Bridging Markets with Expertise and Insight

Desmond How has over 29 years of investment experience. At GaoTeng, he won Outstanding Manager (Emerging Markets Fixed Income) by BENCHMARK and Star Manager (Hedge Fund Hong Kong) of the Year by Insights & Mandate in 2021. Recently his flagship Long/Short Credit Strategy was ranked No 1 for Net Returns of top-performing APAC based credit strategy hedge funds in H1 2024 by Preqin. In 2023, the same strategy also won Professional Investment Award in the Global Emerging Market Debt (3-year) category by Insights & Mandate and Best Credit Hedge Fund (3-year) by HKCAMA Bloomberg. It was rated Best in Class (Credit Focus in Alternatives) by BENCHMARK consecutively in 2021 and 2022 for their Fund of the Year Awards. Prior to that, the strategy was awarded Best Credit Hedge Fund by Bloomberg Businessweek and Best Performing Fund in 2020 (Emerging Market Long/Short Fixed Income) by The Hedge Fund Journal in 2021.

Mr How had also won the Most Astute Investors by The Asset for Asian G3 Bonds 16 times from 2006 through to 2023, 8 of which were ranked No 1. Prior to joining GaoTeng, he was Managing Director, Head of Global Capital Management (GCM) at Nomura International (Hong Kong) Limited, a proprietary investment desk that was ranked No 1 Top Investment House Hedge Fund in Asian G3 Bonds by The Asset in 2015 and 2016.

Served as Senior Portfolio Manager for Prudential Investment Fixed Income Emerging Markets Sector team at PGIM, Mr How won the Best Asia Fixed Income Fund (3-Year Risk-Adjusted) from AsianInvestor in 2007.

Mr How is a visionary and a natural leader. He has this special ability to see what’s lacking in the market, mobilising people and resources around him to make an impact. Gembridge is his brainchild where he leads the co-founders into sharing a common vision – offer investment expertise to asset owners and serve as a bridge to a myriad of opportunities in the Global Emerging Markets.
Mr How successfully managed the same thematic alpha strategy across stints at PGIM, Nomura GCM, and GaoTeng, which spanned over two decades, having navigated three asset cycles and thriving in all of them. His returns averaged an impressive 15% per annum. The strategy offers a negative-to-low correlation to market indices and has consistently beat bond indices by a significant margin.

Joe Charoensiddhi brings 27 years of experience in fundamental credit research and fixed income investing, with a strong focus on Asian credit markets. His professional foundation was built at Moody’s, where he held the role of credit analyst and led rating assessments for a diverse portfolio of Asian investment grade and high-yield issuers across sectors including real estate, utilities, project finance, and petrochemicals.

He subsequently joined Citi as a sell-side credit research analyst specializing in Asia high-yield credits. In 2011, he was appointed Head of Credit Sector Specialists, where he managed a team of six analysts supporting the bank’s credit trading and special situations group. Under his leadership, the team consistently ranked among Asia’s top three sell-side credit research teams in Finance Asia’s poll.

Following his tenure at Citi, Mr Charoensiddhi transitioned to the buy-side as Managing Director at Claren Road Asset Management, a New York-based long-short credit hedge fund founded by Citi’s credit trading veterans. At Claren Road, he oversaw credit research and strategy for Asian markets.

In 2018, Mr Charoensiddhi joined Gaoteng Asset Management as Managing Director and Head of Research, where he led the credit research function and managed the Asia portfolio. In this role, he played a critical part in defining investment themes and driving the credit selection process.

Hitoshi Hara brings 25 years of extensive research and investment experience across equity and credit markets. He began his career in 2000 as an equity trader at Nomura Securities in Tokyo, contributing to portfolio trading, block trading, proprietary strategies, and quantitative trading. In 2005, Mr Hara relocated to Hong Kong to strengthen Nomura’s Asia ex-Japan trading team, where he spearheaded quantitative strategy development and automated trading systems.

Following Nomura’s acquisition of Lehman Brothers, Mr Hara transitioned into credit trading within Desmond How’s team, expanding his coverage from Japan to emerging markets and European financials. He played a key role in navigating distressed European bank capital markets, particularly during periods of regulatory uncertainty affecting subordinated bonds.

In 2013, Mr Hara was promoted to risk trader covering Japan and ex-Asia markets, where he profited from emerging structures such as AT1 securities and managed stressed credit positions including Sharp, Covalent Material, and Toshiba.

In 2018, he joined Gaoteng Global Asset Management as EM ex-Asia portfolio manager and credit analyst. There, Mr Hara helped launch and grow a global emerging markets fund by identifying critical fundamental and political inflection points across sovereign and corporate credits—including during the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia/Ukraine crisis, and sovereign restructurings in Argentina, Ecuador, and Sub-Saharan Africa—while maintaining disciplined risk management.

In 2025, Mr Hara co-founded Gembridge Capital, where he currently serves as Portfolio Manager.

Outside of work, Mr Hara is passionate about his family and long-distance running, having completed marathons in Tokyo, New York, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Terence Chia is the Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Gembridge Capital Management, responsible for fund raising and driving the growth of the business. Prior to starting Gembridge, he was a seasoned investment banker with over two decades of experience in debt capital markets and private credit across the Asia-Pacific region. He has built a distinguished career leading syndication, structuring, and distribution of landmark bond and loan transactions for sovereigns, corporates, and financial institutions.

Mr Chia served as Managing Director and held senior management roles during his stints in UBS and Credit Suisse, where he transformed the franchise into a market-leading powerhouse in bonds, loans, and leveraged finance. He pioneered the integration of bond and loan products into one seamless debt platform that tops league tables and earned multiple industry accolades and awards.

Earlier in his career, Mr Chia held senior roles at Citigroup in Hong Kong and Singapore, spanning debt syndicate, emerging market credit trading, and debt capital markets. He began his career at UOB Group in strategic planning.

Mr Chia holds an MSc in Finance and Economics from the London School of Economics and a First Class Honours degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Imperial College London, where he was awarded multiple academic prizes.

Johnson Cheung has over 25 years of experience in financial operations and fund management across Asia-Pacific. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Gembridge Capital Management Pte Ltd, where he leads operational strategy, compliance, finance and infrastructure development (2025–Present).

Prior to this, Mr Cheung was COO at Dantai Capital Limited (2017–2022), where he helped scale the firm from startup to over $2bn AUM. His responsibilities included fund accounting, financial planning, regulatory compliance, and operational resilience, with extensive engagement across prime brokers, institutional investors, and supervisory bodies over jurisdictions including Hong Kong, Cayman Islands, and the U.S.

From 2012 to 2016, Mr Cheung served as Senior Operations Officer at Senrigan Capital Limited, managing trade lifecycle processes, margin capital efficiency and operational risk. Earlier in his career, he held roles in Sydney with Susquehanna International Group LLC as a Trade Support Officer (2004–2010), Citigroup Global Markets Australia Ltd as an FX/MM Settlements Officer (2002–2004), and Westpac Banking Corporation as a Swift Payments Officer (1995–1997).

Mr Cheung holds a Bachelor of Business in Finance and International Business from the University of Technology, Sydney.