Weekly roundup of people news, Oct 24
Insurer FWD names new head of investment
Hong Kong-based insurer FWD has named a new group head of investment and asset-liability management following the departure of Andy Yang to Eastspring Investments in May.
Toon Krooswijk assumed the role last month, after a year’s sabbatical. His most recent role was as Asia-Pacific chief risk officer (CRO) of ING Insurance.
He had spent 15 years with the Dutch firm, but the regional CRO position ceased to exist as a result of the divestment of ING’s Asian insurance operations. He has also held roles including chief insurance risk officer at ING Life Japan and ING Insurance Europe.
Krooswijk’s predecessor, Yang, is now Asia head of insurance relationship at Eastspring.
Krooswijk oversees a 12-strong investment team. The firm does not have plans for expanding the team, but that may change if FWD were to expand its footprint in Asia.
The insurer had assets under management of $8.9 billion as at end-December 2013 across its businesses in Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand.
Blackstone appoints property asset management trio
Blackstone Real Estate has hired three executives for its Hong Kong-based asset management team.
The firm named Howard Zhang in the newly created Hong Kong-based role of head of asset management for its China portfolio, effective October 27.
He joined from Infrared NF Investment Advisers in Hong Kong, where he was chief investment officer, and he has not been replaced. Zhang had joined Infrared in May 2008.
Before that he had worked at Citi Property Investor, subsidiary of Citigroup Alternative Investments, covering direct real estate investment in China, and at Deutsche Bank covering distressed assets and non-performing loan investments in China. He has also worked at Rodamco Asia.
The firm has also appointed Charles Wu to its China asset management team, as a principal to work alongside Zhang. Wu has relocated to Hong Kong from Shanghai, where he worked at rival private equity firm Carlyle for four years as a director focused on real estate asset management.
Before joining Carlyle, Wu was a vice president in Asia Pacific Land’s asset management team. He has also worked at Caribbean Property Group and property services firm Cushman & Wakefield.
In addition, Lawrence Hutchings has become a managing director in the firm’s asset management team, effective October 13. He had joined the company early last year, based in Sydney, as a retail consultant. Before that he had worked at Hammerson and Henderson Global Investors.
Hutchings will continue to be based in Sydney and will oversee asset management for the firm’s four Australian property portfolios.
Standard Chartered Private Bank continues reshuffle
As part of a reshuffle at Standard Chartered Private Bank, Rajesh Malkani has moved from Singapore to London to run private banking for the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.
He was previously head of private banking for Northeast and Southeast Asia, a role he’d held since October 2010. The switch came as Stephen Richards-Evans relocated from Dubai to Singapore on October 1 as Asia head of ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) client business.
Peter Kok remains as head of private banking clients for Asean, a role he took up in August, while Desmond Liu continues to run Northeast Asia.
Malkani had moved to Standard Chartered in 2006 as global head of sales for its private banking business and was appointed Southeast Asia head of private banking in 2008. Prior to joining, Malkani was with BNP Paribas Private Bank in Hong Kong and Singapore from 1996 to 2006.
The reorganisation follows the arrival of Michael Benz in February as group private banking head. He had been tipped to make changes to the business.
Benz had prior to that move been with Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, but left in November last year after it was acquired by Swiss firm Julius Baer. He had also spent 13 years at UBS Wealth Management.
Loomis Sayles names institutional services head
Natixis Global Asset Management (NGAM) affiliate Loomis Sayles Investments Asia has appointed Michael Chang to the newly created role of director of institutional services for Asia, based in Singapore.
He was previously head of Taiwan at NGAM, and was replaced by Alex Chang.
Alex Chang joined from ING Funds Taiwan, where he held several roles, including head of direct sales and acting head of the banking channel. He started in the role on September 15.
Michael Chang is tasked with building relationships for the firm in North Asia and supporting development of investment strategies and products across Asia.
Chang reports to Paul Ong, managing director of Loomis Sayles Investments Asia and head of Singapore, and John Gallagher, director of institutional services for the company's offices in Canada, Singapore, the UK and the US.
As of September 30, Loomis Sayles' mutual fund AUM stood at $108 billion and its institutional AUM at $115.2 billion.
MVision expands Hong Kong team
UK-based MVision Private Equity Advisers has appointed two managing directors in its Hong Kong office, to join chief executive Mounir Guen, who relocated to Hong Kong from London in June.
Michelle Paisley will run global sales, while Dennis Kwan will oversee investor relations for Asia. Previously those responsibilities had been shared between team members spread across MVision’s offices.
Paisley was most recently with Macquarie. She had moved to Hong Kong in 2006 to run Macquarie Securities' business covering China and Hong Kong. She was most recently division director for Asian equity sales, and left the firm in November 2013.
Before working at Macquarie, she held posts as a fund manager and analyst at BT Financial Group, and as an analyst at Citi HSBC.
Kwan joins from Sumitomo Mitsui Trust, where he was principal for private equity, infrastructure and investor relations. Before joining in July 2007, he was senior risk adviser at consulting firm KPMG.
The appointments take the firm’s regional team to 12-strong.
MVision declined to comment on who ran the office before Guen.
Aside from Guen and Kwan, Niklas Amundsson is the only other licensed responsible officer at MVision. His and Guen’s licences both started on March 29, 2012.
However, it is understood Amundsson, a partner who has been with the firm since August 2007, based in Hong Kong from 2010, according to his LinkedIn profile, is leaving the firm.
Kirkland & Ellis adds Greater China partner
Law firm Kirkland & Ellis has hired Gary Li as a partner in Hong Kong to cover mergers and acquisitions and private equity transactions in Greater China.
He was previously a partner at rival firm Ropes & Gray.
He has worked on leveraged buyouts, take-private transactions, private investment in public equity and growth equity investments.
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