Singlife group CIO to step down
Singlife’s Group Chief Investment Officer Kim Rosenkilde is stepping down in April to pursue other opportunities, a spokesperson confirmed to AsianInvestor.
Allen Kuo, currently deputy CIO, will take over as CIO. Kuo will report to Chief Financial Officer Sumit Behl.
Rosenkilde, who joined Singlife in April 2021, has been a strong advocate of sustainability and Singapore’s evolution as a regional financial hub.
One notable project Rosenkilde led at Singlife was to in-source the chief investment officer function from Aviva Investors – as Aviva exited Asia and Singlife was merged with Aviva Singapore.
“Kim led the project which has now been completed,” the spokesperson said.
Singlife announced its merger with Aviva Singapore in 2020 in the country’s largest insurance deal.
Rosenkilde acted as an advisor to Singlife on its investment and risk management strategy throughout 2020.
Rosenkilde has previously worked for Deutsche Bank, Merill Lynch, ABN Amro Bank and other financial institutions in London, New York, Tokyo and Shanghai.
Over the years, he has regularly participated as a speaker at AsianInvestor’s insurance events in Singapore.
The Singlife Investment Office, established in January 2022, will be led by Kuo, who joined in August 2022. Kuo was previously deputy chief risk officer at UC Investments, where he oversaw market, credit and liquidity risk across various asset classes.
He also worked at ING Investment and led an investment risk management team.
He started his career in finance at BlackRock in New York, where he was one of the original architects of Aladdin.
The spokesperson said given the evolving operating landscape, Singlife needed to manage and optimise its assets and liabilities together and has aligned the finance, actuarial and investment teams under the CFO office.
“This change has no impact on our day-to-day operations,” the spokesperson added.
Singlife was the first local insurer to be licensed in 2017 by the Monetary Authority of Singapore since 1970. It acquired the business portfolio of Zurich Life in 2018.
It is the official insurer for Singapore’s MINDEF (Ministry of Defence) and MHA Group Insurance Scheme.