Leadership change at regional buyout firm
06 Sep 2023 - People moves
Managing Partner Chul-joo Lee has retired from Asian regional buyout firm Affinity Equity Partners.
Lee, who had been with Affinity since its formation in 2002, is the second leadership team member to step down in the last 12 months. Managing partner Young-taeg Park relinquished his role, as part of a long-planned exit process, late last year.
Affinity founding chairman and managing partner Kok-Yew Tang continues to lead the firm which has teams in Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, Sydney and Beijing.
Partner Nick Speer, formerly a Melbourne-based managing partner at The Riverside Company, joined the firm this year as a partner and Sydney-based head of Australia and New Zealand.
Mark Chudek rejoined Affinity Equity Partners in Sydney this year after leaving in 2021 to join Quadrant Private Equity.
Following several successful exits in recent years − the last the sale of medical practices management software business MedicalDirector to Telstra Health in 2021 − Affinity has one current local investment, in trade finance provider ScotPac Business Finance (formerly Scottish Pacific) which it acquired in late 2018.
Affinity is currently deploying its fifth Asia fund which raised $US6 billion in late 2017.
Image: Chairman and managing partner Kok-Yew Tang is the only remaining founder on Affinity Equity Partners’ leadership team.