SENIOR PROFESSIONALS

Akihide Hirao

President and CEO
 

Mr. Hirao has been involved in numerous transactions, including among others, the acquisition of U.S. companies by Japanese companies, the corporate restructuring and divestitures of non-core assets by Japanese retailers, and debt restructuring of Japanese companies
In August of 2007, Mr. Hirao was named President & CEO of The Bridgeford Group
Prior to his transfer from the Advisory Group in Mizuho Securities Co., Ltd. to Bridgeford, Mr. Hirao served as General Manager where he oversaw financial advisory services regarding corporate restructuring and mergers and acquisitions
Mr. Hirao joined The Fuji Bank, Ltd. (Fuji Bank), one of predecessor banks of the Mizuho Financial Group, in 1985, where he was involved in strategic planning of Fuji Bank, corporate finance and project finance in the U.S.  While at Fuji Bank, Mr. Hirao lived six years in the U.S. (three years in New York and three years in Houston)

  

Mr. Hirao graduated from Tokyo University with a Bachelor of Law in 1985. He attained an LLM at Tulane Law School in May 1989 and attended Columbia Law School as special student thereafter in September 1989

  


Richard Kelly

Senior Managing Director 		 
Mr. Kelly joined The Brigeford Group in 2005. He has over 25 years experience in the investment banking business focused on corporate advisory work across a variety of industries, particularly cross border transactions, and has been based in New York, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

At JPMorgan Chase, Mr. Kelly was a Managing Director from 1991 to 2001 and from 1998 to 2001 located in Hong Kong as Head of Mergers & Acquisitions in Asia Pacific covering 14 countries. At Credit Suisse First Boston, he was a Managing Director and based in Tokyo from 1988 to 1990 as Head of Asia Pacific M&A, in London from 1982 to 1988 as a Head of UK M&A and prior to that in New York where he worked on a broad range of investment banking and private equity transactions. He started his career at Lehman Brothers in corporate finance.
  
Mr. Kelly is involved with a number of educational and non-profit organizations including the Asia Society, Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding and Jesuit Refugee Services. He received a B.A. from Harvard College and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.  


Gary R. S. Beling

Managing Director		  
Mr. Beling rejoined The Bridgeford Group in 2002 from UBS Warburg where he was formerly a Director in the Financial Institutions corporate finance team focused on M&A advisory and equity financings. At UBS Warburg, Mr. Beling primarily covered the asset management firms, insurance companies and banks and was involved in several major cross-border transactions and financings.  
Prior to UBS Warburg, Mr. Beling was a Vice President at SG Cowen Securities, the U.S. investment bank of Societe Generale, where he focused on M&A advisory for commercial, consumer and captive finance companies. Mr. Beling began his career as an associate at The Bridgeford Group where he focused on cross-border Japanese/US transactions. After graduation, Mr.Beling trained as an M&A analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston for two years.  
Mr. Beling graduated magna cum laude and phi beta kappa from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.