AsianInvestor’s weekly roundup of job-hoppers, Jan 20
Fong quits BlackRock to join Janus as sales director for Asia ex-Japan
Janus Capital Group has hired Ivan Fong from BlackRock as sales director for Asia ex-Japan in a drive to expand the business, AsianInvestor can reveal.
Fong started in Hong Kong last December and in effect comes in to fill the role that used to be held by Ellen Li, who was promoted last year to head of institutional sales for Asia ex-Japan.
Li was Janus’ sales director for Asia-Pacific ex-Japan, a role in which she reported directly to Augie Cheh, who joined as president of Janus International in January last year.
A source tells AsianInvestor that Janus is eyeing a build-up of its sales team in line with regional growth, with a primary focus on institutional accounts in markets including Taiwan and Korea.
Previously Fong worked as vice-president in BlackRock’s global client group for a little under two years, where he focused on institutional business development and consultant relations.
For the six years before that he worked at Barclays Global Investors, with roles including client director, client advisory and solutions, and head of investment product performance and reporting. Fong has also worked for Russell Investment Group and Perpetual.
AsianInvestor has reported that Janus endured a number of departures last year following the arrival of Cheh, who was previously Asia ex-Japan chief executive at AllianceBernstein.
These included co-CEO Jack Lin; chief operating officer Fred Horsey; head of marketing Alvin Chiu; head of retail marketing Lesley Chen; head of legal Kim Chong; and compliance executive Carmen Kwan.
Hsin to join DBS Private Bank as North Asia head
DBS Private Bank has hired industry veteran Yvonne Hsin from China Construction Bank as its new head of North Asia, and announced two other senior appointments in Greater China.
Hsin, who most recently worked as head of private banking for China Construction Bank (Asia), is scheduled to start on February 1. Based in Hong Kong, she will report to Tan Su-Shan, DBS’ head of wealth management, and Sebastian Paredes, CEO of DBS Bank (Hong Kong).
It comes after DBS Private Bank’s former North Asia head, Edwin Lim, quit last May along with two colleagues – Patrice Huang, who focused on Taiwan/China, and Gabriel Chan, who covered North Asia from Singapore – to join JP Morgan’s private wealth management team under Peter Flavel, as reported by AsianInvestor.
Hsin had worked for Citigroup for over 15 years and HSBC for more than 10 years, where her last appointment was deputy chief executive for HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) for Asia.
Further, DBS announced that Robert Kung has joined last November as head of private banking for DBS Bank (China) in a newly created role. He was formerly head of market management for the China region based in Hong Kong. Prior to that Kung worked at Deutsche Bank for 15 years in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Beijing and Taiwan, latterly as head of private wealth management for China.
DBS Private Bank has also appointed John Lim as head of one of its six teams in Hong Kong. He joined last October and will report to Hsin. A company spokeswoman explains that the six teams allows DBS PB (HK) to mobilise its relationship managers for different North Asian geographies.
He was formerly managing director at South China Group, where he oversaw the corporate and strategic development of the group’s listed companies. He has also worked for JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Salomon Brothers, Standard Chartered and Rabobank International.
Grosvenor hires MD of client services from Morgan Stanley
Grosvenor Fund Management has appointed Dietrich Heidtmann as Paris-based managing director of client services for Emea and Asia Pacific. A spokeswoman for Grosvenor did not confirm by press time whether Heidtmann replaces anyone.
He is due to start on February 13 and will be responsible for capital raising and investor relations activity in these regions. Heidtmann will report to chief investment officer James Raynor and work closely with Alexia Gottschalch, who is leading the expansion of the team in the US.
Heidtmann joins Grosvenor after nearly 20 years at Morgan Stanley, most recently as Frankfurt-based managing director and head of real estate private capital markets for Emea. As such, he was responsible for all third-party capital advisory and capital-raising activities in the Emea region and parts of Asia. He left the bank in December.
Grosvenor achieved closings on four new investment vehicles in 2011, with combined investment capacity of over £1 billion.
This includes the acquisition of a retail portfolio comprising six shopping centres across France and Sweden for the Grosvenor European Retail Partnership, a central London office partnership with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, a US healthcare joint venture with the Kuwait Finance House and a UK shopping centre mandate.
Other moves reported by AsianInvestor this week:
Korea's military pension fund names new CIO
Sparx group loses another top executive
Carlo Venes joins Dimensional, plans Asia push