Douglas Clayton

Douglas W. Clayton
Clayton presenting to Leopard Capital shareholders
Born	(1960-09-02) September 2, 1960 (age 56)
Nationality	American
Education	Cornell University, Chulalongkorn University
Occupation	Private equity

Douglas W. Clayton is founder and CEO of Leopard Capital.

Clayton was awarded a 4-year Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps Scholarship to attend Cornell University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1982 and joined the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. Later he studied at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and received a Master of Management degree from the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration of Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.

Clayton served as a Counterintelligence Platoon leader in the United States Army from 1982 to 1986, including a tour of duty in Seoul, Korea. He completed US Army Intelligence School, counter-terrorism training, airborne parachutist training, and a Korean ranger course, before being honorably discharged with the rank of captain.

In 1986, Clayton moved to Hong Kong and joined Sun Hung Kai & Co. as institutional sales manager. Afterward, Clayton worked at Kerry Securities as Head of Research in Hong Kong and then Bangkok.

Clayton served as CLSA's chief executive in Thailand, and led the office to #1 ranking in the Asiamoney Brokers Poll. He was promoted and transferred to New York to set up and manage CLSA's Latin America division, establishing sales and research offices in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela. He served as the chief executive officer at CLSA Securities from 1994-1997.

Clayton returned to Thailand in 1999 to found Abacus Equity Partners, which advised on several landmark private equity deals in Thailand. He later joined Credit Agricole Indosuez WI Carr Securities, managing its Singapore and Malaysia offices.

In 2007, Clayton moved to Phnom Penh, Cambodia and founded Leopard Capital to pioneer investment funds in frontier markets. During the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, Leopard Capital successfully launched Leopard Cambodia Fund as the first private equity fund for Cambodia. The Fund subsequently made 12 investments in Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand and achieved three exits.