Prudential adds HK CIO as senior duo exits
UK-based Prudential, one of the biggest life insurers in Asia, has hired Ben Rudd as its first chief investment officer for Hong Kong, while two senior investment staff left recently, AsianInvestor can reveal.
Rudd is working out his notice as CIO of Hong Kong family office Caravel Asset Management, a role he took up in March 2014. He also has experience of managing insurance assets, having worked for six years at China's Ping An Insurance, most recently as head of overseas investment.
Sources said Rudd (pictured below) would be the first dedicated CIO for Hong Kong at Prudential Corporation Asia, which had £104.9 billion ($131 billion) under management as of June 30.
AsianInvestor could not ascertain why the firm had created the role or when Rudd would start. He declined to comment when contacted.
High-level departures
Meanwhile, two Hong Kong-based investment executives left Prudential recently. AsianInvestor could not ascertain whether Rudd's appointment was related to the departures.
Paul Carrett, previously Prudential's regional director for investment, joined Hong Kong's FWD Insurance as group CIO early last month.
An FWD spokeswoman said the role was a newly created one to oversee investments across the firm's regional businesses. It already has local CIOs, such as William Chen in Hong Kong.
Carrett had been with Prudential since November 2014, according to LinkedIn, and has also worked for UBS, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, among others.
Joel Krueger left the role of regional investment officer in August after 22 years with the Prudential group, according to his LinkedIn page. He had been responsible for overseeing strategic asset allocation decisions for the various Prudential Life companies in Asia Pacific.
Krueger is now an adviser to Bento, a part-human, part-robo advisory service for wealthy investors that launched last month in Singapore.
Prudential declined to comment for this article, except to confirm that Carrett and Krueger had left to pursue other interests.
Other background
Prior to joining Ping An, Rudd was portfolio manager at Acacia Research, a London-based multi-family office, and before that a macro analyst at UK hedge fund Caxton Asset Management. He has also worked in London as a strategist for both ABN Amro and HSBC Investments.
Caravel could not be reached for comment by press time. The family office was founded in 2013 by Harindarpal ‘Harry’ Banga, formerly vice chairman emeritus of commodity trading house Noble Group.