Paul Wan
Studied at University of Cambridge
Works at Independent
Understand most have a day-time job so doing this during normal business hours might be difficult, I am open to coach after office hours / over the weekend if it works better for you.
Questions? Start chatting with this coach before you get started.
About Paul
Fundamental equity investor who builds. 20+ years institutional and entrepreneurial experience spanning top-ranked sell-side research (Asiamoney #1 best analyst, 2009–2013, CLSA), buy-side background both as senior analyst (Millennium) & portfolio manager (Horizon). Started own venture to allocate hedge fund assets for family offices and co-founded an SFC-licensed asset management firm focusing on alternative investments. Currently, I am designing & building human-in-the-loop (HITL) agentic-AI frameworks and workflows to manage a personal global-equities portfolio. Cambridge MEng in Manufacturing Engineering — formal training in process design and optimisation, now applied to investment workflows. At Millennium, led alternative-data selection & adoption for a Japan pod, and worked between the pod & the internal data-science team. Native Cantonese/English, fluent Mandarin/Japanese. Sports enthusiast: Hiking, horseback riding, golf & skiing.
Why do I coach?
Twenty-plus years at the sharp end of Asian equities taught me how careers in this industry are actually built. Surviving a serious illness changed why I work: I came away determined to give back, the way a professional coach once transformed my own trajectory as a junior. And as the father of a young son, staying connected with the next generation has never mattered more.
Work Experience
Agentic AI Engineer
Independent
October 2025 - Present
Manage a personal global-equities portfolio as a live testbed for AI-augmented fundamental research. Designed and built ~30 working agents now in regular use — idea generation, company fundamental deep-dives, daily news runs and activist tracking, among others. Completed an intensive five-day Claude Code programme (Jun 2026), then built the agent suite through rapid hands-on iteration — from first agent to a working multi-agent research process in weeks. Structured research notes, models and decision logs for agent retrieval — a single-user working prototype of investment-team knowledge capture. Developed practical guardrails for decision-grade LLM output: source-grounding, verification steps and human-in-the-loop review.
Senior Analyst
Millennium
February 2024 - September 2025
Interviewer
Led initiatives to bring alternative data into a Japan market-neutral pod's research process — screened and evaluated ~10 external data vendors spanning POS, credit-card and weather data (retail), monthly B2B sales (industrials), flight-schedule data (airlines), daily container-freight rates, satellite imagery and game-sales data. Worked with an external software engineering vendor on a bespoke transcription tool for the investment team; Worked with the internal data-science team to integrate selected datasets into functional dashboards for investment team. Generated fundamental investment ideas for a senior portfolio manager covering Japan (generalist) under tight market-neutral risk budgets.
Head of Alternative Investments
Metropoly Capital
November 2019 - May 2022
Hiring Manager
Co-founder of the asset management firm, responsibilities included hedge fund assets allocation, oversight of private equity and real estate portfolios, business operations management, and talents acquisition
Director
Metropoly
February 2019 - October 2019
Hiring Manager
Oversaw private equity and real estate portfolios for the family office; Led SFC Type-9 licensing initiative for the asset management business
Founder and Chief Investment Officer
Wingo
January 2019 - January 2024
Hiring Manager
Allocated proprietary capital to hedge funds, conducted due diligence and research on fund managers globally with a focus on fundamental equity strategies globally
Portfolio Manager
Horizon Asset Management
September 2015 - April 2018
Interviewer
Ran a standalone book and provided stock ideas to a senior PM using a fundamental market-neutral approach with tight risk budgets; covered major Asian markets including Japan.
Regional Head of Transport Research
CLSA
March 2006 - August 2015
Hiring Manager
Led the regional transport research team advising institutional investors globally Asiamoney #1 Best Analyst in Japan (2013 — fifth consecutive year) and #1 Best Regional Transport Analyst (2013); #1 Best Transport Analyst in Japan (2014); Thomson Reuters StarMine top-3 stock picker, Transport (2014)
Education
University of Cambridge
MA MEng, Manufacturing Engineering
2000 - 2004