Weekly roundup of people news, Jan 30
Permira loses Asia chair to academia
Veronica Eng has left her London-based role as Asia chairwoman of private equity firm Permira this year to become a practice professor at the National University of Singapore.
A founding partner of the UK manager in 1985, she will leave Permira’s investment committee at the end of June. She had been Asia chair since January 2010.
Eng is one of three partners stepping down in 2015, the others being investment committee member and former chairman Damon Buffini and board member Charles Sherwood.
Buffini will continue as a senior adviser at Permira and as a board member at Hugo Boss, the fashion house in which Permira has a 32% stake.
A Permira spokeswoman said Sherwood will split his time between climbing, studying for a master’s degree and working in non-profit activities.
Each January three of Permira’s 27 partners step down and a new trio is promoted. Fabrizio Carretti, Mubasher Sheikh and Chris Davison – heads of Italy, healthcare and investor relations, respectively – have been nominated this year.
Before joining Permira in 1985, Eng was head of corporate finance at Schroder Investment Bank in Singapore. Permira had been Schroder Ventures Europe until 2001, when it split from Schroders and become Permira.
StanChart hires ex-Sumitomo executive
Joost Lobler has joined Standard Chartered in Hong Kong as head of sales for asset managers in north Asia and Greater China, within the transaction banking division.
He leads a team of four staff in the city and is responsible for sales of the bank’s custody, securities services, cash management and Stock Connect services to fund managers.
Lobler reports to Barnaby Nelson, northeast Asia and Greater China head of investors and intermediaries for transaction banking.
The role had been vacant for most of last year, during which time Nelson had overseen that coverage. The bank declined to say who had held Lobler’s full-time position before him.
Before joining StanChart, Lobler spent almost four years at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank in Hong Kong, where he was most recently Asia ex-Japan head of sales.
Lobler left the firm last year when Sumitomo closed down the securities services office in Hong Kong in August and transferred the functions to Tokyo, as reported.
Before that, Lobler worked in London at Fortis Bank as chief commercial officer for its fund services division, and more recently as head of sales for Europe and Asia for hedge fund administrator Butterfield Fulcrum, which was acquired by Mitsubishi UFJ in 2013.
Manulife AM promotes Pedersen to Asia fixed income CIO
Canada’s Manulife Asset Management has promoted Endre Pedersen to Asia ex-Japan chief investment officer for fixed income.
He replace Wang Yu Ming, who had left in late 2012 to joined Nikko Asset Management as the Japanese firm’s international CIO.
Pedersen previously covered the Southeast Asia bond markets and retains his post as leader of the team that runs the pan-Asia bond portfolios.
He has 15 years of fixed income investment experience. This includes managing regional and global funds with active currency overlay and significant allocations to Asian sovereign and corporate debt.
During his six years with Manulife AM, Pedersen and his team have developed a series of funds, including an Asia total-return bond strategy.
Manulife AM’s Asian fixed income team has 60 investment professionals – including 24 credit analysts – across 10 markets in the region managing $45 billion of fixed income assets, including Japan.
Capital Group boosts Asia sales headcount
US fund house Capital Group has hired relationship managers in Hong Kong and Tokyo as part of efforts to strengthen its retail and intermediary distribution in Asia. It has also been hiring sales service and support staff in Hong Kong, but did not provide specific numbers.
In Hong Kong, Stanley Chan joined as relationship manager on January 15 and focuses on the firm’s institutional and financial relationships in the city. He previously worked at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, where he was head of Hong Kong sales and consultant relations.
A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman declined to say whether Chan had been replaced.
Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Chan had held senior roles in Hong Kong at Wellington Global Investment Management and Merrill Lynch Investment Managers.
Capital has made other additions in the past year. Masaki Takada joined Capital in Tokyo in September as senior relationship manager for institutional sales. He had previously worked at Wellington in Tokyo – the firm could not be reached to answer queries about whether he had been replaced.
In Sydney, Capital has hired two key account managers, Scott Baker and Nigel Waugh.
Baker joined Capital in November as a key account manager, reporting to Jorden Brown, head of wholesale sales.
Baker previously worked for Australia’s Perpetual Investments, where he was a strategic account manager. Perpetual said it was recruiting to fill the role.
Brown had also joined from Perpetual in February last year. He was general manager adviser for distribution, and he has not been replaced.
Waugh joined Capital in October last year. He was previously an investment specialist at NAB Wealth. The Australian bank did not respond to enquiries as to whether he had been replaced.
Capital Group has $17 billion in assets under management in Asia Pacific (including Japan and Australia) and $1.4 trillion in global AUM.
Morningstar recruits for senior sales roles
Investment research firm Morningstar has created two senior sales roles in Asia to expand its business, notably in the new area of investment management.
It has appointed Adam Grabow as vice-president of buy-side and adviser sales specialising in equity research, manager research and investment management offerings. He relocated this month to Singapore from Morningstar’s headquarters in Chicago, where he was vice-president of institutional business.
Chang Yu-Tsung joins as business development lead based in Tokyo, responsible for business development and relationship management for clients across Asia.
Chang moved from rating agency Standard & Poor’s in Tokyo, where he was Asia-Pacific head for S&P Ratings. He reports to Katsunari Yamaguchi, president of Ibbotson Associates Japan, a subsidiary of Morningstar, and Dan Waryck, global sales operations and strategy leader based in Chicago.
Morningstar obtained its investment management licence in Hong Kong in July last year and has flagged its regional expansion plans, including adding fund analysts, as reported.
Nick Cheung, chief executive for Asia, said it delayed the hiring of analysts, as it wanted to ensure that a senior business lead is in place before making the move. He added that recruitment of analysts to be based in Hong Kong is the next move now that Grabow is on the ground.
Grabow reports to Cheung and Chris Deavin, vice-president of buy-side and advisor sales for, Asia and the Europe, the Middle East and Africa region.
Morningstar offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries and had $169 billion in assets under advisement and management globally as of September 30.
Loomis adds to emerging markets team
Esty Dwek joined fund manager Loomis Sayles’ London office in the newly created role of emerging markets global strategist in January.
Dwek reports to Peter Marber, head of emerging markets, and Christine Kenny, co-managing director of the London office.
Previously Dwek worked for HSBC Private Bank between March 2006 and December 2014 as an investment strategist, graduate analyst and relationship manager.
Loomis Sayles manages $16.2 billion of EM investments and runs global AUM of $230.2 billion.
Northern Trust sets up Korea rep office
Asset management and servicing group Northern Trust officially opened its doors in South Korea on January 28.
Northern Trust’s official opening in the country marks another step for the group’s attempt to expand in the region, after having recently opened in Malaysia and the Philippines last February, as revealed by AsianInvestor.
It currently has a presence in nine locations in the region, namely Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and South Korea.
Alvarez & Marsal hires for new Asia team
Professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) formally launched its Asia transaction advisory group (TAG) on January 29. A&M advises PE firms and other asset managers on operational and financial due diligence related to their investments.
Liu Xuong, Shanghai-based head of TAG Asia, started in the role in late November 2014, joining from accounting firm KPMG, where he was a Shanghai-based transaction advisory partner.
A&M’s TAG Asia team has added five additional staff, including senior director Richard Chen, who also joined from KPMG.
A spokeswoman for KPMG did not respond by press time to AsianInvestor’s enquiries as to whether they had been replaced.
The TAG Asia capability adds to the 41-person Mumbai-based TAG India team.
Transaction advisory now accounts for almost half of A&M’s Asia-Pacific headcount with the rest covering performance improvement, turnaround and restructuring, and forensics and disputes.
Interestingly, Paul Aversano, A&M’s global head of TAG, said the firm was able to find a leader in India more quickly than it did in Asia, without elaborating.
Avaloq hires risk and tech heads
Wealth management software provider Avaloq has appointed Andre Di Prospero as head of risk and compliance, and Matthew Thoms as head of technology in Singapore.
Prospero joins from Deutsche Bank in the same city, where he was senior global technology and operations auditor. He had regional responsibility and coordination of private wealth and asset management and private business clients in Asia.
Thoms joined from Barclays, where he was director for technology and head of Avaloq practice and global client reporting at Barclays Wealth for Singapore and Hong Kong. He was with Barclays for 15 years, having spent the last eight years in wealth management using Avaloq as the core platform.
Avaloq did not respond to queries as to whether Prospero and Thoms’ roles were newly created or replacement hires, nor to whom they will report.
Other people news reported by AsianInvestor in the past week:
AllianzGI eyes Asian demand for alternatives
BNY Mellon IM seeks alts, equities staff