Weekly roundup of people news, July 14

PRINCIPAL GI NAMES ASIA HEAD 

Principal Global Investors has promoted Celestine Khoo to head of Asia ex-Japan from head of Southeast Asia.

Singapore-based Khoo took up the new role on July 1 and retains her previous responsibilities at the US asset manager. She now also covers Greater China and Korea.

Khoo reports to Kirk West, Singapore-based head of international offices at Principal GI, who oversees Asia ex-Japan as part of his remit.

Before joining PGI in December 2015, Khoo was head of external fund management in the reserve management department at the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

DBS PRIVATE BANK HIRES HEAD OF PRODUCT STRATEGY

  John Ng

DBS Private Bank has appointed John Ng as head of portfolio counselling and product strategy as of mid-June.

He will provide strategic portfolio advice and formulate model portfolios for different market segments. Those functions had previously been spread across the investment advisory and capital markets solutions teams in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Ng reports to Audra Seah, head of investment advisory and capital markets solutions.

Ng was previously head of research and product marketing at Bank of Singapore until June 2015. According to his LinkedIn page, Ng had been a private investor and consultant since then. 

AMUNDI SOUTHEAST ASIA HEAD DEPARTS

Jenny Sofian is understood to have left her post as Amundi's chief executive for Southeast Asia following the French fund house's acquisition of Pioneer Investments. 

Jack Lin, previously head of Asia-Pacific and the Middle East at Pioneer, has been named head of Southeast Asia for the newly merged entity, Amundi Pioneer, as reported.

Sofian had been with Amundi since 1996, having joined when it was Credit Agricole Asset Management. Amundi declined to confirm or comment on her departure.

M&G Real Estate, the property investment management arm of UK insurer Prudential, has hired a new head of Japan and confirmed the start date for the new lead manager of its core Asia strategy. 

Tenshin Ito

Tenshin Ito became Japan head on July 3 to replace Ishikawa Katsuhiro, who left the company in April to pursue other opportunities. Ito will manage the Japanese acquisition and asset management teams.

He joined from Tosei Asset Advisors, where he sourced large-scale transactions and established their Japan real estate investment trust business. Tosei couldn't be immediately reached for comments.

Meanwhile, M&G Real Estate said Richard van den Berg would start as lead manager of the core Asia property strategy in mid-August. His appointment was reported first by AsianInvestor, last month.

He will replace Scott Girard, who is relocating to Australia, and report to Ng Chiang-Ling, chief executive and chief investment officer for Asia at M&G Real Estate.

Van den Berg was previously greater China head at rival property asset manager CBRE Global Investors. 

AMP CAPITAL HIRES ENERGY SPECIALIST IN SYDNEY

AMP Capital has hired Stasha Prnjatovic on July 17 as investment director for energy on the infrastructure equity team in Sydney. She will lead the sourcing, onboarding and asset management of Australian and New Zealand energy infrastructure assets. 

She reports to Michael Cummings, head of Australia and New Zealand infrastructure equity funds, who had previously overseen the duties that Prnjatovic takes on. 

Prnjatovic was previously commercial director at New South Wales Treasury.

NORTHERN TRUST ADDS IN HONG KONG 

  Johnson Har

Northern Trust has hired Johnson Har as an institutional sales manager in Hong Kong to cover asset owners and asset managers across China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.

Har, who joined on June 1 from SS&C Fund Services, replaces Maggie Fan, who left the company in November 2016. He reports to Angelo Calvitto, head of sales for Asia Pacific.'

BNP PARIBAS NAMES NEW CHINA CEO

BNP Paribas has appointed Chen Bing as chief executive for China, effective on July 10, following the retirement of Peter Kwok.

Based in Shanghai, Chen will lead the bank’s businesses in China, including private banking, corporate banking, investment banking and securities services.

Chen will remain his previous roles as head of corporate and business development for greater China and head of BNP Paribas’s RMB competence centre.  

He reports to Paul Yang, head of greater China.

BLACKROCK BOOSTS AUSTRALIA SALES TEAM

BlackRock has named Katie Petering as Australia head of asset manager sales for the US fund house's iShares exchange-traded funds arm as of July 10.

Sydney-based Petering will lead sales to asset managers, insurers, banks and pension funds and reports to Jon Howie, Australia head of iShares and index investing.

Sales to these clients were previously looked after by Jason Collins, who remains Australia head of client business, a spokesperson said.

Most recently, Petering was head of the private investors product group at Goldman Sachs in Australia, until April 2015. She had taken maternity leave and a career break for the past two years.

CREDIT SUISSE NAMES PHILIPPINES MARKET HEAD

Credit Suisse appointed Christian Senn as Singapore-based market group head of the Philippines for private banking on June 1. He replaced Carole Cheung, who is now the most senior client partner for the Philippines, based in Hong Kong.

Senn was previously market group head for Thailand at the private bank, but had been on leave of absence from January 1 for family commitments. He reports to Benjamin Cavalli, head of private banking for Southeast Asia.

CHARLES MONAT APPOINTS HONG KONG CHIEF

Charles Monat Associates, a Hong Kong-based insurance broker for high-net-worth clients, has appointed Berry Wong as Hong Kong chief executive, to be effective from August 18. 

Other people news reported on AsianInvestor in the past week:

Eastspring co-head of intermediary business exits