Physics, then finance, then the circus. The maths held throughout.

Now

• Teaching: risk management, behavioural decision making and fintech for MBA and executive audiences, most recently at Munich Business School and the University of Colorado Denver.
• Running C-Suite Life with Haydn Pound, the four-day executive simulation that 870-plus students have completed since 2018, from CUHK to NUS to Munich.
• Writing essays on careers, decisions and reinvention: recent pieces include "Champing at the Bit" and "Going Back and Looking Forward".
• Open to board, advisory and interim leadership roles where quantitative judgement and an unusual CV are both assets.

Selected work

Experience

1. May 2022 – Feb 2026

   Chief Executive Officer · Business Manager (2022)

   The Venardos Circus · Castle Rock, Colorado

   • Grew sales 40% from 2022 to 2024 with digital advertising spend flat; added a second unit in 2025, doubling capacity.
   • Rebuilt financial measurement and reporting for a touring performance business.
2. Sep 2021 – Dec 2025

   Adjunct Lecturer

   University of Colorado Denver · Denver

   • Statistics and decision-making courses for business students.
3. Jan 2017 – Dec 2022

   Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Management

   The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School · Hong Kong

   • Risk Management, Behavioral Decision Making, Fintech 101 and Ethics for the MBA programmes.
4. May 2019 – Mar 2021

   Head of Strategy

   Hex Trust · Hong Kong

   • Strategy for a licensed institutional custodian of digital assets.
5. Apr 2018 – May 2019

   Managing Director

   Tianfeng Securities · Hong Kong

   • Senior leadership at the Hong Kong arm of a mainland Chinese securities house.
6. Dec 2016 – Oct 2017

   Co-Founder, Chief Investment Officer, Head of Education and Behavioral Framing

   Barkshire Investments · Hong Kong

   • Co-founded an investment firm built around behavioural framing and investor education.
7. Dec 2013 – Jun 2015

   Ringmaster (Managing Director, Head of Business Strategy)

   Asianomics Group · Hong Kong

   • Business strategy for an independent Asian macro-research house. The title was prophetic.
8. Apr 2011 – Nov 2012

   Managing Director, Co-Head of Asia Pacific Research

   Daiwa Capital Markets · Hong Kong

   • Co-led the regional research platform.
9. Jan 2002 – Mar 2011

   Risk & Trading Strategist · Country Head, Malaysia · MD, Head of Research, Japan

   CLSA · Hong Kong · Japan · Malaysia

   • Nine years across markets, country leadership and research leadership.
10. Feb 1999 – Dec 2001

    Head of Regional Quantitative Research

    Nomura International · Hong Kong

    • Led quantitative research for the region; where the physics degree first earned its keep.

Education

• 2012 – 2013
  Executive MBA · INSEAD
• 1985 – 1990
  BSc, double major in Physics and Mathematics · Illinois Benedictine College

Honours

• 2013
  Board Member · CQAsia — Asia chapter of the Chicago Quantitative Alliance
• 2011
  Visiting Fellow, Centre for Decision Making and Risk Analysis · INSEAD

Expertise

Beyond the big top

• Twenty-seven years in Asia, most of them in Hong Kong, with postings in Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur; back in the United States since 2020.
• Physics and mathematics by training, which explains both the quant career and the habit of checking the assumptions before the conclusion.
• Believes, on the evidence, that a circus is a better teacher of decision making than most boardrooms, and has run executive sessions under the big top to prove it.

Contact

Open to board, advisory and leadership conversations, and to teaching engagements on risk, decision making and fintech — in Denver, in Asia, or wherever a good problem is.