Prudential names new head of Hong Kong investments
Prudential Hong Kong has appointed Fanda Ho to become its head of investments, AsianInvestor can reveal.
The Hong Kong division of Prudential Corporation Asia said in an internal memo on March 29 that it had appointed Ho the role “with immediate effect”.
She effectively replaces Ben Rudd, the former chief investment officer for Prudential Hong Kong, who AsianInvestor revealed had shifted roles on March 25 to become the chief wealth officer for the life insurer.
In her new role, Ho reports to Nigel Knowles, the chief financial officer of Prudential Hong Kong. AsianInvestor understands she will also regularly meet with group chief investment officer Stephan van Vliet, who coordinates investment strategy across Prudential Corporation Asia's market divisions.
The memo noted that Ho “will drive the strategic business priorities of the investments team”, and that she “will lead the team in ensuring that portfolio returns consistently meet policyholder expectations and improving our capital management through a holistic hedging programme”.
Ho has been with Prudential Hong Kong since 2017, most recently as director for strategic investments. In that role she oversaw several projects, including the initiation of its securities lending platform and the finalisation of its collateral management outsourcing project. A spokeswoman said she will retain her previous responsibilities in her new role.
Before joining Prudential, Ho worked as a client solutions director for Aviva Investors in the UK from January 2016 to July 2017. Prior to that position she was a portfolio manager for Prudential Portfolio Management Group, also in the UK, from September 2007 to December 2015, according to her LinkedIn profile.
In the meantime, Rudd has moved to his new role overseeing the growth of wealth-focused products and solutions, after spending four years as CIO for Hong Kong. Prudential Hong Kong sees this as a growth area, given both the ongoing growth of China’s economy and the Wealth Management Connect plans for the Greater Bay area that were announced by Beijing and welcomed by Hong Kong on June 29, 2020.
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