People

John Cook founded Rock Lake Advisors in 2009 following a successful career in international business. He hails from Wisconsin and has spent his entire career in London, Brussels, Frankfurt and Zurich. Prior to founding Rock Lake, his prior positions included Director, WJ Hopper & Co Ltd (London); Abteilungsdirektor / Head of Equity Origination, Security Pacific Merchant Bank (Frankfurt); Senior Account Executive, Merrill Lynch International (Brussels); Managing Director, Univestors Family Office (Brussels); and Marketing Manager Middle East, International Harvester (Brussels). John has served on the boards or advisory boards of Kyron Capital Limited, Wishpoint Inc. (Scandid, Travelx), YFret Technologies, Viamagus Technologies, Sanguine Investment Management, Block Aero Technologies, Rockton Aviation and MR Access. John is a member and supporter of the Swiss Private Equity and Corporate Finance Association (SECA); Horasis Global Visions Community; Swiss American Chamber of Commerce; Swiss Swedish Chamber of Commerce; Swiss Indian Chamber of Commerce; Zariya Foundation; Select USA Investment Summit and Thunderbird School of Global Management. John is Chairman Emeritus of the Thunderbird Global Private Equity Center, a thought leadership platform he founded at Thunderbird School of Global Management in 2004. He was awarded the distinguished Jonas Mayer Award, chaired the Thunderbird European Alumni Association and is a long-standing member of the Thunderbird Leadership Councils. John graduated cum-laude with a BSIM from the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University (1974), completed the pre-med curriculum at University of Washington (1977), obtained an MBA in International Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management (1979), and has completed advanced management studies at Oxford University, England.

With 25 years of experience, Javier Rivas has worked for a range of top-tier firms in asset management (Credit Suisse), insurance (Zurich, Generali), reinsurance (Swiss Re), private equity (Elliott), actuarial consulting (Tillinghast – currently Willis Towers Watson), as well as fundraising (Rock Lake Advisors, Vesttoo). Initially developing his career as a senior actuary in technical roles, he then moved into more transaction focused areas, holding executive positions as Head of the EMEA Life & Health Structured Reinsurance Solutions in Swiss Re and was responsible for a USD700m fund within the Insurance Linked Strategies hedge fund unit of Credit Suisse. In private equity, he worked on M&A with Elliott Management as Head of Business Development of MedVida, their leading European asset intensive life run-off proposition. In the last years, as a Managing Director at Rock Lake Advisors he assisted in fundraising a range of clients across real estate, venture capital, private equity, insurance, and technology, and with a similar role at Israeli-based Vesttoo, connecting insurance risk transfer opportunities with capital market investors. Javier is a qualified actuary (FIA), fellow of the UK Institute of Actuaries, and the Spanish Institute of Actuaries. Additionally, he holds the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) qualification. Prior to that he obtained university degrees in Business Administration and in Financial and Actuarial Science in ICADE (Universidad Pontificia de Comillas)

Tom Rose brings over 20 years of experience in capital raising and investor relations to Rock Lake. Prior to joining Rock Lake Tom was at Barclays Global Investors and BlackRock as a Director with the U.S. Institutional Business. He was responsible for raising assets across the BlackRock platform with institutional investors in the U.S., including pension plans, foundation and endowments. Tom spent several years at Neuberger Berman as a Senior Vice President raising assets among the intermediary market focusing primarily on Neuberger Berman’s alternatives platform. More recently Tom helped build the U.S. business for a Canadian crypto currency firm 3iQ and was the Co-Head of Distribution. Most recently Tom served as the Head of Capital Markets North America for an international reinsurance firm. Tom holds the series 7 and 63 license and is CFA charter holder. He is on the board of directors and serves as the Treasurer for the Peter Pan Foundation.

James has 20 years of institutional asset raising and relationship management experience in both large, multinational asset managers, and small, boutique investment groups. James has an extensive network of clients across EMEA and Asia Pacific regions from his 10 years in London followed by 10 years in Hong Kong. Currently based in Hong Kong, James works with institutional investors in HK, Singapore, Japan, Australia, Korea and Mainland China.

Prior to working with Rock Lake, James has had roles with Legal & General Investment Management (London), Manulife Asset Management (Hong Kong) and Odyssey Asset Management (Hong Kong). Leading distribution teams and raising assets across both public and private markets, he has developed a particular focus on Alternatives which has seen him take both established groups, and boutique brands, into new geographies and promoting new investment strategies.

James is accredited with FCA license in London, and Type 1 and Type 4 licenses in Hong Kong. In addition, he holds the Responsible officer designation with the Hong Kong regulator. He holds a Geology degree from the University of Warwick.

Ivan Belga brings over 25 years of experience in wealth management, investment banking and corporate finance to Rock Lake Advisors. Ivan is Senior Manager at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank Wealth Management with senior responsibility for building the bank’s CIS regional private client practice. Prior to joining ADCB, Ivan was a Senior Private Banker with Vontobel and Pictet. He spent several years with UBS Wealth Management advising Ultra High Net Worth clients from Eastern Europe and set up a Russian desk at UBS Monaco. Ivan also advised on cross-border mid-market M&A transactions in Russia and Ukraine (2002-2008). He started his career in Corporate finance with Renault in the Netherlands and later with Alstom in Paris where he led a large finance reengineering project and set up the Investor Relations department after the IPO. Ivan graduated from Marseille Business School (now Kedge), received his MBA from HEC Paris and studied sustainable finance at the University of Zürich. He lives in Zurich and speaks French, English, Russian, German and Dutch.

Bob is a Wisconsin native, having lived in the Milwaukee area for 20 years. In 1965 he relocated to Lafayette, Indiana to attend Purdue University, graduating in 1973 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Management and Marketing. After graduating he entered the real estate business in Lafayette where he was a founding partner and responsible broker with a successful residential and commercial firm for 7 years.

In 1983 Bob relocated to Naples, Florida where he began what became a 35 year career in the yachting industry first as a USCG licensed yacht captain and yacht broker for the owners of sailing and power yachts up to about 100 ft in length. In that role, he sailed over 150,000 nms in 20 years. In 2003 Bob shifted his focus and became an independent weather and routing consultant for the owners and captains of large yachts making extended open ocean passages globally. Together, over the 40 year span, Bob gained extensive experience in open-ocean and international yacht delivery, management, brokerage, global weather forecasting and consulting.

In 2019 in Naples, Florida, Bob decided to re-enter the real estate business and affiliated with Coldwell Banker Realty. He is a member of the National Association of Realtors, the Florida Association of Realtors, and the Naples Board of Realtors. He is now engaged again in the research, marketing, and sale of residential and commercial properties, in Southwest Florida and the State of Florida. He is a member of the prestigious CCIM Institute and has extensive experience in property and market research, investment analysis, and marketing.

Laura Hermann is a change management strategist with expertise in global energy infrastructure systems. Her background in fission, fusion and battery metals includes change management efforts related to technology adoption and supply chain development. She works across public-private partnerships to facilitate investment, systems change and market creation. ​​

As an advisor to investors and their portfolio companies, Laura helps navigate necessary activities related to technology transfer, stakeholder engagement, and market definition. She develops curricula and advises national leaders on efforts in numerous countries to establish new civilian nuclear programs while a consulting expert at the International Atomic Energy Agency and a twenty-year member of the American Nuclear Society.​​

Laura’s focus on controversial science and engineering projects began while building an international practice group for a DC-based public relations company. Her evidence-based approaches to improving outcomes led to important achievements in the development of new energy supply chains and the introduction of new electricity generation options in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.​

Robert J.W. Van den broeck has more than 50 years of international banking and corporate management experience. He serves as independent director on several Boards and is an Advisory Board member in a few companies. Furthermore he is active in management consulting through his company Hudson Finance nv, focussing on strategy, organization, corporate finance and M&A.

He was co-founder and chairman of Privast Capital Partners, a venture capital fund in Brussels, which he started in 1999 and which was liquidated in 2012, after the exit of 13 portfolio companies in the Benelux, France and the U.K. In the past he held senior management positions with Exxon, Citibank and Bank Brussels Lambert, and until 1996 he was Managing Director and CEO of Plouvier-Kreglinger, an international transport, trading and investment group, based in Antwerp. Until 2016 he was a consular judge at the Commercial Court of Antwerp.

He holds a Master degree in commercial engineering (“ingénieur commercial”), as well as in applied economics from Antwerp University, and an MBA from INSEAD, Fontainebleau in France.
Past independent directorships include: Barco, Bank Indosuez Belgium, Bank Corluy, LBC Tank Terminals, De Smet Group, and V.E.V.

Languages: Dutch, French, English, German, Italian and Russian.

Jason Yap is a Senior Executive with over 18 years of experience in the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology industries.

He has worked for a range of large, mid-size and pharma/biotech startups. Jason Yap is an experienced executive with a special focus on regulatory drug development, having overseen various early (pre-Phase I) and late stages (Phase II-III) development assets through to commercialization in global markets including the USA, EU and rest of the world. Additionally, Jason Yap has developed developmental expertise in diverse therapeutic areas such as oncology, rare diseases, autoimmune and cardiovascular diseases.

Jason Yap has an Executive MBA in General Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. Additionally, he holds a Masters Degree in Toxicology and Bachelor Degree in Biochemistry.

He has lived in Malaysia, UK and USA, and over the last ten years, in Switzerland.

John Murray is a Global Marketing and Digital Strategy executive with commercial and technical experience in a wide range of industries, including digital health, FMCG, greentech, insurtech, traveltech, martech, consumer electronics, data and construction chemicals. With 35+ years’ experience, John has held senior-level positions within Fortune 500 and startup companies in the US and Europe where he has led business expansion, strategic partnerships, and digital transformation initiatives in over 55 countries worldwide. In his most recent corporate role, he led global performance partnerships for the smoke-free division of Philip Morris International and prior to that held similar positions at Markel Corporation, Blue Cross Blue Shield, InfoGroup and Coleman. John has been a co-founder of three different startups and a participant in various innovation hubs and technology accelerators. He received his MBA in International Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University. John is based in Geneva and speaks French, Italian, German and Spanish.