Our Board of Advisors
Vinnie Lauria is a venture capitalist who serves as a founding partner of Golden Gate Ventures. Mr. Lauria’s work spans dozens of companies from Silicon Valley to Southeast Asia, and is complemented by robust firsthand entrepreneurship experience with the startups Lefora and Meetro. Mr. Lauria is an EMBA candidate at Tsinghua University, a guest lecturer at the National University of Singapore, and a fellow at the Kauffman Foundation.
Mr. Lauria’s enduring commitment to shaping the future of venture capital is reflected in his internationally recognized mentorship initiatives. In addition to founding the Silicon Valley NewTech Meetup, which connects startups with an audience of over 10,000 members monthly, Mr. Lauria has been identified as a Top Startup Mentor (of more than 2,500 total) by the Founder Institute, and continues his mentorship through serving on HPAIR’s advisory board.
Founder, Timah Partners
Prev. Goldman Sachs
Vinnie Lauria
Founding Partner, Golden Gate Ventures
Kauffman Fellow
Guest Lecturer, National University of Singapore
Dennis Chua
Dennis Chua is the founder and CEO of Timah Partners, a Singapore-based evergreen holding company dedicated to addressing Southeast Asia's SME succession challenge. Timah acquires and operates high-quality B2B businesses facing leadership transitions while developing future CEOs through its CEO Succession Programme. Before founding Timah, Mr. Chua spent 15 years in the U.S., holding investment roles at Goldman Sachs, 3G Capital, Tiger Management, and D.E. Shaw. A graduate of Harvard Business School and Cornell University, Mr. Chua serves on several boards in Singapore and is committed to preserving business legacies while cultivating the region's next generation of business leaders.
Scientist at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign
Former World Bank Group CTO
Senior Fellow, Lee Kuan Yew School, National University of Singapore
Lesly Goh
Lesly Goh is a scientist at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign (UIUC) and former Chief Technology Officer of the World Bank Group, operating at the intersection of technology, policy, and development finance. In her role as a Senior Advisor and Fulbright Specialist, she works with academia, government, philanthropic organizations and private sector in agricultural innovation, food security, climate change, and technology governance in developing economies.
Her work focuses on advancing sustainable food systems through climate-smart agriculture, evidence-based policy, and the deployment of emerging technologies—including artificial intelligence. Lesly is a strong advocate for inclusive partnership that aligns technological innovation with local realities to deliver impact at scale.
She focuses on one of Asia’s most critical challenges: transforming the rice value chain to sustainably feed a growing global population and resilience in livelihood. Her work bridges science, policy, and finance to help governments design resilient, data-driven strategies for agriculture.
Partner, Boston Consulting Group
Lance Katigbak
Lance Katigbak is a Partner at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Manila, where he specializes in business strategy, large-scale transformation, and go-to-market strategy across industries including consumer, fintech, education, and technology. He previously served as Chief Revenue Officer at Clair, a New York-based fintech startup that raised over $200 million in funding, where he gained hands-on experience scaling a technology-driven business. Earlier in his career, he was among the first members of BCG Manila, contributing to the development of the firm's local presence and transformation capabilities. Lance also co-leads BCG’s consumer research in the Philippines, examining the aspirations, behaviors, and economic realities of consumers and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises. He holds an AB in Visual and Environmental Studies, magna cum laude, from Harvard University (where he served as Director of Multimedia for HPAIR as part of the Class of 2016) and currently serves as a trustee of the Harvard Club of the Philippines.
Kristin Soeryadjaya is a leader in philanthropy, education, and community development with extensive experience spanning the United States and Asia. After earning her degree from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, she built an international career in advertising, managing global brands across Hong Kong, San Francisco, New York, and Singapore before transitioning to entrepreneurship and social impact in Indonesia. She currently serves on the Board of Supervisors of the 1000 Days Fund, where she advances national efforts to combat childhood stunting through community health initiatives and policy advocacy. Kristin is also Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees at Jakarta Intercultural School, serves on the Board of Supervisors for Georgetown University Asia Pacific, and helps to expand the sport of padel as the Deputy Chairperson of the Padel Federation of Indonesia.
Edward (Eddie) Thai is Co-Founder and General Partner of Ascend Vietnam Ventures (AVV), a seed-stage venture capital firm investing in exceptional startups in Vietnam and beyond. Previously, Mr. Thai served as General Partner for Vietnam at 500 Global, where he launched its Vietnam-focused fund and supported the development of Vietnam’s startup ecosystem. His investment track record includes backing high-growth companies such as ApplyBoard, Sky Mavis, Turing, ELSA, and Trusting Social, alongside emerging startups across sectors including agritech, healthtech, fintech, and artificial intelligence. Before entering venture capital, he held a strategy and corporate development leadership role at CJ CGV Vietnam and began his career in management consulting at Dean & Company. Mr. Thai holds a bachelor’s degree in Government from Harvard University, where he served as the President of HPAIR as part of the Class of 2007, as well as an MBA from Yale University specializing in Entrepreneurship and Private Equity.
Kristin Soeryadjaya
Philanthropist and Education Advocate
Indonesia Community Health Initiatives
Eddie Thai
Co-Founder and General Partner, Ascend Vietnam Ventures
Former General Partner for Vietnam, 500 Global
Henry L. Stimson Professor, Harvard Law School
Faculty Director of Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
Faculty Co-Director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society
Mark Wu
Mark Wu is the Henry L. Stimson Professor at Harvard Law School, specializing in international trade and economic law, with research spanning global governance, digital technologies, environmental issues, and foreign investment. He serves as Faculty Director of Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and Faculty Co-Director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, and has held several leadership roles at Harvard. Professor Wu has extensive experience in U.S. trade policy, including serving as a Senior Advisor to the U.S. Trade Representative in 2021 and as Director for Intellectual Property, where he led negotiations for intellectual property chapters in several U.S. free trade agreements. He has presented research to major international organizations, including the G20, OECD, World Bank, UNCTAD, and WTO, and previously worked at the World Bank, McKinsey & Company, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, an M.Sc. in Development Economics from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and an A.B. summa cum laude from Harvard University.