JP Morgan AM hires GSAM’s Asia marketing chief

JP Morgan Asset Management announced that it has hired Heidi Sutton from Goldman Sachs AM in a newly created role as its chief marketing officer for Asia-Pacific.

Based in Hong Kong, Sutton started on January 21. She will oversee the firm’s marketing efforts in the region and will lead market teams to identify strategic initiatives to drive business growth.

Asked who Sutton was coming in to replace, a spokesman for the firm in Hong Kong says previously JP Morgan AM had seven marketing managers across Asia, with no one responsible on a regional basis. “They work as a team and each office had its own marketing plans,” he says.

Sutton now reports regionally to Jed Laskowitz, the firm’s Asia-Pacific chief executive officer, and functionally to Richard Chambers, chief global marketing officer for JP Morgan AM.

“The firm will benefit from the experience and expertise that Heidi brings to this newly created role,” says Chambers in a statement, adding that the drive is to align marketing efforts to capitalise on growth opportunities in Asia.

Previously Sutton was managing director and head of marketing strategy for Asia-Pacific at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, where she worked for nine years. Initially she was in international marketing based in London, before relocating to Hong Kong six years ago to oversee its Asia-Pacific marketing efforts.

In fact, Sutton is in effect returning to JP Morgan AM after 13 years, having previously worked for heritage firm JP Morgan Fleming Asset Management.

Following the merger of Fleming and JP Morgan in 2001, she moved on to London-based First State Investments, where she helped to build the firm’s UK retail offering.

A spokesperson for Goldman Sachs Asset Management in Asia confirmed that Sutton left at the end of last year. It has not yet named a replacement.