Weekly roundup of people news, June 23
COLUMBIA THREADNEEDLE'S ASIA WHOLESALE HEAD TO DEPART
Michael Langlois, Asia-Pacific head of wholesale distribution, will retire from Columbia Threadneedle on July 1, a spokeswoman for the fund house told AsianInvestor.
Dennis Quah, head of wholesale distribution for Southeast Asia, has taken over the management of Hong Kong wholesale distribution. Vina Cheng, general manager for Taiwan, is now the lead for wholesale distribution in that market.
Cheng and Quah now report to Raymundo Yu, chairman of Asia Pacific, having previously reported to Langlois.
UBS AM'S HEAD OF ASIA EQUITIES TRADING TO RETIRE
UBS Asset Management's Singapore-based head of Asia equities trading, Jimmy Chua, is to retire from the firm, a spokeswoman told AsianInvestor. Chua said he had not finalised his plans as to his next move.
This comes after Martin David joined in Singapore in December 2016 as head of trading for Asia, covering equities and fixed income.
The spokeswoman declined to confirm when Chua would be leaving, whether he would be directly replaced or whether David had replaced anyone.
AsianInvestor could not ascertain how long Chua, who is based in Singapore, had been with UBS.
Before joining UBS, David was Asia head of quantitative equity trading at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He has also worked as Asia head of quantitative statistical arbitrage at Deutsche Bank and at Lehman Brothers as an equity quant.
METLIFE REPLACES ASIA CMO
MetLife has hired Sanjeev Kapur from Citi as chief marketing officer for Asia. He started at the US insurer on May 22 and reports to Esther Lee, global CMO and Chris Townsend, president of Asia.
Kapur replaces Ralph Brunner, who left at the end of last year to join Philippine telecoms group PLDT as chief customer experience and data analytics adviser.
Kapur's focus will be on strengthening MetLife’s digital, data and design capabilities, with a particular focus on mobile. He covers all products, from traditional policies to wealth management and investment-linked products.
At Citi, Kapur was head of marketing at Citi for Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The US bank is in the process of finding a replacement.
Prior to his 12 years at Citi, he led the brand and product strategy at Hindustan Unilever, a Unilever company.
EASTSPRING POACHES PM FROM PIMCO
Eastspring Investments has appointed Lucrecia Tam to the role of director in the CIO office, reporting to chief investment officer Virginie Maisonneuve.
Based in Singapore, Tam will provide investment management support across the firm's equity, fixed income, asset allocation, private equity, infrastructure and onshore investment offerings.
This is a newly created role, said a spokewoman for Eastspring, without providing information on how this function had been dealt with previously.
Tam joined Eastspring from Pimco in London, where she was a portfolio manager and industrials global sector specialist. Before that, she was the London-based industrials global sector specialist at Schroder Investment Management.
KKR REPLACES HEAD OF JAPAN CAPITAL MARKETS TEAM
KKR has appointed Go Yamashita as head of Japan for KKR Capital Markets (KCM), but the firm declined to provide his starting date.
He will oversee the team providing capital markets advice to KKR’s portfolio companies and other clients and will also manage relationships and business development with institutional investors in Japan.
Yamashita replaces Hiro Shimizu, who left KKR in September last year and joined Morgan Stanley Investment Management as Japan president in October, according to his Linkedin Page.
A KKR spokeswoman declined to confirm when Shimizu left the firm.
Yamashita will work closely with Hiro Hirano, chief executive of KKR Japan, and Diane Raposio, who is head of Asia for KCM.
Before joining KKR, Yamashita was a managing director at Blackstone in Japan for nine years Blackstone said he left in December and that it had not yet announced a replacement.
BNPP WM NAMES NEW HK HEAD OF INVESTMENT SERVICES
Lemuel Lee, former Asia head of equities at JP Morgan Private Bank, will join BNP Paribas Wealth Management as head of investment services for Hong Kong. He will report to Arnaud Tellier, Asia-Pacific head for investment services.
The bank declined to comment on the appointment. AsianInvestor could not ascertain what date Lee started or whether he had replaced anyone.
UBS NAMES NEW HEAD FOR CHINA INTERNATIONAL TEAM
UBS has appointed Wu Ya-ju as head of the China international country team, effective in April. The team serves Chinese clients based in Hong Kong.
Wu replaced Vicky Lee, who left the bank in April. Wu will report to Marina Lui, regional market manager for China International.
Wu began her career with UBS in 1996. She had been desk head for the Taiwan international team since 2006. UBS declined to comment on whether she had been replaced in that role.
NORTHERN TRUST ADDS TRIO IN AUSTRALIA
Northern Trust has made three additions to its Australian business.
Tania Tuxford and David McWilliams joined the asset management and servicing firm on May 29 as business development managers in Sydney and Melbourne, respectively.
They will work for the institutional business servicing asset owners and asset managers in Australasia, and report to Angelo Calvitto, Asia-Pacific head of sales for corporate and institutional services, the firm said in a statement.
Before joining Northern Trust, Tuxford was a senior relationship manager at ANZ Wealth. McWilliams was a senior relationship and sales manager at JP Morgan Investor Services.
ANZ sold its Asian retail and wealth management business to DBS late last year.
JP Morgan did not respond to a query by press time.
In addition, Simon McDonough joined in Sydney as a senior equity program trader on June 5. He joins from agency broker ITG, where he was vice president of electronic sales and trading in Sydney, and reports to Robert Arnott, manager for Northern Trust’s institutional brokerage business in Asia.
Northern Trust set up the Sydney office last year after acquiring Aviate Global, a London-based institutional equity brokerage with a Sydney presence, in May 2016.
Man Group has named Steven Desmyter as its first head of responsible investment and Jason Mitchell as sustainability strategist, both of which are internal appointments effective from June 20.
They also retain their previous roles – Desmyter as head of sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Mitchell as a fund manager for European and international equities for Man GLG.
Mitchell, who joined Man GLG in 2004, has been involved in sustainable investment at Man GLG from 2004 and Man Group since 2010. He has chaired the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment hedge fund advisory committee since 2014.
ORRICK ADDS PARTNER FOR M&A AND PE GROUP
US law firm Orrick has added Mark Lehmkuhler as a partner in its M&A and private equity group in Hong Kong, effective June 19.
Before joining Orrick, Lehmkuhler was a partner at rival law firm Davis Polk until he left March 2015 to go on sabbatical.
Other people news reported on AsianInvestor in the past week:
Fullerton names new bond, equity and multi-asset heads