Weekly roundup of people news, Feb 13
Pimco's Baker to retire, Dhoraisingam exits
US bond fund house Pimco will see Asia ex-Japan chief executive Brian Baker retire in May, while Ana Doraisingham, Singapore chief and Asia head of business development, has moved on.
In addition, Suhail Dada, head of US institutional business development and consultant relations, is also set to retire in April.
Baker has been with Pimco since 1997, all of which time he has spent in Asia, overseeing institutional clients such as sovereign wealth funds and business development in the region.
Eric Mogelof, who became Asia-Pacific head last July, will assume Baker’s responsibilities.
Dhoraisingam is understood to be have left to pursue other opportunities. Michael Thompson, Asia-Pacific head of global wealth management, will replace her as head of Singapore.
Dada joined Pimco in 2001 after 11 years at Bank of America based in the firm’s headquarters in Newport Beach, California. Kim Stafford, an executive vice-president who spent eight years in the consultant relations group, will replace him as global head of that team.
The moves follow a turbulent year for Pimco. Founder and co-chief investment officer Bill Gross left Pimco last September to join rival manager Janus Capital. AsianInvestor wrote an analysis of that move at the time. It came shortly after the exit of Mohammed El-Erian in January.
Pimco had $1.68 trillion of assets under management as of December 31 last year.
Monument names co-MD in Hong Kong
Alternative fund placement agent Monument Group has hired Niklas Amundsson as one of its co-managing directors in Hong Kong.
Amundsson took up the role on February 11 and is Monument’s first dedicated Hong Kong hire since it opened its office last January, as reported.
The US firm, which helps private equity funds to find investors, plans to add several more people to the Hong Kong-based staff later this year, according to Bob Mast, who is responsible for overseeing the office along with Janet Brooks, although they are based in Boston and London, respectively.
Mast said Amundsson’s hire would allow Monument to redistribute responsibilities until the company was able to recruit additional staff.
Amundsson was previously a partner at MVision Private Equity Advisors, although left the firm last year in a move covered by AsianInvestor.
Amundsson’s role at MVision has been assumed by other senior members of the team.
Both Monument and MVision have been expanding their presence in Hong Kong, highlighting the city’s role as Asia’s fundraising hub for alternative investment funds.
SocGen recruits for credit, rates
French bank Société Générale has announced the appointment of a senior Asia credit strategist and a new head of rates strategy for Asia ex-Japan.
Imtiaz Shefuddin actually started on January 15 while Frances Cheung joined on January 28, respectively, although the hires were not announced until this week.
Singapore-based Shefuddin fills the gap left after Asia research head Guy Stear was promoted to global head of credit strategy and relocated to Paris last September.
Shefuddin joined from CIMB and covers dollar-denominated high-yield and investment-grade bond markets across Asla. He reports locally to SocGen's Singapore country head Pascal Lambert, regionally to Asia Pacific economist and research head Klaus Baader and globally to Stear.
Meanwhile, Cheung was hired to replace Asia rates strategist Chong Wee-Khoon, who quit to join Nomura as head of rates strategy Asia ex-Japan in January last year. SocGen spokesman Jerome Tam told AsianInvestor the firm had hired Jason Daw as head of Asian FX strategy in May 2014.
Cheung reports to global head of rates and FX strategy Vincent Chaigneau and Asia-Pacific economist Klaus Baader. She joined from Crédit Agricole, where she worked as head of Asian rates strategy.
Henderson GI replaces China fund head
UK-based fund house Henderson Global Investors has appointed Charlie Awdry as manager of the firm’s Horizon China fund as it looks to build out its China-focused team.
He comes in to replace Caroline Maurer, who will be leaving Henderson GI to pursue other opportunities, a spokesperson confirmed. She has worked at the firm since 2007 as a research analyst for the Asia Pacific ex-Japan equity team, and moved to co-manage the Horizon China Fund in 2008.
Awdry joins the Asia ex-Japan team based in London and reports to Andrew Gillian, head of Asia ex-Japan equities. He already manages several Chinese equity funds and segregated mandates with total assets of $842.3 million as of September 30 last year.
Initially Awdry became a Henderson employee after the firm’s acquisition of Gartmore in September 2011. He had worked as an investment manager at Gartmore since 2001.
Gillian said the firm planned to build out its Asian equities hub in Singapore, including more locally based China analysts, but said it had not yet decided on numbers.
Henderson manages $3.2 billion in total assets as of September 30 last year.
Nomura hires China chief economist
Japanese bank Nomura has hired Zhao Yang as its China chief economist and Sophie Jiang as the head of equity research for Hong Kong and China banks.
Based in Hong Kong, Zhao is now leading a team of economists in economic cycle and thematic research. Asked when he joined the firm and who he replaced, company spokesperson Shirley Wong declined to comment. Zhao's LinkedIn profile had not been updated.
Zhao now reports to Rob Subbaraman, head of global markets research and chief economist for Asia ex-Japan. Previously he worked as economic research team leader at China International Capital Corporation since February 2011. He was also a manager at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority from 2009 to 2011.
Nomura spokesperson Wong also declined to comment on when Jiang joined the firm and who she was hired to replace. According to media reports, Nomura’s former China chief economist was Zhang Zhiwei, who moved to Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong last July.
Based in Hong Kong, Jiang reports to Wendy Liu, the head of China equity research. She was previously a banking analyst at CCB International.
Anne Street takes on head of strategy from Westpac
Australian financial advisory firm Anne Street Partners has hired Jason Dunn from Westpac as head of strategy and advice.
Based in Melbourne, Dunn started on February 9. He is responsible for development and implementation of the firm’s national business strategy. Initially he will focus on supporting state managers and their financial advice teams to grow multi-channel distribution.
He reports to Anne Street chief executive officer Michael Adamson.
At Westpac Dunn had worked as head of financial planning for subsidiaries BankSA, St George and Bank of Melbourne.
Anne Street Partners is a privately-owned firm while Westpac is one of Australia’s big four banks which acquired St George in 2008 and made it one of its divisions.
Other people news reported in the past week on AsianInvestor:
Khazanah hires M&A specialist for dealmaking