.

Leland was born in Hong Kong and is fluent in Putonghua.

David Windreich

MBA '83 | Managing Partner and Founder of Cypress Forest Holdings, LLC (“Cypress Forest”)

David Windreich is Managing Partner and Founder of Cypress Forest Holdings, LLC (“Cypress Forest”). Before Cypress Forest, Mr. Windreich was Co-Founder and Executive Managing Director of Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (“Oz Management”). At Oz Management, Mr. Windreich was Co-Chief Investment Officer, Co-Chairman of the Investment Committee and Co-Chairman of the Risk Committee. He was also a member of the Board of Directors, the Executive Operating Committee, the Partner Management Committee, and the Business Risk Committee, among other responsibilities. Prior to joining Oz Management at its inception in 1994, he was a Vice President in the Equity Derivatives Department at Goldman Sachs & Co., where he began his career in 1983. He is currently a Trustee of Mt. Sinai Medical Center, where he is also on the Finance Committee. Additionally, he serves on the Board of Directors for Sema4, a health intelligence company, and as an Advisory Board Member for the Laurence and Lori Fink Center for Finance & Investments at UCLA Anderson School of Management. David holds both a BA in Economics and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management.