HSBC to relocate Maldonado as Asia CIO

Jul 6, 2011

Bill Maldonado will move to Hong Kong next month to serve as Asia-Pacific CIO, in addition to his role as global strategy CIO for equities. He replaces Ayaz Ebrahim.

HSBC Global Asset Management has announced it will transfer veteran Bill Maldonado from London to Hong Kong to serve as its chief investment officer for Asia-Pacific.

Maldonado, who first joined HSBC’s asset management business in 1993, is appointed with immediate effect to replace Ayaz Ebrahim who quit HSBC in May this year to join Amundi in an expanded role that includes serving as equities investment director for Asia.

Maldonado retains his present responsibility as global strategy CIO for equities. He will relocate next month to oversee investment strategies in Asia, where the firm has $72 billion in assets under management. He continues to report to Chris Cheetham, global chief investment officer, and locally to Asia-Pacific CEO Joanna Munro.

“The importance of Asia within our emerging markets and overall business strategy is underlined by this decision to bring one of our global investment heads to take on an expanded role as regional CIO,” says Munro in a statement.

Maldonado joined HSBC Asset Management 18 years ago as a European derivatives-based portfolio manager, and was involved in the management of some Asian portfolios in Hong Kong in those first two years.

He has headed up a number of investment functions, including non-traditional investments – such as passive indexation, fund of funds, structured products and hedge funds – and alternative investment teams. He became strategy CIO for equities globally and CIO for the UK in 2010.

Ebrahim was a fund manager at Credit Agricole Asset Management from 1991 and its Asia CIO from 1997 before leaving in 2002 to join HSBC Asset Management, where he ran money and at times served in a more executive role when he was CEO of Halbis, a company that for a time represented the firm’s actively managed portfolios.

In 2009, Credit Agricole Asset Management acquired the asset management business of Société Générale to create Amundi, so Ebrahim in effect returned to old haunts, replacing Ray Jovanovich, who retired.

Ebrahim told AsianInvestor at the time of his move: “HSBC’s a great business and it’s growing, but the role at Amundi fits my skill-set as it includes both the investment side as well as building AUM.”