Lester Lim

Managing Partner at Gatelanes Limited

Speaker

Lester Lim is a Managing Partner at Gatelanes, a Hong Kong–based private investment firm. He brings nearly two decades of private-markets experience, advising leading family offices, sovereign wealth funds, and institutional investors across private equity, venture capital, private credit, and hedge funds.

Before founding Gatelanes, Lester was Head of Family Capital, Asia-Pacific at KKR Asia, where he built strategic partnerships and advised some of the region’s most influential families—spanning both traditional and next-generation principals. Earlier, as Head of Investor Relations at FountainVest Partners, one of China’s largest private equity firms, he led the global raise of its US$3.0 billion flagship fund, as well as its co-investment program, and served on the firm’s operating committee.

Previously, as a Director at HSBC's Alternative Investments Group, he advised family offices and ultra-high-net-worth investors on diversified allocations across global alternatives. He also helped pioneer semi-liquid structures in Asia more than a decade ago, overseeing private-wealth deployments exceeding US$1.0 billion annually.

Lester began his investment career as the first Asia hire at Altius Associates (later Pavilion Alternatives Group), committing discretionary and advisory capital to funds, secondaries, and co-investments on behalf of some of the largest U.S. public pensions, sovereign wealth funds, and other institutions. In that role, he served on LP advisory committees of major regional and country-specific funds, and helped build several first-time Asia LP portfolios, including early venture allocations in China.

He holds a Master’s in Business Management from Harvard University and a Bachelor’s in Economics and Philosophy from the National University of Singapore.