Our Team

An experienced team helping clients achieve their goals for over two decades.

Senior executives Lawrence Bancroft and Kai Hong establish the firm’s direction and alignment of services, oversee tactical operations, and are accountable for Bivium’s overall results. They have collectively placed more than $10 billion in assets with external managers throughout their careers, including for Bivium’s clients. Bivium’s collaborative culture and the leadership’s diverse backgrounds, innovative thinking, and hard work allow the team’s best ideas to flourish. To find out more about the firm’s leadership, professional team, or advisory solutions, please contact us at info@biviumcapital.com or through the website’s Contact Form.

Lawrence P. Bancroft

Lawrence P. Bancroft

President and CEO

Building upon his experience in the Investment Management Division (IMD) of Goldman, Sachs & Co., Lawrence founded Bivium Capital Partners in 2002. In addition to overseeing the growth of Bivium Capital, he is responsible for its overall direction, driving new business development, and developing innovative service offerings. Lawrence brings extensive investment experience and sage counsel to bear, having helped his clients solve their most challenging problems. He aids our clients by applying his expertise in product development, portfolio construction, due diligence, manager search, and portfolio monitoring.

Lawrence is a respected strategist and industry adviser. Emerging and boutique investment firms at all life stages have benefited from his astute ability to assess their organizations and delineate transformative strategies, which have manifested in increased operational efficiencies, productivity, growth, and funding. While at Goldman, Lawrence became an initial member of the IMD’s external manager selection team. His work involved all aspects of developing the group’s manager of managers business; he also evaluated minority-owned investment companies as part of the firm’s Urban Investment Group for capital allocation.

Lawrence currently serves on the boards of Buck Family Fund, Green Book Ventures, Beacon Rose Partners, Xprize Racial Equity Alliance Brain Trust, and Play Marin.

Lawrence earned his BS from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and his MPA from Cornell University’s School of Public Affairs.

Kai W. Hong

Kai W. Hong, CFA

MANAGING PARTNER, CHIEF INVESTMENT STRATEGIST

As Chief Investment Strategist, Kai leads the investment process and is responsible for manager research and due diligence, portfolio construction, and risk management. He ensures the consistent implementation and ongoing refinement of Bivium’s investment philosophy and process by guiding strategy implementation, portfolio allocation, and investment optimization. He is also actively involved in client portfolio management, industry research, and product development.

Prior to Bivium, Kai was a managing director and the head of Investment Management Consulting at Thomas Weisel Partners, where he oversaw the investment platform for the firm’s institutional and high- net-worth clients. In that capacity, he was responsible for due diligence in traditional and alternative investments as well as asset allocation and portfolio strategy. Kai was formerly a vice president and senior investment analyst at Northern Trust Global Advisors, where he was the lead research analyst for global fixed income and led the firm’s emerging manager research efforts. Before Northern, he was an associate in Goldman Sachs’ external manager of managers group.

Kai received a SB in Computer Science and Engineering and a Master of Engineering degree from MIT. He is a CFA charterholder and a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of San Francisco.

Doug Palenchar, IACCP®

Doug Palenchar, IACCP®

CHIEF COMPLIANCE OFFICER AND SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS

Doug has over 19 years of experience in the financial industry, including extensive experience in compliance operations and development, internal auditing, and financial and investment operations. In directing compliance and operations at Bivium, Doug focuses on managing costs, and leveraging IT and program redevelopment, with a particular emphasis on seamlessly integrating the Firm’s new initiatives. Since joining Bivium in 2011; Doug has created the Bivium Manager Development Program to provide advice and guidance for emerging managers who are working through the development of their own compliance programs.

Formerly, Doug served as the Chief Compliance Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Denali Advisors, LLC, an asset management firm based in La Jolla, California. At Denali, Doug was responsible for overseeing the compliance and financial function: e.g., reporting to the SEC and developing policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the ever-changing SEC regulatory environment, as well as reporting to Denali’s Board of Directors regarding compliance status and strategic vision. While at Denali, Doug developed its first-ever compliance manual, allowing for seamless integration of regulatory requirements and business productivity. Additionally, he formulated Denali’s financial reporting schematic, which led to more effective strategic planning and greater profitability. Prior to Denali, Doug was an entrepreneur in the San Diego area. He is a sought-after speaker at national compliance meetings, speaking on diverse topics such as ethics, regulatory best practices and ERISA.

He holds a BA in Business Economics from the University of California at Riverside, as well as an MBA and Master of Science in Accounting from San Diego State University. Doug is also an Investment Adviser Certified Compliance Professional (IACCP®) and a member of the Bay Area Chief Compliance Officer’s Committee.

Luan Dinh, CFA

Luan Dinh, CFA

Senior Vice President

Luan is responsible for manager research and due diligence. Additionally, he assists the team with portfolio construction and manager performance monitoring. Luan has extensive experience in the financial industry, including portfolio optimization and construction, program trading, fund accounting, compliance oversight, and investment operations. Luan’s role leverages his thorough understanding of the workings on both the buy-side and retail investments. His hands-on experience in the public markets plays a critical role in assessing and providing guidance to funded and prospective managers.

Luan’s financial services career began in 1999 as an Associate in TD Waterhouse’s Brokerage Services Unit. After a brief period in that role, he was promoted to Senior Associate and selected to join Brokerage Technology Support. While in that newly formed Group, Luan helped launch wireless trading, which doubled trading volume; he also played a key role in the integration and implementation of a new online trading platform that significantly reduced order processing time and allowed for human capital to be deployed in other areas of the organization.

In 2005, Luan joined a quantitative-based institutional investment firm specializing in U.S. value equities. As a portfolio engineer, he was part of the portfolio management team that assisted with trading and portfolio construction using the firm’s proprietary alpha model. Additionally, Luan generated, analyzed, and communicated performance attribution; and wrote fundamental research on some of the top holdings as a special situation overlay to the quantitative investment process. Lastly, he was the primary trainer and mentor to the firm’s new associates.

Luan holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, San Diego. He is a CFA charterholder and a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of San Francisco.

Eric C. Hsueh, CAIA

Eric C. Hsueh, CAIA

Senior Vice President

Eric leads the private markets manager due diligence, portfolio construction, and asset allocation process at Bivium Capital Partners. He utilizes his extensive multi-asset investment experience to help clients meet their objectives.

Prior to joining Bivium Capital Partners, Eric led the manager due diligence team at Cornerstone Capital Group (later acquired by Pathstone Family Office), a sustainable and impact investment focused boutique. At Cornerstone, he was responsible for sourcing, analysis, and monitoring of multi-asset class sustainable and impact investments.

Prior to Cornerstone Capital Group, Eric spent a dozen years in Northern Trust’s Outsourced CIO division in various roles spanning manager research to institutional client portfolio management. Before Northern Trust, Eric started his career at Cambridge Associates in the Marketable Manager Research group.

Eric earned his BA in Economics from Johns Hopkins University. He is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) charter holder and is a member of the CAIA Association and CAIA New York. He is also a member of the Association of Asian American Investment Managers (AAAIM).

Judy Liu, CFA

Judy Liu, CFA

Vice President

Judy is responsible for manager research and due diligence. She also assists the team with industry research and manager performance monitoring. Judy’s role leverages her extensive industry experience in investment consulting for institutional investors, manager due diligence, capital markets research, and performance analysis and evaluation. Her manager research expertise includes equity, fixed income, and ESG/ SRI investing.

Prior to Bivium, Judy was a Senior Investment Analyst and Manager Sourcing Lead at Progress Investment Management Company, LLC, where she led the firm’s diverse and emerging manager sourcing efforts and monitored funded strategies across multiple asset classes. Prior to Progress, Judy was an Investment Consultant at Buck Consultants, LLC, where she was responsible for performance monitoring and evaluation, plan structure review, manager selection and due diligence for public pension plans, corporates, and other institutional investors. Before Buck, she was an Investment Banking Analyst at Aurora Capital, LLC, a boutique investment bank that specializes in the life sciences sector.

Judy received a BS degree in Animal Science, with a minor in Economics, from National Taiwan University and a MS degree in Finance from University of Rochester, Simon Graduate School of Business. She is a CFA charterholder and a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of San Francisco.

Tung Ming, CFA

Tung Ming

Vice President

As Vice President, Tung assists in manager research and due diligence, supporting the team with portfolio construction, and manager performance monitoring.

Prior to Bivium, Tung has 19 years of industry experience and served as a Senior Investment Analyst at Progress Investment Management, LLC, where he was responsible for monitoring all funded fixed income managers and strategies, and conducting portfolio analytics for fixed income client accounts. He also has experience in research and monitoring of domestic, international, and global equity strategies. Tung was a lead member of the Progress transition team, overseeing rebalancing and transition activities. Tung started his career at Progress Investment Management as a Portfolio Accountant with responsibilities in operations, fund accounting, calculating performance, and monitoring fund compliance.

Tung received a BA in Finance from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Leanne Gao

Leanne Gao

Associate

Leanne is responsible for client reporting, assisting with compliance and operations functions, assisting the Investment team, and special projects. Prior to joining Bivium, Leanne was a Data Analyst at Rodan+Fields, LLD. She was the analyst for the Quality Department, responsible for customer preference, product quality, and complaint analysis.

She holds a BS in Statistics from the University of California, Los Angeles and has a Masters of Computational Statistics from California State University, East Bay.

Tahira Cunningham

Tahira S. Cunningham

Vice President & Chief of Staff

Tahira Cunningham is responsible for the coordination and strategic alignment of Bivium’s business functions, overall firm productivity, streamlining strategic initiatives, cross-functional process management, and communicating objectives among and between departments. Prior to joining Bivium, Tahira was Chief of Staff at Alluma, a nonprofit social enterprise focused on connecting people to essential services by combining technology capabilities and policy expertise. While there, Tahira led the successful implementation of a company merger, organization-wide restructure, the development of a race, gender and class equity agenda, as well as the creation of a refreshed mission and vision. For over ten years, Tahira has been an advocate and philanthropist on a mission, having led the development and implementation of a $4 million investment strategy to improve health outcomes for boys and young men of color in California while at the Sierra Health Foundation, as well as leading the health policy agenda with the Greenlining Institute, the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, and the California Primary Care Association. She brings her experience improving healthcare access and reducing the social determinants of health impacting people of color, low-income, immigrant, and limited-English communities to all that she does. Tahira holds a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Sonoma State University and a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. Tahira is married with two beautiful and ambitious daughters.

Josh Houston

Josh Houston

Vice President

Josh is responsible for manager due diligence and assists in managing firm operations. Prior to Bivium, Josh served as Senior Analyst at Progress Investment Management, where he was responsible for operational due diligence on prospective and existing managers in client portfolios. Prior to Progress, Josh was the Risk and Compliance Officer at Ohana Advisors, where he developed and implemented the firm’s manager operational due diligence program and assisted in compliance-related oversight and projects. Before joining Ohana Advisors, Josh was an Investments and Reporting Analyst at Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii, where he focused on manager operational due diligence and provided support to the fund’s investment accounting and performance reporting activities. His earlier experience includes positions in corporate accounting at various firms in the San Francisco Bay Area. Josh is a veteran of the United States Navy, holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an M.S. in Accountancy from the University of Southern California.

Sarah Lin

Sarah Lin

Associate

Sarah is responsible for client reporting, business development support, questionnaires, RFIs and formal RFPs, digital and physical marketing material, client and manager services, and foundational compliance and operations functions. Prior to joining Bivium, Sarah worked in both public and private sectors, including companies in the technology and innovation space, e-commerce, social media, and venture capital. With broad experience working on a global scale in various capacities within multi-level organizations, she brings a seasoned perspective, energy, and zeal to the firm. She holds a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Oregon, and is multi-lingual in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.