Weekly roundup of people news, April 1

Mark Mobius hand reins to Stephen Dover
Stephen Dover will take over responsibility for Templeton Emerging Markets Group from April 15 as investing icon Mark Mobius steps away from his day-to-day responsibilities.

Dover, who takes the title of chief investment officer for the EM group, will continue to serve as CIO of Franklin Local Asset Management. He joined Franklin Templeton in 1997 and is based in San Mateo, California.

Mobius will retain the title of executive chairman, his membership of Templeton Emerging Markets Group and his portfolio management responsibilities.

Eastspring creates head of investment services post
Eastspring Investments, the $131 billion Asian asset management arm of UK insurer Prudential, has appointed Alan Artyun as head of investment services based in Singapore.

The role has been created on the back of business growth at Eastspring, said a spokeswoman. Artyun’s responsibilities were previously spread across the team under chief operating officer Phil Stockwell. 

Artyun joined the firm on 14 March 2016 and is responsible for business management, front-office support, performance and attribution, enterprise data, service provider management and procurement, as well as investment monitoring.

Reporting to Stockwell, Artyun will lead the delivery of investment services in Singapore. 

Artyun joins from BT Investment Management in Australia, where he was employed  for the past nine years, most recently as head of investment operations. BTIM is seeking a replacement.

Artyun has held a number of senior roles at Asteron Life, Tactical Global Management and Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

T. Rowe Price said Honda's role was a new one, but that his responsibilities would include those of the official representative in Japan, a position held by Shonei Shigeta for the past three years. Honda will also oversee business and distribution strategy for the country.

After a transition period, Shigeta will focus on his other role as senior manager for global client operations in Japan.

Honda joins from Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley PB Securities, where he worked for a decade, most recently as chief product officer and head of marketing and development. Mitsubishi UFJ could not be reached for comment by press time.

T. Rowe Price had $763.1 billion in assets under management as of the end of 2015. 

UBS WM appoints vice-chairman in Asia
UBS Wealth Management has appointed Tracey Woon as one of its vice-chairmen in Asia, to join in the third quarter of the year. Based in Singapore, she will report to Joe Stadler, head of global ultra-high-net-worth, and Edmund Koh, head of wealth management for Asia Pacific. 

Most recently, she was vice-chairman of Asean corporate and investment banking at Citi, responsible for key clients across that region. A Citi spokesman said Woon would be not replaced. 

Before joining Citi in 2004, she was  head of investment banking for Singapore and Malaysia at Merrill Lynch.  

RBC WM appoints head of Southeast Asia
RBC Wealth Management, part of Royal Bank of Canada, has appointed Tho Gea Hong as head of wealth management for Southeast Asia. She joined in March from Swiss private bank EFG, where she was head of private banking and deputy CEO for Southeast Asia.

At RBC WM, she will be responsible for providing the strategic direction and managerial counsel for the Southeast Asia business. She will also support the sales, marketing and investments initiatives related to the region. She will report to Barend Janssens, Asia head of RBC WM.

Tho is an industry veteran with 27 years’ experience in financial services, the last 11 of which focused on the Southeast Asia private banking market. Her previous roles included stints with DBS and Merrill Lynch.

Fullerton hires fixed-income product specialist
Singapore’s Fullerton Fund Management appointed Alicia Tan as vice president for fixed-income product on March 14. She reports to Patrick Yeo, head of fixed income. 

Her predecessor had resigned, but Fullerton declined to identify the individual. 

Tan joins Fullerton from Nomura, where she was an investment advisor for the wealth management division. Prior to joining the Japanese bank last year, she worked for UK private bank Coutts since 2012 as an investment adviser for Southeast Asian markets. 

Before that, she has held roles in investment advisory, treasury services and product development at Credit Suisse, DBS and Citibank. 

Northern Trust appoints head of fixed-income sec lending 
Northern Trust has named Joseph Gillingwater as head of fixed-income securities lending trading for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Emea) and Asia Pacific.

He was previously a senior portfolio manager at State Street Global Advisors, also based in London. He left that post in February after 12 years with SSGA, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Based in London, he reports to John Irwin, head of international trading for Emea and Asia Pacific.

Gillingwater, who took up his role on February 29, replaces Nancy Allen, who moved to Datelend in New York.

State Street buys GE Asset Management
US financial services group State Street Corporation, the parent of State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), has agreed to buy Connecticut-based GE Asset Management for up to $485 million.

This is expected to boost SSGA's assets under management by $100 billion, add new alternatives capabilities and strengthen its equity and active fixed income teams, SSGA said in a statement. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year, added SSGA. 

GEAM has an office in Hong Kong and manages assets for 100 institutional clients, as well as American conglomerate GE's US pension and other benefit plans.

Asked about the likely impact of the deal on its Asia-Pacific presence, a spokesman for SSGA declined to comment.

ANZ's Liu joins Citi as chief China economist
Li-gang Liu has left ANZ to join Citi as chief economist for China, based in Hong Kong. Reporting to Johanna Chu, Citi's chief economist for Asia, he took up his duties in late March.

Liu replaces Shen Minggao, who was chief China economist from April 2010 until November last year, when he was named managing director of Caixin Insight Group, a think tank set up by Chinese media company Caixin.

Liu had been at ANZ since 2009, most recently as chief economist for Greater China, based in Hong Kong. The bank said senior economist Raymond Yeung would fill the role on an acting basis until a permanent replacement was identified.

DBS name new HK, China head of tech and operations
Singaporean bank DBS has appointed Nimish Panchmatia as head of technology and operations for Hong Kong and China. He succeeds David Lynch, who has left DBS, and reports to Sebastian Paredes, chief executive of DBS Bank (Hong Kong).

Panchmatia has responsibility for technology and operations with an emphasis on innovation and customer experience, in addition to managing the real estate and procurement functions.

He was previously head of consumer banking operations for Singapore in the technology and operations division at DBS. He has been with the bank since 2010.

DBS will announce his replacement in Singapore soon.

HK SFC shuffles committees
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has announced appointments and departures from its committees. The changes to the investor compensation and product advisory committees are listed here: 

Product advisory committee

Reappointments

• Julia Leung (chairman), executive director of investment products at the SFC 
• Grace Chan Duen, director of investment products at the SFC
• Chen Ding, CEO and CIO of CSOP Asset Management
• Stephen Cheung Yan-Leung, president of The Hong Kong Institute of Education
• Christina Choi Fung-Yee, senior director of investment products at the SFC
• Bernard Fung Ka Shing Bernard, director of investment product at the SFC
• Hui Mei-Ying, Acting Assistant Commissioner of Insurance, Office of the Commissioner of Insurance in Hong Kong
• Stuart Leckie, chairman at Stirling Finance
• Trevor Lee Chi-Kee, director of investment product at the SFC
• Luo Jiabin, president of Dymon Asia Capital (HK)
• Darren Mcshane, chief regulation and policy officer, Mandatory Provident Fund Authority
• Virginia Noronha, director of investment product at the SFC
• Keith Noyes, regional director for Asia Pacific at the International Swaps and Derivatives Association
• Terry Pan, Greater China CEO at Invesco
• Queenie Pang Wai-Sau, director of investment product at the SFC
• Wong Man-Yee, deputy general Manager and head of custody at Bank of China (Hong Kong)
• Lennard Yong Peng-Kuang, chairman of the life insurance council of the Hong Kong Federation of Insurers

New members

• Chordio Chan Siu-ping, general manager of investment management at Bank of China (Hong Kong)
• Choy Peng-wah, chief executive of Harvest Global Investments
• Lyu Hong, partner at Llinks Law Offices
• Victor Hung Tin-yau, Hong Kong Consumer Council 
• Liu Yun-bonn, financial services partner at KPMG
• Guillermo Eduardo Maldonado-Codina, Asia-Pacific chief investment officer, HSBC Global Asset Management
• Shelly Painter, Asia managing director at Vanguard
• Mark Shipman, head of global funds and investment sector, Clifford Chance
• Timothy Tse Wai-Ming, chief executive of Value Partners
• Costa Tzatzakis, North Asia chief compliance officer at BlackRock 
• Pauline Wong Pui-Ling, Hong Kong head of global services. State Street Bank and Trust
• Yang Qiumei, head of Asia Pacific, ICI Global

Outgoing members

• Chan King-cheung, adjunct professor of the school of communication at Baptist University 
• Louis Chow Ka-leung, head of legal and compliance at China Merchants Securities (HK)
• Andrew Fung Hau-chung, head of global banking and markets at Hang Seng Bank
• Jedediah Laskowitz, co-head of global investment management solutions at JP Morgan Asset Management
• Liu Pak-wai, emeritus professor of economics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Ferheen Mahomed, executive vice-president at Pacific Century Group
• Alistair Murray, Asia-Pacific head of fund services at HSBC
• David Richardson, partner at Dorsey & Whitney
• Vera Tam Sau-Ngor of the Hong Kong Consumer Council 
• Jacob Tsang, senior manager at the Hong Kong Jockey Club
• Wilfred Wong Wai-sum, managing director at Hing Wong Group

Investor compensation fund committee

Reappointments

• Keith Lui Kei (chairman), executive director for the supervision of markets division at the SFC 
• Teresa Ko Yuk-Yin, China chairman and partner at law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
• Roger Lee Kwok-Keung, chairman of the compensation and disciplinary committees at Hong Kong stock exchange