Weekly roundup of people news, Feb 25
CALPERS NAMES NEW CIO
The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) has named Nicole Musicco as its new chief investment officer, following an 18-month search to fill the position.
She replaces former CIO Yu (Ben) Meng, who resigned from the $479.6 billion pension fund in August 2020 following an ethics complaint about some of his personal stock holdings.
Musicco is a partner at New York-based RedBird Capital Partners and leads its Toronto office as well as the private equity firm's impact and diversity investment initiatives and businesses development activities in Canada.
Prior to joining RedBird in 2020, Musicco spent a year as senior managing director, head of private markets at the Investment Management Corp. of Ontario. Before that she was at the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) for 16 years where she led both the private equity and public equity investment teams.
Musicco was responsible for setting up OTPP’s first office in Asia Pacific and was based in its Hong Kong office for more than a year, to help build its presence in the region.
AUS EQUITIES DIRECTOR LEAVES REST SUPER
Mike Younger, the director of small caps Australian equities at Rest Super has resigned to join Prime Value Asset Management as portfolio manager.
He will continue to be based in Melbourne and will work closely with Richard Ivers, portfolio manager for small-cap strategies.
He joined the A$65.8 billion ($47.2 billion) Rest Super in 2016 and started with Prime Value in February. Before that, he was an equity analyst and head of small and mid cap research at Goldman Sachs, and the head of emerging companies research at Citi.
Rest Super could not be contacted for comment on his replacement. Prime Value did not respond to requests for more details by press time.
BLACKROCK HIRES NEW HEAD OF INSTITUTIONAL FOR APAC
BlackRock has hired Hiroyuki Shimizu in the newly created position of head of institutional for Asia Pacific.
Shimizu will join BlackRock in the second quarter and will be based in Hong Kong. He will also assume the additional role of president of BlackRock Japan — subject to local board approval — and will assist Hiroyuki Arita, CEO, representative director and head of Japan, in serving BlackRock's Japan client business.
Shimizu was most recently at Morgan Stanley Investment Management in Tokyo, where he served as global co-head of private credit and equity distribution, head of Japan and Korea, as well as president and representative director of Japan.
Prior to that, he was chief executive of KKR Capital Markets Japan, leading its fundraising and financing efforts. Shimizu spent 15 years at Goldman Sachs in Japan where he led distribution for special situations group, credit and alternatives sales, and later derivatives sales for its financial institutions group.
INDUSTRY VETERAN DAVID CHENG JOINS CAPITAL GROUP
Ex-Schroders investment director David Cheng has joined Capital Group as fixed income investment director with effect from Thursday (February 24).
Based in Singapore, David’s responsibilities include representing Capital Group’s fixed income team, deepening client engagement on bonds, and growing the firm’s fixed income business across Asia. He will focus on a range of fixed income investment strategies.
He has more than 20 years of industry experience, most recently as an investment director at Schroders in Singapore. Prior to that, he spent six years at UBS serving as the head of Apac ex-Japan investment specialists in Hong Kong and a portfolio manager in Chicago.
David replaces James Blair who left Capital Group in 2021 to move to Sydney where his family is.
HKEX REAPPOINTS CHAIR AND ADVISORY COUNCIL MEMBERS
The Hong Kong Exchange (HKEX) has announced the reappointment of Mary Schapiro, Stuart Gulliver and Joseph Tsai to the international advisory council, as well as the reappointment of three board members, including chairperson Laura Cha.
Schapiro is the vice chair for global public policy and special advisor to the founder and chair of Bloomberg, as well as the former chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Gulliver is the director of firms including Saudi Aramco, Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited and the Airport Authority Hong Kong, while Tsai is the executive vice-chair of Alibaba Group.
Cha is also a member of the executive council of the Hong Kong government has been chair since May 2018 and independent non-executive director since April 2018. Alongside Susan Chow and Benjamin Hung, her term was renewed for two years.
Chow has been on the board since 2020 and has held senior positions at CK Hutchison, HK Electric Investments Manager and Woo Kwan Lee & Lo.
Hung has been on the HKEX board since 2018 and was previously the Asia chief executive for Standard Chartered.
DEUTSCHE BANK HIRES ASIA PACIFIC CIO
Former DWS’ global chief currency strategist Stefanie Holtze-Jen has joined Deutsche Bank International Private Bank as chief investment officer to oversee the development of the bank’s Asian part of the house view. She replaces Tuan Huynh, who is now the global head of discretionary portfolio management.
Based in Singapore, Holtze-Jen reports to Christian Nolting, global chief investment officer and Rajesh Mahadevan, head of capital markets and chief investment officer of investment solutions for Asia Pacific.
Holtze-Jen is also a member of the Singapore Foreign Exchange Committee under the Monetary Authority of Singapore. She was nominated and is serving as co-vice chair of the Global Foreign Exchange Committee for a two-year term.
During her time at asset manager DWS, Holtze-Jen guided a team of portfolio managers on strategy in foreign-exchange exposure covering the macro view, positioning and technical analysis.
Prior to DWS, she held different appointments at Commerzbank AG and Royal Bank of Canada in Hong Kong, Singapore and London.
UNION BANCAIRE PRIVÉE HIRES ASIA AM CEO
The former managing director of Eureka Capital Partners Nah Wee Ping has joined Union Bancaire Privée as the chief executive for asset management of its Asian business. His appointment was made effective on February 21.
Based in Hong Kong, Nah will report to Nicolas Faller, co-CEO of asset management and head of institutional clients, and Michael Blake, head of region and CEO of wealth management, Asia, according to a company statement.
Nah has over 25 years’ experience working for major financial institutions across Asia, including Goldman Sachs, Credit Agricole Asset Management, and Fortis. In the last decade, he has run the Asia business of AGF Investments Asia and then of Eureka Capital Partners in Hong Kong.
He replaces Ted Holland who is leaving the bank after 10 years. Holland is relocating to his native US for personal reasons following a transition period. He will then become an independent part-time advisor to UBP Asia Asset Management.
HSBC SINGAPORE HIRES NEW COO
HSBC Singapore has hired Tancy Tan as its new chief operating officer.
In her new role, Tan will report to chief executive Kee Joo Wong, and David Grimme, chief operating officer of HSBC Asia Pacific. She will be responsible for building the bank’s online platforms as it aims to double assets with its wealth and personal banking businesses over the next five years.
Most recently Tan worked at JP Morgan Chase for over 15 years, where she led the digitisation of services, as well as the integration of artificial intelligence and analytics into the firm’s business operations.
Tancy Tan worked at JP Morgan Chase for over 15 years and led the operational integration of AI and analytics.
Prior to that, she was an analyst at Accenture for over 3 years.