Founder
Paul Dolan
Founder, Kizuna PMI Limited
Twenty-five years in global financial markets across London, Hong Kong and Tokyo, then six years as chief executive and chairman.
Biography
Paul Dolan spent more than twenty-five years in global financial markets in senior positions with Nomura, DE Shaw and Barclays, based variously in London, Hong Kong and Tokyo. At Nomura, he built and managed the global convertible bond business and went on to serve as joint head of equities for Asia Pacific, a role that placed him inside a Japanese institution, reporting into a Japanese board, for almost a decade.
He then moved from markets into operating leadership, serving as chief executive and later chairman of a UK listed international group with operations across Africa and Europe. That period gave him the other half of the perspective Kizuna PMI is built on: what it is to be the executive receiving the board's and the shareholders' questions, often several time zones from where they are asked.
Kizuna PMI exists because both halves of that career turned out to be the same job. Kizuna PMI brings the two together. The firm advises Japanese chairmen and boards on the integration of the UK and European businesses they have acquired, independently, discreetly, and at the level where integration decisions are actually made.
Background
Present
Founder, Kizuna PMI Limited
Independent post-merger integration advice to Japanese acquirers in the UK and Europe.
2016 to 2022
Chief executive, later chairman, listed international group
Operating leadership of a London-listed group with hardwood processing and forestry operations across Africa. Board, investor and government facing throughout.
2003 to 2012
Nomura
Global head of convertible bonds, managing teams in Europe, Asia and the US. Became joint head of Asia Pacific equities, managing teams across Asia, including Japan. Based initially in London, then Hong Kong with regular trips to Japan.
1987 to 2003
DE Shaw, ING and Barclays
Senior positions across equity derivatives and convertible bonds, based in London and Tokyo.
Experience relevant to this work
Inside Japan and a Japanese institution
Years spent living in Tokyo while at Barclays, and working within Nomura reporting into Japanese management. The cultural fluency is from first-hand experience, not observed.
Board and chief executive experience
Chief executive and chairman of a listed company, and a substantial shareholder in it. He has been the executive with responsibility for creating and executing strategy, accountable to the board of directors and shareholders.
Multicultural operating leadership
Leadership of international teams across Asia, Europe, the US and Africa, in businesses where the head office and the operations did not share a common language.
Governance and capital
Corporate governance, capital allocation and financial risk at listed-company level, with boards, investors and governments.