Team
Meet our Founder
Chauwei heads the valuation and forensics team at GAO Advisors. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a dual degree, BS in Economics and BA in Asian & Middle Studies from the Wharton School and College of Arts and Sciences respectively with a minor in Mathematics.
Chauwei's extensive corporate finance experience at JPMorgan and UBS Investment Bank, in their New York, Tokyo and London offices, has enabled her to provide specialist support to cross-border clients for complex investigations and valuation matters. Chauwei relocated the firm's headquarters back to Singapore in 2010 and has been operating in the Asia Pacific region for over a decade.
Chauwei Yak
Founder and CEO
Representative Experience in Singapore Courts:
Acted as expert valuer in CVB v CVC [2022] SGHCF 31 to provide an indicative valuation on three car workshops to which the judge praised, "[Ms Yak] is eminently qualified with impressive credentials which included corporate finance experience at JP Morgan and UBS Investment Bank."
Acted as expert for Hong Kong SFC in Christopher James Aarons v Securities and Futures Commission, a tribunal hearing on the using of material non-public information for share trading in the fund management sector.
Acted as expert in Meow Moy Lan and others v Exklusiv Resorts Pte Ltd and another [2021] SGHC 155 for the owner of a country club against 170 members in their class action for breach of contract in relocating the club
Produced valuation report and defended work in court for a family-owned manufacturing and trading business seeking to clawback over $10 million in fraudulent withdrawals by the next-generation family members which led to successful judgement in Singapore High Court.
Appointed by Singapore High Court in UTJ v UTK [2019] SGHCF 6 as joint independent expert in valuation of family-owned group of companies across multiple countries in a dispute worth $20 million. Integral to ending dispute which had been running for more than 7 years.
Investigations for an investor to look at a $5 million convertible loan into a F&B company with operations in Singapore, Indonesia and Japan, which resulted in successful recovery of principal, interest payments and full indemnity of costs for the investor.
Assisted the directors of a healthcare company in refuting the claims brought by the forensic expert of their previous business partner, after the company acquired at valuation of $8 million.
Produced valuation report for Singapore manufacturing company with operations in China against former general manager who had withdrawn RMB 3 million without authorization. Report led to submission of amended SOC which led to consent judgement.
Forensic investigation for import and export business which led to CPIB conviction of employee of bribery and corruption.
Other Industry Experience & Transactions:
Director of Research of Ortelius Capital, the family office of Prince Pavalos Crown Prince of Greece and Robert Miller, founder of the DFS duty free empire
$3 billion asset swap between JPMorgan and Bank of New York
$7 billion merger between SunTrust Banks and National Commerce Financial Corporation
$750 million Mandatory Convertible issuance by XL Capital
$100 million IPO of Signature Bank
Professional Qualifications & Memberships:
Committee Member of Singapore Institute of Directors (SID)
Advisory Council for the Family Office Association
Chartered Valuer and Appraiser (CVA)
Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA)
Graduate Certificate in Digital Finance: Digital Forensics, SMU-CPA Australia
Meet the Team
Financial Institutions
Alexander Yao is an investment and operations professional with over a decade of experience working in New York and Beijing in the finance and entertainment industries. His extensive experience working on cross-border projects with a wide range of international clients has enabled him to provide global clients with professional support on complex asset valuation issues.
Alexander Yao graduated from Columbia University with a degree in economics and comparative literature and began his career at Morgan Stanley in New York, first in the financial institutions investment banking group, and later at the firm strategy and executions group, where he provided management consulting and M&A advice for internal projects.
He has native proficiency in English and Mandarin.
Experiences
Advised General Motors on the sale of a 51% stake in General Motors Acceptance Corporation to a consortium led by Cerberus Capital Management, L.P.
Advised Financial Sponsor on the acquisition of a U.K. Financial Technology Company
Advised Student Lender on strategic alternatives
Producer on a $65MM Hong Kong motion picture
Producer on a $80MM Mainland Chinese motion picture
Professional Qualifications & Memberships
Chartered Valuer and Appraiser (ongoing)
Steve Jernigan has more than 20 years experience in structuring, portfolio management, and capital markets execution. Previously, at Goldman Sachs he was responsible for data intelligence, leveraging the firm's proprietary data to improve client experience across business lines in banking, asset management, and global markets.
Steve Jernigan has a B.S. in Finance & International Business from Pennsylvania State University and has variously consulted for hedge funds and asset managers such as Bridgewater Associates and Brookfield throughout his career.
Experiences
Responsible for the day-to-day management of $5 billion of securities and structured vehicles as a Director at CWCapital
Worked at RealPoint, LLC, a nationally recognized statistical rating organization (now owned by Morningstar), and was responsible for developing systems to underwrite and credit-analyze transactions
Michele Chitson boasts over 18 years of expertise in capital markets, quantitative research and trading. During her tenure at Citadel, she spearheaded the development, research and monetization of equity options market-making as well as algorithmic trading strategies in C++.
Michele holds both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Computer Science from Cambridge University and has worked for quantitative trading firms and global banks such as Goldman Sachs and Merril Lynch throughout her career.
Experiences
Vice President of Structured Products Trading at Goldman Sachs
Assistant Vice President of Equity Derivatives Trading at Merrill Lynch
Technology and Intellectual Property
CJ Foo is a Consultant for the GAO Group on technology and Intellectual Property. He has almost 20 years of experience in product management and marketing in the technology industry, most recently as a Product Manager in Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO).
CJ Foo graduated with first-class honours from the National University of Singapore, with a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical and Computer Engineering. CJ has released multiple publications over the years with a focus on semiconductors with a drive to develop technological tools to deliver business growth for an organization.
Experiences
2016-2020: Product Manager, Marketing at Broadcom Inc
2011-2016: Product Manager, Avago Technologies
2010-2011: Product Marketing Engineer, GlobalFoundries
2007-2010: Technical Marketing / Applications Engineer, Avago Technologies
2004-2007: Test Engineer, Micron Technology
Publications
Foo (2019). Broadcom 15mm Wide ACNT Optocouplers for High Voltage Applications
Foo (2018). 适用于高绝缘电压应用的宽爬电距离光耦
Foo (2015). Avago optocoupler's role in programmable logic controller
Foo (2014). High Speed Optocouplers in Industrial Communication Networks
Foo (2012). Gauging LED lifetime in optocouplers
Foo (2012). 通过光耦隔离解决方案提供可靠精确的工业控制电路设计
Explore our diverse expertise at our sister company, GAO Capital.
The GAO team combines decades of experience from global financial institutions and top schools from the US, UK and Singapore.
