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Weekly roundup of people news, May 5

Bosera loses intermediaries head to new firm; Aberdeen sees China equity PM exit; Natixis AM names new Asian equity head; CVC hires Japan president; Manulife AM replaces Malaysia CEO; JPM PB fund selector exits; Ping An adds innovation chief; eVestment hires first Japan BD exec.
Weekly roundup of people news, May 5

Bosera loses intermediaries head to new financial firm
Galaxy Treasure Financial Group, an asset and wealth management firm set up in June last year, hired Laurence Lo in March as managing director for business development and client relationship management.

 Laurence Lo

He was previously head of intermediary business at Bosera Asset Management (International), mainly responsible for the development of international business.

He left Bosera in Feburary this year, and is replaced by Rebecca Fan, who joined the firm in October last year as a director.

Lo has also held business development roles at Pictet Asset Management, BNP Paribas Investment Partners, JP Morgan Asset Management and Standard Chartered Bank.

Aberdeen sees China equity PM exit
Aberdeen Asset Management has confirmed that Frank Tian, an investment manager on its China equities team, left the firm in mid-April.

The team is led by Nicholas Yeo, head of equities for China and Hong Kong.

Aberdeen will continue to nurture trainees coming through its graduate programme rather than seek a specific replacement for Tian, a spokeswoman told AsianInvestor by email.

Tian had started his career at Aberdeen in August 2008, initially as an investment analyst, before progressing to assistant investment manager and then his most recent role, according to his LinkedIn page.

Natixis AM names new head of Asian equities
Natixis Asset Management, part of French financial group Natixis, appointed Chou Chong as head of Asian equities management last month. He replaces Francois Theret, who will soon move back to Paris in a new position at Naxitis AM.

Based in Singapore, Chong manages a four-strong team running Asian equity funds with assets under management of €555 million ($609 million). He started on April 2 and reports to Stéphane Mauppin-Higashino, head of Natixis AM Asia.

Chong spent most of his career – almost 21 years – at UK-based Aberdeen Asset Management, most recently as an investment director in Singapore. He left the firm in February 2016, but it is not clear what he has been doing since then.

During his time at Aberdeen, Chong also served as head of Australian equities in Sydney and London-based head of European equities and ex-Asia developed markets.

 Nobuaki Kurumatani 

CVC appoints Japan president 
Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners has appointed Nobuaki Kurumatani as Japan president, effective from May 1.


 

He reports to Atsushi Akaike, partner and head of Japan. Kurumatani’s role is newly created as the firm looks to accelerate investments, the firm said in a statement.

Kurumatani joins from Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, where he worked most recently as deputy president. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial could not be immediately reached for comment on Kurumatani's replacement.

Manulife AM names new Malaysia CEO
Manulife Asset Management Services, the Malaysian subsidiary of Canadian insurer Manulife Financial, has promoted chief investment officer Jason Chong to chief executive, effective May 1.

Chong succeeds Wong Boon Choy, who will transition to the role of adviser.  Manulife didn't get back to AsianInvestor on Chong's replacement of the CIO role by press time.

Chong reports to Gianni Fiacco, Asia chief operating officer for wealth and asset management, and locally to Mark O’Dell, Malaysia CEO of Manulife Holdings.

JPM Private Bank senior fund selector exits
JP Morgan Private Bank’s head of manager selection for opportunistic alpha, Kyle James, has left the firm. The bank’s international (ex-US) head of manager selection, Sebastien Berthon, remains at the helm, a spokesperson said, declining to comment further.

Ping An Insurance appoints new innovation head
China's Ping An Insurance has appointed Jonathan Larsen as chief innovation officer as well as chairman and chief executive of Ping An Global Voyager Fund, a new $1 billion fintech and healthtech product.

Effective this week, Larsen reports to Peter Ma, chairman and CEO of Ping An Insurance. Larsen succeeds Daniel Tu as the innovation head, as Tu's contract with the firm has expired.

Larsen will be responsible for bringing new technology, platforms and business models to Ping An’s businesses in China and internationally, the firm said in a statement. He will also seek to leverage Ping An’s technology capabilities to add value to companies in which the Ping An Global Voyager Fund invests. 

The fund will be managed from Hong Kong. Ping An will provide the first stage of fund financing, while third-party funding may be considered in the future, a spokesperson said.

Larsen was most recently global head of retail banking at Citi, but left the bank in December. He has been replaced by David Chubak, former head of productivity at Citi.

eVestment names first Japan business development exec
Data provider eVestment has hired Kazunari Sasaki as vice president of business development for Japan, its first member of staff based in the country.

The US firm said it had made the appointment in response to growing demand for institutional investment data and analytics solutions in Japan, a market it had previously covered out of Hong Kong.

Before joining eVestment, Sasaki was senior vice president and head of sales with Japan Asia Asset Management until March 31. He has also held business development and sales positions at Brown Brothers Harriman Investment Services, BNY Mellon Securities and ABN Amro Asset Management in Japan. 

Other people news reported on AsianInvestor in the past week:

Aberdeen names new Asia-Pacific COO

Korea's PMAA eyes new asset types, hires and outsourcing

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