Management Team

Chairman

Chris Park 

Mr Park is the Chairman of Bancor's Advisory board and Chairman of Bancor International Limited and his contribution to Bancor is of great importance to the success of our various projects.

Mr Park also serves as an Advisor to Doosan Corporation in Korea presently and was the Chairman of Deloittes Consulting in South Korea. His earlier years was in Accountancy and was with Deloittes & Touche (Partner - USA) and Deloittes Anjin LLC (South Korea).

Mr. Park is a naturalized US citizen since 1970, and has over 40 years (including 35 years in New York) of public accounting and consulting experiences serving multinational companies based in Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, and Japan.  He has worked with organizations of all sizes and types and in a wide cross-section of industries, including international trading, electronics, semiconductors, oil and gas, aerospace and marine transportation, telecommunications, construction, and government.  He also has experience in large and complicated business combinations, joint ventures, and public offerings of securities.

The clients that he has worked with include: China Petroleum Corp. (on behalf of UN Centre on Transnational Corporations), United Technologies, Commonwealth Oil Refining Company, Environmental Treatment & Technologies, Glencore Corp., Ogden Marine Inc., Isuzu Motors (Japan), Plessey Company (UK), Ivaco Steel (Canada), Doosan Group, SK Group, Hanhwa Group, Hyosung Group, Samsung Electronics, Korea International Trade Association, Daewoo Securities, and Sammi Steel.

Mr. Park is a prominent speaker at various conventions and seminars held by professional and business organizations, including the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Korea, Korea International Trade Association in New York and Korea, and US-Korea Business Council.  He was a visiting professor at Graduate School of International Studies, Korea University.

Mr Park was educated in both South Korea and USA. He was awarded the Bachelor of Commerce at the Seoul National University, South Korea and then Masters of Accounting and PHD from University of Wyoming and University of Michigan respectively in the United States of America.

Mr Park has also participated in many other institutions in different capacities:-

• American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (since 1970)

• New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants (since 1970)

• U.S. – Korea Business Council (Member of the US Council since 1990)

• Korea Business Forum (since 1998)

Managing Director / Founding Partner

Head of Management Consulting and Infrastructure Consulting

Maria Choi

Ms Choi is the founding partner of Bancor International Limited. Ms Choi leads the firm's investment strategies on behalf of the firm's Board of Directors.

With over 30 years experience in corporate business ventures, Ms Choi played a leading role in establishing multi-million dollar funding projects across continents. 

Major investment focus industries are in the sectors of Property Development, Energy, Biotechnology and Information Technology.

Prior to founding Bancor International, Ms Choi was Senior Executive Director at Deloitte and PwC consulting, here she established and developed the business practices into multi-million dollar enterprise in South Korea. She was also listed and recognized as the youngest female executive of a foreign multinational enterprise in Year 2000 where she was the Country Manager for Tibco Software Inc., a multibillion Nasdaq listed company.

She is well versed in different cross-border corporate cultures, and holds a Bachelor and Master of Technology from the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.

Executive Director

Head of Private Equity and Alternative Investments

Thomas Gruber PgDip (Oxon), Chartered MCSI (CISI), CCBI, GSFP, Cert CRP, CPM, IM&A

Thomas Gruber is Executive Director and Partner at Bancor International Ltd., where he leads Private Equity and Alternative Investments. With more than 20 years of experience across Europe and Asia, he focuses on private market transactions - including mid-market buyouts and public-to-private leveraged buyouts - alongside portfolio value creation and disciplined risk management.

He serves as a trusted senior interface to family-owned conglomerates and government stakeholders across North East Asia, advising on non-market strategy, regulatory engagement, and stakeholder alignment in complex operating environments. His investment focus spans infrastructure and energy, with particular depth in renewables and oil & gas midstream/downstream, where he has led acquisitions, restructuring, and exit planning.

Thomas drives Bancor’s ESG-led expansion and the firm’s net-zero transition across portfolio companies, translating carbon-reduction priorities into practical, governance-grade execution.

He holds a PgDip (Oxon) in Global Business from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford (Jesus College) and is an Associate Alumni of Jesus College. He is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) and holds professional designations across M&A, sustainable finance, climate risk, and portfolio management (IM&A, CCBI, GSFP, Cert CRP, CPM).

Executive Director

Sean Kim

Mr. Kim is a founding member of Bancor, primarily focusing on fund raising and deal co-ordination for Bancor being well versed across M&A activities in Seoul, Korea.

He worked for Meritz Securities as well as Asiana Airlines and Orchid Holdings within their corporate finance divisions and has dealt with many important deals.

Mr Kim acquired his qualifications from Sogang University in Seoul, Korea and was awarded with a Bachelor and an MBA degree.

Non-Executive Director

David Bartlett

David Bartlett is the founder and CEO of Hong Kong - based Winrock Advisors Limited. Winrock was established in 2013 as a specialized advisory firm focused on arranging private lending facilities and other special situations debt transactions for a global client base. The firm has arranged and transacted over US$ 5 billion since inception.

From 2006 to 2021 David was Director of Pacific Harbor Holdings Limited (PHH), a Hong Kong SFC licensed asset manager, and the Managing Director and Office Head of Pacific Harbor Advisors (HK) Limited, an affiliate of PHH. David has over 20 years of experience in handling financial transactions in global markets. Prior to Pacific Harbor, David worked at Amroc Asia, then a TPG / Avenue Capital affiliate - trading, advising and originating stressed and distressed debt transactions. 

Earlier in his career David worked in Jakarta as Manager of Indonesian Equity Research at PT Samuel Sekuritas and in Burkina Faso as Program Manager at Africare, working with World Bank grantees. 

David was awarded a B.A. from the University of Vermont in 1990 and an M.B.A. from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in 1997.