Weekly roundup of people news, July 10
KIC SHUFFLES LEADERSHIP ROLES
Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) has promoted head of asset allocation Lee Hoon and head of private equity James Kim to deputy chief investment officers. They retain their previous roles.
Lee, head of asset allocation at the sovereign wealth fund, also takes on the role of head of investment strategy, and as such assumes some responsibilities from Park Daeyang, the CIO.
Kim also assumes the post of head of alternative investments, replacing Jung Sooyong, who has been named chief compliance officer. Jung in turn succeeds Chung Jihwan, who has been appointed chief operating officer. Chung replaces Kim Sangjoon, who retired last month.
A KIC spokesman did not immediately reply to a query about whether there had been deputy CIOs before or who had been head of investment strategy previously.
BLACKROCK ALTERNATIVE ADVISORS' ASIA HEAD DEPARTS
The Hong Kong-based head of Asia for BlackRock Alternative Advisors, the fund house's hedge fund solutions business, has moved on.
Buerge said on his LinkedIn page that he expected to remain in Hong Kong for August and September and then return to the US.
Buerge had been with BlackRock for 14 years, initially with Quellos (whos fund-of-fund business was acquired by BlackRock in 2007) and then at BlackRock across Seattle, Tokyo and Hong Kong.
The departure comes after several other senior executives left the firm in recent months, including Oisin Crawley, Ben Garland, John Howie and Andrew Swan.
DENISE YING EXITS FRANKLIN TEMPLETON AS MERGER PROGRESSES
Franklin Templeton Investments has seen Denise Ying, its director of Greater China business, leave following the February announcement of the US firm’s merger with rival Legg Mason. Her regulatory licence with the firm ended on June 30, according to records from Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission.
There are no plans replace Ying, whose former responsibilities will be shared by members of the team, said a Franklin Templeton spokeswoman. She declined to say whether the departure was related to the merger, but substantial staff cuts are widely expected at the combined group as a result of the deal, as is common in cases of consolidation.
Ying had joined Franklin Templeton in May 2015 and had reported to Alan Young, head of Greater China institutional business. Her previous employers include BlackRock, State Street and RBC Investor & Treasury Services. She could not be reached for comment.
This story has been updated to reflect when Ying's licence with Franklin Templeton ended.
MUZINICH ADDS HEAD OF APAC PRIVATE DEBT
New York-based credit-focused manager Muzinich & Co has hired Andrew Tan as head of Asia Pacific private debt and Denis Rayel as a managing director on that team.
They started on July 6 and July 1, respectively. Muzinich created the two roles to expand the global reach of its private debt platform.
Sydney-based Rayel reports to Tan, who in turn reports to George Muzinich, New York-based chief executive and chairman. Tan is based in Singapore, where Muzinich set up an office in 2017.
Tan joined from HSBC in Hong Kong, where he was head of global loans and special situations for Asia Pacific. Rayel moved from Intermediate Capital Group, where was a managing director based in Sydney. HSBC and Intermediate Capital both declined to comment.
NATIXIS IM NAMES INSTITUTIONAL HEAD FOR HK AND MACAU
Natixis Investment Managers has appointed Herman Chan as head of institutional sales for Hong Kong and Macau.
Chan took up the Hong Kong-based role in June and reports to Gina Huang, Beijing-based head of China.
This is a newly created role, a company spokesman said. Natixis IM declined to comment on who had looked after his duties previously.
Chan most recently worked in Hong Kong institutional business development at PineBridge Investments, a spokesman for the US fund house said.
Chan's last day with PineBridge was June 19 and his responsibilities have been absorbed by the four-strong Greater China business development team.
MERIAN’S HEAD OF NORTH ASIA SALES MOVES ON AFTER MERGER
Edward Ho, head of North Asia sales at Merian Global Investors, has left the British fund house following its acquisition by Jupiter Asset Management, as was previously expected.
His regulatory licence with Merian ended on July 1, according to Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission. A spokesman for Jupiter confirmed Ho had left the fund house but declined to comment further.
The spokesman also said that Paco Lee, head of marketing for Asia at Merian GI, had been placed on a fixed-term contract.
Jupiter announced its takeover of Merian in February and has so far moved three Merian staff to its own team since July 1.
MINORITY ASSET MANAGEMENT SETS UP IN HONG KONG
Shanghai-based Minority Asset Management has set up an office in Hong Kong and transferred one of its senior team to the territory after receiving a licence to operate there in January.
Co-founders Mark Dong relocated in February as general manager overseeing the firm’s offshore business, with a view to attracting international institutional clients. The firm has also hired a local executive to look after middle and back office operations.
Founded in 2013, Minority AM runs active China equity strategies and has Rmb10 billion ($1.4 billion) in assets under management.
DBS PRIVATE BANK NAMES GREATER CHINA HEAD
Singapore's DBS has appointed Peter Tung as head of private banking for Greater China.
Based in Hong Kong, he replaces Januar Tjandra, who has retired. Tung is responsible for managing and developing DBS's private banking business in Hong Kong, Macau, mainland China and Taiwan. He
A company spokesman declined to comment on Tung's reporting line at DBS and when Tjandra retired.
Tung was most recently a Hong Kong-based partner at Venturous Group, a venture capital firm that invests into new technology in China. Venturous is not planning to replace him, a company spokesman said.
BNY MELLON IM REPLACES CEO
BNY Mellon Investment Management has appointed Hanneke Smits as its new global chief executive to replace Mitchell Harris, effective October 1. Harris will retire from the role.
Smits is currently chief executive of Newton Investment Management, one of BNY Mellon IM's affiliate subsidiaries. Based in London, she will join Bank of New York Mellon’s executive committee and report to Todd Gibbons, New York-based chief executive of BNY Mellon.
A spokeswoman said the search for Smits’s replacement was underway.
FIDELITY HIRES GLOBAL HEAD OF MACRO AND ASSET ALLOCATION
Fidelity International has appointed Salman Ahmed to the newly created role of global head of macro and strategic asset allocation, based in London.
He will take up the post on August 31, joining from Lombard Odier Investment Managers, where he was chief investment strategist and co-chair of the global investment committee until July 7. No replacement is currently planned, said a LOIM spokeswoman.
The macro and strategic asset allocation function has been set up “to enhance Fidelity’s macro-economic output, providing capital market assumptions for its SAA framework”, said Fidelity in a statement.
These functions had previously been spread among other members of the team, who remain on board, a spokesman said.
Ahmed will report to Henk-Jan Rikkerink, head of solutions and multi-asset, also based in London.
Global macro economist Anna Stupnytska and lead cross-asset strategist Wen-Wen Lindroth will also move from existing teams to the global macro and SAA group to report to Ahmed. They retain their previous responsibilities, said the spokesman.
Prior to joining Lombard Odier, Ahmed was head of global macro at EDF and a global economist at Goldman Sachs.