Towers Watson loses Malaysia investments head

Consultancy Towers Watson has chosen not replace its Malaysia head of investment services, Puah Ser-Sze, who has left the firm, AsianInvestor can confirm.

The two-person team in Kuala Lumpur now reports to Peter Ryan-Kane, Asia-Pacific head of portfolio advisory.

“The Southeast Asian business is largely covered by Peter out of Hong Kong, and we’d already decided to have the Malaysia team more integrated with the regional team there,” says Naomi Denning, Asia-Pacific head of investment consulting at Towers Watson.

This process was already happening when Puah moved on in October, so Towers felt it was better to reinforce that rather than trying to replace her, adds Denning.

Malaysia is quite a small market and it fits in well with Ryan-Kane’s team, as they tend to cover big state-backed institutional investors.

Puah had provided investment advice to government/public funds, endowments, corporate surplus, social security, pension funds and insurance funds on a variety of investment issues.

She started her career with Watson Wyatt’s benefits practice, providing actuarial services to Malaysian and Thai clients.

Paul Colwell in Hong Kong has taken on the day-to-day work of running the Malaysian business.

The aim is also that the Malaysian team will also be working on issues and with clients outside Malaysia, says Denning.