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Xan Wood
As the writer of the weekly Built By Berkeley Newsletter, Xan has his finger on the pulse of what’s coming next. While getting his MBA at Berkeley Haas, Xan demonstrated his ability to identify and support promising technical founders by raising Courtyard Ventures, a $1M fund that has invested in 30 Berkeley-founded businesses. Prior to Canvas, Xan built an impressive track record in complex deal execution across multiple markets. He spent 7 years in Asia working in Private Equity at Development Finance Asia and Private Credit at TransAsia Private Capital, where he led nearly $1B of transactions across 19 countries. Notable deals included serving as interim CFO at a Mongolian logistics business after leading its acquisition, and incubating Myanmar's largest motorcycle leasing platform. At TransAsia Private Capital, he led the multijurisdictional restructuring of a $225M loan facility to a Hong Kong-listed company, involving taking control of a power plant in India and a mine in Indonesia.
In addition to his MBA from Haas, Xan holds an MA in History from the University of Edinburgh, and is a CFA Charterholder. His entrepreneurial instincts emerged early, selling Pokemon cards at high school - he then built and sold his own events company during his undergrad, managing concerts and boxing events for up to 5,000 people. Ask him about one of his epic long drives; Xan has done all manner of them—from London to Mongolia, in a questionable $1,000 car no less, and from Philadelphia to Las Vegas. And yet, upon arriving in the US a couple of years ago, he failed his driving test twice.
Xan lives in San Francisco with his partner and son.
Bio
As the writer of the weekly Built By Berkeley Newsletter, Xan has his finger on the pulse of what’s coming next. While getting his MBA at Berkeley Haas, Xan demonstrated his ability to identify and support promising technical founders by raising Courtyard Ventures, a $1M fund that has invested in 30 Berkeley-founded businesses. Prior to Canvas, Xan built an impressive track record in complex deal execution across multiple markets. He spent 7 years in Asia working in Private Equity at Development Finance Asia and Private Credit at TransAsia Private Capital, where he led nearly $1B of transactions across 19 countries. Notable deals included serving as interim CFO at a Mongolian logistics business after leading its acquisition, and incubating Myanmar's largest motorcycle leasing platform. At TransAsia Private Capital, he led the multijurisdictional restructuring of a $225M loan facility to a Hong Kong-listed company, involving taking control of a power plant in India and a mine in Indonesia.
In addition to his MBA from Haas, Xan holds an MA in History from the University of Edinburgh, and is a CFA Charterholder. His entrepreneurial instincts emerged early, selling Pokemon cards at high school - he then built and sold his own events company during his undergrad, managing concerts and boxing events for up to 5,000 people. Ask him about one of his epic long drives; Xan has done all manner of them—from London to Mongolia, in a questionable $1,000 car no less, and from Philadelphia to Las Vegas. And yet, upon arriving in the US a couple of years ago, he failed his driving test twice.
Xan lives in San Francisco with his partner and son.
