Dr. Kara Tan Bhala

Education

PhD (Philosophy) University of Kansas
MA (Philosophy) University of Kansas
MA (Liberal Studies) New York University
MPhil (Management Studies) Oxford University
BS (Systems and Management) City, University of London

Dr. Kara Tan Bhala has a rare combination of professional training and extensive experience in both global finance and moral philosophy. She has over twenty-three years of experience in global finance, much of which was gained through working on Wall Street. She has been a sell-side equity analyst, a sell-side equity sales person, a buy-side equity analyst, and a portfolio manager. From 1992-2001, Dr. Tan Bhala was a Managing Director of Merrill Lynch and the Senior Portfolio Manager of the Merrill Lynch Dragon Fund and Emerging Tigers Fund. At its height, the Merrill Lynch Dragon Fund was the second largest Asian ex-Japan mutual fund in the world, with assets over $1 billion. Before running the Dragon Fund and Emerging Tigers Funds, Dr. Tan Bhala was a portfolio manager with Fiduciary Trust International in New York, where she ran the Far East equity portion of the United Nations Pension Fund. Dr. Tan Bhala ran her own international financial markets consulting firm and was a consultant for hedge and mutual funds based in Kansas City. She was a lecturer at the University of Kansas School of Business where she taught Global Finance and Ethics.

Dr. Tan Bhala was an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Regulation and Ethics at Queen Mary University of London.

Dr. Tan Bhala’s latest book Ethics in Finance: Case Studies from a Woman’s Life on Wall Street, captures the true stories of an immigrant Asian American woman’s journey through the top echelons of Wall Street finance, with enduring lessons about ethics from her 30 years of experience (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021). The book has won five awards: bronze medal in the Business Ethics category of The Axiom Business Book Awards 2022 (US), winner in the International Book category of the Business Book Awards 2022 (UK), finalist in the International Book Awards in the Nonfiction Narrative category, silver medalist in the Business Ethics category of the Global Book Awards 2022 (US), and winner in the Business Education category of the Goody Business Book Awards 2022 (US).

Dr. Tan Bhala contributed a chapter, “The Philosophical Foundations of Financial Ethics” to Research Handbook on Law and Ethics in Finance and Banking (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019). She is the lead author of International Investment Management: Theory, Ethics and Practice published by Routledge in 2016 and a contributor of a chapter, “The Decline and Rise of Financial Ethics” to The Business of Ethics (Asian Institute of Finance, 2016). She has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Business Week, The Far East Economic Review, and other prominent publications, and has been interviewed on Adam Smith’s Money World. Her published articles are in The Harvard International Review, The Journal of the Royal Society of Asian Affairs, among others and has contributed to The Handbook of Portfolio Management.

Dr. Kara Tan Bhala is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
 and a Member of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs
. In 2018 Dr. Tan Bhala was awarded the Transparency Prize by the Transparency Task Force for her help in navigating the finance industry towards a more transparent, competitive, and enlightened state. In 2017, she was named by Ingram’s Magazine as one of the “50 Kansas You Should Know.” Dr. Tan Bhala was formerly a Board Member of the Friends of Johnson County Disability Services, Kansas City, Kansas, a Trustee at Bishop Seabury Academy, Lawrence, Kansas
, and a Treasurer on the Friends of the Lied Board, Lied Center for the Performing Arts, Kansas.

Dr. Tan Bhala has lived and worked in London, Oxford, Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, Washington, D.C., and Kansas City, MO.

Eric Witmer

Eric Witmer lives in Kansas City, Missouri and received his JD from the University of Kansas School of Law. He earned his BA in Film and Video from Pennsylvania State University and also has a Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Interests: Dog-walking and nature.

Shazia K. Afghan

PhD Candidate, Fintech law, regulation & ethics, Queen Mary University of London, England.
Teaching Associate in Equity & Trusts Law, Queen Mary University of London, England.
LLM in Banking and Finance Law, Queen Mary University of London, England

Raymond Madden

Raymond has extensive international experience in human capital development and talent management, having first coined the term the ‘talent game’ in 2009 to describe how organisations can best manage the careers of critical personnel. His book ‘The Business of Ethics’, contains a unique perspective on how organisations should rethink what they are doing about ethics.  

He has held senior roles within the European financial services industry, including tenures as Global Head of Learning at ABN AMRO Bank and Lloyds Banking Group. Raymond has also held a number of academic appointments including Professor of Management Practice and Dean at the London Metropolitan Business School and Associate Dean at Cass Business School, United Kingdom. For almost a decade he was Director of Research at London Business School.

He has extensive experience in financial services having consulted widely with the Bank of China, BT, Coutts, Erste Bank, European Commission, Prudential, Standard Life, and Texaco. Raymond has also had experience advising Governments, having advised the Vice Minister of Finance of the People’s Republic of China on curriculum reform and presented to the United States Department of Treasury on professional education as well as talent development.  

Raymond, is a renowned speaker at international conferences, and believes that Asia will continue to dominate global thinking, whilst driving corporate performance. He feels that the challenge is how Asia will sustain its global economic and cultural influence across the world.  He was formerly Chief Executive Officer of the Asian Institute of Finance, a think tank established by the Central Bank of Malaysia focussed on the financial services industry.  Raymond lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Cristian Dimitriu

Cristian Dimitriu has a BA (Licenciatura) in Philosophy from the University of Buenos Aires and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Toronto. He is a Researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Argentina and a Professor at the Law Department, University of Buenos Aires. Cristian specializes in Political Philosophy, Global Justice, and Philosophy of Law. His works have been published in Journals such as CRISPP, Jurisprudence, Ethics and Global Politics, Ethical Perspectives, Moral Cents: The Journal of Ethics in Finance, Dianoia, Arete, Isonomia, Ideas y Valores and Daimon. Cristian has presented his work at conferences, workshops, and seminars in the US and internationally. 

Georgette Fernandez Laris

Georgette Fernandez Laris holds an MSc in Economic History (Research) from the London School of Economics and Political Science, an MPhil in International Economics and Development from Universite Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne, and a BS in Business Economics from Miami University in the US.

Georgette has experience in economic policy communications, academic and applied research, market analysis and stakeholder engagement in private and public service institutions. She has worked as an intern at the European Central Bank (ECB), industry relations specialist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, research associate at Euromonitor International Inc., trade assistant intern at the U.S. Commercial Service (Paris Office), and research assistant at Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne University.

Her research interests include: sociology of money, governance of financial markets, foundational principles of financial innovations and their welfare, behavioral and moral implications. She also is interested in philosophy of economics, business ethics, moral and cognitive philosophy.

Georgette is fluent in Spanish, French and English. She enjoys traveling and learning from different cultures and world views.

John Francis Diaz

John Francis Diaz is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Asian Institute of Management, Philippines. He obtained his Doctor of Philosophy in Business with a major in Finance and Investment from Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan. He is a Registered Financial Planner® in the Philippines, and a Certified Ethics Associate™ by the Management and Strategy Institute, USA. His teaching and research interests include international financial markets and investments, risk management, corporate finance, global strategy, and ethics in finance. Diaz advocates more transparency and a stronger ethical foundation in the financial services industry.

Vilasini Pollisetty

Andrea Roncella

Andrea Roncella is a PhD student at the University of Navarra (Pamplona, Spain). He previously worked as Research Fellow at the Markets, Culture and Ethics Research Centre at the Pontifical University of Santa Croce (Rome, Italy). Andrea holds an MSc in Economics and Finance and BSc in Economics and Management both from the LUISS University (Rome, Italy).

He was appointed  Visiting Scholar at the Mendoza College of Business (University of Notre Dame, IN, USA) and he is member of the Virtue Ethics in Business Research Group of the University of Navarra. His research focuses on virtue ethics and Catholic Social Teaching in business and finance.

Hana Bakhit

MA Public Policy, University of Virginia, USA

Graduate Diploma Development Studies, University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Sudan

BS Accounting and Finance, University of Khartoum, School of Management Studies, Sudan

Interests: Examining how ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) factors can positively impact society and the environment

Email: mju9my@virginia.edu

Karina Vasiliades

MA Legal and Political Theory, University College London, United Kingdom

BSc (Hons) Philosophy, Logic, and Scientific Method (First Class Honors), The London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom

Email: karinavasiliades05@gmail.com

Wenxian Kiki You

MA International Economics and Finance, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, USA

BA Economics, Minor in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Boston University, USA

Email: wyou6@jh.edu

Dr. Kara Tan Bhala

Education

PhD (Philosophy) University of Kansas
MA (Philosophy) University of Kansas
MA (Liberal Studies) New York University
MPhil (Management Studies) Oxford University
BS (Systems and Management) City, University of London

Dr. Kara Tan Bhala has a rare combination of professional training and extensive experience in both global finance and moral philosophy. She has over twenty-three years of experience in global finance, much of which was gained through working on Wall Street. She has been a sell-side equity analyst, a sell-side equity sales person, a buy-side equity analyst, and a portfolio manager. From 1992-2001, Dr. Tan Bhala was a Managing Director of Merrill Lynch and the Senior Portfolio Manager of the Merrill Lynch Dragon Fund and Emerging Tigers Fund. At its height, the Merrill Lynch Dragon Fund was the second largest Asian ex-Japan mutual fund in the world, with assets over $1 billion. Before running the Dragon Fund and Emerging Tigers Funds, Dr. Tan Bhala was a portfolio manager with Fiduciary Trust International in New York, where she ran the Far East equity portion of the United Nations Pension Fund. Dr. Tan Bhala ran her own international financial markets consulting firm and was a consultant for hedge and mutual funds based in Kansas City.She was a lecturer at the University of Kansas School of Business where she taught Global Finance and Ethics.

Dr. Tan Bhala was an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Regulation and Ethics at Queen Mary University of London.

Dr. Tan Bhala’s latest book Ethics in Finance: Case Studies from a Woman’s Life on Wall Street, captures the true stories of an immigrant Asian American woman’s journey through the top echelons of Wall Street finance, with enduring lessons about ethics from her 30 years of experience (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021). The book has won five awards: bronze medal in the Business Ethics category of The Axiom Business Book Awards 2022 (US), winner in the International Book category of the Business Book Awards 2022 (UK), finalist in the International Book Awards in the Nonfiction Narrative category, silver medalist in the Business Ethics category of the Global Book Awards 2022 (US), and winner in the Business Education category of the Goody Business Book Awards 2022 (US).

Dr. Tan Bhala contributed a chapter, “The Philosophical Foundations of Financial Ethics” to Research Handbook on Law and Ethics in Finance and Banking (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019). She is the lead author of International Investment Management: Theory, Ethics and Practice published by Routledge in 2016 and a contributor of a chapter, “The Decline and Rise of Financial Ethics” to The Business of Ethics (Asian Institute of Finance, 2016). She has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Business Week, The Far East Economic Review, and other prominent publications, and has been interviewed on Adam Smith’s Money World. Her published articles are in The Harvard International Review, The Journal of the Royal Society of Asian Affairs, among others and has contributed to The Handbook of Portfolio Management.

Dr. Kara Tan Bhala is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
 and a Member of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs
. In 2018 Dr. Tan Bhala was awarded the Transparency Prize by the Transparency Task Force for her help in navigating the finance industry towards a more transparent, competitive, and enlightened state. In 2017, she was named by Ingram’s Magazine as one of the “50 Kansas You Should Know.” Dr. Tan Bhala was formerly a Board Member of the Friends of Johnson County Disability Services, Kansas City, Kansas, a Trustee at Bishop Seabury Academy, Lawrence, Kansas
, and a Treasurer on the Friends of the Lied Board, Lied Center for the Performing Arts, Kansas.

Dr. Tan Bhala has lived and worked in London, Oxford, Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, Washington, D.C., and Kansas City.

Debbie Cheng

Debbie Cheng is an Information Technology specialist. She has over 30 years experience in banking and financial services in Singapore and Australia. Debbie has volunteered in several non-profits, and her last role was Technology Program Manager in Mission Australia, a not-for-profit organization. She managed project delivery of applications and technology paramount to service workers in the field, who provided support to the homeless, victims of domestic violence, and people with mental disabilities.

Working with Mission Australia gave Debbie an appreciation of community contribution to her strong sense of values and her belief in promoting innovative, healthy and ethical progress. She also is a keen observer of how corporates and governments create and use technology for their short-term gain, with corollary impacts on society’s well-being, particularly on the elderly, who have low technology skills.

Born in Malaysia, Debbie graduated from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia with a Bachelor of Computer Science (with Distinction) in 1981. She worked at the National Australia Bank for 18 years and MLC Wealth Management for six years. She also has worked as an IT PMO Consultant and Project Manager. Debbie lives and enjoys the environs of Sydney, golfing, traveling, and caring for her elderly parents.

Choong Yeow Choy

Choong Yeow Choy is Professor and former Dean at the Faculty of Law, University of Malaya. He is currently a member of the Judicial Appointments Commission of Malaysia. Yeow Choy obtained his Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of Malaya, his Master of Laws (LLM) degree from Harvard Law School and his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree from the University of Melbourne. He is also an Advocate and Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya.

He is an Executive Council Member of the ASEAN Law Association of Malaysia and the Inns of Court Malaysia. He is also a member of the Disciplinary Committee of the Advocates and Solicitors Disciplinary Board, the founder member of the Malaysian National Committee of the International Academy of Comparative Law and a member of the Governing Council of the ASEAN Legal Information Centre.

Yeow Choy’s primary areas of research include transnational civil litigation, international commercial arbitration and the administration of the civil justice system. His books have been published by Butterworths and LexisNexis and his articles have been published in international journals such as the Civil Justice Quarterly, the Australian Journal of Asian Law, the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the Hong Kong Law Journal, the KLRI Journal of Law and Legislation and the Commonwealth Judicial Journal.

Yeow Choy travels extensively and collaborates with scholars and academics from around the globe and has taught courses in similar areas in the Duke Law School Summer Program, Chulalongkorn University, Kyushu University, the University of Hong Kong, the National University of Singapore and the University of Tokyo.

Louis Mendes

Louis Mendes has over twenty-seven years of experience in global finance.  Louis is currently the Director of International Research and a Senior Portfolio Manager at Columbia Wanger Asset Management, an investment advisory subsidiary of ColumbiaThreadneedle Investments and advisor to the Acorn family of mutual funds.  Before joining Columbia Wanger Asset Management in 2001, Louis worked as a senior analyst at Merrill Lynch Asset Management. He was on the investment team headed by Dr. Tan Bhala that managed the Merrill Lynch Dragon Fund and Emerging Tigers Fund.  Prior to joining Merrill Lynch in 1993, Louis had spent several years in Asia, most notably as a guest English/Economics lecturer at Ningbo University in Ningbo, China in the academic year immediately following the TianAnMen Square uprising in June 1989.  Earlier experience include three years (1986-1989) at Bankers Trust Company in New York City where he completed its credit training program and then worked as a credit analyst and assistant portfolio manager in the Private Banking division.

Louis received his Master in International Management degree from the American Graduate School in International Management (Thunderbird) in 1993 and his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Columbia University in 1986.  Louis is a Member of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a Board Member of the Institute for Business & Professional Ethics (IBPE) at Depaul University.  Louis is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Christopher K. Richey, CFA

Christopher K. Richey has 30 years of investment and securities experience. He is Managing Director at Silvercrest Asset Management Group. He was a Partner at Neosho Capital, a registered investment advisory firm located in La Jolla, California. Before founding Neosho Capital in 2004, Chris worked at Brandes Investment Partners (1996-2003) as Director of Mutual Fund Portfolio Management. Prior to Brandes, Chris was an Associate in Securities Law at Cooley Godward Huddleson and Tatum (1993-1996). He was a Credit Officer in Leveraged Buy-Outs at Union Bank of Switzerland (1989-1990) and at Marine Midland Bank (1986 – 1989).

Chris received his Juris Doctor from Stanford University Law School (1993), a Master of Philosophy in Management Studies from Oxford University (1986) and a Bachelor in Business Administration from Southern Methodist University (1983). Chris is also a CFA Charterholder (2000).

Siddharth Velakacharla

Siddharth Velakacharla retired as a Partner of Indus Capital Partners headquartered in New York, USA (hedge fund company managing approximately USD 5 billion across Asian markets) in December 2020, where he managed the Indus Hong Kong office.  Sid has over twenty years of investment experience managing equity long-short and long-only portfolios, mainly across Asian markets.  He joined Indus Capital in 2006 where his primary investment responsibilities have encompassed running discretionary equity long-short investment portfolios across Asia within the broader Indus funds and managing the Indus India fund since 2015.

Sid started his investment career at Merrill Lynch Asset Management in New Jersey, U.S.A. as an investment analyst and then helped manage Asia ex-Japan equity mutual/pension fund portfolios within the Dragon Fund Group (headed by Dr Kara Tan Bhala) as Director and Associate Portfolio Manager (1994-2000). His experience also involves an entrepreneurial venture as Vice President and Head of Finance & Operations of a privately held analytics software company (Neonyoyo) where he helped structure the sale to Nasdaq-listed Interwoven (later acquired by Autonomy and now under Hewlett Packard) in 2000 and then spent two years with Interwoven as the head of Treasury and Investor Relations (2000-2002). Sid’s investment experience also includes three years as Principal and CIO of Akul Group, a short alpha focused market neutral equity fund based in New York (2003-2005). Prior to business school, he spent two years with the Shriram Group in India first as a Management Trainee with Shriram Honda (JV with Honda Motor, Japan) and then as the Executive Assistant to the CEO of Shriram Refrigeration Ltd (JV with and later acquired by Tecumseh Products, USA).

Sid has an MBA from the Ross School of Business (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, class of 1994), a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Osmania University in India (class of 1990) and completed his schooling at Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet, India. He is a permanent resident of Hong Kong where he resides with his wife and two daughters, both of whom are pursuing their undergraduate studies in the United States. He was a competitive athlete in his early days and a member of the team that won the Gold and Silver medal in badminton at the National India School Games in 1986 and 1985, respectively. He was also the elected President of AIESEC, Hyderabad during his college days and was later awarded one of five scholarships across India by ITC, Ltd. to pursue his MBA.

Dr. Costanza Russo

Dr. Costanza Russo is Lecturer in International Banking Law and Business Ethics at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS), Queen Mary University of London.

Costanza is also Visiting Professor at New York University in London and Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Commercial Law and Financial Regulation, University of Reading, UK. Before moving to London she held teaching and research positions at the Universities of Bologna and Trento, Italy; and Zurich, Switzerland.

Costanza holds a Masters Degree in Law and a Ph.D. in Economics . She is a qualified solicitor in Italy where she practiced in the area of commercial law. Her main fields of expertise include cross border bank insolvency, international banking regulation and finance, company law and business ethics, on which she has extensively presented and published in academic and practitioner journals.

Warren Yeh

Mr. Yeh is currently Head of US Business Development for Smartkarma, Asia’s leading provider of independent research for institutional investors. Prior to joining Smartkarma, he was Co-founder and Managing Partner of Adapa Partners, LLC a long/short Asian equity hedge fund (2000-2017). Before founding Adapa, he was Managing Director of Vickers Ballas (USA) Inc., and was responsible for opening Vickers’ New York office and expanding the North American institutional client base. From 1987 to 1991, Mr. Yeh managed the Japanese and Asian equity investments for the USAA International Fund. From 1985 to 1987, he was a credit analyst for InterFirst Bank Dallas and subsequently an equity investment analyst for InterFirst Investment Management. Mr. Yeh was born in Taiwan, has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Rice University (1983) and an MBA from the University of Texas, Arlington (1985). He is a Chartered Financial Analyst.