Weekly roundup of job-hoppers, June 22
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Business development expansion for Pictet AM
Pictet Asset Management announced it had hired Koonnang Tse from Amundi as vice-president of business development, based in Hong Kong.
He joins a 15-strong business development team (sales, marketing and product development) in the region at Pictet AM, with nine in Hong Kong, five in Taiwan and one in Singapore. This is an expansion, rather than a replacement, confirms a spokeswoman.
Tse started on June 1 to focus on institutional sales for Asia ex-Japan, reporting to Amy Cho, managing director and regional head of business development for Asia-Pacific.
The spokeswoman confirms Pictet AM is in expansionary mode and is seeking talent for Asian business development and institutional sales. Only recently it hired an operations manager in Taipei who is set to come on board next week, reporting to Joseph Chen, office general manager.
Pictet AM says it has made client acquisitions in Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong. Pictet Securities Investment Consulting Enterprise, which was incorporated in July last year, was approved as a master agent of Pictet’s funds in March this year.
The firm plans to register its emerging market debt products with the Taiwan Financial Supervisory Commission for public offering this summer. Pictet AM says it has more than $20 billion under management in emerging market debt.
Neuberger Berman adds Holzherr from UBS
US asset manager Neuberger Berman announced the appointment of Thomas Holzherr from UBS Global Asset Management as senior vice-president of business development.
Holzherr joined earlier this month based in Hong Kong and is responsible for developing the firm’s institutional business in Asia.
Only recently, AsianInvestor broke the news that Neuberger Berman had hired Mark Serocold in Hong Kong and Vincent Lim in Singapore to drive business development across the region.
We also revealed it had hired Rebecca Schrage from AllianceBernstein as vice-president of client services in Hong Kong, and Jonny Wong from UBS Global Asset Management as senior vice-president and country head for Taiwan.
“The plan here in Asia is to continue to build out our institutional client base, from China to Hong Kong to Southeast Asia to Australia,” Hoar previously told AsianInvestor.
At UBS Holzherr had been part of the firm’s pan-Asian institutional client relationship and business development team. He started his career as an economist at the Swiss firm before moving into the asset management division. He moved to Asia in 1999 and has worked in Japan, Korea and Singapore.
Of Neuberger Berman’s $205 billion in global assets under management, an estimated $5 billion (2.4%) is sourced from clients in Asia-Pacific. Of its total asset base, a third is accounted for by private banks in the US and two thirds by institutional clients (of which half are intermediaries).
At present Neuberger Berman employs about 50 people in Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan and Korea), comprising around 30 in Hong Kong, 10 in Shanghai and the remainder in Singapore and Melbourne.
Feeney takes over Old Mutual Wealth Management
Old Mutual Group announced that Paul Feeney had been appointed chief executive of its wealth management business, effective on August 1.
Feeney had only just been unveiled as CEO of Skandia Investment Group (SIG), the wholly owned manager of managers business in the long-term savings (LTS) division of Old Mutual Group.
Subsequently Old Mutual revealed it would combine two of its UK-based asset management businesses, Old Mutual Asset Managers (UK) and SIG.
The new asset management business will be the investment engine behind Old Mutual Wealth Management, which Feeney is now in charge of and consists of Skandia UK, Skandia International (offshore), Skandia Europe and third-party financial institutions and intermediaries.
In this new role Feeney will report to Paul Hanratty, CEO of Old Mutual’s Long Term Savings Division. The wealth management business has £63 billion ($98.4 billion) in AUM.
Swift unveils seven new board members
Financial messaging provider Swift announced seven new appointments to its board, including its first members from China and India.
Joining are: Yves Baguet, CIO of Clearstream services; Mark Buitenhek, global head of payments and cash management for ING; David Cyr, senior vice-president of payments, trade and technology at Royal Bank of Canada; Marcel Jongmans, CEO of ABN Amro global clearing; Ulrich Stritzke, managing director for Credit Suisse and head of global cross-product processing; Yongli Wang, executive director of the Bank of China; and Bhavesh Zaveri, head of cash management products at HDFC Bank.
New economist for Barclays
Barclays announced the appointment of Kieran Davies as economist for Australia and New Zealand, based in Sydney.
He joined as director to lead the firm’s coverage of macro-economic research on these two markets. He reports to Nigel Chalk, managing director and head of emerging Asia research who only joined Barclays this month, as reported by AsianInvestor.
Davies had joined ABN Amro in 1999 as chief economist for Australia and New Zealand and continued with the role through the merger with RBS in 2008. Prior to that he worked at the Bankers Trust Australia and the Commonwealth Department of the Treasury.
Other moves reported by AsianInvestor in the past week:
Peach promoted to lead Man Group's Asia ops
Sarasin seeks SE Asia head after Barki exit