Mr. Choa has over 20 years of experience in private equity, hedge funds, and investment banking. He is the founder of Elfoso Holdings Limited, a private investment firm focusing on special situations and deep-value investments in global markets. Before founding Elfoso, James was a member of Goldman Sachs’ Asian Special Situations Group (ASSG) in Hong Kong, where he was responsible for multi-strategy investments in Asia, covering pre-IPOs, distressed debts, buyouts, and other strategic investments. Prior to Goldman Sachs, James was part of the industrial team at Ripplewood Holdings, a US$10+ billion private equity group focusing on leveraged buyouts (LBOs) and turnaround investments in the US and Japan. Mr. Choa launched his investment banking career in New York with BT Wolfensohn - a boutique mergers and acquisitions advisory firm headed by former World Bank President James D.Wolfensohn, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker.
Mr. Choa received his MBA from the Wharton School, the University of Pennsylvania, 2006 with a degree in Corporate Restructuring & Turnaround Management. He graduated with honors from the University of Pennsylvania’s Management & Technology Program (M&T) as an undergraduate with dual degrees in Systems Engineering and Finance in 1998. James is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a member of the CFA Society of China. Mr. Choa has taught the course “Special Situations – Creating Value in Distress, Restructuring, and Turnaround” at NYU Shanghai’s Master of Science in Quantitative Finance program.