Meet the team
Get to know the professionals in our investment team and our board of directors
Flavia Cheong
Head of Equities - Asia Pacific
Flavia Cheong is the Head of Asia Pacific Equities on the Asian Equities team at abrdn, where, as well as sharing responsibility for company research, she oversees regional portfolio construction. Before joining abrdn in 1996, she was an economist with the Investment Company of the People’s Republic of China, and earlier with the Development Bank of Singapore. Flavia graduated with a BA in Economics and an MA (Hons) in Economics from the University of Auckland. She is a CFA charterholder.
CFA® and Chartered Financial Analyst® are registered trademarks owned by CFA Institute.
Gabriel Sacks
Investment Director
Gabriel is an Investment Director on the Global Emerging Markets equities team. Gabriel joined the company in 2008 and is based in London but previously spent 5 years in Singapore from 2018 to 2023, where he was (and continues to be) focused primarily on Asian smaller companies. Gabriel is currently lead manager of the Asia Focus Investment Trust and a pod member of the GEM Income strategy and the GEM Smaller Companies strategy. During his time in Singapore, Gabriel was the lead manager of the Asian Smaller Companies fund (until December 2022 just prior to his return to London) and was a pod member of a number of other dedicated Asian and GEM strategies. Gabriel graduated with an MA (Hons) in Land Economy from Selwyn College, Cambridge University and is a CFA charterholder.
Xin-Yao Ng
Investment Manager
Xin-Yao Ng is an Investment Manager on the Asian equities team. Based in Singapore, he is part of the team managing Asia Pacific, Global Emerging Markets and Singapore equity strategies. He leads on healthcare and industrial sector research, as well as covering Singapore banks. Xin-Yao joined the company in 2018 from Allard Partners where he was based in Hong Kong as an Investment Analyst specialising in Greater China equities. Previously, Xin-Yao worked for Central Provident Fund Board in Singapore as a Portfolio Manager. Prior to that, Xin-Yao worked for BNP Paribas in private banking compliance. Xin-Yao graduated with a BSc in Business from Nanyang Technological University, holds an MBA from Fudan University, and is a CFA Charterholder.
CFA® and Chartered Financial Analyst® are trademarks owned by CFA Institute.
CFA® and Chartered Financial Analyst® are trademarks owned by CFA Institute.
Krishna Shanmuganathan
Chair
Krish has had a varied and successful career in diplomacy, asset management, consulting and corporate advisory, with a particular focus on Asia. Krish now sits on a number of boards and is chair of Weiss Korea Opportunities Fund.
Charlotte Black
Independent Non-Executive Director
Charlotte is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, she was until 2015 director, corporate affairs at Brewin Dolphin Holdings PLC, having previously served within that company as marketing director and in investment management roles. She has served on the boards of a number of industry related entities including The Wealth Management Association, The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment and Euroclear PLC. Charlotte is a founder Director of Artclear Ltd – a financial infrastructure platform for the art industry.
Lindsay Cooper
Independent Non-Executive Director
Lindsay is a Singapore permanent resident and member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. Lindsay co-founded Arisaig Partners in 1996, an independent Investment Management business where, for 20 years, he had investment responsibility for the Arisaig Asia Consumer Fund. Following semi-retirement Lindsay founded Chic & Unique Pte Ltd, a boutique hotels and hospitality business in Asia and Europe and, more recently, founded Chi Tree Health, in Singapore. He is also involved in two charities, Magic Bus Global and Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC) in Cambodia.
Davina Curling
Senior Independent Non-Executive Director
Davina has enjoyed a successful career in asset management and was formerly managing director, head of European equities at Russell Investments. More recently Davina has consulted on projects for small companies and start-ups in the financial, manufacturing and retail sectors. Davina is a non executive director of Henderson Opportunities Trust plc and INVESCO Select Trust plc and is a member of the investment committee of St James’s Place Wealth management.
Alex Finn
Independent Non-Executive Director
Alex was a partner for 27 years in PwC's global financial services practice, retiring on 30 June 2022. During his career at PwC Alex was responsible for the services that PwC provided internationally to a number of its largest global clients, all of which had extensive operations in Asia. He was also responsible for supporting clients in large scale accounting and financial change programmes, was PwC's EMEA insurance leader, sat on its EMEA FS leadership team and led a number of PwC's largest global audit engagements.
Lucy Macdonald
Independent Non Executive Director
Lucy has enjoyed a successful career in asset management and was, until 2020, managing director, CIO global equities at Allianz Global Investors. Lucy is an experienced board director and is currently a member of the investment committee of the RNLI, a non executive council member of the Duchy of Lancaster and senior independent director of JPMorgan Global Emerging Markets Income Trust Plc.