Weekly roundup of people news, March 6
NUVEEN HIRES FIRST APAC HEAD OF WEALTH MANAGEMENT
US asset manager Nuveen has hired Henry Chui from Pimco to take up the newly created role of Asia-Pacific head of private wealth in mid-March in Hong Kong, AsianInvestor can reveal.
This post was established to cover the intermediary and family office channel in a more targeted strategy as an expansion of the institutional business, said Simon England-Brammer, Nuveen’s head of Asia Pacific, to whom Chui will report.
Chui has been North Asia head of private banking at Pimco since February 2012 and before that worked at Invesco and Schroders. A Pimco spokeswoman declined to say whether he would be replaced.
FWD APPOINTS NEW SINGAPORE CEO
Hong Kong-based insurer FWD Group has promoted Khor Kee Eng to chief executive for the Singapore branch, pending regulatory approval.
Khor, previously Singapore chief financial officer, succeeds Abhishek Bhatia, who becomes group chief officer of new business models to focus on growing the digital aspects of the business.
Khor reports to the board of directors of FWD Singapore.
The firm's spokeswoman told AsianInvestor the appointment of Khor's successor was under way, and that an announcement would be made in due course.
BNP PARIBAS AM UNCLEAR ON HOW FRANCE CUTS MIGHT AFFECT ASIA
BNP Paribas Asset Management is planning to cut 110 staff in France by February next year, a company spokesman told AsianInvestor.
He declined to comment on whether any of the affected staff in Paris would have investment management or client coverage related to Asia, or would have global or emerging market remits.
The layoffs will be executed through a voluntary redundancy plan that was initiated in September last year and will affect about 10% of the workforce in Paris, he added.
QIC NAMES NEW HEAD OF GLOBAL PRIVATE CAPITAL
Marcus Simpson retired from his role as head of global private capital at Brisbane-based Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) as of the end of February.
Stephen Whatmore, head of the North America business, will move back to Australia from San Francisco to replace Simpson, a spokesman told AsianInvestor.
Simpson had been with QIC since September 2005 and is now working as a private market consultant, according to his LinkedIn page
MAN GLG HIRES PORTFOLIO MANAGER AND ANALYST
Man GLG, the discretionary investment management unit of Man Group, has appointed Irene Liaw as portfolio manager and Simpson Wong as senior analyst, both with a focus on Asia technology, media and telecoms.
Both are based in Hong Kong and report to Neil Mason, London-based head of European long/short equity at Man GLG. They joined the firm in end of January, a spokeswoman said, but declined to comment on whom they had replaced.
Both of them were previously with a now-seemingly-defunct firm called ArchiTech Capital, where Liaw was a portfolio manager and Wong ran the Greater China technology book. ArchiTech’s Hong Kong regulatory licence ended on December 13 last year.
LIFE INSURANCE ASSOCIATION OF SINGAPORE RE-ELECTS PRESIDENTS
Singapore's Life Insurance Association (LIA) of Singapore re-elected the members of its management committee at its annual general meeting on March 4.
Khor Hock Seng was re-elected as president, while Nishit Majmudar and Kevin Stone were re-elected as deputy presidents, for second terms of office.The terms run for one year.
Khor is group chief executive of Singapore-based insurer Great Eastern Holdings. Majmudar is Singapore chief executive at UK insurer Aviva. Stone is Singapore general manager at Friends Provident International.
FIRST STATE REPLACES HEADS FOR AMERICAS AND MARKETING
Australian fund house First State Investments has appointed Bachar Beaini as managing director for the Americas and Amanda Tibbett as Sydney-based chief marketing and communications officer effective March 1.
Beaini replaces Heather Brilliant, who became Americas chief executive in 2019 but has since left the firm.
In July last year, New York-based Beaini was appointed to the Americas head role in an acting capacity, and was responsible for management and coordination of the business in North America as it transitioned in ownership. Before that he was senior director of institutional business.
Tibbett had for the previous nine months been managing the rebrand of the business in Australia, which will roll out to other regions later this year. She replaces Heidi Sutton, the former global head of marketing, who left in 2019.
Prior to joining First State, she was head of marketing and digital for Asia Pacific at Fidelity.
Both Tibbett and Beaini report to First State Investments chief executive Mark Steinberg.
SSGA NAMES GLOBAL HEAD OF CASH BUSINESS
State Street Global Advisors has appointed Kim Hochfeld as London-based global head of cash business in the global institutional group.
She will join the firm this month and report to Barry Smith, Boston-based chief operating officer of global institutional group.
Hochfeld will be responsible for client-facing activities for the cash management business across the Americas, Emea and Asia Pacific. SSGA declined to comment on whom she had replaced.
Hochfeld was most recently with Morgan Stanley Investment Management, where she was head of liquidity distribution for Emea and Asia. Morgan Stanley IM declined to comment on her departure.
CITI PROMOTES APAC HEAD OF SALES FOR DIRECT CUSTODY
Citi has promoted Bryan Murphy and relocated him from Hong Kong to New York as global head of sales and relationship management for direct custody and clearing in December.
This role was created to oversee the regional sales heads, in order to better coordinate global client alignment and engagement, a spokesman said.
Murphy was previously Asia-Pacific head of sales for direct custody and clearing and intermediaries. He retains duties from his previous role until a replacement is appointed, for which the recruitment process is under way, a spokesman said.
He now reports to Jim O'Donnell, New York-based global head of investor sales and relationship management for markets and securities services.
Other people news reported this month by AsianInvestor: