Weekly roundup of people news, July 16
BNPP IP's Asia chief resigns
BNP Paribas Investment Partners’ Asia-Pacific CEO Vincent Camerlynck has resigned.
Camerlynck will be leaving the company this month, a BNPP IP spokesperson said. The spokesperson said Camerlynck was leaving to “pursue other opportunities”.
Ligia Torres, BNPP IP’s London-based head of Asia-Pacific and emerging markets, will take on Camerlynck’s responsibilities “until further notice”. A spokesperson said that Torres will remain in the UK but will be making additional trips to Asia.
Camerlynck has worked at BNPP IP since August 2005, when he joined as global head of institutional sales. He has been Asia-Pacific CEO, based in Hong Kong, since June 2013. Prior to that he worked at Goldman Sachs in Paris and London between 1998-2005, where his positions included managing director in the bank’s equities division, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Torres has been at BNP Paribas since October 1999, according to her LinkedIn profile, and her positions included CEO of UK wealth management. She was promoted to head of Asia-Pacific and emerging markets for BNPP IP in July 2013, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Pioneer poaches senior trio from Neuberger
Global fund house Pioneer Investments announced three senior hires for its Taiwan subsidiary on July 15, in an attempt to meet clients’ demands.
Johnny Wong has been hired as general manager of Pioneer’s Taiwan office. Reporting to Singapore-based Asia and Middle East head Jack Lin, Wong will be based in Taipei and will lead business development and operations in the local market. He replaces Mitch Wang, who left his position in September last year due to changes in the firm’s regional business strategy.
Wong comes from Neuberger Berman, where he had been senior vice-president and Taiwan country head since June 2012. Neuberger Berman’s Asia-Pacific head Nick Hoar will take up the acting role of Taiwan head.
Prior to Neuberger Berman, Wong was president and executive director at UBS Taiwan for ten years, and was sales director at Janus International (Asia) between 2003-2005. He has also worked at HSBC Asset Management (HK), AIA and Franklin Templeton (Asia).
Also arriving at Pioneer from Neuberger Berman, David Huang has been hired as director of business development, while Faith Wang has joined as head of product and marketing.
Huang was previously channel sales executive at Neuberger Berman’s Taiwanese sales team in Taipei. Prior to that, he worked at Allianz Global Investors and HSBC Global Asset Management (Taiwan).
Wang was part of the marketing team at Neuberger Berman, and he held positions at Allianz Global Investors and JP Morgan Asset Management between 2005-2014.
Pioneer’s Taiwan office won a master agent licence in October 2013, allowing it to sell funds via Taiwanese distributors. The firm globally had €224 billion ($247 billion) in assets as of March 2015. It has 150 employees in the Asia-Pacific region.
JP Morgan AM boosts fund sales team
JP Morgan Asset Management has added to its fund sales team in Singapore with the hire of Anis Tiasiri, who will lead its business development efforts in Southeast Asia. Tiasiri joined earlier this month and reports to Brian Tan, head of fund sales for Southeast Asia at JP Morgan AM in Singapore. The position is newly created.
Tiasiri was hired from Thai fund house Tisco Asset Management where he was vice-president for product development and business strategy & development. Polamin Wuthithanakul has temporarily replaced Tiasiri while the firm looks for a permanent replacement.
Tiasiri joined Tisco’s Bangkok office in August 2012, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to that he worked for HSBC in Bangkok from August 2009 to March 2012, where his positions included investment consultant manager and acting investment products manager.
JP Morgan AM has five client advisers in the Singapore-based funds team reporting to Tan. The firm covers the Southeast Asia market out of Singapore.
PwC appoints China chairman
Consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has appointed Raymund Chao as its new Greater China chairman. Hong Kong-based Chao assumed his new position on July 1 and reports to Dennis Nally, PwC’s global chairman.
Prior to Chao's new role, he was PwC’s assurance leader for China and Asia Pacific. Chao became PwC’s China assurance leader in 2005, and in 2011 he was made PwC’s assurance leader for Asia Pacific.
Chao has provided audit and business advisory services in Hong Kong and mainland China, and has been involved in a number of onshore and offshore initial public offerings, debt financing, corporate restructuring, and merger and acquisition transactions.
Chao replaces Silas Yang, who has retired after working at PwC since 2001.
Japan names new financial regulator chief
The Japanese government has appointed Nobuchika Mori as commissioner of the Financial Services Agency, the regulator overseeing the country’s financial institutions.
Mori joined Japan’s Ministry of Finance in 1980 and has been head of the FSA's supervisory bureau since July last year. Prior to that he was head of the FSA’s inspection bureau. Mori, who assumed his new position on July 7, replaces Kiyoshi Hosomizo.
HKEx revamps listing committee
The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong announced the appointment of eight new listing committee members on July 10, including Nikko Asset Management’s Asia chairman Blair Pickerell, Lombard Odier’s Asia CEO Vincent Duhamel, BOCI Asia’s managing director of global coverage Paul Chau, and Rothschild (Hong Kong) managing director Catherine Yien.
Partners at law firms Slaughter and May and Kwok Yih & Chan as well as accounting firm PwC – Peter Brien, Dieter Lai Tak Yih and Edmond Chan respectively – were also appointed to the listing committee, as was Donald Roberts who is an independent non-executive director of HK Electric Investments.
The eight new members replace Carmelo Lee, Arnold Ip, Anthony Leung, Samson Li, Liu Ting An, Andrew Malcolm, Daniel Ng and May Tan.
SocGen shuffles Asian global markets sales team
Société Générale has appointed new heads of global markets sales across Asia as it continues to reorganise its global markets business. The appointments follow an earlier SocGen reorganisation, which was announced in May.
In an announcement on Monday (July 13) the French bank's corporate and investment banking arm named Hideaki Takahashi as its new head of global markets sales in Japan and Inhwan Oh as head of global market sales for SG Securities in Korea.
William Huang, meanwhile, will head global market sales for Greater China with support from Charles Gu, the new head of global market sales China, while Arnaud Lhoste will hold the same head sales post for Southeast Asia.
Takahashi will report locally to Koji Shimamoto, head of global markets Japan, and regionally to Yann Garnier, head of global market sales and deputy head of global markets Asia Pacific.
The new appointments went into effect on May 18.
Clifford Chance boosts finance team
Law firm Clifford Chance has hired Richard Gordon as a partner in its finance practice. Gordon will join the firm’s Sydney office on September 1.
Gordon will work with partner Caroline Jury, head of finance in Sydney, as well as focus on project and infrastructure work with partners Philip Sealey in Perth and Nicholas Wong, global co-head of the worldwide Projects Group, in Singapore. Gordon’s Australian transactional experience is in acquisition finance, project and infrastructure finance, real estate finance and funds.
Gordon joins from law firm Allens where he served as head of sectors for banking and financial institutions. Gordon joined Allens in October 1998, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Other people news reported by AsianInvestor over the past week:
Mobius steps aside at Templeton EM but remains involved
HSBC names new Asia wealth chief
Hermes raises $2.5 billion for Asian strategy