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Weekly roundup of people news, Feb 10

ICBC CS replaces chair; Amundi names North Asia ETF head; Aviva Investors appoints head of Asian rates and FX; M&G Real Estate hires Asia research head; Guotai AM shuffles team; UBP names HK COO, Indonesia head; Willis Towers Watson adds to insurance desk.
Weekly roundup of people news, Feb 10

ICBC Credit Suisse names new chairman
Chinese joint venture ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management appointed Shang Jun as chairman on February 8 to replace Shen Liqiang. Shen had held the role since September 2015 and is now retiring.

Shang was a board director and senior expert in the strategies management and investor relations department at Chinese bank ICBC. Senior expert is a title at ICBC for the operational lines, which is similar to the title of deputy general manager, a source at the bank said.

ICBC's investor relations department did not respond by press time to a query about whether Shang would be replaced.

Amundi names North Asia ETF sales head
Amundi has appointed Sunny Leung as head of ETF, indexing and smart beta sales for North Asia, effective February 6.

Based in Hong Kong, he replaces Yvonne Ng, who left December after a year-and-a-half with the French fund house. She is taking “taking a gap year”, according to her LinkedIn page.

Leung (pictured left) reports to Zhong Xiaofeng, North Asia chief executive, and to Gaëtan Delculée, global head of ETF, indexing and smart beta sales.

Before joining Amundi, Leung was a Singapore-based business development manager of SPDR ETFs in Asia ex- Japan at State Street Global Advisors. He left last month and has not yet been replaced.

Leung has also worked at Vanguard, Credit Suisse Asset Management and Lyxor Asset Management.

Aviva Investors adds head of Asian rates and FX
Aviva Investors has handed Stuart Ritson the newly created role head of Asian rates and FX, and relocated him to Singapore from London, effective February 1.

Ritson (pictured left) will also remain co-portfolio manager of local-currency and blended emerging-market debt strategies and continues to report to Liam Spillane, London-based head of EMD at the UK asset manager.

Both co-managers of Aviva Investors' EM local fund had been based in London, but the change in location is a recognition of the importance of Asia in global EMD portfolios, said a spokesperson.

Ritson has also worked at Rabobank and Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

M&G Real Estate hires Asia head of research
M&G Real Estate, part of UK fund house M&G Investments, replenished its team this month with the hire of Jonathan Hsu from Invesco. He joins as Asia head of research to replace Cuong Nguyen, who left the post in June.

Hsu was an associate director at Invesco Real Estate in Hong Kong and has moved to Singapore for his new role. Invesco declined to comment on the departure.

UBP adds HK COO, Indonesia market head  
Swiss firm Union Bancaire Privée has appointed Febby Avianto as market head for Southeast Asia, with a focus on leading the Indonesian business, and Stephane Kiefer as Hong Kong chief operating officer. Both roles are newly created, a spokeswoman said. 

Kiefer joined UBP from French bank CIC, where he was chief operating and risk officer for Hong Kong. He reports to Ian Cramb, UBP's group COO, and to Michael Blake, Asia chief executive of private banking. 

Based in Singapore, Avianto joined in early January. He reports to Ranjit Khanna, market head for South Asia and non-resident Indians in Asia and the Middle East.

A UBP spokeswoman said Avianto's role was newly created, with the bankers covering Indonesia now reporting to him, having previously reported to Khanna.

Before joining UBP, Avianto was Singapore-based Asia head of private banking at Falcon. The Monetary Authority of Singapore announced in October that it had withdrawn Falcon's merchant bank status in Singapore for having allegedly processed large sums of funds linked to Malaysia's scandal-hit 1MDB state investment fund.

Avianto has also worked for RBC Wealth Management, Bank J. Safra Sarasin and UBS Wealth Management.

Guotai AM names research head, shuffles team
Shanghai-based Guotai Asset Management named Chen Xingde as head of its research and investment division on February 8. He replaces Zhou Xiangyong, who was appointed general manager of the fund house in July to succeed Zhang Feng, who left the company in June.

Chen was previously one of the two deputy general managers of marketing. Li Hui has been promoted from assistant general manager to replace him, effective February 8.

Willis Towers adds to insurance consulting team
Willis Towers Watson has named Kevin Angelini as Asia-Pacific head of strategy for its insurance consulting and software business.

Angelini's appointment is a newly created role, which forms part of Willis Towers Watson's aim to grow its insurance from a traditional focus on risk consulting and merger-and-acquisition due diligence support, to offering additional strategy consulting services.

Angelini's appointment took effect on January 16. Based in Hong Kong, he reports to Richard Collis, Asia-Pacific head of the insurance consulting and software business, based in Hong Kong.

Before joining Willis Towers Watson, Kevin was head of strategy and business development at Generali Asia till December.

Willis Towers Watson also appointed Ken Brown in December as division leader for insurance consulting and technology for South Asia and emerging markets in Asia Pacific.

Other people news reported on AsianInvestor in the past week:

NPS faces staffing issues amid scandal, HQ shift

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