Weekly roundup of people news, Jan 10

Principal hires ex-OSK AM CEO
Principal Real Estate Investors, part of US firm Principal Global Investors, has appointed two portfolio managers in Singapore. Koh Shern-Ling and Julian Mittag joined the four-strong property investment team in the Lion City on January 6.

They report to chief investment officer Kelly Rush, who is based in Des Moines, Iowa. Koh and Mittag replace one portfolio manager and one analyst, who have left after two years at the firm, although Principal declined to offer more information.

Koh previously spent two years in Singapore as CEO and CIO at OSK International Asset Management, whose parent, OSK Investment Bank, merged with rival Malaysian firm RHB Investment Bank in April.

Mittag previously worked at SEB Asset Management as an Asia property securities portfolio manager, also in the Lion City.

Principal Real Estate Investors managed or advised on $47.8 billion in commercial real estate assets as of September 30.

BNY Mellon’s Guinness moves to Hong Kong
Stuart Guinness, managing director and product director for mutual funds at BNY Mellon Investment Management, has relocated to Hong Kong from Singapore.

He had joined the firm in the Lion City in August as part of an aggressive regional hiring spree by the US firm, but the plan was ultimately for him to be based in Hong Kong.

His appointment followed the firm’s July announcement of plans to launch a separately managed account platform in Hong Kong.

Guinness reports to Jane Caire, Asia-Pacific head of strategy and corporate development.

Before moving to BNY Mellon, he was Asia-Pacific head of emerging market products at Credit Suisse Asset Management, a post he held from November 2011 but left as part of the firm’s reorganisation in late 2012. He has also worked for Société Générale and Fidelity.

Bank J Safra Sarasin hires client advisory head
Bank J Safra Sarasin named Jennie Hanato as Singapore-based vice chair of client advisory for Southeast Asia, effective January 2.

She reports to Eric Morin, CEO of Singapore and Southeast Asia at Sarasin. Her position is newly created; her responsibilities had previously fallen to Scott Duncan, also a vice chair for Southeast Asia.

Hanato joins from private bank BSI Bank in Singapore, where she had been deputy head of Southeast Asia since 2010. She has also held senior positions at Clariden Leu, ABN Amro, Société Générale and Citi.

BSI did not provide a response by press time as to whether Hanato has been or would be replaced.

DeAWM hires HSBC's Poole as research head
Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management has hired HSBC Global Asset Management’s Philip Poole in the newly created post of head of research based in London. He joined on January 6.

Reporting to co-chief investment officers Randy Brown in New York and Asoka Wohrmann in Frankfurt, Poole will run macro and micro research and help present the German firm’s investment views to clients.

He was most recently global head of macro and investment strategy at HSBC in London. Before that, he was global head of emerging markets research and chief economist for emerging markets. Poole has also worked at Barclays and ING.

He left HSBC in October, with Julien Seetharamdoo taking over his responsibilities in December. Seetharamdoo joined HSBC as a senior economist and investment strategist in March 2012, according to his LinkedIn profile. He previously held similar roles at Coutts and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

DeAWM oversaw €934 billion ($1.3 trillion) as of September 30.

Ex-Russell executive joins UK boutique
Warwick Smith, a long-time Russell Investments employee, has joined UK equity boutique Tiburon Partners in London as a director this month.

It is a newly created role to spearhead the $500 million firm's global sales and marketing effort, which was previously looked after by Mark Martyrossian, founding partner of Tiburon.

Smith had been with Russell since May 2004, most recently as Singapore-based associate director in institutional sales and relationship management. Before joining the US firm he was a portfolio analyst at State Street.