Advisory Board
Susan Hagerty Le May
The Honourable Victor Atiyeh
H.E. Osman Birsen
Peng Mun(PM) Foo
Dr. Jack McMullen
Dr. Daniel Steinway
Susan Hagerty Le May
Ms. Hagerty Le May’s professional career has spanned over thirty years and includes over twenty five years of financial services, including most categories of alternative investments. She leads investment evaluation and business development in the Gulf Cooperation Countries “GCC”. Susan worked in the Houston office of Lehman Brothers before joining the International Group at Lehman in New York, where she developed both a Latin American practice and subsequently, a GCC practice. She has assumed responsibility for developing new business with sovereign wealth funds, family offices, pension funds, royal families, endowments, merchant families and investment banks. Additionally, she has focused on buy-out and expansion capital transactions. She assumed responsibility for asset allocation planning, market research, manager searches, and due diligence. She is uniquely positioned to leverage resources of organizations seeking to enhance their branding and market share in strategic markets.
In conjunction with the private equity firms which she has represented, Susan together with those firms she has supported has raised over one Billion USD in highly diversified private equity funds and direct transactions. These sectors have ranged from Indian Infrastructure Funds to Pan Asian Private Equity Real Estate Funds. She has become one of the most seasoned private equity placement agents with an emerging markets focus. Hagerty Le May has been a delegate at several senior level international summits, including the World Economic Forum (Davos) and the United Nations Development Program, where she has been a frequent speaker.
As Chairman of International Alliance Associates, Limited, an alternative investment placement agency and boutique, cross border market entry consulting firm, she provides the entrepreneurial focus and vision to progress the overall corporate agenda. She oversees market research, manager searches and due diligence. She plays a pivotal role in the investment selection process and determining the firm’s overall strategy. She also oversees investor relations and back office functions.
International Alliance is one of the pioneer alternative investment placement agents in the GCC. Ms. Hagerty Le May has over ten years of experience in growth and capital investment in emerging markets. She also has extensive experience representing multinational companies with challenging market entry dilemmas, into several emerging markets. Susan has published extensively on topics ranging from hedge funds to “Debt for Equity Swaps” in emerging markets.
She has also assumed responsibility for deal origination and placement. She has led the firm’s fundraising in healthcare services, infrastructure development, greenfield projects, media, manufacturing, and renewable energy. Of the twenty five years’ professional experience in the financial services sector, ten have been in private equity, seventeen in hedge funds, real estate and other alternative and traditional investments and eight have been in structuring and managing client portfolios. Having assimilated culturally, and advised clients in Germany, Spain, Latin America and Member Nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council, she is a polyglot familiar with numerous cultures. Her experience in foreign regulatory, investment issues, local economies and politics makes her an important conduit to successful business development in challenging markets. Ms. Hagerty Le May has spent over half of her life working and living in emerging markets.
Dr. Daniel Steinway
Dan Steinway advises major corporate entities and trade organizations on all facets of civil and criminal environmental law. He provides representation in all aspects of environmental and health and safety (EH&S) litigation arising under federal and state statutes and common law causes of action. As part of his EH&S litigation practice, Mr. Steinway has managed the defense of multiparty litigations involving environmental and industrial hygiene issues and represented corporate defendants in a wide range of civil and criminal environmental and health and safety enforcement actions brought by both federal and state governmental agencies.
Alongside his EH&S litigation work, Mr. Steinway is actively involved in providing legislative/regulatory counseling to corporate clients, trade associations, business and professional organizations and various governmental entities on EH&S matters arising under international, federal, state and local laws and regulations. These matters include a broad range of federal and international legislative/statutory issues and directives relating to general environmental and occupational safety and hygiene, including but not limited to water pollution, solid and hazardous wastes, toxic substances and chemical use, management and handling, pesticides, renewable energy, biotechnology, endangered species, occupational standards and general EH&S management.
Mr. Steinway has been particularly active lately in a number of key federal energy/environmental legislative issues pending before the U.S. Congress, including issues relating to key aspects of climate change legislative proposals as well as substantial energy policy matters.
Finally, Mr. Steinway advises business entities on a broad range of EH&S matters arising in corporate transactions. His practice covers all aspects of the federal, state and local laws that may affect various types of corporate transactions including mergers, acquisitions and divestitures and the purchase and sale of real estate and industrial/commercial plant sites.
Mr. Steinway joined Baker Botts after serving as the chairman of the environmental practice group at Kelley Drye & Warren LLP for over ten years. He lectures at numerous conventions and seminars across the country and has authored many articles and chapters of legal treatises on EH&S matters. He is the monthly editor of the “Outside Perspective” environmental column for Corporate Counsel magazine and a contributing Washington editor for Pollution Engineering.
The Honourable Victor Atiyeh
Former two-term Governor of Oregon, The Honorable Victor Atiyeh was the first person to drop the unitary tax law and provide incentives that attracted significant FDI to the State. His contributions greatly diversified and boosted the economy. He is still heralded throughout Asia as a visionary and champion of trade and a free-market economy. Spending twenty years in the Oregon Legislature and eight years as Governor of Oregon, he was the first person of Arabic ancestry to be elected as a state governor in the United States. With his unique business expertise, he cut taxes and simultaneously succeeded in delivering more efficient state services, transforming and diversifying Oregon’s fragile economy. By the end of his second term, Oregon could depend on four strong pillars for economic growth: wood products, tourism, high-tech, and international trade.
He developed strong relationships with indigenous peoples, sponsoring a law that created the Legislative Commission on Indian Service. Oregon’s international trade income doubled during his tenure. In 1982, he was re-elected as governor with 62% of the vote—the largest winning margin since 1935.
Dr. Jack McMullen
Jack McMullen is the Managing Principal of Cambridge Meridian Group, Inc., a strategy-consulting firm that serves Fortune 500 and technology-based companies. Mr. McMullen previously taught business strategy at Harvard Law School. He has served, on the Boards of three NASDAQ-listed technology companies as well as 12 other privately funded, chiefly technology-oriented companies. In that capacity, he helps to build value for the venture capital investors backing the companies.From 1993 to 1997 he was an informal advisor to Senator Bradley (D-NJ) when the senator sought Republican input on crime and pension reform issues.
In 2004 he was the Republican nominee for the United States Senate from Vermont.He is a Navy veteran who served on the staff of Admiral Rickover, overseeing the retrofit of advanced technology reactors into the Navy’s nuclear fleet.He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Columbia University in Applied Physics and Engineering and received a JD with Honors from Harvard Law School and an MBA with High Distinction from Harvard Business School, where he was elected a First Year Baker Scholar.
H.E. Osman Birsen
Osman Birsen is a Turkish high-ranking civil servant for finance and was the CEO of the Istanbul Stock Exchange between 1997 and 2007.
Birsen was born in Ankara, Turkey. He studied Economics and Finance at the University of Ankara and graduated in 1968. He served for the Ministry of Finance as Inspector of Finance from 1971 to 1979. He was sent by the Ministry of Finance to the United Kingdom in 1976 where he completed a study regarding local administration finance. On his return, Osman Birsen was appointed Deputy General Director of the Banking and Foreign Exchange Department at the Ministry of Finance. Birsen also served as Chief Advisor to the Minister of Finance in 1980-1981. Between 1983 and 1986, he worked as Financial Counselor to the Turkish Embassy in Washington D.C., United States. He returned to Turkey in 1987 and was appointed General Director of Public Finance in the Undersecretariat of Treasury, where he served until 1989.
During this period, he was also member of the Board of Directors of the Turkish Electricity Authority (TEK). Between 1989 and 1993, he served as Deputy Permanent Representative of the Turkish Delegation to the OECD in Paris, France. In October 1993, following his return to Turkey, he was appointed Deputy Undersecretary to the Prime Ministry responsible for economic coordination. In 1994, he was promoted to the Undersecretary of Treasury and Foreign Trade, where he served until the splitting of that institution. Between 1995 and 1997, he worked in the private sector as board member and financial coordinator of a holding company in Turkey.
Birsen was appointed Chairman and CEO of the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) in 1997 for a term of five years and was re-appointed in 2002 in this position for another five year term. He was also the Chairman of the ISE Settlement and Custody Bank (Turkish: Takasbank) and President of the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges (FEAS). He is currently working as an independent consultant regarding financial investments and mergers and acquisitions in Turkey.
Peng Mun(PM) Foo
PM has over 15 years of experience of investing in and building businesses in Asia. His skill set is honed in various phases of the investment value chain, spanning both the private equity and public equity arenas.PM is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), and he has passed the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) level 2 exam, administered by the CFA Institute. PM holds a Singapore Fund Management Representative’s license and is also a licensed private equity fund manager.PM has been in China for over 10 years. His connections have led him to be part of the Lord Mayor’s delegation during his visits to China & Mongolia and to engage in forums with mayors of the various municipalities in China. He is a prominent speaker at varsities and conferences on private equity & fund management. PM was CFO of the Asia Pacific Fund, and Deputy General Manager of London Asia Capital PLC and is CFO of 4 investee companies. London Asia Capital PLC is an Asian-focused merchant banking and private equity fund management group with more than USD 200mn AUM and USD1bn worth of advisory projects. His roles included investment due diligence and deals gatekeeper for the investment committee.
In addition to investment banking and corporate finance advisory work, PM has also assisted in private equity fund-raisings, including presentations to investors in Europe & the US. PM joined London Asia from Legg Mason Asset Management (Asia), the Asian operations of a US-listed money manager with over US$ 950 billion AUM (one of the 5 largest asset managers operating in the world), where he acted as Chief Operating Officer. He was also responsible for regulatory, legal, finance, taxation and human resources functions of the 3 Asian entities, including implementing Legg Mason’s acquisition of Rothschild Asset Management (Singapore), as well as providing certifications required by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC, US) as subsidiaries of the US-listed Legg Mason. PM gained his initial training at Deutsche Bank Alex Brown, where he carried out primary research and investment advisory predominantly in the electronics & telecommunications sectors. He also covered the defense, airlines, automotive, media, and food & beverage sectors. During the Asian Currency Crisis, he advised on strategic acquisitions & potential M&A synergies as companies shed their non-core assets. In addition, his job scope entails marketing investment ideas to institutional clients, deal origination, and advisory work including deal feasibility.