Weekly roundup of people news, Feb 14
BlackRock hires CLSA veteran as Asia CFO
US fund house BlackRock has appointed Andrew Reynolds to the combined role of chief financial officer (CFO) and head of corporate strategy for Asia Pacific.
He will start on February 25 in Hong Kong and report to Asia chairman Mark McCombe. Reynolds will also take on line-management responsibility for the Korea and Taiwan country heads.
The CFO position is a new one for the region. The combination of the finance and strategy roles will help better align the two teams in the execution of developing the firm’s business regionally, says a BlackRock spokesman.
Reynold's appointment comes after Nick Good left his post as Asia head of strategy and business development. BlackRock declined to comment on whether Reynolds would assume any of Good’s duties.
Reynolds previously worked at Hong Kong-based broker CLSA from 2000 to 2013, most recently as chief operating officer. He has also held senior roles in Hong Kong, Korea and South Africa with the firm.
A spokeswoman for CLSA says Reynolds left in March last year, but declined to comment on whether he has been or will be replaced. David Grosse remains as Asia-Pacific COO, according to LinkedIn, but it is unclear whether a new global COO will be put in place.
Stibbe starts at JP Morgan AM
Paula Stibbe last week started in Hong Kong as Asia-Pacific head of global liquidity sales at JP Morgan Asset Management.
She replaces Travis Spence, who recently took a new position as head of the global strategic relationship group for Asia Pacific ex-Japan.
Stibbe will mainly be responsible for sales and servicing of short-term fixed income solutions, along with product development across the region. She relocated from New York, where she was a senior client portfolio manager in the global short-term fixed income group.
She reports to John Donohue, head of global liquidity, who says the firm has seen increasing demand for liquidity and short-term fixed income investments in Asia Pacific, notably in China and Japan.
Local-currency funds in Asia under the global liquidity business stand at $12.4 billion in assets and make up 2.5% of the firm’s $500 billion in short-term fixed-income assets globally.
Cheetah adds business development role
Hong Kong-based alternative fund house Cheetah Investment Management has hired Brian MacDougall as business development director.
Having started in November, he is responsible for raising funds initially in Europe and the US. The role is newly created, as Cheetah looks to drive overseas asset gathering.
MacDougall was previously an executive director at Swiss private bank Syz & Co until 2010. Since then has been managing his own private investments. He had joined Syz following the bank’s acquisition of Oria Capital, a fund-of-hedge-fund business he co-founded in 2004. Syz replaced MacDougall with Daniel Ghirardi in 2010.
As of January 1, Cheetah and its affiliates managed just under $1 billion, of which roughly half comes from Asia. It specialises in alternative investment strategies, including long-only absolute return, hedge, private equity and real estate funds.
RBC Wealth Management hires in Singapore
Canada’s RBC Wealth Management has appointed two Singapore-based executives in newly created roles, both reporting to Soh Chye-Guan, market leader for Southeast Asia.
Lim Chee-Tian began as a relationship manager in late October, having worked most recently as an independent consultant. Before that, he worked at Citi and Julius Baer.
Lu Xinyi has been hired as an investment counsellor; she was also previously an independent investment consultant. She has also worked at Barclays Wealth, Mizuho Corporate Bank and UFJ Bank.
Chi-X Japan names president and COO
Chi-X Japan has appointed Makoto Nagahori as president and chief operating officer, replacing Yasuo Hamakake, who remains an adviser to the proprietary trading system provider.
Nagahori joined Chi-X Japan last July as head of sales, after having worked for Nomura Securities in a number of roles, including as head of electronic trading.
He has also worked for Instinet, also part of Nomura group, on the agency broker’s sales trading desk in Tokyo and New York.
Amundi’s Frank Dargent moves to Crédit Agricole
The deputy chief executive and global head of business development of Amundi’s alternatives arm has moved to another part of the Crédit Agricole group.
Amundi is now seeking a replacement for Frank Dargent. Laurent Guillet, CEO of the alternatives unit, has assumed both roles in the interim.
Dargent is now Asia-Pacific head of global markets for investment bank Crédit Agricole, Amundi’s parent. He oversees business development and strategy for the global markets division in the region.
He reports to head of global markets Thomas Gadenne and locally to Marc-André Poirier, senior regional officer for Asia-Pacific.
Amundi manages €759 billion ($1 billion) in assets and is 75% owned by Crédit Agricole, with Société Générale holding the other 25%.
Lyxor's global CEO departs
Société Générale-owned fund house Lyxor this week announced the appointment of Lionel Paquin as CEO to replace Inès de Dinechin. Paquin was previously head of Lyxor’s managed accounts platform since 2011. He has also held the positions of chief risk officer and head of internal control at the firm.
Westpac expands in Hong Kong
Australia’s Westpac Banking has created the role of head of corporate and institutional banking for Hong Kong and hired Alex Tam to fill it. He was previously Asia-Pacific head of business development for global trade and receivables finance at HSBC.
At Westpac, corporate and institutional banking refers to servicing corporate and FIG clients for a range of products including foreign exchange, cash management and debt capital markets
The move comes alongside three other hires, as the firm expands its presence in the city.
The other appointments are Steven Yu, head of trade sales for North Asia, who was most recently at Deutsche Bank; head of Greater China Andrew Whitford moving from Shanghai to assume responsibility as chief executive for Hong Kong in addition to his existing responsibilities; and Martin Goodacre relocating last year from Singapore as head of financial markets for Hong Kong.
These moves follow the recent expansion of Westpac’s Hong Kong office, which includes an enhanced dealing room to support its growing customer activity and renminbi business. Westpac was granted market-maker status to directly trade renminbi and Australian dollars in 2013.
Other moves reported on AsianInvestor.net this week: