Advisor

James K. Lau

James K. Lau

Advisor

“You just need to be half a step ahead of the rest to be first”.

James is the ultimate entrepreneur. His relentless pursuit of being the very best in his class has led him to achieve certain feats that few individuals have accomplished, including founding a schedule I Canadian chartered bank.

James practices what he preaches – “you just need to be half a step ahead of the rest to be first”. To that end, he has explored underserviced niches and looked for ways to capitalize on these opportunities while catering to the needs to the underserviced clients. His knack for identifying the key ingredients to formulate a successful business strategy, distilling them to simple terms and implementable steps, and executing on the business strategy, has served him well. His conviction that one must necessarily offer ‘value’ in order to survive and thrive in the 21st century economy has led him to not only design his value strategy of Excellence & Integrity, but has proven the formula right by consistently implemented the strategy successfully.

Accomplishments

Jameson FX

  • Identified an underserviced niche in Canada, corporate foreign exchange (“fx”), in March 1989
  • Founded Jameson International Foreign Exchange Corporate (“Jameson FX”), the second corporate fx house in Toronto in September 1989, to service the one million small to mid-sized enterprises (“SMEs”) in Canada
  • Took Jameson FX (in a 9ft by 10 ft office) from zero client to over 3,000 active clients and 20,000 prospects in its database
  • Grew Jameson FX from $0 revenue to a company with 18 consecutive years of profitability, generating an average ROE of consistently over 100% and a ROI of 18% over the span of 18 years
  • Jameson FX was selected by CIBC (commercial banking) to be acquired and to service all of its retail branches across Canada; the rationale for CIBC’s acquisition of Jameson was that CIBC Commercial Banking was not serviced well by CIBC’s own capital markets (CIBC World Markets)
  • Jameson FX, because of its robust compliance regime, was selected by Citibank as the only fx house that Citibank would deal with after the Patriot Act came into effect
  • Jameson FX was selected by FINTRAC (Financial Transactions Reports Analysis Centre of Canada), an anti money laundering, anti terrorist financing task force, to show case its robust compliance regime
  • Jameson FX was selected by Tullett & Tokyo (New York) as the only foreign exchange house to consider acquiring
  • Jameson was the only fx house selected by St. Columbian (Canada) to acquire
  • Jameson was the only fx house selected by e-Auction (Canada) to acquire and merge
  • Jameson FX was selected by Travelex (Canada) to acquire
  • James Lau was nominated Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur Of The Year

Royalton Principal Protected Fund

  • Identified a niche to assist institutional investors to achieve consistent returns
  • Founded a fund of funds, Royalton Principal Protected Fund, in 1999
  • Raised $87.5mm within 12 months, with no previous track record, and leveraged the fund to $100mm
  • One institution was impressed with the low volatility of the fund (5%) that they decided to cancel the principal protection feature managed by Zurich Capital Markets

Jameson Bank

  • Identified a niche to assist Canadian SMEs
  • Submitted an application in September 2007 to convert Jameson FX into a chartered bank
  • Jameson obtained its bank license in record time – only 10 months after submission of its application
  • Jameson became the first fx house in Canada to become a bank
  • Jameson became the first treasury bank in Canada
  • Jameson became the first private bank in Ontario
  • Jameson became one of very few Schedule I Canadian banks, one of the most exclusive “clubs” in the world
  • James Lau negotiated a deal with BMO in that Jameson Bank is the only small commercial bank in Canada allowed by BMO to offer credit and trading facilities without pledging any collateral
  • Jameson was one of a very few banks to become profitable only 5 months after becoming a bank

Titan Reinsurance Ltd (“Titan Re, Bermuda”)

  • Teamed up with two other investment groups (including royal family members) to take over a Bermuda reinsurance company; became the controlling shareholder
  • Underwrote over $50mm of new premiums within 3 months

 

[email protected]
Toronto, Canada
T: 1-561-299-6950

 

Education

McGill University
Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering

McGill University
Master of Business Administration

CFA level 1