“I always looked up to Terry from the moment I stepped into his accounting class at IU, and this feeling hasn’t changed since,” Chan said.
Iconic Private Equity Partners is an asset management and advisory firm operating across multiple countries, optimizing the advantages of each location.
Iconic’s goal as a company is to create positive economic change through actively working with upper management, in each of its portfolio companies to reach their individual goals. The company invests in management buyouts, leveraged buyouts and structured transactions in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and the United States.
Chan serves as the managing director of the company, and Butler serves as a head on the advisory board.
The people of the company are the essentials of turning problems into opportunities, Chan said.
“This allows us the opportunity to provide some of the best entrepreneurial experiences around while maintaining the advantage of a structured platform,” Chan said.
During his time at IU, Chan launched an Internet startup in June 2000. Titled StreetSideInvestor.com, the startup provided online financial information for individual investors when it was active.
“There were many times that I almost sold the Internet company but it never happened,” Chan said. “It would be a good financial move at the time, but the experience I have gained over the years from it is priceless.”
Because he started the company at such a young age, Chan was able to optimize his career opportunities immediately.
At the age of 20, Chan said he wasn’t interested in his future, but now he can’t imagine students not constantly thinking about it.
“At IU people genuinely wanted you to get the most of your life,” Chan said. “You need the practical experience.”
Butler, thinking about his partnership with Chan, said it is good for business partners to have complimentary skills and then it is beneficial to build on this balance.
“Danny is good with meeting people, making contacts and building on the process of businesses working with us,” Butler said. “I am better at understanding the details of the companies, as he is building on the bigger picture.”
Originally based out of Hong Kong, Iconic Private Equity Partners has recently moved a satellite office to Bloomington in hopes to get student interns interested in investment business.
“I got my opportunity when I was an undergrad, and I now want to give that chance back to the students,” Chan said.
Butler was in contact with the Kelley School of Business master’s program with potential interns and will soon open the opportunity to undergraduate students as well.
“A lot of people will express a lot of interest, but only a percentage of those people will actually show up and put in a real effort,” Butler said. “This is the early stage work, and it is very unstructured. We are more comfortable when they get to the next level.”
Chan said a big motivation for this change was to give back to people.
“Terry took the time to give back to me, and I would feel horrible if someone didn’t get an opportunity,” Chan said.
