Chris Lerner

Lerner moved to China over 25 years ago, and is currently based in Shanghai. He loves working across cultures and helping founders realize their dreams. He believes business and technology have the power to break down barriers and bring people together. Lerner is an active member of YPO. He is a decade-long mentor at Chinaccelerator, China's first accelerator. He's also a founding director of China Heritage, a non-profit dedicated to cultural exchange and education of traditional Chinese arts.

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Lerner has a wife, Avery, whom he adores, and he is a proud girl dad to Allie and Carlie. Chris received an MBA from Columbia Business School and BA from Tufts University. He has a Certificate in Mandarin Chinese from the College for Foreign Languages in Beijing and completed the joint China Senior Executive Leadership Program of Tsinghua SEM, CEIBS and Harvard Business School.

Chris Lerner is a Managing Partner at MSA Capital, a leading independent venture growth capital firm in China with over $1.5 billion in AUM. Lerner oversees the firm’s strategy and operations, and works with its investment partners and portfolio companies on fundraising and business development. Prior to MSA, Lerner built and ran Eaton Partners, a GP advisory and fund placement firm, in Asia Pacific, which he and his partners later sold to Stifel Financial.

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He started his career with Citigroup and its predecessor firms of Smith Barney and Salomon Brothers. He was the firm’s first investment banking expatriate based in Mainland China and helped establish and build the Asia Pacific Financial Institutions Group before later taking roles in strategic planning and corporate development, and setting up his own investment and advisory firm.

As a member of Class 26, Chris is serving his fellowship at MSA Capital under the mentorship of Jenny Zheng and Michael Lerner.