Weekly roundup of people news, Feb 24
Fullerton names head of China onshore business
Singapore's Fullerton Fund Management has hired Mark Li as general manager of its wholly-owned foreign entity in Shanghai and China head of sales, the firm confirmed to AsianInvestor.
The S$16.1 billion ($11.3 billion) asset manager also plans to expand the team in Shanghai from nine to 15 this year by adding credit analysts and sales staff.
Li joined this month from HSBC Global Asset Management, where he had been China head of institutional business since June 2015. Prior to that, he was chief investment officer for Greater China at HSBC Life Insurance.
Fullerton has QFII, RQFII and China interbank bond market licences and is seeking a private fund manager licence for its WFOE. It also hopes to obtain a public mutual fund licence at some point in the future.
The firm originally had a representative office in Beijing but then we switched locations to Shanghai.
Bank of Singapore opens in Dubai International Financial Centre
Bank of Singapore, the private bank business of Singapore's OCBC, has opened an office in Dubai International Financial Centre, a financial free zone in the emirate.
Kirit Chauhan will head the branch, overseeing a 75-strong team. He had joined Bank of Singapore as market head for the Middle East, Subcontinent and Africa in 2014 and played a pivotal role in securing the DIFC licence last year, said the firm in a statement.
BoS already had a representative office in Dubai, which it established 1996 before the DIFC was set up in 2004.
The bank did not respond by press time to requests for comment about how many of the 75 staff were new hires or existing staff from the rep office, nor whether it would retain the rep office.
It's not all been smooth sailing for BoS in Dubai. The bank is understood to have lost its non-resident Indian team to rival Sarasin in 2014, including staff spread across Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore. The departures included at least 14 people from the Hong Kong and Singapore offices.
BNY Mellon names new Korea head
BNY Mellon, a US-based investment management and services firm, has appointed Ji Sang-Don as country executive for Korea and manager of the Seoul branch. He succeeds Kim Yoon-Soo, who has retired after nine years with the company.
Ji was previously managing director and branch manager at JP Morgan in Seoul and had spent 20 years at the US bank. He has also worked for Arab Bank and Security Pacific National Bank.
He will oversee the company's local capabilities and presence across all businesses in Korea and will report to Gregory Roath, Asia-Pacific head of global client management.
Sun Life appoints new Hong Kong chief
Sun Life Hong Kong (SLHK) has named Fabien Jeudy as its new chief executive, in addition to making three senior appointments in Hong Kong, all effective on February 22.
Jeudy replaces Jason Dehni, who left the firm in January. Jeudy was most recently regional chief operating officer for Sun Life Financial in Asia. His replacement is yet to be confirmed, a spokesperson said.
Belinda Au is now general manager of distribution and marketing at SLHK, before which she was chief distribution officer.
Belinda Luk is appointed general manager, wealth and pensions. Previously, Luk had been in the position of senior vice president, pension and group business.
Clement Lam is appointed general manager for life and health, Sun Life Hong Kong. Lam was most recently the head of telco and fintech solutions, Asia.
Sun Life did not make clear in its statement how Au and Luk's roles had changed, apart from their new titles.
Most of Au, Luk and Lam’s new duties were part of former chief marketing officer Jeremy Young’s role. Young was promoted to Asia CMO this month.
Au and Luk’s new roles still include the areas they covered before, while Lam’s replacement has not yet been confirmed yet.
Insight adds Australia adviser distribution head
UK asset manager Insight Investment, owned by US-based BNY Mellon, appointed Rob Thompson as head of adviser distribution in Australia.
The role is newly created, a spokesperson said. The firm aims to expand to cover the country's intermediary network in addition to institutional clients, said Bruce Murphy, director of Insight’s Australian business, to whom Thomson reports. Both men are based in Sydney.
Thompson joins Insight from PM Capital, where he was head of distribution from August 2012 to September 2016. He has also held senior distribution roles at Perpetual and Macquarie Bank. PM Capital didn’t reply to a query about Thompson’s replacement by press time.
NNIP forms responsible investment team
NN Investment Partners has appointed Adrie Heinsbroek, Faryda Lindeman and Johan van der Lugt to form its newly established responsible investment team, effective on March 1.
Heinsbroek will head the team, while Lindeman takes on the role of senior corporate governance specialist and van der Lugt will be a senior environmental, social and governance (ESG) specialist.
The team will be based in The Hague, and report directly to Hans Stoter, chief investment officer at NNIP.
Heinsbroek joins from ING Bank Belgium, where he was head of sustainability.
Lindeman was most recently with Sustainalytics, a provider of ESG and corporate governance research and ratings, where she managed the corporate government research team.
Van der Lugt joins from Robeco, where he was a senior equity analyst for global financials.
Sustainalytics and Robeco declined to comment on Lindeman and van der Lugt’s departures, while ING didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.
Northern Trust to buy fund servicing units from UBS AM
US-based Northern Trust agreed on February 20 to buy UBS Asset Management’s fund administration servicing units in Luxembourg and Switzerland.
The sale is expected to close in the second half of 2017 and will see Northern Trust provide administration services for funds with Sfr420 billion ($413 billion) in assets.
UBS said in a statement that its clients would continue to work with their current relationship management teams after the sale.
Northern Trust said it would announce who will lead the fund services businesses it is buying in due course, along with any senior management changes as a result of the acquisition.
Other people news reported by AsianInvestor in the past week: