Former Akin Gump Asia Head Joins SoftBank's VC Arm as Deputy GC
Gregory Puff, who was Akin Gump's Asia head until December 2016, joins SoftBank Investment Advisers in San Carlos, California. The VC arm oversees the $100 billion Vision Fund.
April 24, 2019 at 01:45 PM
2 minute read
Softbank. Photo: Shutterstock.com
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld's former Asia managing partner has joined Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp.'s venture capital arm as a partner and deputy general counsel.
Gregory Puff, who was Akin Gump's Asia head until December 2016, has joined SoftBank Investment Advisers in San Carlos, California, which oversees the Saudi-backed $100 billion Vision Fund.
After leaving Akin Gump, Puff founded San Jose-based food ordering app uFO Development Group in early 2017, and has since served as chief executive of the company.
Sachio Semmoto, a well-known Japanese entrepreneur and a director on SoftBank's board, also sits on uFO's board.
Before starting uFO Development Group, Puff launched Akin Gump's Hong Kong office in 2012 with former partner Andrew Abernethy – who left the firm in 2015 to start his own practice – and headed the office. Previously, Puff was a mergers and acquisitions partner at Shearman & Sterling's Hong Kong office and at O'Melveny & Myers, where he had been head of Asia M&A, in Hong Kong and Tokyo.
SoftBank Investment Advisers' general counsel Brian Wheeler spent a decade at Shearman before moving to Cooley and DLA Piper.
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