Weekly roundup of job-hoppers, July 6
First State promotes McCluskey, hires two for responsible investment
Australia’s First State Investments (FSI) has made three appointments across its responsible investment and emerging-markets equity teams.
Amanda McCluskey began a new role on Monday (July 2) in the Asia-Pacific and global emerging-markets equity team. Based in Singapore, she reports to David Gait, senior portfolio manager for global emerging markets and Asia Pacific (ex-Japan). She was previously head of responsible investment at FSI parent Colonial First State Asset Management.
Will Oulton will replace McCluskey in September 7, taking up the role of global head of responsible investment, based in London. He moves from Mercer, where he was London-based head of responsible investment for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Emea), and has been replaced by Aled Jones.
Oulton will look after FSI’s global responsible investment strategy, with a particular focus on strengthening these capabilities in the Emea region. He will begin on September 7 and report to Chris Turpin, global head of product.
Pablo Berrutti will start in the newly created role of Asia-Pacific head of responsible investment in Sydney on July 27. Reporting to Oulton, he will support the investment teams and work across asset classes. Berrutti was most recently head of responsible investment at Sydney-based fund house Perpetual and has not yet been replaced.
Several asset managers have put their first responsible investment and/or corporate governance specialists on the ground in Asia in the past couple of years, including BlackRock, BNP Paribas Investment Partners and HSBC Global Asset Management.
FSI is the international arm of Colonial First State Global Asset Management, part of Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Colonial First State AM had $156 billion in AUM as at March 31.
Lu Gao switches from GSAM to Amundi
Lu Gao joined Amundi in early July as vice president of China institutional sales in Hong Kong. He moves from Goldman Sachs Asset Management, where he had held a similar role in institutional sales for China and Hong Kong since April 2009.
It is understood that Lu’s duties will be taken on by other members of the team at GSAM. Before joining the US firm, he was a fixed-income analyst at Deutsche Asset Management.
According to Lu’s LinkedIn page, he is “experienced in pitching products across asset classes: traditional long-only equity and fixed income, commodity, direct hedge fund, hedge FoF and PE FoF strategies, quantitative investment strategies”.
He covers sovereign wealth funds, central banks, public pensions, insurance firms, commercial banks and universities.
Ex-Goldman partner Chan named Dymon CEO
Hedge fund Dymon Asia Capital (Singapore) has hired a former Goldman Sachs head of macro trading as chief executive.
David Chan will also be a partner, says Dymon founder Danny Yong. Chan had headed macro trading at Goldman in Asia, and will focus on managing the investment team. The appointment is subject to regulators’ approval.
Dymon declined to comment on the identity of the CEO prior to Chan's arrival.
Yong is beefing up the firm’s management so he can focus on trading after assets expanded to $2.85 billion in February, including $2.5 billion in the main macro fund. Dymon hired Jay Luo, former head of SAC Capital Advisors LP’s Asia-Pacific operations, as president and a partner in June.
Coutts duo heads tax and wealth structuring division
Coutts, the private bank owned by RBS, hired Armando Rosselli as executive director and head of tax and wealth structuring (TWS) international on July 2. He reports to Steve Griffiths, managing director and head of tax and wealth structuring, who joined Coutts last month.
Based in London, Rosselli will be responsible for the leadership and development of the TWS International teams focusing on markets including Asia, the Middle East and Russia. He will also lead on enhancing the products and solutions suite, reviewing how these services are delivered to international clients.
Rosselli and Griffith have taken up newly created roles. The duo were previously at Credit Suisse in London, confirmed a spokeswoman from the Swiss bank, but she declined to say whether they had been or would be replaced.
“There is a lot of wealth being created in Asia at the moment, so naturally we have seen the demand for efficient investing, tax and wealth planning growing,” says Coutts. But the firm has no concrete appointment plans for an Asia-based head of tax and wealth planning for the time being.
The new addition comes after several hires to the bank’s products and services team in Asia. In May, Ken Sue was named as the first Asia head of products and services, while in April there were three other additions to the products and services team in Singapore, including Edouard Hoeppfner, Elaine Ngim and Kieran Calder.
Coutt’s AUM was SFr 38.5bn ($39.68 billion) as of December 31.
Hyperion hires new dealer and analyst in expansion plans
Brisbane-based Hyperion Asset Management has hired Will Hartnell as a dealer and analyst, effective July 2. This newly created role is part of the firm’s push to further expand in its domestic market.
Hartnell, whose addition brings the investment team up to five, will be responsible for the executing the group’s equity trades and supporting the research effort.
He previously spent five years at professional services group PwC, most recently on the mergers and acquisitions team.
Hyperion has an AUM of A$3 billion ($3 billion), specialising in Australian equity investments on behalf of direct investors, financial advisers’ clients and large institutions.
Other people moves this week:
Martin Currie names new sales director