Our Team

Larry Chan
Co-Founder and Managing Partner

Larry is a Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Free World Investment. Previously, he held positions as a Managing Director and Executive Director at major U.S. investment banks across market making, quantitative strategies, portfolio construction, and trading and investment risk management. Although primarily based in New York, he frequently conducted business in London and spent some time in Hong Kong as an APAC division head. Larry received his MBA in Finance from The Wharton School, UPenn. He graduated from Stony Brook University as a valedictorian with B.Sc. (magna cum laude), majoring in Applied Math & Statistics and Computer Science.

Daniel Wong
Co-Founder and Managing Partner

Daniel is a Due Diligence Analyst with extensive research experience in providing business intelligence and political risk analysis. Previously, Daniel was a researcher in the field of International Political Economy who was involved in projects such as the Regulatory Compliance to Global Derivatives Regulatory Reform; China’s Economic Statecraft and Financial Internationalization; and State-Capitalism in Authoritarian States. Daniel obtained the MSc Global Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and BA Social Policy and Administration at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and graduated with First Honors and Dean’s List. He is currently a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

Gordon Poon
Honorary Advisor

Gordon Poon obtained his B.B.A from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and his MBA from the IMI Geneva (now IMD). He started his financial career in Hong Kong in 1981 in the then pioneer international FX market as an interbank market trader. Gordon Poon has over three decades of experience in international banking & finance, global capital markets and investment across three continents in senior managerial positions based in financial centres including London, Tokyo, Toronto and Hong Kong. He is now retired from an active career in finance and resides in London, United Kingdom and devotes his time in writing, publishing and researching on culture and history. During his time in financial and investment industries, Gordon Poon has also contributed as a columnist for the Hong Kong Economic Journal, the city’s then premier business newspaper, and other Hong Kong and international journals and periodicals and written op-ed's for prestigious publications including the Asian Wall Street Journal. He has taught classes in his alma mater, the CUHK in finance and management and given private lectures in the SFC of Hong Kong, and more recently was invited as a guest speaker in European business schools and regulatory institutions.

Professor Joseph Yizheng Lian
Honorary Advisor

Professor Lian obtained his B.A (magna cum laude) in mathematics from Carleton College, Minnesota and his PhD in economics from the University of Minnesota where he wrote his dissertation under Edward E. Prescott, 2004 economics Nobel Laureate. He taught at Tulane University, the University of California-Riverside and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. From 1998 he served as senior policy advisor to the first post-1997 Chief Executive at the Central Policy Unit of the Hong Kong SAR Government, until 2004, when he was summarily dismissed for openly supporting the pro-democracy movement in the city. He also served as chief editor and lead writer of the Hong Kong Economic Journal, the city’s then premier business newspaper, for four years, and had been on the International Council of the Asia Society. From 2010 to 2022, he had been teaching in Japan, first at the Akita International University, and then at the Yamanashi Gakuin University. In 2013, he was visiting professor at the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, Russia. Professor Lian has published extensively in academic and professional publications, and had written for the Washington, D.C. think tank, Center for Strategic and International Studies, on Hong Kong and China-related issues in the run-up to 1997. He had been a Contributing Opinion Writer for the New York Times from 2014 to 2021.

Seth L Cogswell
Portfolio Manager and Founder of Running Oak Capital

Seth is the Managing Partner and Founder of Running Oak Capital. He is Co-Portfolio Manager of Efficient Growth. Prior to founding Running Oak, Seth was a trader and portfolio manager of the Trillium Multi Horizon Fund, a multi-strategy long/short hedge fund. Seth received his MBA from The Wharton School for which he was a recipient of the Goldman Sachs H.R. Young Scholarship. He received his undergraduate degree in Decision Making Sciences/Operations Research from the University of North Carolina.

Jeff Broders
Chief Operating Officer and Chief Compliance Officer of Running Oak Capital

Jeff is the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Compliance Officer of Running Oak Capital. Prior to joining Running Oak in September 2021, Jeff was the head of US Product Strategy & Development for Principal Global Investors, a multi-boutique investment management firm. Jeff received his Master of Financial Management degree from Drake University and his BA from the University of Northern Iowa. He is also a CFA Level III candidate (May 2022).