As a Mergers and Acquisitions Strategist, Julian focuses on law firm mergers and practice group acquisitions. He brings a wealth of experience to Abstone Lalley DeNio, Inc. as an inveterate connector, thinker, and entrepreneur. He has spent 25 years working in a diverse set of private equity, tech startup, and operating roles across the globe and once wrote speeches for the President of Mexico.

Julian began his career as an M&A banker at Lazard Freres, then worked for Rupert Murdoch at Sky before joining as the third employee of govWorks, a darling of Internet 1.0 that raised $60 million from Mayfield and KKR and whose board included Henry Kravis and Maynard Jackson.

After receiving his MBA, Julian joined the family office of legendary investor George Soros, where he worked as a Principal in the private equity group for four years. During his tenure, he led the turnaround of a $33 million, 60-person portfolio company from loss to profit in less than one year.

In 2008, Julian was recruited to Beijing as a founding partner at CGN, one of six private equity funds approved by China’s central committee. CGN now has 15 funds with more than RMB 90 billion under management. Julian is no longer active on the investment team, but remains one of three members of the Investment Committee.

After CGN, Julian worked for two hedge funds in Hong Kong and Chicago, both in structured finance, before being hit by the startup bug and launching Magic Fitness, an end-to-end platform for live 1-on-1 personal training via Zoom.

He now keeps things interesting tinkering in crypto and angel investing. Julian holds a BA from Harvard and an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.