Meet the team | Asia Dragon Trust

Pruksa Iamthongthong

Senior Investment Director

Pruksa Iamthongthong is a Senior Investment Director on the Asian Equities team.

Pruksa graduated with a BA in Business Administration from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand and is a CFA Charterholder.

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James Thom

Senior Investment Director

James Thom is a Senior Investment Director on the Asian equities team, based in Singapore. He is responsible for both Asian and Indian equity strategies and is Lead Manager of the India Fund Inc, as well as co-Manager of abrdn New India Investment Trust and Asia Dragon Trust. He is also co-Portfolio Manager of abrdn’s flagship Asia Pacific ex-Japan strategy. James joined the company in 2010 from Actis, an Emerging Markets Private Equity firm. He graduated with an MBA from INSEAD, an MA from Johns Hopkins University and a BSc from University College London.

Flavia Cheong

Head of Equities - Asia Pacific

Flavia Cheong is the Head of Asia Pacific Equities on the Asian Equities team at abrdn, where, as well as sharing responsibility for company research, she oversees regional portfolio construction. Before joining abrdn in 1996, she was an economist with the Investment Company of the People’s Republic of China, and earlier with the Development Bank of Singapore. Flavia graduated with a BA in Economics and an MA (Hons) in Economics from the University of Auckland. She is a CFA charterholder.

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James Will

Chairman of Board and Chairman of Nomination and Management Engagement Committees

James is former Chairman of law firm Shepherd and Wedderburn LLP where he was a senior corporate partner, heading its financial sector practice. He has experience of working with companies in a wide range of industry sectors including financial services, technology, energy and life sciences. James is Senior Independent Director of Herald Investment Trust plc. He was, until recently, Chairman of The Scottish Investment Trust PLC and a non-executive director of JPMorgan Global Growth & Income plc.

Gaynor Coley

Non-executive Director & Audit and Risk Committee Chairman

Gaynor is a chartered accountant with over 30 years’ experience in private and public sector finance and governance. She is currently the Audit Committee Chairman of Lowland Investment Company plc, SQN Secured Investment Fund plc and Foresight Enterprise VCT plc. Gaynor is also a Director of a number of private companies. She was previously the Chairman of the Wave Group Ltd, Director of Public Programmes at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Managing Director of the Eden Project in Cornwall and Director of Finance at Plymouth University.

Matthew Dobbs

Non-executive Director

Before retirement from full time fund management duties in 2021, Matthew had 40 years’ fund management experience with Schroders. He specialised in Asian and Small Companies investment having served as Schroders’ Head of Global Small Companies from 2000. In addition to managing the Schroders Asian Alpha Plus Fund, Matthew was instrumental in helping grow the assets of two closed-ended investment companies, Schroder Asia Pacific Fund plc and Schroder Oriental Income Fund Limited into FTSE 250 Companies, serving as investment manager from their respective launches in 1995 and 2005. He holds a BA in history and economics from Oxford University. Matthew is non-executive Chairman of the European Opportunities Trust PLC.

Charlie Ricketts

Senior Independent Non-executive Director and Remuneration Committee Chairman

Charlie has over 30 years’ experience within the investment funds arena. He was, until 2014, the head of investment funds at Cenkos Securities, providing equity capital markets services to the fund management industry and to investment trust companies. He was previously a managing director of UBS Investment Bank and head of investment funds. He began his investment career as an investment director of Johnson Fry and then head of marketing and investment product development at Gartmore Investment Management. Charlie is a non-executive director of Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust and is co-Founder and a Trustee of the charity Carefreespace.

Stephen Souchon

Non-executive Director

Stephen Souchon had an executive career at Morgan Stanley until 2015 where, over a period of 22 years, he held a number of senior positions in the finance function and was latterly head of the EMEA Corporate Financial Control Group. He is a Chartered Accountant and is currently a non-executive director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of SMBC Nikko Capital Markets Limited and a non-executive director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of TD Bank Europe Limited.

Susan Sternglass Noble

Non-executive Director

Susan has over 30 years’ experience of investment management and analysis, specialising in financial sector equities, with focus on global, European and Asian mandates. She holds a B.A. in Asian Studies from Cornell University and a M.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and is a Mandarin Chinese speaker. Susan held senior roles at Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, CQS and AXA Investment Managers. More recently she has held a number of board, advisory and policy roles. Susan is a non-executive director of Unity Trust Bank, a consultant to The Investor Forum, a director of the US-UK Fulbright Commission and an active angel investor. She was previously a specialist adviser to the Treasury Select Committee of the House of Commons and a Commissioner on the Dormant Assets Commission.

Donald Workman

Non-executive Director

Donald Workman had an executive career at The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC until 2016 where, over a period of 23 years, he held a number of senior positions which latterly included acting as Executive Chairman of the group’s Asia Pacific business. He was a member of the RBS Group Executive Committee from 2014. He was also an independent non-executive director of Standard Life Private Equity Trust plc between 2006 and 2013. He is currently non-executive Chairman of JCB Finance Limited.

Nicole Yuen

Non-executive Director

Nicole Yuen is a Hong Kong resident and a graduate of the University of Hong Kong and Harvard Law School. She had an executive career initially in law and subsequently in equities with UBS and latterly Credit Suisse (Hong Kong) where she was Chief Operating Officer for the Greater China region and subsequently Managing Director, Head of Equities, North Asia until 2018. She is also a non-executive director of Interactive Brokers Group, Inc.