Andrew Li

Andrew Li joined Advent in 2012 and is a Managing Director in Shanghai. He advises on investments in the consumer, healthcare, and industrial sectors. Andrew has advised on 16 investments during his career, nine while at Advent.

Prior to joining Advent, Andrew worked at Warburg Pincus, Solera Capital, and Credit Suisse throughout China and the US, where he focused on the energy, healthcare, industrial, and retail and consumer sectors.

Andrew holds a BA from Middlebury College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

How has living in your region impacted your perspective on investing?

I joined the firm in 2012 as part of the founding team in China, and we’ve always stuck to Advent’s global investment philosophy. We’re sector-focused, working with strong Operating Partners, and we’re involved in business fundamental-focused value creation. Our approach has been a good fit for China, which is very much growth-driven. It aligns with our focus of primarily looking at growth buyouts.

How have you seen Advent’s culture of collaboration drive impact?

For every investment Advent does in China, we seek global inputs because at some time, somewhere, someone at Advent will have reviewed a similar industry in another market. We don’t always know how it will be relevant, but there may be learnings that are applicable to what we’re doing. Advent has been in China for just over 10 years, but we have 40 years of history globally. Therefore, we reach out to the global sector teams, and they share their practice. For instance, in a recent investment Advent made in the pet food sector, our European colleagues did something similar in Poland previously, and we could tap into their expertise.

How do you challenge yourself and others around you to continuously improve?

We encourage one another and we build on each other’s success. The team we’ve built in China is very diverse in terms of background, perspectives, and knowledge, but we all share a common ambition to help build sustainable businesses. This is a fast-changing environment – an emerging market, with lots of challenges and opportunities – and we’re excited about what we can do here, driving growth in our industries, and investing in sector leaders to make them bigger, stronger, and more successful.

When did you decide you wanted to be in this business, and why?

I was originally more of a science person. I was a programmer at Microsoft, working on Windows 2000, and decided to switch gears and move into finance. I’d realized I was good at math and analytics, and wanted to do something different. I went into investment banking, and from there it’s a natural path from the sell side to the buy side. My induction into private equity was at a New York start-up fund spun out from a larger platform. I’ve stayed in the business because there’s a real sense of accomplishment when you see a company grow in value.

What is the best career advice you have received?

In the early days of my career, the CEO of Solera Capital – where I started in private equity – took me under her wing as a mentee. She gave me a lot of good advice. One of the key things she shared with me was always to focus on issues, not people. That helps you to orient conversations in the right way to build consensus and influence others. And communication is a big part of our business, whether it’s with entrepreneurs, business owners, or our own internal investment committee. That insight has really had a lasting impact on me.