Auda makes two senior HK hires for Asia push

Global private equity investor Auda International has made two senior appointments to its Hong Kong office.  

Dongao Yan will join the firm as a senior vice president while Jessie Chenxian Gao joins as a senior associate.  

Prior to his appointment Yan was a principal with FLAG Squadron Asia (formerly Squadron Capital), which was recently acquired by Aberdeen Asset Management, and before that he led the China practice of a Swiss headquartered global management consulting firm. 

Gao joins Auda from Partners Group, where she was an investment executive based in that firm’s Singapore office, and was previously an associate with KPMG Corporate Finance

David Pierce, head of Asia for Auda’s parent HQ Capital with responsibility for the firm’s Asian private equity business, said: “We are delighted to have Dongao and Jessie join Auda’s growing team in Asia. Between them they bring excellent skills and experience that will complement our existing practice.”

The duo join an Auda team that last year added Jacob Chiu and Lucian Wu as Asia-based managing directors and now has 10 private equity investment professionals in the region, working out of offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai. 

Auda invests through commingled primary funds-of-funds, secondary funds-of-funds and direct/co-investment funds, as well as on behalf of separately managed accounts.

Sources of Auda’s capital include the Harald Quandt family in Germany as well as other family offices, insurance companies, public and private pension funds and sovereign wealth funds. 

Auda has offices in Frankfurt, London, Hong Kong and Shanghai and employs 66 professionals. It is a unit of HQ Capital, which represents the Harald Quandt family’s three alternative asset management businesses which also includes Real Estate Capital Partners (RECAP) and Equita.  

The three units collectively manage or advise on assets of around $12 billion.