Weekly roundup of people news, June 2
FORMER HKEX CEO PAUL CHOW DIES
Former CEO of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, Paul Chow Man-yiu, has died at 76.
His family said he died peacefully at a Hong Kong hospital late on June 1, local media reports said.
He was instrumental in bringing mainland companies to list in the city three decades ago, the South China Morning Post said.
Chow headed the stock exchange for 13 years, first from 1992 to 1997, and then from 2003 until his retirement in 2010 at the merged HKEX, which was formed by combining the stock exchange and futures exchange and related clearing houses in 2000.
Chow was previously also CEO for Asia Pacific ex-Japan at HSBC Asset Management and chairman of Cyberport Management Company.
ONTARIO TEACHERS’ SENIOR ASIA EXECUTIVES DEPART
Two senior executives of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Fund’s Asia operations are stepping down, the Toronto-based fund confirmed to AsianInvestor.
Ben Chan is departing the fund after five years after leading the fund's regional investments as executive managing director and head of Asia Pacific.
Raju Ruparella also will step down from his role as head of Asia Pacific direct private capital. He has been with the fund for 15 years.
“We can confirm two personnel changes on our Asia-Pacific team. In March, Ben Chan shared his intention to retire in June after a successful career and five years at Ontario Teachers’. Raju Ruparelia has left to pursue other opportunities and we wish him all the best,” a spokesperson for the fund told AsianInvestor.
The spokesperson said the fund expects to appoint a new head of Asia Pacific in the coming months to continue to oversee its growth strategy in the region.
AsianInvestor understands that the private capital team in Asia Pacific will be led by three senior leaders — Amit Sobti and Cindy Yan, who will co-lead private capital direct investments, and Mei Ni Yang, who will lead private capital funds.
Chan will stay on until mid-June to ensure a smooth transition.
The Ontario Teacher’s remains committed to Asia-Pacific and will continue to build its business in the region from its offices in HK, Singapore and Mumbai.
The departure of the two senior executives is based on their personal decisions and is unrelated to the recent headlines about Canadian public pension funds investing in China, a source close to the matter told AsianInvestor.
CPP INVESTMENTS' EQUITIES MD LEAVES, PE EXECUTIVE PROMOTED
Alwin Poon, former managing director in the active equities Asia team at Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, has left the Canadian national pension fund’s investment arm in Hong Kong, a spokesperson confirmed to AsianInvestor.
No other details were provided.
Poon’s LinkedIn shows he joined CPPIB in February 2020 after leaving a managing director role at The Carlyle Group in October 2019. Poon has also previously worked Olympus Capital Asia and Bain & Company.
In a separate development, Roy Kim has been promoted from principal to managing director in the private equity Asia team, headed by Frank Su.
The change is effective June 1 as part of a pool of global promotions, the spokesperson said.
Kim Joined CPPIB in November 2016, according to his LinkedIn profile. He previously worked at BlackRock in New York, HarbourVest Partners in Boston and Lazard in San Francisco.
PRUDENTIAL REPLACES CFO AFTER CODE OF CONDUCT BREACH
Prudential named Ben Bulmer as chief financial officer for the group, pending regulatory approval.
Bulmer is currently chief financial officer (CFO), insurance and asset management, and was previously CFO for Prudential Corporation Asia.
Bulmer replaces James Turner, who resigned after an investigation into a code of conduct issue relating to a recent recruitment situation, the insurer said in a media release.
“The Group sets itself high standards and Mr Turner fell short on this occasion. Mr Turner will remain available to the Group for a period of four months to support a smooth transition,” the statement said.
There are no implications for financial performance, reporting or operations of the business, Prudential said.
Bulmer will report to Anil Wadhwani, CEO, and will continue to be based in Hong Kong.
FWD GROUP HIRES CFO FROM NEW YORK
Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li’s insurance company FWD Group named Sid Sankaran as managing director and its new group chief financial officer (CFO), effective September 1, subject to regulatory approval.
Sankaran will join the company as senior advisor from June 1, 2023.
Sankaran serves on the board of directors at American health insurance company Oscar Health, where currently he is acting as their interim CFO and is based in New York.
He will relocate to Hong Kong, the firm told AsianInvestor.
The appointment came soon after FWD announced the departure of former CFO Jon Nielsen two weeks ago.
The new CFO Sankaran will become a member of the FWD Group executive committee and will report to FWD Group chief executive officer Huynh Thanh Phong, the firm announced on May 31.
Sankaran has over 25 years of insurance and finance leadership experience in North America. Previously, he was the chairman and CEO of underwriter SiriusPoint from the company's inception and listing in 2021 until May 2022.
Australia's sovereign wealth fund, Future Fund, has hired Toby McMillan as director of unlisted property.
McMillan joins from Victorian Funds Management Corporation, where he spent 12 years, most recently as senior portfolio manager for property.
McMillan’s appointment follows the addition of several new staff to its investment team recently, including Ben Griffiths as director of equities and former Carlyle dealmaker David Bluff as head of private equity.
McMillan will continue to be based in Melbourne in his new role.
CAPITAL GROUP NAMES FIRST HK HEAD OF FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARIES
Capital Group appointed Angela Jin as its first head of financial intermediaries, Hong Kong.
Based in Hong Kong, Jin will oversee the local financial intermediary sales team, drive its distribution strategy and strengthen existing relationships with Capital Group’s financial intermediary clients.
In this newly created role, she reports to Toby Chan, head of client group, Hong Kong and Greater China.
She previously served as head of private banking, Hong Kong, at PIMCO, where she spent eight years building the firm's wealth management business in North Asia.
Prior to that, she led MSCI’s ESG business with institutional clients for Asia ex-Japan.
PIMCO declined to comment on Jin's replacement.
Aware Super has hired four new investment specialists and set up a new investment risk division.
Two of the new hires, Sean Anthonisz and Wei-Ting Pan, have joined from Mine Super and will play a founding role in the new investment risk team.
Anthonisz was head of investment strategy at Mine Super -- a role he held for three years -- and Pan was a senior quantitative analyst on his team.
Before being appointed head of investment strategy at Mine Super, Anthonisz was a senior quantitative analyst working on asset allocation.
Pan worked at Mine Super for more than four years and spent two years at Equipsuper before that.
The other two recruits will join Aware Super’s macro strategies team.
Christopher Ellis has been hired as senior portfolio manager of macro strategy and Nathan Peters joins as senior investment analyst.
Ellis was most recently a portfolio manager at Singapore-based hedge fund Rhicon, where he worked for almost five years. Before that, he spent 10 years at Macquarie Investment Management.
Peters was most recently with Fulcrum Asset Management in London where he worked for over ten years as a portfolio manager.
All new hires will be based in the Greater Sydney area.
Mine Super did not respond to AsianInvestors' request for comment on Anthonisz's and Pan's replacements.
SCHRODERS HIRES INSTITUTIONAL SALES EXPERT FROM BLACKROCK
Priscilla Li has joined Schroders on the institutional sales team, AsianInvestor understands.
No further details were available.
She was previously with BlackRock as vice president for institutional sales.
Li joined BlackRock in 2021, her LinkedIn profile shows. She also previously worked with Metlife Investment Management and JP Morgan Asset Management.
BlackRock did not respond to an AsianInvestor request for information about who replaced Li in her former role.
BLACKROCK APPOINTS CO-HEAD OF JAPAN CLIENT BUSINESS
BlackRock appointed Masato Sunaga as co-head of Japan client business effective July.
Sunaga will be responsible for strengthening strategic relationships with wealth distributors in Japan on the back of the impending Nippon Individual Savings Account (NISA) reforms and other government initiatives.
He will also partner with the iShares and index investment business to accelerate the adoption of exchange traded funds (ETFs) and index products across wealth and institutional clients.
BlackRock did not respond to AsianInvestor queries on who is the other co-head of the Japan client business, who Masato reports to and whether he replaces anyone.
Sunaga was most recently co-head of sales at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, which also did not respond to AsianInvestor queries on who replaces Masato.
Sunaga has also worked with Goldman Sachs, Societe Generale and Daiwa Securities.
MALAYSIA’S PNB APPOINTS GROUP CHAIRMAN
One of Malaysia's largest fund managers, Permodalan Nasional Berhad, has appointed Arshad Raja Tun Uda as group chairman, effective June 1.
The previous chairman Arifin Zakaria, retired on May 6.
Raja is chairman of Ekuiti Nasional Berhad, Icon Offshore Berhad and Bumi Armada Berhad.
He has also held senior roles at Maxis Berhad, Khazanah Nasional Berhad and PricewaterhouseCoopers.