Our Private Capital Practice is led by our Partners Rick Johannessen, Julie Kim, Sabrina Hu and Sourabh Chattopadhyay. We are the search partner of choice to numerous country focused, pan-regional and global investment firms. Private Capital comprises the largest segment of our investment management practice.

For nearly two decades, we have established high-performing businesses across the Asia region, consistently demonstrated successful track records across multiple economic-cycles. Our regional team of over 20 private markets consultants provides exceptional human capital capabilities to leading private markets investment programs.

In addition to investment professionals, we have placed capital raisers, fund operations professionals, operating partners, and senior advisors and senior executives into portfolio companies.

Our search offering can be defined as:

  • Investment Professionals – from Associate to Senior Partner
  • Capital Formation – Institutional and Private Wealth Capital Raising, Business Development, Investor Relations, Fund Marketing, Relationship Management, Product Specialists, and Project Management
  • Fund-level Operations – COO, CFO, CPO, CTO, General Counsel and the people that report to them
  • Value Creation and Portfolio Company Management – C-level, reports to C-level executives, board members and advisors & operating professionals

We are proud to partner with leading general partners and limited partners across a diverse range of private market investment strategies including control private equity, significant minority and growth equity, private credit, distressed debt, real estate private equity, infrastructure, and secondaries.

Meet Our Team

Hong Kong
Christian Brun
Co-Chief Executive Officer
Hong Kong | London | Melbourne | Singapore

Christian Brun is the Co-Chief Executive Officer of Wellesley. He is based in Singapore but also splits his time between London and Hong Kong. Christian was a founding Partner of Wellesley Partners, and has worked on numerous senior level executive search appointments across every jurisdiction in Asia-Pacific and Europe across both the Financial Services and Technology sectors; he also leads the Corporate & Investment Banking Practice.

Christian relocated to Hong Kong from London to launch our Asia business in 2005. Prior to founding Wellesley in 2004, he was a Principal at Heidrick & Struggles, the global executive search firm, based in London, where he focused on Investment Banking. He started his search career at Whitehead Mann in 1997, before joining The Consulting Group, a London-based boutique search firm, which was subsequently acquired by TMP. Christian has an MA in History and an M.Phil. in International Relations from Cambridge University, where he was awarded a College History Scholarship.

Rick Johannessen
Co-Chief Executive Officer
Hong Kong

Rick Johannessen is the Co-Chief Executive Officer of Wellesley and also leads the Investment Management practice. He works with fund managers and asset owners focused on public market, private capital and real estate investment strategies. He also works with their portfolio companies. He has over 20 years of talent acquisition experience built on orchestrating team moves and placing senior investment, marketing, and operating professionals globally.

Prior to joining Wellesley, Rick was the Head of Asia for Glocap Search based in New York. Glocap acquired a leading Asian search boutique where he was the founding Principal. Rick started his career in business development for two venture capital-funded technology firms in Hong Kong, the second one was in HR Tech. He studied International Relations at the American University in Washington D.C. and is conversant in Mandarin and Japanese. Rick is a Co-Founder and Board Member of the American Club Foundation (ACF), Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Community Recovery Fund (HKCRF).

Sabrina Hu
+852 2847 9914
Sabrina Hu
Partner, Head of China
Hong Kong | Shanghai

Sabrina Hu is a Partner and Head of China at Wellesley Partners, based in Hong Kong. She has established herself as an expert in the Alternative Investment practice. With a focus on the Greater China market, she specializes in Venture Capital, Private Equity, Hedge Fund and Fund of Funds. Additionally, she has a proven track record of bringing senior management leaders for portfolio companies of private equity funds. 

Sabrina started her executive search career in 2008. Prior to joining Wellesley, she worked at Executive Access in Hong Kong, where she specialized in Investment Banking and Private Equity. She also held a similar role at Eban International in Hong Kong. Sabrina is fluent in English and is a native Mandarin speaker. She received her Master’s Degree in Social Science from the City University of Hong Kong.

Julie Kim
Partner
Hong Kong | London | Mumbai | Shanghai

Julie Kim is a Partner with Wellesley specializing in executive search for alternative investment firms and investment banks across APAC and Europe. She heads our capital formation practice globally and works with many of the world’s most reputable investment managers and placement agents as they enhance and widen their capital formation capabilities across the broad spectrum of alternative investment strategies. Julie is also responsible for leading coverage in Korea across both banking and principal strategies. Since 2010, Julie has sourced senior executives within the investing, operations, and capital formation space across all the major markets.

Prior to her career in executive search, she was a Fixed Income trader with Allianz Global Investors in Seoul. She started her career as an Investment Banker with Macquarie also based in Seoul. Born in Korea, Julie grew up in Europe and the United States. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Korea University. She is a native Korean speaker and is fluent in English and conversant in French.

Elysee Lam
Executive Director
Hong Kong

Elysee Lam is an Executive Director of Wellesley Partners based in Hong Kong. She focuses on senior executives’ appointments of the portfolio companies of Private Equity clients in Asia Pacific. She also supports investment and operations professional searches in Asia Pacific.

Elysee has been in executive search since 2003. Prior joining Wellesley, Elysee worked with another Asian-based executive search firm specializing in senior executive recruitments in Commercial Sectors in Asia Pacific. Elysee holds a Bachelor Degree of Social Science and a Master Degree of Knowledge Management. She is originally from Hong Kong and she speaks native Cantonese and fluent English and Mandarin.

Tammy Mak
Executive Director
Hong Kong

Tammy Mak is an Executive Director of Wellesley Partners based in Hong Kong. She covers Investment Banking and Alternative Investment clients with a focus on Greater China. Her experience has been predominantly focused on mid-to-senior level placements, and she has a strong track record across Private Equity, Private Credit, Fund of Funds, Investment Banking and Investor Relations regionally across Asia. Tammy has been in executive search since 2005.

Prior to joining Wellesley, Tammy worked at Executive Access in Hong Kong for over 12 years focused on the Investment Banking and Private Equity sectors. Before entering search, she worked at Shanghai Commercial Bank as Management Trainee. Tammy obtained her Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Simon Fraser University in Canada. She is originally from Hong Kong and she speaks native Cantonese and fluent English and Mandarin.

Kat Wong
Director
Hong Kong

Kat Wong is a Director in our executive search business where she specializes in Greater China investment professional searches for our Public Markets investment business. This includes working with Asset Owners, Asset Management and Hedge Fund businesses. She is also active across our Quantitative Investment, Data Science and Technology practices as well.

Kat started her search career in 2015. She has built a strong track record of placing professionals in Asset Management, Hedge Funds, and Proprietary/High Frequency Trading Houses with a focus in Greater China. Prior to joining Wellesley, Kat was the Lead Consultant in Quantitative Investment and Technology space at Selby Jennings Hong Kong. Before that, she specialized in Financial Technology. Kat graduated from Curtin University with a Bachelor of International Business Management. She is a native Cantonese, Mandarin, and Shanghainese speaker.

Eunice Rah
Associate Director
Hong Kong

Eunice Rah is an Associate Director in our executive search business based in Hong Kong. She focuses on recruiting investor relations/capital formation professionals across both public and private markets strategies. She also supports investment professional searches across North Asia and is a Korean market generalist.

Before Wellesley, Eunice was with another global search firm specializing in sales and investment mandates within the Investment Management space. She began her search career covering accounting and operations within Financial Services. Eunice holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Banking and Finance from City University of Hong Kong. Originally from Korea and raised in California, she is native in English and Korean.

Evelyn Tian
Associate Director
Hong Kong

Evelyn is an Associate Director specializing in executive search for Wellesley based in Hong Kong. She is a China Generalist but focuses in the Alternative Investment, Asset Management and Investment Banking sectors.

Prior to joining Wellesley, Evelyn worked with Selby Jennings for over 3 years focused on Investment Management. Prior to that, she worked at AIA as Financial Planner. Evelyn started her career with Deloitte as an Auditor. Originally from Hunan, Evelyn obtained her Bachelor of Business Administration degree from City University of Hong Kong. She speaks native Mandarin, fluent English and Cantonese.

London
Christian Brun
Co-Chief Executive Officer
Hong Kong | London | Melbourne | Singapore

Christian Brun is the Co-Chief Executive Officer of Wellesley. He is based in Singapore but also splits his time between London and Hong Kong. Christian was a founding Partner of Wellesley Partners, and has worked on numerous senior level executive search appointments across every jurisdiction in Asia-Pacific and Europe across both the Financial Services and Technology sectors; he also leads the Corporate & Investment Banking Practice.

Christian relocated to Hong Kong from London to launch our Asia business in 2005. Prior to founding Wellesley in 2004, he was a Principal at Heidrick & Struggles, the global executive search firm, based in London, where he focused on Investment Banking. He started his search career at Whitehead Mann in 1997, before joining The Consulting Group, a London-based boutique search firm, which was subsequently acquired by TMP. Christian has an MA in History and an M.Phil. in International Relations from Cambridge University, where he was awarded a College History Scholarship.

Julie Kim
Partner
Hong Kong | London | Mumbai | Shanghai

Julie Kim is a Partner with Wellesley specializing in executive search for alternative investment firms and investment banks across APAC and Europe. She heads our capital formation practice globally and works with many of the world’s most reputable investment managers and placement agents as they enhance and widen their capital formation capabilities across the broad spectrum of alternative investment strategies. Julie is also responsible for leading coverage in Korea across both banking and principal strategies. Since 2010, Julie has sourced senior executives within the investing, operations, and capital formation space across all the major markets.

Prior to her career in executive search, she was a Fixed Income trader with Allianz Global Investors in Seoul. She started her career as an Investment Banker with Macquarie also based in Seoul. Born in Korea, Julie grew up in Europe and the United States. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Korea University. She is a native Korean speaker and is fluent in English and conversant in French.

Alice Bagshawe-Sutton
Executive Director
London

Alice Bagshawe-Sutton is an Executive Director with Wellesley based in London. She primarily focuses on executive search for our Private Capital (private credit, private equity and real assets) and FinTech clients across Europe and the Middle East. Secondarily, she also helps with our Southeast Asia market coverage. Alice recently re-joined Wellesleys having spent a year helping to build a successful FinTech practice at Russell Reynolds; she originally joined the firm in our Singapore office in 2015 where she spent seven years focused on Private Capital searches across Southeast Asia and Australia/ANZ. She started her search career in 2009 in London.

Prior to joining Wellesley, Alice spent two years with another Global Search firm in Singapore where she helped build a successful corporate and investment banking practice as well as specializing in senior-level searches within the natural resources and infrastructure sectors. She started her search career in London where she spent three years with a leading European boutique firm focused on Capital Markets and Leveraged Finance searches across Europe. Alice graduated from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland with a Master’s Degree in Theology and Classical Civilization.

Natasha Yadav
Director
London

Natasha Yadav is a Director in our executive search business based in London. She currently covers research and execution within our Alternative Investment team. Her primary focus is recruiting fund marketing/investor relations professionals but also works on investment professional searches across Asia.

Prior to joining Wellesley, she worked in fast paced, customer facing environments in the hospitality sector with luxury hotel brands across both Asia and Europe with the Melia Group and The Four Seasons. She got her start in search with another Hong Kong based boutique. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Natasha went on to obtain a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in International Relations from Durham University. She is a native English speaker and is conversant in Hindi.

Melbourne
Christian Brun
Co-Chief Executive Officer
Hong Kong | London | Melbourne | Singapore

Christian Brun is the Co-Chief Executive Officer of Wellesley. He is based in Singapore but also splits his time between London and Hong Kong. Christian was a founding Partner of Wellesley Partners, and has worked on numerous senior level executive search appointments across every jurisdiction in Asia-Pacific and Europe across both the Financial Services and Technology sectors; he also leads the Corporate & Investment Banking Practice.

Christian relocated to Hong Kong from London to launch our Asia business in 2005. Prior to founding Wellesley in 2004, he was a Principal at Heidrick & Struggles, the global executive search firm, based in London, where he focused on Investment Banking. He started his search career at Whitehead Mann in 1997, before joining The Consulting Group, a London-based boutique search firm, which was subsequently acquired by TMP. Christian has an MA in History and an M.Phil. in International Relations from Cambridge University, where he was awarded a College History Scholarship.

Sophie Meyers
Managing Director
Melbourne | Singapore

Sophie Meyers is a Managing Director with Wellesley based in the Singapore office. She specialises in both Investment Banking and Private Equity / Alternative Investments across Southeast Asia and Australia.

Having initially joined Wellesley Partners in our Sydney office focusing on the domestic ANZ Investment Banking Sector, she relocated to Singapore to help our expanding Southeast Asia team in 2013. Prior to joining Wellesley, she spent six years in the Australian market with a global recruitment firm where she managed a team specialising in senior level finance placements across Banking and Wealth Management. Sophie graduated from the University of Liverpool with a BA (Hons) degree in French and Hispanic Studies.

Mumbai
Sourabh Chattopadhyay
Managing Partner, Head of Professional Services
Mumbai

Sourabh Chattopadhyay is the Managing Partner and Head of Professional Services with Wellesley Partners and leads the firms India business. He is a generalist with broad success across alternative investments, investment banking, private equity portfolio companies, and professional services.

Prior to joining Wellesley Partners, Sourabh headed Options Group’s executive search and strategic consulting practice in India. Sourabh has also been an entrepreneur and worked in institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Ernst and Young, and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.  Sourabh is an active angel investor and an LP in a few early-stage funds.  He is also an advisor to several startups.  Sourabh is on the board of Khela Ghar, an NGO based out of Calcutta, and a founding trustee of Daya Foundation.  He holds a BBA in Economics from Pace University in New York.

Julie Kim
Partner
Hong Kong | London | Mumbai | Shanghai

Julie Kim is a Partner with Wellesley specializing in executive search for alternative investment firms and investment banks across APAC and Europe. She heads our capital formation practice globally and works with many of the world’s most reputable investment managers and placement agents as they enhance and widen their capital formation capabilities across the broad spectrum of alternative investment strategies. Julie is also responsible for leading coverage in Korea across both banking and principal strategies. Since 2010, Julie has sourced senior executives within the investing, operations, and capital formation space across all the major markets.

Prior to her career in executive search, she was a Fixed Income trader with Allianz Global Investors in Seoul. She started her career as an Investment Banker with Macquarie also based in Seoul. Born in Korea, Julie grew up in Europe and the United States. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Korea University. She is a native Korean speaker and is fluent in English and conversant in French.

Amanpreet Singh
Managing Director
Mumbai

Amanpreet Singh is a Managing Director at Wellesley Partners India with a search focus on alternative investments and private equity specifically.

While at Wellesley, she has delivered an entire suite of integrated services to PE clients from investment roles to CXO’s and board members for portfolio companies. Before joining Wellesley, she was a senior private equity recruiter with Hunt Partners. Having cut her teeth in journalism with India’s leading Business journals, The Economic Times and Business Today, Aman believes that as a headhunter there’s no substitute for curiosity. Amanpreet completed her Master’s Degree in English Literature, from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University. She has an additional Master’s Degree in Content Creation and Journalism from School of Convergence, India.

Vasumati Bhat
Executive Director
Mumbai

Vasumati Bhat is an Executive Director with Wellesley Partners India. She works with clients in the Alternative Investments and Professional Services industry.

Vasu has been in the Executive Search Industry from the beginning of her career in 2009. She began her career as a Research Associate with Hunt Partners where she conducted extensive Market Research, Talent Mapping Exercises for clients across sectors and geographies. She joined Wellesley in 2011 as an Associate and has been closely working with the Practice Leads on several Leadership positions. At Wellesley, Vasu focuses on search mandates for Private Equity, PE Portfolio Companies and Professional Services Firms. Vasu graduated from the University of Mumbai with a Bachelor’s Degree in Mcanagement Studies and has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration. She is fluent in English, Hindi and conversant in Marathi and Konkani.

Trupti Ahuja
Director
Mumbai

Trupti Ahuja is a Director with Wellesley Partners India with a focus on alternative investments, private equity portfolio companies and professional services. 

A Chartered Accountant by profession, she started her career with PricewaterhouseCoopers where she spent around three years specializing in Indirect Taxation. She also has a fair understanding of UK Taxation during her stint with Nomura. Her search career started with Native (Erstwhile Vito India) wherein she led searches across Global Markets, NBFC’s, Housing Finance as well as Asset Reconstruction space. She also holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Commerce from Mumbai University. She is fluent in English and Hindi.

Harmmit Walia
Associate Director
Mumbai

Harmmit is an Associate Director with Wellesley Partners India and focuses on searches across Private Equity & Portfolio Companies, Investment Banking and Professional Services.

Prior to joining Wellesley Partners, Harmmit was associated with Think People Solutions and Black Turtle, where he focused on sectors including Financial Services,  IT, FMCG and Professional Services.  Harmmit holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Commerce from the University of Mumbai. He is fluent in English and Hindi.

Khadija Qureshi
Associate
Mumbai

Khadija Qureshi is a Generalist Associate with Wellesley Partners, based in India. Prior to joining Wellesley Partners, she worked with Aquis Search as a Consultant where she worked on mandates across FMCG, Real Estate and Financial Services sectors for APAC region.

She started her search career with The Ally Venture where she worked on searches across Construction, Real Estate and Asset management in Australia. She has also worked with ICICI Prudential AMC as a part of the investment advisory vertical. She completed her Master of Management Studies in Finance from Mumbai University in 2019. She is fluent in English, Hindi and conversant in Marathi and Urdu.

Shanghai
Sabrina Hu
+852 2847 9914
Sabrina Hu
Partner, Head of China
Hong Kong | Shanghai

Sabrina Hu is a Partner and Head of China at Wellesley Partners, based in Hong Kong. She has established herself as an expert in the Alternative Investment practice. With a focus on the Greater China market, she specializes in Venture Capital, Private Equity, Hedge Fund and Fund of Funds. Additionally, she has a proven track record of bringing senior management leaders for portfolio companies of private equity funds. 

Sabrina started her executive search career in 2008. Prior to joining Wellesley, she worked at Executive Access in Hong Kong, where she specialized in Investment Banking and Private Equity. She also held a similar role at Eban International in Hong Kong. Sabrina is fluent in English and is a native Mandarin speaker. She received her Master’s Degree in Social Science from the City University of Hong Kong.

Julie Kim
Partner
Hong Kong | London | Mumbai | Shanghai

Julie Kim is a Partner with Wellesley specializing in executive search for alternative investment firms and investment banks across APAC and Europe. She heads our capital formation practice globally and works with many of the world’s most reputable investment managers and placement agents as they enhance and widen their capital formation capabilities across the broad spectrum of alternative investment strategies. Julie is also responsible for leading coverage in Korea across both banking and principal strategies. Since 2010, Julie has sourced senior executives within the investing, operations, and capital formation space across all the major markets.

Prior to her career in executive search, she was a Fixed Income trader with Allianz Global Investors in Seoul. She started her career as an Investment Banker with Macquarie also based in Seoul. Born in Korea, Julie grew up in Europe and the United States. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Korea University. She is a native Korean speaker and is fluent in English and conversant in French.

Fei Gong
Director
Shanghai

Fei Gong is a Director in our executive search business based in Shanghai. Fei is a China Generalist but focuses in the Alternative Investment, Asset Management and Investment Banking sectors. He is also an industry sector specialist across healthcare.

Before joining Wellesley and the executive search industry, Fei was a PhD student at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology where he was studying Neuroscience and Alzheimer’s disease. Fei has a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Science from Nanjing University and a Master of Philosophy in Life Science from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Originally from Jiangsu province, he is a native Mandarin speaker and fluent English speaker.

Singapore
Christian Brun
Co-Chief Executive Officer
Hong Kong | London | Melbourne | Singapore

Christian Brun is the Co-Chief Executive Officer of Wellesley. He is based in Singapore but also splits his time between London and Hong Kong. Christian was a founding Partner of Wellesley Partners, and has worked on numerous senior level executive search appointments across every jurisdiction in Asia-Pacific and Europe across both the Financial Services and Technology sectors; he also leads the Corporate & Investment Banking Practice.

Christian relocated to Hong Kong from London to launch our Asia business in 2005. Prior to founding Wellesley in 2004, he was a Principal at Heidrick & Struggles, the global executive search firm, based in London, where he focused on Investment Banking. He started his search career at Whitehead Mann in 1997, before joining The Consulting Group, a London-based boutique search firm, which was subsequently acquired by TMP. Christian has an MA in History and an M.Phil. in International Relations from Cambridge University, where he was awarded a College History Scholarship.

Sophie Meyers
Managing Director
Melbourne | Singapore

Sophie Meyers is a Managing Director with Wellesley based in the Singapore office. She specialises in both Investment Banking and Private Equity / Alternative Investments across Southeast Asia and Australia.

Having initially joined Wellesley Partners in our Sydney office focusing on the domestic ANZ Investment Banking Sector, she relocated to Singapore to help our expanding Southeast Asia team in 2013. Prior to joining Wellesley, she spent six years in the Australian market with a global recruitment firm where she managed a team specialising in senior level finance placements across Banking and Wealth Management. Sophie graduated from the University of Liverpool with a BA (Hons) degree in French and Hispanic Studies.

Anna Lewis
Executive Director
Singapore

Anna Lewis is an Executive Director with Wellesley Partners based in Singapore, leading our PE portfolio practice for Southeast Asia and Australia. She has deep expertise in advising portfolio companies on board level hires across Europe as well as appointing senior investment, operating and M&A professionals.

Prior to joining Wellesley, Anna worked at Livingbridge, a private equity fund where she supported portfolio companies in building high performance management teams. Previously, Anna worked at a boutique search firm in London where she advised clients on board-level talent and executive search across the consumer sector. Anna graduated from St Andrews University with a MA (Hons) degree in Geography.

Aaron Thong
Director
Singapore

Aaron Thong is a Director with Wellesley Partners based in the Singapore office and focuses on both the Investment Banking and Private Equity / Alternative Investments sectors across Southeast Asia and the broader region.

Before joining Wellesley Partners, Aaron was with another top-ranked Asian boutique firm, covering purely buy-side roles primarily across Hedge Funds and Private Equity firms in Asia. Aaron attended Singapore Management University and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a Double Major in Finance (International Trading Track). As part of this program, he spent a year living and working in Europe. Born and raised in Singapore, he speaks native English and is conversant in Mandarin.