Janus appoints sales director

Johnny Wong has joined Janus International as sales director for Asia-Pacific ex-Japan. Based in Hong Kong, he will report to Howcy Yeung, regional director. He will be responsible for developing distribution arrangements for Janus' 15 funds authorized for Asia-Pacific distribution and generally expand the firm's presence. Wong replaces Joann Ma, who recently departed Janus for Invesco.

For Wong this is a chance to be a bigger fish, albeit in a smaller pond. He is leaving HSBC Asset Management, where he is one member of a large sales and marketing team reporting to head of retail Sandra Lee. He has 11 years of experience in asset management, including four years at Franklin Templeton. He joined HSBC via Sinopia Asset Management, a unit of the French bank CCF that HSBC acquired in 2000, where he had been senior vice president of marketing and sales. In addition to continuing to market Sinopia products in Hong Kong he has also worked across the range of HSBC's funds offerings.

Janus International, a unit of the $143 billion Denver-based Janus Capital Group, has been marketing funds in Asia since 2000. Wong starts work there tomorrow, June 18.