Weekly roundup of people news, Aug 13
STATE STREET NAMES JAPAN HEAD
State Street Corporation announced on Thursday that it has appointed Taro Kuryuzawa as country head for Japan, effective immediately. Based in Tokyo, Kuryuzawa will report to Mostapha Tahiri, chief executive officer for Asia Pacific.
In this newly created role, Kuryuzawa will be responsible for State Street’s business activities in Japan, including driving strategy, developing talent, pursuing growth opportunities, as well as managing relationships with Japanese clients, partners, officials and regulators.
Kuryuzawa joined State Street in May this year, from Deloitte Tohmatsu group where he was most recently head of institutional investor coverage in Japan and global lead client service partner, overseeing large insurers and global institutional investor accounts in Japan. Prior to Deloitte, he held several senior positions at Citigroup, including its global private equity fund, CVC International, for almost a decade.
ABERDEEN STANDARD INVESTMENTS STRENGTHENS ASIA PACIFIC DISTRIBUTION TEAM
Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) has appointed David Hanzl as head of wholesale for Asia Pacific and Sean Lee as head of institutional sales for Southeast Asia, effective August 12.
Hanzl joins the firm from UBS Asset Management (UBS AM) where he was head of regional operating office for Asia Pacific since 2014, as well as global wholesale business manager from 2016 to 2019. He will be based in Hong Kong.
Based in Singapore, Sean Lee, currently the head of consultant relations for Asia Pacific at ASI, will be assuming an additional role as head of institutional sales, South East Asia. Prior to his 14 years’ career with ASI, he held senior sales and leadership roles with Credit Suisse and the National Australia Bank.
Both roles and newly created and they report to Andrew Hendry, head of distribution for Asia Pacific, according to a spokeswoman. UBS AM declined to comment on whether a replacement has been found.
FIDELITY APPOINTS SUSTAINABLE INVESTING DIRECTOR
Fidelity International appointed Daniela Jaramillo as director of sustainable investing, effective August 30.
Based in Melbourne, she will report to Jenn-Hui Tan, global head of stewardship and sustainable investing.
The role is newly created to help further integrate sustainability considerations into the firm’s investment process, according to the release. Jaramillo will also act as a spokesperson for Fidelity and represent the firm’s sustainable investing capabilities in Australia and New Zealand, the announcement said.
Jaramillo was most recently senior responsible investment advisor at superannuation fund Hesta, which she joined in January 2017. Prior to Hesta, she held roles in sustainable investment at Wespath Investment Management and Legal & General Investment Management.
Her appointment follows Fidelity’s hire of Gabriel Wilson-Otto as director of sustainable investing in Hong Kong in May. It brings the sustainable investing team’s headcount to 13 in Asia Pacific and 26 globally.
AsianInvestor understands Hesta will be looking to hire for a role in the responsible investment team in the coming weeks.
JP MORGAN APPOINTS AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND CEO
JP Morgan Asset Management has appointed Andrew Creber as Australia and New Zealand chief executive officer. Creber was most recently Asia Pacific deputy chief administrative officer at the firm while based in Singapore.
The role will be made effective on August 10 and he will be based in Sydney. He will report to Hong Kong-based Dan Watkins, Asia Pacific CEO.
He joined JP Morgan Asset Management in London in 1998 and serves across a variety of finance, strategy, project management and operations roles, including chief operating officer for the Australia asset management business.
Creber replaces Rachel Farrell, who left the firm in July. A spokesperson for JP Morgan declined to comment on details of Creber’s relocation from Singapore to Sydney or on whether the firm had found a replacement for the deputy chief administrative officer role.
AMP AUSTRALIA HIRES FROM QSUPER
Ben Hillier has left QSuper to join AMP Australia as general manager for retirement solutions as of July 26. Hillier reports to Edwina Maloney, director of platforms, and will be based in Brisbane.
He will manage a small team and have access to "considerable capabilities across our investment, product, advice and technology teams", a spokesperson told AsianInvestor. He will not be directly responsible for an investment portfolio but will lead the development of retirement solutions, the spokesperson said.
Hillier was most recently at QSuper, which he joined three years ago as head of product and services, during which time he launched the fund’s lifetime pension product. Before that, he was senior manager for superannuation and retirement products at Sunsuper for six years.
QSuper and Sunsuper have signed an agreement to merge, creating one of Australia’s biggest superannuation funds of over A$200 billion.
QSuper did not respond to requests for comment.
MERCER APPOINTS SUSTAINABLE INVESTMENT CONSULTANT
Investment consultant Mercer has appointed Jaimee Lo as part of its efforts to expand its global sustainable investment capabilities by 30%, as announced in a release on August 10.
Lo joined as sustainable investment consultant on July 5 and will be based in Hong Kong, a spokesperson said. She will report to Alexis Cheang, head of sustainable investment for Asia Pacific, the spokesperson said. The spokesperson declined to comment on how many additional hires the firm planned to make in Asia as part of the expansion.
Lo was most recently senior consultant in the climate change and sustainability services team at Ernst & Young.
Ernst & Young did not respond to requests for comment.
CHINA AMC ADDS HK ETF HEAD
China Asset Management Co.’s Hong Kong unit has hired Clarence Chan from Canada’s BMO Global Asset Management as head of exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Chan was head of ETF Asia and head of ETF portfolio management at BMO Global Asset Management for eight years. He also previously worked for BlackRock for five years.
The new appointment comes three months after the Canadian asset manager BMO sold its seven locally-listed ETFs to the company for HK$4.35 billion ($557.6 million) and exited Hong Kong’s highly competitive ETF market.
Chan’s appointment at ChinaAMC (HK) was effective August 2 and he reports to chief executive officer Tian Gan, the company says in a statement on August 9.
He replaces Frederick Chu, who left earlier this year to join the local asset management unit of Shanghai-based brokerage Haitong Group as executive director of ETF business.
BMO Global Asset Management did not respond to requests for comment.
Other people's moves reported by AsianInvestor this week:
Senior advisor Stewart Aldcroft to leave Citi
This article has been updated with comments from AMP.