Weekly roundup of people news, Feb 9
CHINA NAMES NEW CSRC HEAD
China’s State Council on February 7 appointed Wu Qing as chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), replacing Yi Huiman.
The change was announced when the onshore stock market hit a five-year low.
Wu also replaced Yi as Party secretary of the securities regulator.
Wu, 58, was deputy secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee before heading to CSRC.
He held senior roles at CSRC across risk management and fund supervision departments from 2005 to 2010.
He headed the Shanghai Stock Exchange between 2016 and 2017.
Yi, 59, was appointed as CSRC chairman and Party secretary in January 2019.
GIC MAKES SENIOR MANAGEMENT CHANGES
Singapore state-owned investor GIC has made a string of senior management changes, effective April 1.
Sam Kim, deputy chief operating officer (COO), was named chief operating officer. He will join the group executive committee (GEC), which reviews and approves key investment issues, organisational as well as personnel matters.
Bryan Yeo, currently chief investment officer (CIO) for public equities, will be appointed deputy group CIO. He will also oversee GIC’s integrated strategies group (ISG) as director.
Mark Ong, currently head of Asia Pacific equities, will take over from Yeo as CIO for public equities.
Tay Lim Hock will step down as deputy group CIO and COO. Lim Kee Chong will also step down as deputy group CIO and director of ISG.
Both will remain members of the GEC and the global leadership group.
Goh Chin Kiong, currently deputy CIO for real estate, will be appointed CIO for real estate. He takes over from Lee Kok Sun who will retire from GIC.
Boon Chin Hau will be appointed deputy CIO for Infrastructure.
Eastspring Investments appointed Salman Haider as chief distribution officer, effective March 18, 2024.
Based in Singapore, he will report to Chief Executive Officer & Interim Chief Investment Officer Bill Maldonado and will join the Eastspring executive management committee.
The distribution function was previously overseen by Wendy Lim, who was regional CEO Asia and global head of distribution, marketing and products.
Lim left the firm in December last year, and Eastspring has since streamlined the role to be more sales-oriented, the firm told AsianInvestor.
Haider joins Eastspring from Habib Bank AG Zurich in Dubai where he was CEO for global wealth management.
He has previously held leadership roles in the private banking teams at Barclays and JP Morgan, after 13 years with Citigroup.
HKMA MOVES HEAD OF BANKING SUPERVISION TO NEW ROLE
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) appointed Archie Ng as executive director (corporate services), effective February 14.
Ng will succeed Donald Chen, who has taken over the role of executive director (banking policy) since December 2023.
Ng was previously head of banking supervision at HKMA.
Ng will be responsible for corporate development, media relations and public engagement, human resources, administration, finance, information technology and digitalisation efforts.
In response to a query on who replaces Ng in his previous role, spokesperson noted that HKMA "has an effective system in place to make personnel appointments flexibly according to the job requirements, taking into consideration the candidate's ability, experience and professional knowledge."
FRANKLIN TEMPLETON APPOINTS NORTH ASIA INSTITUTIONAL BUSINESS HEAD
Franklin Templeton appointed Spencer Seto to the new role of head of institutional business in North Asia, effective February 5.
Seto, based in Hong Kong, reports to Tariq Ahmad, head of Asia Pacific at Franklin Templeton.
Seto will be responsible for leading the firm’s institutional sales, consultant and client relationship efforts in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.
Alan Young, head of institutional business in Greater China, and Tay Kim, president and CEO of Franklin Templeton Korea, will form part of Seto’s team.
Seto was most recently head of institutional sales in Asia ex-Japan based in Hong Kong at Janus Henderson.
He left on August 16, 2023, a spokesperson told AsianInvestor. There is no replacement and his responsibilities have been absorbed into the wider distribution team, the spokesperson added.
Seto previously also held roles at PGIM, State Street Global Advisors and HSBC Global Asset Management.
BLACKROCK NAMES AUSTRALIA HEAD
BlackRock has promoted Jason Collins to the head of Australia.
He is based in Sydney and was formerly deputy head of BlackRock Australasia.
Collins will oversee Australian operations and serve as an executive director on the boards of BlackRock Australia and New Zealand.
He reports to Andrew Landman, who was appointed deputy head of APAC, head of Southeast Asia and Oceania, and head of APAC wealth in January.
Collins steps up from previous senior roles within the company, including as head of iShares and index investments for Australia and New Zealand.
Prior to BlackRock, Collins held key positions at BT Financial Group and Deutsche Bank.
H20 AM HIRES FORMER NATIXIS IM EXECUTIVE FOR APAC DISTRIBUTION
H2O Asset Management appointed Victor Kuoch to the new role of sales director and head of Asia Pacific distribution.
Kuoch joins from Natixis IM in Singapore, where he was director, leading the APAC multi-assets investment solutions team.
Kuoch, based in Singapore, reports to Babak Abrar, chief sales and marketing officer, a spokesperson told AsianInvestor.
H2O had a client service and product specialist earlier carrying out Kuoch's job functions, the spokesperson said.
H2O AM is an asset manager that mainly specialises in global macro strategies.
Natixis IM did not respond to a query about whether a replacement for Kuoch had been named at the time of publication.
CBRE APPOINTS HK HEAD OF CAPITAL ADVISORS
CBRE named Kelvin Chan as executive director, head of capital advisors, CBRE Hong Kong, with immediate effect.
Chan, based in Hong Kong, reports to Jonathan Chau, executive director, head of investment property and private office, capital markets, CBRE Hong Kong, and Greg Hyland, head of capital markets, Asia Pacific, CBRE.
He will focus on growing the investment advisory arm of CBRE, which focuses on capital raising, structured investments and merger and acquisition services.
He was previously CBRE’s head of capital markets, China.
Prior to joining CBRE, he held several executive roles at PAG and Macquarie Group.
NEW KOREAN PE/VC FIRM TWGF PARTNERS HIRES SENIOR MD
TWGF Partners, a newly-launched private equity and venture capital investment firm based in Seoul, appointed Harvey Hakjin Bae as senior managing director.
Bae joins from SK Square, a listed investment company, where he was managing director.
Bae previously spent 11 years with Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS), where he held roles such as head of Americas private equity and global hedge funds and senior manager for global private equity based in New York.