Weekly roundup of people news, Aug 12
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FRANKLIN TEMPLETON NAMES HEAD OF CHINA
Franklin Templeton on Tuesday (Aug 9) announced the appointment of Qing Yu to the newly-created role of managing director and head of China. She is responsible for providing overall leadership and strategic direction for the firm’s mainland China business and building a multi-faceted asset management business, focusing on public investment solutions.
Yu will report to Ben Meng, executive vice president and chairman of Asia Pacific. Based initially in Beijing, she will also work from the firm’s Shanghai office. She started the new role in July.
Before Yu’s appointment, Linda Liang was previously head of China strategy. Liang has transitioned to another role in Ben Meng's team, the firm told AsianInvestor, without further elaboration on Liang’s new role.
Yu has over 30 years of experience in government and financial services roles in China. She was most recently chair of the board at Nomura Orient International Securities and managing director at Nomura Securities in China.
She previously served as group vice president at China Reinsurance Group, and she also had a long career at China’s Ministry of Finance.
Waterfall Asset Management hires from Natixis for new HK Office
Alistair Ho, former head of Natixis Investment Managers International Hong Kong, has joined American alternative asset manager Waterfall Asset Management to lead its newly established Hong Kong office as managing director and head of Asia Pacific.
Waterfall Asset Management announced the senior hire and the opening of its Hong Kong office on Tuesday (Aug 9). The fourth office globally is to enhance its capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region alongside its headquarters in New York, and operations in London and Dublin.
Waterfall’s Hong Kong office will focus on identifying opportunities to leverage the firm’s differentiated capabilities in structured and securitised markets to provide private debt solutions for non-bank financial institutions, middle market corporates and real estate-related borrowers in Asia Pacific.
Ho brings in more than 18 years of experience in the region’s credit markets. He will report to Patrick Lo, partner and head of international at Waterfall.
Ho joins Waterfall from Natixis Investment Managers International as the Hong Kong head. Prior to that, he held senior positions for Ostrum Asset Management, Mizuho Securities Asia, Credit Suisse and Citigroup in the region.
Natixis Investment Managers declined to comment on Ho’s replacement.
HENRY CHUI TO LEAVE NUVEEN
Henry Chui, the managing director and head of private wealth for Asia Pacific at Nuveen is set to leave the firm, AsianInvestor has learned.
He is currently serving his notice and will leave the company by the end of September, sources told AsianInvestor. Chui has been in the position for two and a half years, and was previously with Pimco for eight years, his last role there being senior vice president and head of private banking for North Asia.
The role at Nuveen was newly created, making him the first Asia Pacific head of wealth management at the firm. He reported to Simon England-Brammer, Nuveen’s head of Asia Pacific, AsianInvestor reported in 2020, who relocated back to the UK in November 2021 to take on an expanded role of Emea and Apac institutional head.
Hong Kong has been facing a mass exodus of talent, including within the finance industry, having reported a third year of population decline on Wednesday (August 11). The competition for talents within the existing pool has been fierce as quarantine rules for incoming travellers have deterred candidates from relocating into the territory.
Nuveen declined to comment and Chui did not respond to attempts to reach out.
MERCER APPOINTS HEAD OF APAC MANAGER RESEARCH
Effective August 1, Mercer has appointed Simon Coxeter as head of Asia Pacific manager research, and Jean de Kock to take over Coxeter’s role of strategic research director for Asia, Middle East and Africa (AMEA). Both are based in Singapore.
In the newly created role, Coxeter will be responsible for overseeing manager research needs across local markets in the Asia Pacific region and ensuring that resources and efforts are aligned with Mercer’s commercial priorities. He was the strategic research director for AMEA and Latin America for the past four years. Coxeter reports to Joanne Holden, global head of investment research at Mercer, a spokesperson told AsianInvestor.
At the firm since 2012 and in Singapore since 2018, de Kock is a part of the firm’s fixed income boutique, and actively supports regional consulting teams in Singapore, Hong Kong SAR and Mainland China. He will continue to carry out manager research tasks alongside these new responsibilities on strategic research.
MSCI HIRES NEW KOREA CLIENT HEAD
Eric Yun has been appointed to the role as head of Korea client coverage at MSCI, effective August 1.
Based in Seoul, Yun will lead the Korea coverage team to drive MSCI’s commercial growth strategy across all product lines and client segments. Building upon MSCI’s presence in Korea, Yun will focus on enhancing the coverage of leading asset owners and other clients. He will report to Yuzo Ogai, Head of North Asia client coverage.
Yun joins MSCI with over two decades of experience in Korea’s financial market and institutional investment industry. He has worked in various sell-side roles at banks and hedge funds including Credit Suisse, UBS, BNP Paribas and LK Asset Management.
He replaces Tay Kim as head of Korea client coverage, an MSCI spokesperson told AsianInvestor without elaborating further. According to Kim’s LinkedIn profile, he left MSCI in April 2022 and started as president and CEO of Franklin Templeton Investments in Korea in May 2022.
PEAK RE APPOINTS NEW CHIEF UNDERWRITER
Hong Kong-based global reinsurer Peak Re has appointed Piotr Nowakowski, currently director and head of product underwriting for property and casualty (P&C) business, as its chief underwriting officer.
Nowakowski will continue to be based in Hong Kong. In his new role, he will lead the P&C business team with a focus on underwriting expertise, portfolio management and solution development. Nowakowski will report to Franz Josef Hahn, CEO of Peak Re.
Nowakowski joined Peak Re in January 2022 from Echo Re Switzerland where he served as the chief underwriting officer for nearly a decade.
Before Echo Re, he worked for the French reinsurer SCOR for more than 16 years across local, regional and global positions, including nine years as general manager at SCOR’s Japan office in Tokyo. At SCOR, he has also served as head of strategy and development and general secretary for the global P&C business based in Paris.
SINGLIFE INVESTMENT PLATFORM EXPANDS MANAGEMENT TEAM
Navigator, an integrated investment platform under Singlife with Aviva, announced three new appointments to its management team.
Wei Lin Chin has joined as head of strategy and business management from DBS, where she was executive director, group strategy and planning. Before that, she was a litigator with Rajah & Tann Asia focusing on banking disputes and restructuring.
Farooq Lone has also joined from DBS, taking up the role of head of product and business development. He was previously digital product and business head for Indonesia at DBS.
Lastly, Ee Ghim Chua has joined Singlife as brand marketing lead. He has advised and worked with various financial and technology brands across Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai, helping to elevate brand profiles across digital and offline channels.
All three roles are based in Singapore. A spokesperson did not respond by publishing time about when these roles were made effective and if they are newly created positions.