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Sean Hinton is a senior investment and strategy executive with over 25-years’ experience of leading growth, globalization and social impact. He has lived and worked in China (2007–2016) and Mongolia (1988–1995) as well as Australia, U.S.A. and the U.K. in a wide range of sectors including investment, finance, real estate, energy, mining and media. Sean’s track record spans the business cycle from leading startups to running IPO’s, and he brings deep cross-cultural experience in corporate governance, government affairs and corporate social responsibility. He has served on nomination and governance committees of public and private boards as well as on private equity and venture capital fund investment committees.
Sean was the CEO of the Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF) and Director of the Economic Justice Program at the Open Society Foundations, one of the world’s largest private foundations. From 2015–2022 he led the team that makes and manages a global portfolio of private equity and debt investments, and a philanthropic grant-making and policy advocacy program that he founded, with a budget of more than $100m/year.
His board roles have included Chairman of Global Access Health, a social enterprise that works to expand access to affordable state-of-the-art medical technology and diagnostics; and Deputy-Chairman of SouthGobi Resources (TSX: SGQ, HK: 1878), where he led the turnaround of a distressed Hong Kong and Vancouver dual-listed coal mining company, including acting as interim CEO supervising crisis management, public affairs, government relations and managing a multi-jurisdictional regulatory investigation. His non-profit board experience includes the Natural Resource Governance Institute (where he chairs the Nomination and Governance committee), Nature Finance (a Swiss non-profit where he serves as a founder member of the Board of Directors), and the International Advisory Board of the Baha’i Chair for World Peace at the University of Maryland.
Prior to this, Sean was CEO of Terbish Partners, a firm he founded in 2007 to provide strategic advisory services on cross-border investments primarily in the extractive industries. In this capacity he was a long-term senior advisor to Goldman Sachs (Asia), and the Rio Tinto group on their social impact strategies. In 2007 he led the in-house team running the US$1.9bn Hong Kong IPO and inaugural high-yield debt raise, for SOHO China (HKG: 0410) one of China’s leading property companies.
Sean began his career at McKinsey & Company, specialising in strategy and growth in the media and entertainment practice. As Managing Director of Ealing Studios he subsequently led a £150m acquisition and turnaround of the world’s oldest film studio, before joining and co-leading MEA, a boutique media investment banking and advisory firm in London.
Sean is an Executive-in-Residence at University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School; a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute; a member of the British Academy of Film Television Arts (BAFTA); and served as Mongolia’s Honorary Consul-General in Australia. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, the University of Cambridge, and the MIT Sloan School of Management.
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