James H. Zukin
Chairman, Asia Society Southern California

James Zukin is the co-founder and Senior Managing Director of Houlihan Lokey, where he spearheads the firm’s emerging-market strategy. He is also a board member of Houlihan Lokey K.K, and the Board Chairman of Houlihan, Lokey, Howard & Zukin (China) Ltd., and Chairman of Asia for Houlihan Lokey.

Mr. Zukin often presents on Chinese M&A and restructuring issues to various Chinese officials, including the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the Chinese Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC). He speaks frequently at business conferences in the United States and Asia on M&A, financial restructuring and shareholder liquidity, among other topics. He has delivered keynote addresses at the UCLA Anderson School of Management / Wilbur K. Woo Greater China Business Conference and at Indianapolis University for their "U.S.-China Business Cooperation Conference" in Bloomington, Indiana. He has appeared as an expert witness in superior courts and served on the faculty of various World Bank and IFC conferences.

His government clients include the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Labor, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, the Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Korean Asset Management Company (KAMCO). In 2004, he formed Houlihan Lokey’s Sovereign Advisory Services practice, whose clients include Antigua & Barbuda, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Liberia, the Republic of Iraq and the Russian Federation.

Mr. Zukin is a Trustee of the Asia Society and the Chairman of Asia Society Southern California. He serves as a delegate to the Paris Club Meetings involving the private sector. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is an advisory board member of XMBA, the M&A Institute formed by NYU’s Stern School of Business, Guanghua School of Management (Peking University) and Judge Business School (Cambridge University).

Mr. Zukin earned a B.A. with honors in Economics and English from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He is registered with FINRA as a General Securities Representative (Series 7 and 63).