AsianInvesterAsianInvester

Franklin Templeton institutional head retires

Jame DiBiasio
Tom Duffy passes the baton to Wayne Shum.

Thomas Duffy, executive vice president for Franklin Templeton's institutional business in the Asia-Pacific region, is retiring after 17 years of service. Wayne Shum, who joined the firm last year from Mercer Investment Consulting, is assuming responsibility for the Asia business, ex-Japan, ex-Australia.

Duffy arrived in Hong Kong in 1990 to establish an office for New York-based Fiduciary Trust, a fund manager specializing in growth-oriented equities and global fixed income. He oversaw the Asian business through the boom years of the 1990s, the rise of many new retirement schemes and pension funds and the beginning of international investing for most Asian organizations.

In 2002, Fiduciary was acquired by the Franklin Templeton group. That left the family with three institutional platforms in Asia: Fiduciary, plus Franklin Resources (primarily for US equities and high-yield fixed income) and Templeton (for value-oriented equities). These businesses were amalgamated onto a single platform, while maintaining their identities, which Duffy ran in Asia, including Japan and the antipodes.

The firm now has over $3 billion of institutional business from the Asia-Pacific.

Duffy handed most of his duties to Shum in March but is staying on until the end of June, when he will return to his native United States after a vacation in Australia. For now he has no plans to get back into fund management, although he did mpt rule it out. "I'm going to take a long vacation and then we'll see," he says.

Duffy had reported to New York-based Bill Yun, president of Franklin Templeton group's institutional business worldwide. Shum will now report directly to Yun for Asia ex-Japan, ex-Australia. Country managers for institutional business in Japan (Hideaki Muchizuki) and Australia (John Gall) will remain in place and report to Yun directly. The firm does not intend to hire anyone after Duffy's departure, as it added ex-Deutsche Asset Management marketer Terrence Lam to Shum's team early this year.