Pimco hires head of South Asia clients and Singapore

Mar 15, 2020

The US asset manager is about to unveil the appointment of a Wellington Management veteran to fill a key role for its institutional business after recent senior staff changes.

Pimco hires head of South Asia clients and Singapore

Pimco has hired an experienced institutional client executive from rival fund house Wellington Management as head of South Asia client management and its Singapore office.

Theresa Tan will start in the role today (March 16) to oversee institutional business for South Asia, reporting to Michael Thompson, Hong Kong-based head of Asia ex-Japan client management.

Theresa Tan

She will lead Pimco's institutional business in Singapore and broader client engagement across South Asia, spanning Brunei, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, a spokeswoman told AsianInvestor.

Tan was previously head of the global relationship group for Southeast Asia at Wellington, overseeing all institutional, sub-advisory and consultant relationships. That included a long-standing sub-advisory relationship with Singaporean bank UOB, a well-placed source said.

She had spent most of her career at Wellington since 1998, apart from a stint at UBS Asset Management from 1996 to 1998. Wellington did not respond to emailed requests for comment.

Abhi Shroff was Pimco's previous head of South Asia institutional business until he left to become Asia head of institutional at Texas-based Dimensional Fund Advisors in June last year.

The former head of Singapore for Pimco was Todd Staley. He will in April return to Pimco’s California headquarters to become head of private clients for the US global wealth management (GWM) team. For the time being he remains head of private clients for GWM for Hong Kong and Singapore, but Pimco said last month that it was seeking a replacement.

As regards North Asia coverage, Yin Haining is head of Greater China and Park Jung head of Korea, both based in Hong Kong and overseeing the institutional businesses of their respective markets. Ichiro Takeuchi is head of Japan institutional business.

Meanwhile, Pimco has seen several senior changes to the sales team in the past 18 months.

Scott Steele, formerly head of Asia ex-Japan distribution, left to join Janus Henderson Investors in June 2018. His former post at Pimco no longer exists.

Henry Chui left his role as Pimco's head of North Asia private banking this month to join US asset manager Nuveen as its first Asia-Pacific head of wealth management. The spokeswoman declined to say whether he had been or would be replaced.

There have also been major changes to the institutional coverage teams at other asset managers in recent months. Last month TCW brought in both a new Asia head of investment solutions (Jessie Zhang) and Singapore chief executive and senior strategist (Manu George).

Elsewhere, Principal Global Investors’ head of North Asia institutional business, Helen Chang, left in November after some 11 years with the US firm.