Dr. Cindy Ma

Dr. Ma is a Managing Director and Global Head of Houlihan Lokey’s Portfolio Valuation and Fund Advisory Services practice. She works primarily with private equity funds, hedge funds, venture funds, business development companies, and corporate clients. Dr. Ma has extensive experience in valuing illiquid and complex securities across capital structures, industries, and geographies. She advises senior fund management in establishing best-in-class valuation policies and procedures. Dr. Ma is based in the firm’s New York office.

Dr. Ma has extensive training, academic expertise, and trading experience in commodities, derivatives, securities, foreign exchange, fixed incomes, structured transactions, hedging strategies, and risk management issues. She has served as a consulting and testifying expert for the SEC on various fund- and valuation-related matters.

Dr. Ma is a member of Houlihan Lokey’s Management Committee; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council; and Technical Standards Committee. Externally, she is on the Financial Instrument Board of the International Valuation Standards Council. Dr. Ma is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and also holds the designation of CFA and obtained her CPA license (now inactive) in the state of Colorado. She was featured in The Hedge Fund Journal’s “50 Leading Women in Hedge Funds 2020.” Dr. Ma was a former board member of the Managed Funds Association (MFA).

Prior to joining Houlihan Lokey, Dr. Ma was a Partner at Ernst & Young, directing various high-profile hedge fund restructuring assignments. She also worked as a derivatives trader for a global commodity house and an adjunct professor at Columbia Graduate School of Business.   

Dr. Ma holds a B.S. in Accounting from Indiana University and a Ph.D. in Finance from Columbia University. She has published numerous articles on valuation, derivatives, and risk management and co-authored a college textbook on derivatives. Dr. Ma is a frequent speaker in industry conferences and is a board member of PENCIL, a New York City-based charity connecting underserved public school students to business community.