OUR TEAM
Nalanda Capital Partners was founded by a group of seasoned entrepreneurs with over 100 years of combined experience in Venture Building, Private Equity, Real Estate, and Capital Markets. Headquartered in Singapore, Nalanda aims to build a dynamic Alternative Capital Markets platform with a strategic focus on Southeast Asia, India, the GCC, and other emerging regions.
Dato Sri Jeff Yap
Founder
Dato’ Sri Jeff Yap has been a Director of Olympia Industries Berhad since 1993 and plays an active role in overseeing the Group’s business operations. He also serves on the Company’s Risk Management Committee, contributing strategic oversight and governance expertise.
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He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of KH Land Sdn Bhd, where he leads the development of Kenny Heights, a landmark mixed-use project in Hartamas, Kuala Lumpur. The project is a flagship initiative under a joint venture between Olympia Industries and DutaLand Berhad, where he also serves as a Non-Independent Director.
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In addition to his corporate leadership roles in Malaysia, Dato’ Sri Jeff Yap is also a Director of several investment companies in Singapore, including Nalanda Capital Partners and Pertama Capital, both involved in diversified investment activities across the region.
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Dato’ Sri Yap holds an LLB (Hons) degree from the London School of Economics, graduating in 1989. From 1994 to 1998, he served as the Deputy Chairman of Automobile Lamborghini, during Olympia’s strategic investment in the iconic Italian automotive brand.
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He is the founding trustee and current Board member of the Force of Nature Aid Foundation, a humanitarian initiative established in response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. In sports, he was appointed Deputy President of Taekwondo Malaysia (WTF) in 2018, reflecting his long-standing commitment to community and youth development.
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Mr. Ayan Desai
Co-Founder & Director
Ayan holds an MBA in Corporate Finance and International business from Leeds University Business School and a Masters in Marketing from Mumbai University. Ayan has been part of the Alternatives capital market since 2000. Ayan is an Associate Director at Fort Capital and oversees the Capital Markets function to setup alternate investment structures and raise capital.
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Further Ayan is also a founding partner at Nalanda Capital Partners, incorporated in Singapore with a leading business house of SEA to facilitate Alternate Investments for various sectors and he sits as a principal advisor for market development and capital raising for Ventures and Strategic investments through their Singapore office.
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From 2010 to 2015 he managed and restructured his families private company: Utopia, which has successfully invested and executed plotted developments, Agricultural land banks, Hospitality ventures and Residential ventures in the western region of India and has also advised in India entry strategy for the leading private members club Soho House Mumbai, India.
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Ayan was a founding team member for an India focused Real Estate fund management house SAFFRON (2005 - 2010) heading the Capital Markets division. During this period Ayan setup the Capital Raising and Investor relations platform with USD 440 million raised in 3 fund raisings. Ayan was also a member of the Managing Committee whose main purpose was to setup the best in line international Private equity practices and also oversee the development of Saffron, the team, processes and development of projects.
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He started his career with TATA- AIG in India and was part of the western team that helped build the business segments.
Mr. Harold Woo
Director
Harold Woo is Emeritus Adviser for Corporate Access & Investor Relations at SGListCos, an association of Singapore listed companies.
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He was ex-Senior Advisor for Investor & Partner Relations in CapitaLand Limited. He joined CapitaLand in 2003 and relinquished his position as Senior Vice President, Investor Relations in June 2015.
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Post retirement from CapitaLand in May 2017, he assumed a senior advisory role at WeR1 Consultants Pte Ltd, a boutique investor relations, corporate strategy and media communications company, from September 2017 till October 2018. During the 13 months tenure, he was responsible for account management of a few mid-cap companies. Besides performing the mainstream investor relations activities as an agency, he was actively involved in assignments relating to strategic transformation, crisis management, pre-IPO preparation, M&A and corporate restructuring.
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He took on a senior advisor contract with Sasseur Asset Management Pte Ltd from February 2019 till January 2020. In addition to mentoring the in-house IRO, he helped to widen coverage of the stock by sell-side analysts, raised media coverage of the company and enlarged its pool of investors. Sasseur REIT was one of the top performing S-Reits in 2019, with a total return of 53%.
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He has almost 20 years of stockbroking experience in institutional sales, securities trading and investment research. From 1990 to 1999, he was with Vickers Ballas & Co Pte Ltd, progressing from Director of Institutional Sales to Global Head of Institutional Sales. He opened an equity sales office for Vickers Ballas in the City of London in 1995 and was its CEO until 1998. Prior to 1990, he was Associate Director at James Capel Far East Limited, an international stockbroker. From 1981 to 1985, he was research manager at Ong & Co Pte Ltd.
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Harold garnered the Best IRO award in IR Magazine – South East Asia Awards in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2011. In 2012, he was named as one of 25 Best IROs of last 25 years by IR Magazine. In December 2015, he was bestowed a Lifetime Achievement Award by IR Magazine. In November 2024, he was inducted into IR Magazine Hall of Fame. He was on the judging panels for IR Magazine Awards 2017 to 2021 - South East Asia and Greater China self-nomination categories.
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He was the President of Investor Relations Professionals Association (Singapore) (“IRPAS”) from 2012 to 2021. He served as the Honorary Secretary of the Securities Investors Association (Singapore) (“SIAS”) from 2015 – 2017 and remains as a consultant. Harold is on the faculty for the Listed Entity Director Programme conducted by the Singapore Institute of Directors (“SID”).
ADVISORY TEAM
Mr. Gary Koh
Gary was head-hunted to join an Indonesia Real Estate Group to develop their first mixed development projects comprises of 5 Star Hotel, Retail Mall, Convention Center and Grade A Office Building in Semarang and Jakarta. Comprising the Sales, Marketing & Leasing and Customer Service Units, the Division is responsible for the entire life_span of a development project, from advising on the innovation project design and executing sales strategies and providing after-sales service.
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After completing this entire development, he was relocated back to Singapore to manage the Indonesia group listed company "Shining Corporation Ltd" as their General Manager. During his employment, he managed the group subsidiaries such as Cream Homestore, Boffi Kitchen and Builders Shop.
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Presently, he's spearheading MOI Capital a bespoke service provider that specializes in providing brokerage and trading business in Singapore, Australia and Malaysia listed and local companies by helping them obtain overseas financing or loans for all kinds of business needs. He has been in business for the past 26 years. Most of his clients are well established Real Estate Developers, Agriculture, Oil & Gas, Hotels & Resorts and Construction companies.
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Driven by my entrepreneurial spirit, MOI capital presently has diversified businesses into real estate investments and trading. Together with my team of professionals with international experience, we will continue to strengthen MOI Capital Group's current portfolio and actively seek business opportunities both at home and abroad.
Mr. Kheng Joo Lee
Investments
KJ has more than 30 years of Private Equity, Family Office management and senior executive experience in Asia, with a focus on China and Southeast Asia. KJ has strong track record in start ups and served as founding chief executive director and independent director of multi million dollar investment projects.
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He was independent board member of HiChina from 2000 to 2005, the company was acquired by leading cloud provider company in China. He was also independent board member of SGX and HKEX mainboard listed company, China Everbright Water from 2010 to 2015.
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KJ is currently an advisor to a Carbon Neutral and AI venture fund, the fund invests primarily in China and HK. The fund has invested in PIPE deals, 15 venture funds and made direct investments. KJ is also an advisor to a vocational training company and a blockchain fund as well as several Web3 projects.