Nester Clark is the Founder and Managing Partner of Jade Hill Investments LLC and is responsible for all investment activities of the Firm. Mr. Clark started his investment career in 1996 on the global bond trading floor of Salomon Brothers at 7 World Trade Center in New York. In 1998, he joined Goldman Sachs’ Whitehall Real Estate Funds and Global Special Situations Group where he facilitated the deployment and management of real estate and distressed debt investments for Goldman Sachs in the U.S., Canada, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and South Korea involving transactions totaling over $4.0 Billion.
He later became the youngest partner ever at Soros Real Estate Partners, jointly managing a $1.0 Billion private equity fund and where he led the build out of Ishin Hotels Group, a Japanese hotel and resort platform then owning over $800 million in Japanese hotel and resort assets. Mr. Clark and his partners at Soros Real Estate Partners spun out of the Soros umbrella in 2004 and created Grove International Partners (now Alpine Grove), where he served as Head of Japan for Grove, and which managed over $23 Billion in assets. Mr. Clark also co-led the successful fund raise of the $1.2 Billion Cypress Grove Investors Fund under the Grove-George Soros umbrella.
Mr. Clark later served as Senior Director at the Westmont Hospitality Group in North America before establishing Jade Hill Investments in 2011. Mr. Clark received his Bachelor of Arts cum laude in East Asian Studies and the Comparative Study of Religion from Harvard University in 1998 where he also served as Co-Captain of the Harvard Boxing Team and Captain of the Harvard Kendo (Japanese Sword-Fighting) Team. In 1997, Mr. Clark trained in Kendo (Japanese Sword-Fighting) with Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, the Tokyo Imperial Guard, and the Tokyo Police Department. Mr. Clark also holds a first-degree Black Belt in Karate.
Mr. Clark enjoys reading world histories, other works of non-fiction, and ancient Eastern and Western philosophical texts. He also enjoys spending time with his wife, daughter, and two dogs.
Mr. Nobuo Sugiuchi is a business partner and investment advisor to Jade Hill Investments in Japan. Mr. Sugiuchi has extensive experience in Japanese hard asset, distressed debt, leveraged buy-outs, and PIPE investments from over 12 years of experience with global investment funds based in Japan. Mr. Sugiuchi began his investment career as an Asset Manager with Lone Star Funds in Japan. Mr. Sugiuchi was an investment professional with Soros Real Estate Partners in Tokyo where he worked closely with Mr. Clark on new asset and portfolio acquisitions, as well as platform management. Mr. Sugiuchi most recently served as Senior Managing Director of Cool Japan Fund, a government-backed private equity fund to help Japanese service industries develop foreign demand from inbound tourists as well as overseas market. Mr. Sugiuchi also served as a strategic consultant at the Boston Consulting Group in Japan. Mr. Sugiuchi holds a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry, both from Kyoto University.
Dr. Mao is an advisor at Jade Hill Investments advising the group on capital raising, underwriting, and research. Dr. Mao began her career in the luxury hotel consulting business. She has worked closely with C-suite executives, luxury hotel owners, and institutional investors consulting on hotel real estate investments. She has done business in China, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Canada, and Mexico. Dr. Mao is an assistant professor of strategic management at the Shidler School of Business at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Dr. Mao received her Ph.D. at the University of Houston.