Mark Konyn leaves Cathay Conning AM

Aug 9, 2015

The funds industry veteran has left Cathay Conning Asset Management after more than three years as CEO. Cathay Conning has named the executive who has been put in charge of the Hong Kong office.

Mark Konyn, chief executive of Cathay Conning Asset Management (CCAM), has left the firm.

The 53-year-old is understood to have left "to pursue other opportunities," according to a source spoken to by AsianInvestor.

After 26 years as a senior executive in Asia’s funds industry, including a 14-year stint with Allianz Global Investors and affiliated companies, Konyn has been a leading commentator on investment markets and a regular speaker on the Asia conference circuit.

Despite attempts to contact him before press time, AsianInvestor was not able to speak with Konyn. A spokesperson for CCAM confirmed he left the firm in mid-July, but it was not clear at this stage where he is moving to.

Meanwhile a senior Conning executive in London, James Moreno, has moved back to Hong Kong to take control of the local office.

Konyn joined Cathay Conning in February 2012 tasked with leading its strategic expansion across Asia. In 2014 CCAM turned a corner with its asset-liability modelling solutions, adapting technology largely applied in the US and Europe specifically for Asia and completing major projects in China and Japan. This business breakthrough contributed to the firm winning the award for best institutional solutions provider at this year’s AsianInvestor Asset Management Awards.

The CCAM spokesperson said: "Mark had been responsible for establishing CCAM in the Asia market and building a successful business over the past three years. Under his leadership CCAM gained recognition for both its asset management and risk management services with clients across Asia.”

CCAM is a joint venture between Taipei-based Cathay Financial and Conning & Co, a US-based asset management company focused on the insurance industry. ‪

Before leaving CCAM, Konyn had worked with Conning "to ensure continuity and a smooth transition of responsibilities," the spokesperson added. Part of this plan included the return to Hong Kong of Moreno, CCAM’s former chief administrative officer, who assumed the official role of head of the Hong Kong office upon Konyn’s departure.

Moreno worked in Hong Kong as chief administrative officer at CCAM from September 2011 to February 2014, when he moved to London to take up the role of CAO at ‪Conning Asset Management. Prior to that he was director of corporate development at ‪Conning’s US base in Hartford, Connecticut.

Before joining Dresdner Thornton in 1997, a business that was amalgamated following the merger between German insurer Allianz and Dresdner Bank, Konyn was head of Asia regional institutional business at Fidelity Investments. He moved to Hong Kong from London in 1989, initially serving as director of business planning and investment with Prudential Assurance. He subsequently had a senior marketing role at Indosuez Asia Investment Management.

At AI’s Art of Asset Management conference in May this year, Konyn talked about the opportunities presented to asset managers by the internationalisation of the renminbi. He said that there would be numerous opportunities for asset managers that have the capability to offer products globally when the renminbi was fully liberalised, and indeed when Chinese equities gained admittance onto international benchmarks such as MSCI.