Afzal (“Al”, 高達(dá)飛) is the founding chairman and managing partner of Arcis Capital Partners, a boutique capital advisory and PE firm specializing in cross-border real estate, FinTech, and M&A transactions between China and the US. Prior to founding Arcis, Al was a partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers ("PwC”), one of the world's largest accounting, tax and advisory firms. He worked in PwC’s China/HK offices as well as New York City office. Over the past 20 plus years, Al has led extensive work in business and operational strategy, as well as restructuring and business improvement across the financial services, investment management, real estate, business services, and technology industries in the US, China/HK and broadly in Asia Pacific. Al has spent 14 years in China, over two 7-year stints. As a result, Al has gained front line experience and deep knowledge of China's economic, regulatory, and social developments, as well as its cross-border investment flows. Al received a BE degree from Tsinghua University （清華大學(xué)）in Beijing, China on an international cultural exchange scholarship. Afterwards, he received an M.S. degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. He has also completed leadership development programs at Yale and INSEAD. In addition to English, he is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Urdu/Hindi.