Biography

Who is Dave Liu?

My name is Dave Liu. I’m a Chinese American who was born in the U.S. and lived in Asia during my childhood. I’ve traveled all over the world, worked with small and large companies and continue to believe in the entrepreneurial dream. So far I’ve been an investment banker, venture capitalist, entrepreneur, consultant and operator.

Here, in this corner of my world you can learn a little about my personal life. I work hard but try to lead a balanced life…as much as possible in today’s day and age.

Experience

  • Management and Operations
    • Establish new business opportunities and evaluate potential industry sectors. Member of Technology Group, Structured Finance Group, Gaming and Consumer Group, Venture Capital Group, and Industrial Technology Group
    • Recruit, train and manage junior professionals
    • Co-founded enterprise software development company; raised $2 million in venture capital
  • Venture Capital
    • Provide principal investing, operations, and financial advisory services to growing companies in the enterprise software, and Internet hardware and software infrastructure industries
    • Co-manage early stage venture capital fund
  • Corporate Finance
    • Provide financing, mergers and acquisitions, and restructuring advisory
    • Supervise and execute transactions, develop marketing strategies, conduct roadshow presentations, perform due diligence and draft offering memoranda. Manage activity between CEOs, CFOs and advisors
    • Manage development of client’s business plans, operating projections, sales memoranda, rating agency documents and roadshow presentations to facilitate sale of securities
    • Assess and recommend transaction structures; develop financial, covenant and restructuring analyses of debt and equity securities; analyze industry dynamics
    • Completed over 40 transactions (representing over US$4 billion) for companies in the technology, industrial technology, consumer, gaming, financial and business services sectors

Education

Certifications

  • Registered NASD Series 7 and Series 63
  • Certified in First Aid and CPR
  • Certified PADI scuba diver
  • Certified U.K. government silver survival swimmer

Liu dynasty

Liu is a very common Chinese surname. However not many people, Chinese or otherwise, know its meaning other than it being a surname. Indeed it is never used in any other context.

Here is the reason: Liu refers to the action of chopping off something, but it was also the surname of the Han Dynasty emperors (West Han: 206 BC - 23 AD, and East Han: 25 AD - 220 AD) established by Liu Bang. The history of Liu Bang is given below and was translated from The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In the old feudalistic China, mentioning of the emperor’s surname was deemed a disrespect. Consequently its usage was banned. It goes on to show that if a verb is not used as such for four centuries, the general public will forget its meaning.

By the way, you must have noticed the two-year gap in the Han Dynasty, separating it into West Han and East Han. The discontinuity was due to the turmoil in that era, including the “Xin” or New Dynasty (9 to 23 AD) established by Wang Mang . Guess which verb can best describe the destiny of his head?

The Four Blood Brothers

Excepted and translated from “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms”

Liu Bang was a peasant. He joined the Qin army as an ordinary soldier and rose to the rank of an officer in charge of a town called Si Shang. Later he rebelled against the Qin authority and became a bandit. He and his henchmen were considered rough plebians and several years later with the help from these plebians he founded the Han Dynasty (206BC to 220AD). He was the first commoner to become an Emperor in Chinese history.

Four hundred and twenty-two years later the Han Dynasty collapsed and the land was divided into three Kingdoms by three powerful generals of the former Han Dynasty. In the North, Cao Cao, the son of an adopted son of a eunch established his kingdom called Wei (220AD to 265AD). Sun Quan in the region of the lower Yangtze and the South proclaimed the formation of his kingdom as the Kingdom of Wu2 (229AD to 280AD). Liu Bei in Sichuan the Western part of the land established the Shu Han Kingdom (221AD to 263AD) there. The duration of incessant civil wars among the Three Kingdoms lasted for about 45 years. This period from 220AD to 265AD was called The Three Kingdoms Period by historians.

Before he proclaimed the formation of the Shu Han Kingdom in Sichuan, Liu Bei was a general under the command of Cao Cao the Prime Minister of the central government of the Han Court. He was frustrated by being pushed around by Cao Cao. So he left Cao Cao and joined up with Liu Biao another general who was in control of the central region of the Yangtze River. Liu Bei became the new ruler of that region after the death of Liu Biao. Planning to establish his own Kingdom, Liu Bei needed help from capable personnels. He found a kindred spirit in the two generals of Guan Gong and Zhang Fei. The three of them became sworn brothers with LiuBei as the elder brother, Guan Gong the second and Zhang Fei the younger brother.

In 219AD Guan Gong, the great general was besieged in a walled city called Mai (present day Mai Cheng in Dang Yang Xian in Hubei province) by the army of Wu. He with the troops were surrounded by the enemies for many months. He sent messengers to Liu Bei for help. The replied he received was a old saying, “A bucket of water cannot extinguish the burning of firewoods in a cart.”

An advisor from the Wu army arrived at Mai Cheng. He tried to talk Guan gong into surrendering to Wu. But he was a sworn of Liu Bei who was his boss. Besides he was staunchly loyal to Liu Bei. So he refused to surrender. After all the provisions were exhausted, in the month of the Tenth Moon of that year he broke through the cordoned. However, on fleeing from the enemy troops he and his son Guan Ping were captured by the Wu troops. Later they were executed by the order of the ruler of Wu, Sun Quan. Guan Gong was 58 years old when he died.