Weekly roundup of people news, Oct 14
Troubled Deutsche loses WM execs, promotes Lok Yim
Deutsche Bank Wealth Management has promoted Lok Yim, head of wealth management for North Asia, to become head of the Asia Pacific business. The appointment, effective October 11, plugs a gap left by the departure of Ravi Raju, the previous regional head.
Raju quit the day before to join rival UBS Wealth Management. Anurag Mahesh, global head of key client partners, has also left Deutsche Bank WM, a bank spokesperson confirmed.
The two senior resignations come on the heels of Deutsche Bank Group’s month of turmoil following a $14 million fine announced by US regulators to settle allegations of mis-selling mortgage-backed securities.
In a statement regarding the resignations, the bank said: “We have a strong bench of senior managers and these changes will enable new talent to take over and lead the next phase in our growth story.”
The bank also stressed that the strategy of Deutsche Bank WM in the Asia Pacific region remains unchanged.
“In particular,” the bank said, “our capital markets expertise is increasingly becoming the backbone of our growing, high net worth proposition, starting with North Asia and with a focus on Hong Kong, Singapore and the non-resident Indian markets.”
Yim has been head of wealth management for North Asia since 2009, based in Hong Kong. He joined Deutsche Bank in 2007 as head of investment solutions in North Asia and head of business management. He previously worked for 11 years at Citigroup in senior positions in its wealth management and investment banking divisions in London, Switzerland and Hong Kong.
A source close to UBS confirmed that Raju is joining, but could not say what his role is. UBS declined to comment.
As at June 30, 2016, Deutsche Bank Wealth Management’s global client assets size totaled Eur361 billion (of which Eur49 billion came from Asia Pacific).
Standard Life Investments moves first EM debt fund manager to Asia
Edinburgh-based fund house Standard Life Investments relocated Mark Baker, fund manager for emerging-markets debt, from London to Hong Kong in August.
Baker is the firm’s first EM-debt fund manager to be based in Asia. The move aims to deepen its research and coverage into Asian emerging markets fixed income, said the firm. He continues to report to Richard House, head of emerging-market fixed income, based in London.
SLI’s emerging-market fixed income team manages $1.5 billion of assets on behalf of global clients as of 30 June 2016.
The firm also set up its first direct Asia Pacific real-estate investment team in Singapore this month. It coincided with the Singapore office opening, where Choon Wah Wong was appointed Singapore chief executive and head of Asia Pacific real-estate investment, as reported.
Wong left Partners Group, where he was senior vice president in Singapore, in June. A spokeswoman at Partners Group said the firm is in the process of finding a replacement for Wong, who reported to Asia real-estate team head Bastian Wolff, managing director.
Temasek names new North America dealmaker
Temasek International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings, has appointed a former Goldman Sachs investment banker as joint head for North America. John Vaske, formerly co-chairman of global mergers and acquisitions at Goldman, will start work at Temasek on January 16, 2017.
Based in New York, Vaske will oversee Temasek International's portfolio and investments in North America. Dilhan Pillay, Singapore-based Temasek International's head for Americas, will continue to provide leadership and oversight on the firm's activities and portfolio in the Americas, which includes both North America and Latin America. Pillay also has joint responsibility for investment and enterprise development.
About 10% of the value of Temasek’s S$242 billion ($176.2 billion) of assets was derived from investments allocated to North America (as of March 31), up from 8% in 2014.
Goldman Sachs could not be reached by press time.
Julius Baer poaches Credit Suisse RMs
Private bank Julius Baer has named new client-relationship heads for its Thai and Philippine teams and a new relationship manager (RM) for the Philippines team. All three are from Credit Suisse.
Pradinan Arkarachinores has been appointed team head for the Thai market, based in Hong Kong. Prior to joining Julius Baer, she was an ultra-high-net-worth RM at Credit Suisse in Hong Kong. She reports to Angela Bow, Hong Kong-based head emerging Asia at Julius Baer.
Agatha Chan has been appointed team head for the Philippines market. Based in Hong Kong, she joins from Credit Suisse where she was a senior RM. She reports to Christian Cappelli, Singapore-based market group head for the Philippines.
Tisha Mellado has also joined as a senior RM on the Philippines team, based in Singapore. Prior to joining Julius Baer, she was senior RM at Credit Suisse. She also reports to Cappelli.
Credit Suisse declines to comment on replacements of the three departures.
Taiwan’s Fund Rich appoints new strategy head
Fund Rich Securities, a government-supported online fund platform in Taiwan, has appointed Jemman Wu as its new chief strategy officer this week, to succeed Joseph Chen, who left the company.
Wu joins from Nomura Asset Management Taiwan as head of communication and marketing, a role she has held since October 2014. Ann Chang, executive vice president and head of product and marketing, is temporarily taking over Wu's previous role with Nomura.
CBRE appoints new greater China advisory head
CBRE has appointed Virginia Huang as head of advisory and transaction services (A&T) for greater China, effective on October 13. She will report to Ben Duncan, president of North Asia and chief executive of greater China, with a dotted line to Manish Kashyap, head of advisory and transaction services, Asia Pacific.
This is a newly created role. CBRE has consolidated its leasing businesses under the A&T banner globally across the office, retail and industrial sectors. Based in Beijing, Huang will oversee the occupier and investor leasing businesses across all sectors and markets throughout Greater China.
Huang is being promoted from her previous role as market leader in north China since 2013. She will maintain responsibility for the CBRE north China business until a plan is identified for her successor, the company said.
Nomura AM Taiwan appoints new CEO
Nomura Asset Management Taiwan has appointed Polly Wang as its new chief executive to succeed Mario Chou, who is retiring after serving the firm for two decades.
Based in Taipei, Wang's appointment is scheduled to take effect in mid November, pending regulatory approval. She will report to Ashwin Mehta, chairman of Nomura AM Taiwan.
Wang is currently general manager of BNP Paribas Cardif, the French bank's life insurance arm in Taiwan. BNP Paribas didn’t identify Wang's replacement by press time.
Deutsche AM appoints co-global heads of equity
Deutsche Asset Management has appointed two co-global heads of equity to succeed Henning Gebhardt, who will leave the firm at the end of this year.
Andre Kottner and Thomas Schussler will take on the roles in January 2017.
Kottner's appointment will be in addition to his current role as head of global equities, meaning he will become responsible for coordinating the processes of the whole equity platform. Schussler, head of equity income, was and will remain portfolio manager of the firm's largest equity funds, DWS Top Dividend.
Both Kottner and Schussler are based in Frankfurt and will report to chief investment officer Stefan Kreuzkamp.
IFSWF names new CEO of secretariat
The International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds (IFSWF) has appointed Duncan Bonfield as chief executive of the secretariat this week.
Based in London, Bonfield will report to the IFSWF chairman, Adrian Orr, chief executive of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. Bonfield succeeds Kristian Flyvholm who left IFSWF in July.
Bonfield joined the IFSWF in March as director of strategy and communications. As part of his new role, Bonfield will be working with members ahead of this year’s annual IFSWF Forum in November, hosted by the New Zealand Superannuation Fund.
Victoria Barbary took over his old job in September. She is based in London and was a director at Investec Asset Management until August.
Other people news reported on AsianInvestor in the past week: