Weekly roundup of people news, Sept 13
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FUTURE FUND RESHAPES INVESTMENT TEAM
Future Fund, Australia's $151.2 billion sovereign wealth fund, announced a significant restructuring of its investment team.
The reorganisation introduces five key pillars and a new leadership structure, with existing executives taking on expanded roles.
Hugh Murray, previously deputy chief investment officer, has been appointed as managing director of portfolio design.
In this role, he will lead the portfolio design pillar, overseeing alternatives, dynamic asset allocation, overlays and treasury, economics and capital markets, and portfolio integration teams.
The real assets pillar will be jointly managed by David Bluff and Tammi Fisher, both promoted to the position of managing director.
Bluff will oversee the private equity and credit teams, while Fisher will guide the infrastructure and property teams.
Sam Killmier was named managing director of investment capability and intelligence.
In this newly created role, Killmier will lead initiatives related to investment team capability, technology and data, and research and insights.
Genevieve Murray, already a part of the fund's senior leadership team, was appointed managing director of responsible investment and listed equities.
Murray will continue to head the Sydney office.
Carol Lee, who was already leading the portfolio risk function, will continue in her role as managing director of the portfolio risk pillar.
Once the new structure is finalised, all the newly appointed managing directors will report directly to Ben Samild, the chief investment officer.
Over the next few weeks, the new managing directors will announce their own teams, including who will fill their former positions, a spokesperson for the Future Fund told AsianInvestor.
The restructuring of the investments team did not result in any redundancies, the spokesperson added.
Kristy Wong will be leaving her role as senior vice president of intermediary distribution for Greater China at US fund manager PineBridge and moving to M&G Investments.
Her appointment follows the departure of Joseph Wong, M&G’s former head of intermediaries for Hong Kong, who is understood to be on garden leave.
He joined M&G in 2021 and has previously worked for firms including Franklin Templeton, Superfund Financial and insurer AIA, according to his LinkedIn profile.
M&G declined to comment on the hire or confirm what Kristy Wong’s new title would be.
She will leave PineBridge in October and her successor is slated to join in the coming weeks, said a well placed source. PineBridge declined to comment.
CARLYLE HIRES FOR NEWLY-CREATED ASIA ROLE
Carlyle appointed Anuj Poddar to the newly created role of co-head of global portfolio solutions (GPS) for Asia, focusing on India and Southeast Asia.
Poddar will work closely with Carlyle Asia’s country investment advisory teams, Janine Feng, vice chair of Carlyle Asia, who oversees value creation strategies and initiatives in Asia, as well as with Richard Elder, global head of GPS in the US.
He will be based in Mumbai.
Poddar joins from Bajaj Electricals, a leading consumer appliances and lighting solutions company in India, where he was CEO.
He has also worked at Viacom18 Media, KPMG and Arthur Andersen.
BNY INVESTMENTS TAPS JAPAN HEAD FROM MERCER
BNY Investments appointed Masaaki Sakakibara as head of Japan.
Based in Tokyo, Sakakibara reports to Doni Shamsuddin, chief executive officer, Asia Pacific at BNY Investments.
He replaces Katsutoshi Endo, who retired in June, the firm told AsianInvestor.
He joins BNY Investments from Mercer Japan, where he was wealth business country leader and CEO of Mercer Investments (Japan) until September 1.
Sakakibara previously also held sales roles at Western Asset Management Japan and Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
Mercer has promoted Tomoya Goto to succeed Sakakibara’s roles as wealth business country leader and CEO for the Japan business, starting September 2, a spokesperson told AsianInvestor.
Goto joined Mercer Japan in June 2018 and had been head of wealth consulting since January 2019, overseeing investment consulting and retirement.
He also worked at Meiji Life Insurance and Towers Watson Investment Services Japan.
CapitaLand Investment Ltd. (CLI) announced a slew of appointments to strengthen its leadership team and accelerate the growth of the company’s private funds business.
Simon Treacy, chief executive officer (CEO), private equity real estate, will step down from his role on October 31.
He will become senior advisor to Lee Chee Koon, Group CEO of CLI, and provide counsel to CLI’s private equity team on capital raising and investments, effective November 1.
Treacy joined CLI in October 2021 and has led growth of CLI’s private equity real estate business and overseen private capital management.
Lee will also become CEO of Private Equity Real Assets (PERA) and steer the growth of CLI’s private funds business, which will combine its existing real estate and alternative assets units into a single real assets platform.
Andrew Lim, group chief operating officer of CLI, will provide oversight for CLI’s private capital markets team.
CLI also announced additions to its private funds leadership team.
Alan Tan will join CLI in the newly created role of managing director and head of capital raising, private capital markets, and managing director, special projects, private equity real assets, effective October 1.
Tan was previously head of strategic partnerships at CapitaLand Development.
Kenny Khow was named managing director for Global Data Centre, another newly created role.
He joins on October 1 and will oversee the development and execution of CLI’s global strategy for its data centre business in close collaboration with CLI’s country and fund teams.
He was previously chief commercial officer for Digital Halo.
Gabriel Fong, based in Hong Kong, also joined earlier as managing director and head for special opportunities group.
Fong joined CLI from Alpha Nova Capital Management Partner where he was CIO.
Alpha Nova Capital did not respond at the time of publication to AsianInvestor's enquiry about whether anyone succeeded Fong in his previous role.
CLI earlier also expanded the role of its Chief Sustainability Officer Vinamra Srivastava and appointed him chief sustainability and sustainable Investments officer to build up CLI’s private equity renewables business.
In addition, Haslam Preeston was named chief people and culture officer effective June 2024.
EX-UBS VETERAN TAO DONG JOINS SPRINGS CAPITAL
Tao Dong, former senior executive and economist with UBS and Credit Suisse, joined China-based hedge fund manager Springs Capital (Hong Kong) in August, according to Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) records.
Tao retired from UBS in June and remains an external senior advisor to the bank. He was most recently executive vice chair APAC, UBS Global Wealth Management.
Before UBS’s acquisition of Credit Suisse, he had worked at Credit Suisse since 1998 and last served as vice chairman, Greater China of Credit Suisse Wealth Management in the Asia Pacific region.
Springs Capital did not respond to AsianInvestor's inquiry about Tao's appointment.
WELLINGTON’S SE ASIA WEALTH HEAD LEAVES FOR CAPITAL GROUP
Marketa Dvorak has left Wellington Management, where she headed wealth management coverage for Southeast Asia, and is joining US asset manager Capital Group in a newly created role, well-placed sources told AsianInvestor.
Capital Group declined to comment.
Dvorak joined Wellington in 2007, before which she worked at JP Morgan, according to her Linkedin profile.