John Kim
Founder | The Ally
John’s career has taken him across a diverse range of operating and investing environments from early stage startups to fortune 500 companies. For the last decade before founding cross border venture capital firm Amasia, John focused in finance, serving as Senior Vice President at Mercuria Energy Group, Executive Director at Goldman Sachs and Portfolio Manager at Korean National Investments. While in these roles he managed trading and investment strategies across a diverse set of asset classes and including commodities, public and private equity, fixed income and derivatives.
John started his career as an entrepreneur, founding music internet and e-consulting businesses before joining Merck & Co as a System Specialist. He left Merck to start his third company, a Delaware incorporated rock band called The Ally. John toured across America and recorded with top artists most notably receiving a platinum record for his album contribution with Grammy award winner Brandy.
He is a Kauffman Fellow, a Member of the Young Presidents Organization and a Member of the Young Leaders Circle at the Milken Insitute. John serves on various corporate and non-profit boards including those of Dialpad, Kairos Society Asean and the Choson Exchange, a non-profit focused on teaching female entrepreneurs in North Korea. John attended the Jerome Fisher Dual Degree Program in Management and Technology at The University of Pennsylvania, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School and a Bachelor of Applied Science from the School of Engineering.
Life:
John is married to doctor/entrepreneur/love of his life, Elaine Kim, and they have three boys aged 7, 5 and 2. They attend church at Solomon's Porch Singapore, where John and Elaine serve in various capacities.
When I first started Amasia, I prayed hard that God would grow our firm to become a great success. I told him that I’d go anywhere, meet anyone, do anything… whatever it took I’d do it. But instead of giving me a tactic or a strategy, he gave me a picture.