Weekly roundup of people news, Oct 11
Pinebridge taps Société Générale director
Pinebridge Investments has hired Peng Luo as managing director for Greater China institutional sales. He is due to start on October 15 and will be based in Hong Kong.
Luo was previously at Société Générale, where he worked as head of financial institutions and retail sales for China within its corporate and investment group.
There he focused on distributing multi-asset solutions and structured wealth management products, and also provided cross-border financing solutions to institutional clients in China. Before that he worked at Fortis Bank, HSBC and Bank of China.
A Société Générale spokeswoman declined to comment on whether Luo has been replaced.
A Pinebridge spokeswoman says Luo’s position is new, and that some of his responsibilities were previously handled by the firm’s sales team and overseen by Asia CEO Rajeev Mittal.
Pinebridge managed $68.4 billion as of June 30.
RBC WM bulks out sales team
RBC Wealth Management has added four sales executives in Singapore.
David Tan was hired as a senior director within the Southeast Asia sales team in October and reports to Febby Avianto, managing director and market manager in the Lion City. He was previously a director at Standard Chartered Private Bank for three years.
Deepu Joseph was made senior director in the Southeast Asia team in September, also reporting to Avianto. He held a variety of wealth management roles at Citibank over 11 years, most recently as head of strategic business development.
Adria Chiu joined as director of the Asian client solutions group also in September, reporting to Enoch Tan, managing director and head of the client solutions group. She stems from the Royal Bank of Scotland, where she was director of debt capital markets for two years. An RBS spokeswoman said she left in the beginning of 2012, declining to comment further.
Choa Yeye joined as a Southeast Asia director in August, reporting to Reto Caviezel, senior director. She previously worked at CIC Bank Privee, where she held the same title.
All positions are new, and will target high-net-worth individuals, according to an RBC spokesman.
CIC Bank Privée, Citibank and Standard Chartered did not respond to AsianInvestor inquiries.
Threadneedle opens Malaysian office
UK fund house Threadneedle Investments has expanded its global footprint by opening a new office in Kuala Lumpur and naming a new country chairman.
Syed Elias Alhabshi has been appointed as chairman of the Malaysian office, having previously acted as an advisor to Threadneedle from Singapore since September 2011.
Malaysia CEO Mohd Farid bin Kamarudin will oversee the build-out of its shariah-compliant capabilities. He will also work with the firm’s fixed income team. He was previously an executive director at AmIslamic Funds Management.
The London-based firm also appointed Sabrina Wong as a fixed income analyst in Malaysia. She previously worked at Investec Asset Management and Bank Negara.
Through its new operation, the firm says it will offer shariah-compliant products to regional institutional investors. AsianInvestor learned of the plans from the firm's global CEO, Campbell Fleming, earlier this year. “There is a crescent of Islamic investors from Scotland to Jakarta that are woefully underinvested by western financial institutions,” he said at the time.
Threadneedle has Asian operations in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. It managed $126.6 billion as of June 30.
It has been bulking out its investment capabilities in the region of late, having recently lifted out four members of Nikko Asset Management’s equity team to work in Singapore.
Deutsche names Asia debt head for institutional clients
Deutsche Bank has hired former Barclays executive Kevin Burke as head of its institutional client group for Asia ex-Japan, Australia and New Zealand, within its debt capital markets team.
He is due to start next January in Singapore, and will report jointly to Bhupinder Singh, co-head of corporate banking & securities for Asia-Pacific, and Rich Herman, global head of the institutional client group, reports AsianInvestor sister publication FinanceAsia.
Burke will join the newly formed Corporate Banking & Securities (CB&S) executive committee in the region, which was one of Michael Ormaechea's and Singh's first major initiatives after assuming their roles as co-heads of corporate banking and securities for Asia-Pacific in August 2013.
Burke was most recently global head of investor solutions at Barclays in London. Barclays did not respond to requests for comment.
Nomura hires BNP Paribas executive
Nomura has named Barrie Feldman co-head of yen rates trading. He started at the beginning of October based in Tokyo.
Feldman (pictured) was previously head of fixed income trading at BNP Paribas in Tokyo.
At Nomura, he jointly reports to Yutaka Nakajima and Matt Reader. Feldman will help oversee the yen derivatives business, and head the firm’s US and European flow rates products development in Asia. His position is new, according to a spokesman.
A BNP Paribas spokeswoman declined to comment on whether Feldman had been replaced.
Aussie government super appoints director
Australia’s Local Government Super (LGS) has appointed Jim Montague to its board. He replaces John Beacroft, who will retire after serving five years.
Montague, general manager of the Canterbury Council, began his tenure on the Super’s board on October 9. He will continue his duties as GM of the Canterbury Council in Sydney, a Government Super spokeswoman says.
Beacroft worked in finance departments across various city and regional councils over 40 years.
LGS manages almost A$7 billion ($6.6 billion) in superannuation assets for over 90,000 members, including 60,000 employees working for the local government and 30,000 former local government employees.
Avaloq hires Asia-Pacific sales head
Swiss banking software vendor Avaloq has hired Gery Dachlan from a rival as head of sales for Asia Pacific.
Dachlan joined at the beginning of this month in Singapore to push the firm’s business development efforts in the region. He reports to Peter Scott, general manager for Asia Pacific. Six sales staff will report to Dachlan, a spokesman says.
Previously Dachlan was head of private banking sales for Asia at service provider TradingScreen in Singapore. He has also worked at Temenos Singapore, Odyssey Financial Technologies and Thompson Financial.
A TradingScreen spokesman did not respond to AsianInvestor questions on whether Dachland has been replaced by press time.
Avaloq’s clients span retail, wealth management and private banks.
Fund association CEO to exit
The CEO of the Fund Executives Association, Michael Baldwin, is set to leave this month and will be replaced on an interim basis by new joiner Joanna Davison from Colonial First State.
Davison joined the Sydney-based association this month, having previously worked as regional managing director for four years at Colonial First State Global Asset Management. Previously she spent five years at Russell Investments, most recently as director of sales and client service.
Overall Baldwin spent 12 years at the association. He is joining the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra as assistant director of development, marketing and commercial operations.
Withers expands Hong Kong office
International law firm Withers relocated Denis Petkovic to Hong Kong earlier this summer, from London, as head of international finance and projects practice.
A month before Petkovic’s move, the firm made a number of partner promotions in Asia, including Stacey Devoy, who works on the firm’s family law team in Hong Kong, and Fernando Gandioli and Philip Munro, both private client lawyers, in Singapore.
Withers opened its Hong Kong office in 2008 and a branch in Singapore in 2012.
Other moves reported in AsianInvestor this week: