Capacity: Independent Non-Executive Director

Lou founded San Francisco Bay Area-Based Gerken Capital Associates (“GCA”) in 1989. GCA is an alternative Asset Fund Management firm, with particular focus on emerging markets private equity/venture capital. Prior to forming GCA, Lou was the Managing Director and Group Head of Prudential Securities Technology Investment Banking Division.

Earlier, Lou was a General Partner to Prudential Securities’ four venture capital SEC-registered funds with $336 million under management (“Prutech”). As one of the largest U.S. Venture Capital Funds, Prutech was responsible for completing fifty IT and bio-tech sector early and expansion stage investments, and was one of the first venture capital funds to pioneer corporate partnering as a co-investment strategy.

Prior to Prudential, Lou was associated with Montgomery Securities’ Venture Capital Funds, and Wells Fargo Capital Markets where he developed one of the first U.S. fund of funds. Earlier, Mr. Gerken was Founder of TCG International, a telecommunications consulting engineering practice responsible for the deployment of international Fortune 500 Telecom / Datacom projects. Prior to TCG, Lou was a Senior Research Analyst and Portfolio Manager with GT Capital Management, a London-based emerging markets investment management firm. Lou started his career with the Bank of California Trust Department as an Investment Officer and Research Analyst responsible for the technology and financial sectors, as well as all privately-held holdings.

He received an MBA from the Southern Methodist University Graduate School of Business, a Master’s Degree in International Business from the American Graduate School, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University of Redlands.

Louis was appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Director on 1 November 2019