Weekly roundup of people news, June 16
CBUS SUPER ANNOUNCES NEW CEO
Cbus Super’s chief investment officer, Kristian Fok, has been officially named as the fund’s chief executive officer.
Fok was named acting CEO in March 2023, following the retirement of Justin Arter, who had held the role for over two years.
Arter had been CIO since 2012, and led the development and implementation of Cbus’ hybrid internalisation strategy, which saw the management of 38% of the fund’s assets brought in-house and total cumulative costs savings for members of over $344.6 million (A$500 million).
Marianne Walker, who was the fund’s chief member officer, has been named deputy CEO.
Cbus has also completed two successful mergers in the last 15 months, resulting in a combined inflow of over $6.9 billion (A$10 billion) in funds under management and 90,000 new members.
CREDIT SUISSE AM'S APAC HEAD TAKES ON NEW ROLE AFTER ACQUISITION
Credit Suisse's Asia-Pacific head of asset management Huang Min has become the head of China client coverage for UBS Asset Management after the acquisition was completed this week, AsianInvestor learnt.
The appointment is effective immediately.
She will lead efforts to bring the capabilties of UBS to joint venture ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management (ICBCCS) and its partner ICBC.
Raymond Yin Lei will continue to lead UBS Asset Management’s business across the region as Asia-Pacific head and head of China onshore.
Aleksandar Ivanovic will remain head of client coverage and regional head of Europe, Middle East and Africa as well as Switzerland.
Huang will report to Ivanovic functionally and to Yin regionally.
She joined Credit Suisse in 2006 and held various leadership roles across investment banking and asset management in New York and Hong Kong.
In 2014, Huang was named head of asset management for China and promoted to head of asset management, Asia Pacific, in June 2022.
UBS declined to comment.
Phil Witherington has been appointed president and CEO of Manulife Asia, effective July 1.
He is currently chief financial officer for the group.
Witherington will continue reporting to Roy Gori, president and CEO of Manulife, and remain on the executive leadership team.
He succeeds Damien Green, who will now chair Manulife Financial Asia.
Witherington was previously Manulife Asia CFO, and has also worked at AIA and KPMG.
Colin Simpson, CFO for the US and general account, succeeds Witherington and will become CFO, also effective July 1.
MALAYSIAN CENTRAL BANK NAMES NEW GOVERNOR
Shaik Abdul Rasheed bin Abdul Ghaffour was appointed as governor of Bank Negara Malaysia for a five-year term effective July 1 to June 30 2028.
He joined the central bank in 1988 and became deputy governor in 2016.
He is also a member of the monetary policy committee and financial stability committee, a position he has held since 2015.
He also played key roles in the development and implementation of the financial sector masterplan and financial sector blueprints.
GPIF APPOINTS MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATIONS HEAD
Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund has appointed Jun Arima as senior director and head of management communications.
Arima will be responsible for GPIF’s corporate relationships and communication with external stakeholders, including other asset owners, investment industry bodies and other international organisations.
Between October 2016 and March 2023, Arima was managing director and head of portfolio management for public market investment department.
Arima ran the public market investment department and oversaw 80-90% of the pension fund's total assets, by delegating investment mandates to selected external asset managers.
GPIF did not respond to AsianInvestor’s inquiries about who will be taking over this role’s responsibilities.
Prior to GPIF, he worked with Korean Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance in Seoul.
Arima has also worked in asset management across New York, London and Tokyo for Nomura Asset Management and Industrial Bank of Japan's asset management arms.
STATE STREET APAC AM SEGMENT HEAD LEAVES
State Street’s Asia-Pacific head of asset manager segment, Neil Macdonald, has left the firm and will consider new opportunities, he confirmed to AsianInvestor.
Macdonald said he intends to stay in the wealth and asset management space and continue to be based in Hong Kong, although is open to opportunities elsewhere.
Macdonald took the newly created role with State Street in May 2021. He led the firm’s engagement strategy for asset manager clients in the region, including strategic direction and solutions structuring.
He reported globally to Donna Milrod, head of global asset managers segment and global clients division, and regionally to Mostapha Tahiri, Asia Pacific CEO.
Before joining State Street, Macdonald was with KPMG for nearly four years.
In 2019, he relocated from London to Hong Kong and became the firm’s head of wealth and asset management centre of excellence and built a consulting business focused on Hong Kong and mainland China.
Prior to KPMG, Macdonald also held senior roles at JP Morgan Asset Management and BlackRock.
A spokesperson of State Street told AsianInvestor that Macdonald’s departure is due to an internal structural change.
In February this year, the bank created a cross-product client solutions team for Asia Pacific to drive a “one State Street” approach by delivering client solutions across all products for all client segments in the region, the spokesperson said.
This story has been updated.
M&G INVESTMENTS APPOINTS NEW JAPAN HEAD
M&G Investments (M&G) appointed Manabu Fujita as head of M&G Investments Japan, effective June 16, pending regulatory confirmation.
Based in Tokyo, he will report to M&G’s head of Asia Pacific, Loretta Ng.
Fujita replaces Taro Shiroyama, who served as head of institutional development at M&G Investments Japan for seven years at, a spokesperson told AsianInvestor.
Fujita will be responsible for leading the team based in Japan, managing key relationships with institutional clients, sovereign wealth funds and other key prospects in the region.
Fujita additionally serves as representative director for M&G Investments Japan, and will sit on the board of M&G Investments Japan, the spokesperson added.
Fujita joins M&G Investments from Schroders Investment Management Japan, where he most recently served as head of sales.
Schroders did not respond to AsianInvestor’s inquiries about when he left the firm and who has taken over his role’s responsibilities.
During his 15-year tenure with Schroders, Fujita held several senior positions across the firm, including head of institutional sales and business development.
He also worked at Invesco and Nippon Life Group in Japan.
BNY MELLON NAMES HK CHIEF EXECUTIVE
BNY Mellon appointed Francis Giglio as Hong Kong chief executive, effective immediately.
He will drive strategic priorities in Hong Kong, a key market for BNY Mellon in Asia Pacific.
Giglio takes on this role in addition to his responsibilities as global head of relationship management for depositary receipts.
Prior to joining BNY Mellon in 2016, he held leadership positions at Nasdaq and the Singapore Exchange.
BNY Mellon declined to comment on who was handling the chief executive responsibilities before Giglio took over.
ADDX NAMES FORMER SGX EXECUTIVE AS CHAIRMAN
Global private market exchange ADDX has appointed Chew Sutat, former senior managing director at the Singapore Exchange (SGX), as chairman.
He has been on the board of ICHX Tech since 2018 and chaired the ADDX platform’s listing committee since 2019.
Chew will provide high-level guidance and leadership to help entrench Singapore-based ADDX’s position in the global private market space.
Chew left SGX in July 2021 and was succeeded by Pol de Win as head of global sales and origination.
Prior to SGX, Chew held senior roles at Standard Chartered Bank, OCBC Securities and DBS Bank.
He is currently a lead independent director at Yangzijiang Financial Holding and board member at Income Insurance.
MAYER BROWN HIRES JAPAN M&A PARTNER
Global law firm Mayer Brown has hired Eiji Kobayashi as M&A partner for its corporate and securities practice in Tokyo, effective June 12.
Kobayashi reports to Kevin Sheridan, who leads Mayer Brown’s global corporate and securities practice, and Rupert Burrows, managing partner of Mayer Brown’s Tokyo office, a spokesperson told AsianInvestor.
Kobayashi joins as an additional partner to bolster the corporate and securities practice in Tokyo and will be working with M&A partner Gordon Palmquist in Tokyo, the spokesperson added.
Kobayashi joins from law firm Greenberg Traurig where he was shareholder in the corporate practice of Greenberg Traurig’s Tokyo office, according to the firm’s website.
Greenberg Traurig did not respond to AsianInvestor’s inquiries about when he left the firm and who will take over his responsibilities.
Kobayashi joined Greenberg Traurig in December 2019.
WOMEN IN SUPER APPOINTS NEW CHAIR
Women in Super confirmed that Robbie Campo, the CEO of ESSSuper, will succeed Kara Keys as the new chair, the organisation said in an announcement on June 9.
Campo previously served as the policy committee chair and has extensive experience in the superannuation industry, having worked at Cbus and Industry Super Australia.