Affinity managing partner to retire
Chul-joo Lee is retiring from Affinity Equity Partners at the end of August. He will become the second managing partner to leave the pan-regional buyout firm in the past 12 months.
Lee, who has been with Affinity for 22 years, will join his family business in Korea, according to a source close to the situation. The other managing partner, Young-taeg Park, stepped back from his duties towards the end of last year as part of a long-planned exit process.
Lee joined UBS Capital Asia Pacific in 2001 and was part of the team – led by K.Y. Tang, the firm’s founding chairman and managing partner – that spun out to form Affinity in 2004.
He led or co-led several landmark Korea deals, such as Himart, TheFaceShop, Oriental Brewery, and Loen Entertainment, before moving to Hong Kong and assuming a broader role in 2007. Duties included overseeing investment in Greater China and Southeast Asia and building Affinity’s operations group.
Tang, the sole remaining managing partner, continues to lead the firm and serve as chair of the investment committee. He will also take on some of the investment supervisory responsibilities previously held by Lee. There are no near-term plans to appoint additional managing partners, the source said.
Affinity already has six partners supporting Tang: Queenie Ho, Charles Min, Benny Lim, Nick Speer, Kenneth Liu, and Icksoo Jung. Speer is a recent addition, having joined from The Riverside Company to serve as Australia head earlier this year. The average tenure of the entire partner group is 15 years.
A seventh partner – Korea head Sam Lee – resigned a couple of months ago. He had been with Affinity for 15 years. Min took over the Korea leadership role.
Affinity has approximately 60 investment professionals across the region, including 11 managing directors. The largest country team is in Korea, which numbers 16.
The firm is currently deploying its fifth Asia fund. A final close of USD 6bn came at the end of 2017 and the vehicle is said to be approximately 60% deployed.
Affinity declined to comment.
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