Our Team

Kenny Kim

Founding Partner & Chief Executive Officer

Prior to co-founding Ikhlas, Kenny was at RRJ Capital, one of Asia’s largest private equity funds. He was a core member of its senior investments team and also a member of its Executive Committee.  

Prior to RRJ Capital, Kenny had a 22-year career at CIMB Group from 1993 to 2015, spending his first 11 years in Investment Banking and his second 11 years as Group CFO and CEO of Strategy & Investments. Kenny led CIMB’s transformative multi-country M&A strategy, successfully building the fifth largest universal bank in ASEAN. He also spearheaded and implemented 7 bank acquisitions within 5 years and was the Lead Director for 3 major post-acquisition Merger Integration Committees. As Head of Investments, he built a strong portfolio of strategic investments for CIMB and raised more than US$300 million for CIMB’s private equity division.

Kenny is also a Director of CDL Hospitality Trusts and Pelikan International Corporation Berhad.

Kenny holds an MSc in Finance from Lancaster University Management School. He is also a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, UK, a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants England & Wales, CF Faculty and a member of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants.

Gita Wirjawan

Founding Partner & Alternate Chairman

Prior to co-founding Ikhlas, Gita was Indonesia’s Minister of Trade from 2011 to 2014, and Chairman of Indonesia’s Investment Coordinating Board from 2009 to 2011. He is also the Chairman of Ancora Group, an Indonesian group which he founded in 2008 with interests including real estate, technology, education and natural resources. His other previously held positions include President Director of JPMorgan Indonesia and Vice President at Goldman Sachs.

Gita sits on the advisory boards/panels of Axiata Group Berhad (where he was previously an Independent Non-Executive Director), the CHUBB group of insurance companies, Traveloka Group, and Alpha JWC Ventures. He also had a stint as Commissioner of state-owned oil giant, Pertamina.

In education, he sits on the Council of Global Advisers for Yale University School of Management, the Board of Governors for Asia School of Business (MIT Sloan), the Advisory Board (Institute for Societal Leadership) of Singapore Management University, the Dean’s Leadership Council of Nanyang Technology University (RSIS) and the International Advisory Board of Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

Gita holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Texas, an MBA from Baylor University and an MPA from Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government, as a Mason Fellow. He is also a certified public accountant (“CPA”) and a Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder.

Cesar Purisima

Founding Partner

Prior to co-founding Ikhlas, Cesar was the Secretary of Finance of the Philippines and the Chair of Economic Development Cluster of the President’s Cabinet from 2010 to 2016. He briefly served as Finance Secretary in 2005 and Trade and Industry Secretary from 2004 to 2005. Additionally, he was a member of the Monetary Board of the Philippines Central Bank, and the Governor for the Philippines at the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. He served as Alternate Governor for the Philippines at the International Monetary Fund. Under his leadership, the Philippines received its first investment-grade ratings. He was named Finance Minister of the Year seven times in six consecutive years by a number of publications, a first for the Philippines.

Cesar is currently an Asia Fellow of Milken Institute, a global non-profit, non-partisan think tank. He currently serves as Independent Director of Ayala Corporation, Ayala Land, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Jollibee Foods Corporation and Universal Robina Corporation. He is also on the boards of AIA Group, BPI Capital Corporation, De La Salle University, International School of Manila and World Wildlife Fund-Philippines. In addition, he is a member of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (“SMBC”)’s Global Advisory Council, Singapore Management University’s International Advisory Council in the Philippines and ABS-CBN’s board of advisers. Cesar is also an Executive-in-Residence of the Asian Institute of Management and a mentor for Endeavor Philippines.

Prior to his stints in the government service, Cesar was the Chairman & Country Managing Partner of the Philippines’ largest professional services firm SGV & Co., and was a member of the Global Executive Board and Global Practice Council of Ernst & Young. He was also the Area Managing Partner for Asia-Pacific for Assurance and Business Service of Andersen Worldwide, the first and only Filipino to head the Area practice of a Big 4 accounting firm. 

Cesar holds a BSc in Commerce, majoring in accounting and managing financial institutions, from De La Salle University and subsequently topped the CPA licensure examinations. He completed his MBA in international economics, finance and marketing at the JL Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and was conferred Doctor of Humanities, Honoris Causa, by Angeles University.

Ek Ming Tay

Managing Director

Ek Ming has over 15 years of private equity, investment banking and corporate finance experience, with extensive M&A and capital markets deal execution and origination experience in Asia, US and Europe.

Prior to joining Ikhlas, Ek Ming was an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs’ investment banking division covering the technology, media, telecommunication and consumer sectors, and a co-founder of The Asia Investor, a SME-focused financial services firm. Ek Ming joined Goldman Sachs initially in Hong Kong before relocating to Singapore to focus on Southeast Asia, and was one of the youngest to be promoted to Executive Director at Goldman Sachs. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Ek Ming was at Deutsche Bank’s investment banking division in Hong Kong.

Ek Ming holds a BEng (First Class Honours) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from University College London and was awarded on the Dean’s List for outstanding achievements.

Flossie Shim

Chief Financial Officer & Head of Investor Relations

Flossie has over 18 years of experience in strategic and financial planning, business partnering and management reporting.

Prior to joining Ikhlas, Flossie was the Regional Head of JLT Asia, Assistant Director of Prudential Services Asia, AVP of CIMB Group and SAVP of Astro Malaysia Holdings, of which she specialised in regional finance roles across insurance, banking, media and audit industries.

Flossie holds a Master of Financial Analysis from UNSW Business School, BSc (Hons) in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes and a member of ACCA.

Xiaoshan Lai

Vice President

Xiaoshan has over 10 years of corporate finance, strategy, and investment banking experience, with extensive experience in M&A and capital markets deal execution in Asia Pacific.

Prior to joining Ikhlas, Xiaoshan was a Director of Corporate Development at ONE Championship, where she was responsible for strategy formulation & execution, fundraising, and investor relations. Before that, she was amongst the pioneer members of the Corporate Development & Strategy team at Sea Limited, a leading Southeast Asian consumer internet company headquartered in Singapore. At Sea, she led the execution of investments and managed fundraising activities for the Group. Prior to that, Xiaoshan was with Goldman Sachs’ Investment Banking division in Singapore primarily covering the Southeast Asian markets. 

Xiaoshan holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics with triple concentrations in Finance, Accounting and Actuarial Science, and a minor in Mathematics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Tony Kor

Associate

Tony has over 7 years of M&A experience, focusing on deal origination, deal execution, and SPA negotiation in Malaysia and Singapore.

Prior to joining Ikhlas, Tony was part of the PwC Malaysia Deals team, where he was involved in advising clients on their mergers and acquisitions transactions. While he was with the team, he had hands-on experience in deal origination, financial due diligence, valuation and SPA negotiation.

Tony holds a Bachelor of Finance from The Australian National University. He is also a MICPA member.

Fuad Omran

Associate

Fuad has over 5 years of experience in private market investments.

Prior to joining Ikhlas, Fuad was with Ekuiti Nasional Berhad (Ekuinas), a Malaysian private equity firm with over US$1 billion of assets under management, where he explored local direct investment opportunities sector-agnostically (consumer and tech amongst others) and conducted active monitoring of portfolio companies in the sports retail and lighting industries. Fuad began his career with Khazanah Nasional Berhad, the sovereign wealth fund of Malaysia, where he covered the Private Markets (Real Assets), Aviation and 'Impact Fund' portfolios. At Khazanah, he had experience with both global fund investments (into Real Estate and Infrastructure funds) as well as direct investments, where he was instrumental in the acquisition and operationalisation of an MRO facilities firm tasked to revive and redevelop Complex A in Subang Airport into a world-class aerospace hub. Additionally, he was amongst the pioneer members of the ‘Impact Fund’ team with a key focus on enhancing care services for Malaysia's ageing community.

Fuad holds an MEng in Chemical Engineering from University College London.