Managing Director
Lydia Whyatt joined Resonance Asset Management in 2014 as a Managing Director. She leads the investment process for the Resonance Industrial Water Infrastructure Fund.
Lydia has over 10 years experience investing in water technology, infrastructure and service businesses and has over 15 years investment experience in PE/VC and infrastructure.
Prior to joining Resonance, Lydia was a Managing Director of the Environment Group at Fourwinds Capital Management and was responsible for managing the Aqua Resources Fund. She served on the boards of Waterleau Group, a leading wastewater treatment business active in the food & beverage and municipal sectors, and Monsal, the UK’s leading Advanced Anaerobic Digestion technology business. Prior to Fourwinds, Lydia was in charge of a €90m family office fund focusing on investments in water and waste technology and related service companies. She was also part of Kennet Venture Partners, one of the most successful technology VCs in Europe, and a management consultant with McKinsey in London.
Lydia has a Finance degree from the London School of Economics and a postgraduate degree in Physics from Moscow State University.
Managing Director
Herman Cai joined Resonance Asset Management in 2014 as a Managing Director.
Herman has over 16 years experience in the water, wastewater and waste-to-energy sectors across Asia and Europe. Herman has experience in investing via PPP, BOT, BOO and Concession models, and in developing and managing long-term partnerships with municipal governments and large industrial clients, in particular within the petrochemical sector.
For six years prior to joining Resonance, Herman was a portfolio manager of the Environment Group at Fourwinds Capital Management in S.E. Asia. He managed The Aqua Resources Fund and The Waste Resources Fund with Lydia Whyatt.
Prior to Fourwinds, Herman was an Investment Director at Veolia Water (Asia) (NYSE:VE) where he focused on business development and the M&A financing of water, wastewater and waste-to-energy projects in the S.E. Asia region. He was instrumental in building Veolia’s Asian franchise and successfully managed key industrial outsourcing projects (PP, concession, BOOT) and municipal wastewater transactions amounting to over US$1.5bn (20+ projects).
Herman has a Master of Finance from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, BA in Banking & Finance from the University of South Australia, and a postgraduate diploma in Marketing from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Herman speaks fluent Mandarin, Cantonese, Indonesian and English.
Managing Director
Michael Froud joined Resonance Asset Management in 2014 as a Managing Director.
Michael has over 30 years experience working in the water industry. He has held a wide range of positions within the industry, including running a US$240m industrial water division of an international water business, spanning 14 countries and four continents. Michael has operated in both the private and public company arenas in North America, Asia Pacific and in Europe. He has negotiated multi-million dollar deals from supply contracts, acquisitions, disposals, licensing and distribution agreements.
Michael began his career at Copa Ltd, which he founded with his father. After 20 years Michael led a MBO of the business from the Pennon Group in late 2000, bringing in a trade investor (CDS). This business was then acquired by GLV in 2006, where Michael created the GLV Water Group (rebranded as Ovivo), which included managing the US$240m Industrial Water division.
Between 2012 and 2014 Michael worked at APT Water Inc as Chief Growth Officer where he developed new channels to market with strategic partners focused on membranes, modules and systems and recurring revenue streams from Build Own Operate (BOO) or Operation & Maintenance of APT systems, replacement modules and chemicals.
Chief Operating Officer
Melanie joined Resonance in April 2015 with a mandate to oversee the internal operations of Resonance and its investment companies. Melanie has over 10 years investment banking experience specialising in the structure and operations of hedge fund products and venture capital businesses.
Melanie previously worked with Nick Wood at Man Group plc and together they founded Man Environmental Capital Opportunities (ManECO) where she was Chief Operating Officer, a member of the ManECO Investment Committee and the Man Group Risk Committee.
Before joining Man Group, Melanie was responsible for Business Operations, Transaction Execution and Client Services at Financial Risk Management Limited, a fund of hedge funds with AUM in excess of US$10 billion.
Melanie holds a first class BScEcon (Hons) degree in Economics and Law.
Investment Associate
Orlando joined Resonance in 2013 to perform investment research and deal execution. He has since developed in depth knowledge of the UK renewables market, with a particular focus on the UK's evolving renewable regulatory regime. Orlando has been focussed on the valuation, acquisition and management of the investments, acting as a Director for each of the subsidiary companies.
Whilst at University, Orlando worked with a UK solar park developer. He was involved in the development of the UK's earliest utility scale solar parks. Orlando has a BSc from the London School of Economics and is studying to become a CFA charter holder.
Investment Associate
Joseph joined Resonance in 2016 to support the team through the entire investment process of the Resonance Industrial Water Infrastructure Fund. Prior to joining Resonance, he was part of the China team of China Construction Bank International originating and executing IPO and DCM transactions. Joseph has also been part of the equity research teams of both Standard Chartered Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China International, covering the oil & gas and utility sectors.
Joseph holds a PhD in Power Systems from the University of Hong Kong where his research focused on power generation, investment evaluation and electricity market deregulation. He obtained a Masters degree in Electrical Power Systems from the University of Bath.
CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Resonance Asset Management
Nick founded Resonance Asset Management in 2011. Until 2009, Nick was a member of the senior management team at Man Group plc, one of the world’s largest independent alternative asset management businesses (LON:EMG), based in London, New York and Zurich. Most recently he was founder, CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Man Environmental Capital Opportunities (ManECO), and a member of the Management Committee of Man Investments.
Prior to joining the Man Group, Nick was an investment banker at Schroders for 7 years. Nick’s early career was spent at Oracle Corporation Inc. (ORCL.US) as a business systems consultant and at Marconi Space and Defence Systems (part of GEC plc) as a military systems design engineer
Nick holds Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Master of Engineering (MEng) degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Bath, and an MBA from the London Business School.