Alva has more than 18 years of experience in corporate governance, board advisory, ERM, compliance, and risk and control advisory matters across a wide range of industries.

She also has considerable experience assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of business processes, providing practical recommendations to assist clients in establishing a robust governance framework, and improving business performance for clients.

Alva has served different types of organisations, including Hong Kong/China-listed companies, MNCs and NGOs. She has worked on various types of risk advisory projects for her clients, including but not limited to corporate governance reviews, internal audit outsourcing, PN21, enterprise risk management framework assessments and implementation, internal control reviews, and internal audit function effectiveness reviews.

Alva also advises organisations of all sizes on their board and governance structures, corporate governance reviews and board effectiveness reviews, and provides training to directors.

Hans is a specialist in attending to executive compensation issues for Boards.  As a professional advisor with more than 25 years of senior consulting experience he combines broad-ranging insights and perspectives at the Board level with qualified technical expertise in executive and equity-based compensation and in corporate governance and disclosure regulations. From his base in Hong Kong, he advises compensation committees of companies listed in various jurisdictions. He has developed long-term advisory relationships with these leading companies, and continues to serve many of these organizations on an on-going basis.

A native of The Netherlands, Hans holds degrees in Theology from the University of Louvain, Belgium and the Gregorian University in Rome, Italy (doctorate in Law, magna cum laude). He obtained a M.B.A. degree from Otago University in New Zealand and is a Certified Equity Professional from Santa Clara University in California, a certification that brings together all the disciplines of equity compensation. He is a founding member of the Global Equity Organization and a member of the National Association of Stock Plan Professionals.

May Tan was the Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited (“SCBHK”) for three years before her retirement on March 1^st, 2017.

Before joining Standard Chartered, May was the Chief Executive Officer of Cazenove Asia (since 1993), and was a partner of Cazenove and Co (1995). Since 1984, May expanded Cazenove Asia ‘s geographical, product  and  client  reach.

Since her retirement in March 2017, May has focussed on Board positions, both corporate and charities. Since 2013, she has been an Independent Non Executive Director (INED) of Link Asset Management (Link), the largest Asian listed REIT. She is a member of Link’s Audit and Risk Committee, Remuneration Committee and Nomination Committee. In August 2018, May was appointed to the CLP Holdings Board and joined the Audit and Risk Committee, Finance and General Committee and Sustainability Committee.

In June 2017, she joined the Board of MSIG HK, the HK subsidiary of the largest non life insurer in Japan and is the Chair of the Audit Committee. In January 2018, May joined the Board of HSBC Insurance Hong Kong as an INED and chairs the Risk Committee and is a member of the Audit Committee and With Profits Committee.

May supports several charitable organisations. She was on the Council of Oxfam Hong Kong from 2008-2017 and Vice Chairman from 2012-2017. She remains on Oxfam’s Fundraising Committee.

She is also on the Board of Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation, a charity committed to promote creativity amongst the youth in Hong Kong.

May is a member of the Standing Committee on Judicial Salaries and Conditions of Service, following her appointment by the Chief Executive, HK SAR Government in 2015.

In 2016, she was the Chairperson of the Hong Kong Association of Banks, and Director of the Hong Kong Interbank Clearing Limited. In the same year, she was a member of the Exchange Fund Advisory Committee Sub-committee on Currency Board Operations of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and a member of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council.  In 2015, she was a member of the Risk Management Committee of the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited.  From 2014 – 2017, May was Vice President of Hong Kong Institute of Banks, and a member of the Banking Advisory Committee.

May is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and a fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Ian is an independent advisor on technology, Media and telecoms, after retiring from PCCW in 2011.

During his 27 years in Hong Kong he has been primarily leading or advising on mobile telecom businesses, and new wireless and internet technology, in which time he held CEO and/or Director positions in CSL Mobile, Smartone, First Pacific, and PCCW Mobile. Since 2004 he has been an Independent Non-Executive Director at Tencent, a Chinese investment holding company whose subsidiaries provide games, messaging, mass media, entertainment, internet and mobile phone value-added services, and operate online advertising services in China.

He is a fellow member of the Hong Kong Institute of Directors and a Board Member at Criticaleye, the peer to peer board community. 

Frank is a partner in Ashurst's corporate department. He advises on international capital markets, M&A transactions and compliance matters. Frank has more than 10 years of experience of acting for corporates and investment banks on public and private offerings of equity and debt securities, including initial public offerings, private placements, follow-on offerings and debt programmes, as well as on public and private M&A, privatisation, joint ventures, spin-offs and other corporate restructurings. He has worked on matters throughout Asia Pacific, Europe and US, including for companies listed on the stock exchanges in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Japan and the United Kingdom.

His recent experience includes transactions for companies in the consumer & retail, health care, education, technology, financial services, as well as for investment funds.

Diana Wu David is the author of Future Proof: Reinventing Work in the Age of Acceleration and is an adjunct professor of leadership at Columbia Business School's EMBA Global Asia. A former Financial Times executive, and founder of the Financial Times Non-Executive Directors Diploma in Asia, Diana now works with CEOs and board directors to enhance their leadership agility, influence, collaboration and resilience. Her clients have included the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, the World Bank, Expedia, Asia Development Bank, Citi and Credit Suisse. She began her career and leadership education as an assistant to Dr. Henry Kissinger.

Diana has an MBA from Columbia Business School, is a past recipient of Asia Society’s Asia 21 Young Leaders award and a former Luce Foundation Scholar. She serves as Vice Chair of the board of the American Chamber of Commerce HK, and on advisory boards of Shared Value Project Hong Kong and Teach4HK and several private companies. She is also an active participant in Women Corporate Directors and The Women’s Foundation, empowering women at all levels to lead and contribute.

Joshua is a partner in Ashurst's corporate department and is the managing partner of our Hong Kong office. He specialises in cross-border mergers & acquisitions and joint ventures in the Asia region.

Joshua has advised on a number of high-profile and ultra-complex international acquisitions, disposals and joint ventures throughout the region and across a range of heavily regulated industry sectors, including financial services, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, energy and resources and retail.

Joshua has been ranked as a leading lawyer in the area of M&A and also in the telecommunications sector by mainstream legal directories for years.

Neil Waters leads the Hong Kong office and the firm’s board and CEO succession practice in Hong Kong. He has spent more than 10 years advising global clients on a range of challenging matters related to CEO and board succession. His clients include governments, community organizations, and private sector companies in numerous industries. Neil has also played a senior role in professional development of the firm’s consultants globally. 

Prior to joining Egon Zehnder, Neil was a Consultant and Engagement Manager with McKinsey & Company. Earlier in his career, he was a Systems Engineer and Marketing Representative with IBM Australia.

Neil has an electrical and electronic engineering degree from the University of Adelaide in South Australia and an MBA from Cornell University in the U.S. When not working, he enjoys European handball, chess, reading, sharpening his Latin, and
curling. He has also served on the board of the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, the leading arts festival in the Australia.

Over the past five years Neil has led 86 NED assignments and 14 audit and risk assignments. He has additionally led the searches for the principals of two of the most prestigious private schools in Melbourne in recent years.

Brian advises organizations on how to enhance business performance by effectively managing conflict, creating inclusive organisations, and communicating and collaborating across cultures.  He has been enabling organizations, teams and individuals to be more effective for more than twenty years in Asia and other regions.  Before starting Nexus Consulting Group, he built and headed Microsoft’s group that developed people’s intercultural competence and collaboration capabilities in serving Microsoft’s global customers and partners.

Roles in his career have included in-house or consulting engagements with organisations such as Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), Wal-Mart and World Learning.  He has served companies in financial services, FMCG, manufacturing, technology, science, and hotels and tourism. 

At a board level, Brian has worked with boards and those reporting into them to facilitate board effectiveness, including coaching leaders and managers in more effectively communicating about risk management, compliance and investment decisions.  He has served as a board adviser to an Indian NGO involved in community development and capacity building, and has chaired a not-for-profit board in the education sector as an elected board member. 

He contributes as a thought leader in various capacities, such as having contributed to India’s industry body NASSCOM on their steering committee for diversity and inclusion so the IT services industry could more effectively create equitable, effective culturally diverse workplaces.  Within the NGO sector, he also volunteers in various capacities, and currently advises an NGO on child protection and safeguarding best practices.

He holds a BA in English and an MA in Teaching as well as coaching qualifications, and his graduate degree research focused on how to most effectively develop global business leaders for working cross-culturally.