Weekly roundup of people news, July 21
AUSTRALIAN CENTRAL BANK NAMES FIRST FEMALE CHIEF
Australia’s central bank has appointed its first-ever female chief. Michele Bullock will take up her role as governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia for a seven-year term on September 18.
Bullock, who has served as deputy governor of the bank since April 2022, will succeed its current governor, Philip Lowe who steps down on September 17 after completing a seven-year term.
Her new role includes responsibilities as chair of the Reserve Bank Board, the Payments System Board and the Council of Financial Regulators.
Bullock, a career central banker, joined the institution in 1985 and has served in numerous roles.
TEMASEK, PING AN EXECUTIVES JOIN WORLD BANK INITIATIVE
Leaders from Temasek and Ping An Group are among 15 founding members of World Bank’s new Private Sector Investment Lab.
Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, executive director and chief executive officer of Temasek, and Jessica Tan, co-CEO of Ping An Group, were named on July 10 as the founding members of the new World Bank unit, which will build on the bank’s current work to address existing barriers and develop solutions to support private sector investment in emerging markets.
This includes improving financing structures to better align the World Bank with the needs and speed of private finance, approaches to balancing and allocating risks across investors, and forging new partnerships.
The lab will begin work in coming weeks, initially focusing on scaling transition finance in renewable energy and energy infrastructure.
It is co-chaired by Mark Carney, UN special envoy on climate action and finance, and co-chair of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, and Shriti Vadera, chair of Prudential.
The lab will meet regularly and report directly to the World Bank Group president Ajay Banga and World Bank Group leadership.
Other founding members include CEOs and chairman from financial corporations and alliances such as AXA, BlackRock, HSBC, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, and Three Cairns Group.
FORMER GIC ESG ANALYST JOINS UBS AM
GIC’s vice president and ESG analyst Lee Hyun-woo has left the sovereign wealth fund and joined UBS Asset Management as thematic research analyst for sustainable investing in July, UBS confirmed to AsianInvestor.
In the newly created role, Lee will conduct research on environmental and social themes and cover them from a macro perspective and at the company level.
He will also look at governance issues and engage with portfolio companies to help them improve sustainable business practices that are material to their long-term value creation.
He is based in Singapore and reports to Francis Condon, head of sustainable thematic engagement.
Before joining UBS, Lee was with GIC for over four years. He was responsible for ESG integration, investment stewardship, research and data analytics.
Prior to that, he also worked with Institutional Shareholders Service and Sustainalytics.
GIC did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.
WARBURG PINCUS APPOINTS SE ASIA HEAD AS PRESIDENT
Warburg Pincus has announced that Jeffrey Perlman, its head of Southeast Asia and Asia-Pacific real estate, will become president of the firm while retaining his current role.
Timothy Geithner, its current president and a former US treasury secretary, will become chairman and Chip Kaye will remain chief executive.
Perlman has expanded the company’s footprint in Asia over 15 years, co-founding and sponsoring some of the region’s largest real estate firms and opening the company’s Singapore office.
Perlman joined Warburg Pincus 17 years ago and has been a member of its executive management group since 2018.
He also serves as chairman of ESR Group.
SCHRODERS REJIGS ASIA LEADERSHIP TEAM
Schroders said Chris Durack, head of Asia Pacific, and Karine Szenberg, head of Europe and global head of product and marketing, have become co-heads of its client group.
Both are internal promotions and will report to Group Chief Executive Peter Harrison.
Durack and Szenberg will retain overall responsibility for their regions.
In addition, Katherine Cox, currently Asia Pacific head of strategic clients, product and private banks, was appointed global head of long-term asset owners.
She will focus on offering services to official institutions, sovereign wealth funds and endowments.
Szu Yi Chin, head of client group, Asia Pacific, was named head of wealth, Asia Pacific, focusing on wealth managers, financial advisers, platforms and private banks and overseeing product.
Both Cox and Chin will continue to be based in Singapore.
Lily Choh, CEO, Singapore, takes on a new, broadened role as head of South Asia, which includes Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
She will also represent Schroders in its Axis joint venture in India.
Gopi Mirchandani, currently CEO, Hong Kong and head of strategy, APAC, has been appointed to the expanded role of head of North Asia, which includes Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Japan.
She will retain her role as head of strategy, APAC.
David Guo, head of China, and Simon Doyle, head of Australia and CIO, will continue to report directly to Chris Durack.
UBS Asset Management appointed Thomas Kaegi as head of wholesale APAC client coverage, effective immediately, UBS confirmed with AsianInvestor.
In the new role, Kaegi will oversee the firm’s client relationships across the region. He reports to Francesco Grana, head of wholesale client coverage.
Kaegi will continue as head of UBS Asset Management Singapore, a role he has held since 2021. He is based in the city-state.
Kaegi has spent more than 21 years with UBS.
In the last eight years he has been with UBS Asset Management in the distribution organisation, most recently as global head of sales management.
ANNUITAS HIRES CIO, RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT EXPERT
Wellington-based Annuitas Management Limited (AML) has appointed Anthony Halls as chief investment officer (CIO) and Holly Marshall as senior responsible investment strategist.
Halls will take up his new role on July 24 and report to chief executive Tim Mitchell, while Marshall took up her new role on July 3. They will both be based in Wellington, Mitchell told AsianInvestor.
Halls takes over from Paul Bevin, general manager of investments, who started his own investment consulting firm in March, according to his LinkedIn profile. Mitchell has been overseeing investments in the interim, he said.
Halls was formerly CIO and senior portfolio manager, at Mint Asset Management.
Prior to Mint, Halls spent five years at the New Zealand Super Fund. He has also worked at BT Funds Management and National Australia Bank.
Marshall was formerly responsible investment strategist at Kiwi Wealth.
AML is a joint venture company set up by the Government Superannuation Fund Authority (GSFA) and the Board of Trustees of the National Provident Fund (NPF) to manage their respective schemes and investment portfolios.
Indonesian insurtech firm PasarPolis has appointed Allianz Indonesia chief executive Peter Van Zyl as its new president.
Van Zyl was Allianz Indonesia’s CEO for eight years, before which he served in various senior roles at US insurer AIG in Singapore and South Africa for almost 15 years.
It is not clear whether Van Zyl’s post is newly created or a replacement appointment.
AsianInvestor was unable to contact PasarPolis at the time of publication.
NORTHERN TRUST APPOINTS HEAD OF HONG KONG ENTITY
Northern Trust has appointed Benze Lam to the newly created role of head of Northern Trust’s Hong Kong entity.
He will assume overall management oversight responsibilities for the Hong Kong office.
Based in Hong Kong, Lam will retain his position as head of Asia, ex-Japan for Northern Trust’s Asset Management business in the region.
Lam reports to John McCareins, head of Northern Trust Asset Management in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.
Prior to joining Northern Trust in 2014, Lam was the head of sales for China Offshore at UBS Global Asset Management.
He has also held various roles in Fidelity, State Street and Morgan Stanley and has worked in Sydney, Singapore and Beijing.
NGS SUPER ADDS DEPUTY CEO, CRO
NGS Super, an industry super fund for Australia’s independent education sector, has appointed a new deputy chief executive officer (deputy CEO) role, as well as a new chief risk officer (CRO).
Ben Facer, current chief strategy officer (CSO), steps into the deputy CEO role, effective June 27, while risk and compliance professional Phillipa Minney was appointed to the CRO role as well as head of corporate services, including people and culture, effective July 3.
They both report to CEO Natalie Previtera and will be based in Sydney, a spokesperson told AsianInvestor.
The deputy CEO role was developed in response to the fund’s growth strategy and the expansion of the CEO role in supporting growth initiatives, according to statement by Previtera.
Facer will undertake his new deputy CEO responsibilities in addition to his current responsibilities as CSO, where he is responsible for the strategy, product, finance, and business intelligence functions within the fund.
Facer joined NGS in 2017 and was appointed to the executive team in August of that year.
Minney joins NGS following three months as group head of risk culture and conduct at QBE Insurance, according to her LinkedIn profile.
A QBE spokesperson declined to comment on AsianInvestor’s inquiries about Minney’s role at the firm and who had taken over her responsibilities.
Prior to Minney joining, Brendan Tynan Davies, head of legal and governance, was covering the role of chief risk officer during the recruitment process. Previtera was covering the role of head of corporate service prior to Minney’s appointment, while also acting as CEO, the spokesperson said.
Minney has also worked for Allianz, Insurance Group Australia, and Suncorp.
M&G Investments, has opened an office in Taipei and appointed Berny Lin as chairman of the board for M&G Taiwan and Steven Wang as general manager.
Lin's appointment to the newly created role comes in addition to his current role as Asia ex-Japan head of distribution for M&G - a role he has been in since 2020.
He is based in Hong Kong, and will remain there, dividing his time between the key markets for which he is responsible – Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Wang’s role is also newly created. He was appointed earlier this year but his role came into full effect with the opening of the Taiwan office on July 18.
He will report to Lin.
KKR BIDS FAREWELL TO TECH LEAD
Louis Casey, KKR’s technology growth equity lead for Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia has stepped down from his Singapore-based post.
He was involved in KKR’s private equity investments in Laser Clinics Australia, GenesisCare, MYOB, Arnotts and PropertyGuru, alongside growth tech investments in FlareHR, Kiotviet, Education Perfect, Growsari, Livspace, PrivyID and Advanced Navigation.
Before joining KKR, Casey worked in a growth equity investment team at Investec.
He has joned Australia’s Quadrant Private Equity as a partner, which at the time of publication had not responded to a request for details of his new role.
FARRO CAPITAL EXPANDS TEAM
Farro Capital has appointed Manoj Samtani as executive director as an addition to its team to meet rising demand from ultra-high net worth (UHNW) individuals.
Samtani reports to CEO and co-founder Hemant Tucker. He was previously relationship manager at Bank of Singapore and executive director at EFG Bank.
In addition, Zakiah Sulaiman has been appointed as director of compliance and Ivy Chen was named director of client relations.
Both of them report to Manish Tibrewal, co-founder of Farro Capital.
Sulaiman was most recently with UBP as director and Bank of Singapore before that.
Chen has previously worked with EY in both the New York and Singapore offices, as well as Bank of Singapore in a front-office role.
Farro Capital is a wealth management company and multi-family office based in Singapore.
COLLIERS APPOINTS NEW KOREA MD
Colliers has appointed Cho Sung-wook as managing director of Colliers Korea, effective immediately.
Cho has been leading Colliers’ capital markets and investment services business in Korea since 2022.
He joined the firm from commercial real estate services firm Avison Young where he was executive director in their Korea office. Prior to that, Cho had previously worked for Colliers in Korea as director.
Colliers did not respond to AsianInvestor’s inquiries about who was in Cho's role previously or to whom he reports.
BROADRIDGE APPOINTS NEW PRESIDENT
Fintech firm Broadridge Financial Solutions has announced the appointment of Mike Sleightholme as president of Broadridge International, effective July.
Sleightholme, who is based in London, will be responsible for Broadridge’s customer support along with its portfolio of technology and data solutions throughout the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions - including solutions supporting the capital markets trade lifecycle, global governance and communications, and asset management.
He reports to Chris Perry, president at Broadridge.
Sleightholme joined Broadridge in 2022 as president of its asset management solutions business.
In his new role, Sleightholme will focus on scaling the Broadridge International business. Prior to joining Broadridge, Sleightholme spent five years at SS&C Technologies where he served as CEO and general manager of its DST Systems business.
He previously spent over 20 years at Citigroup in London, Hong Kong and New York, where he held a variety of senior leadership positions.
He replaces Samir Pandiri who was previously the president of Broadridge International, a spokesperson told AsianInvestor. Pandiri stepped down this year and joined Apex Group.
MARKETAXESS NAMES HEAD OF HONG KONG
MarketAxess, a fixed income electronic trading platform for instituional clients, appointed Roheet Shah to the newly created role of head of its Hong Kong office.
Shah will be responsible for growing the Hong Kong office and expanding the company’s Asia footprint.
Shah has relocated to Hong Kong from Singapore for the new role, a spokesperson told AsianInvestor.
He will continue to be head of dealer sales APAC.
He has previously worked with Citi and Bank of America.