BNP Paribas AM hires Asia head of institutional sales
BNP Paribas Asset Management has hired Mark Speciale, formerly of BNY Mellon, as head of institutional sales for Asia Pacific, AsianInvestor can reveal.
The regional veteran started yesterday in Singapore, the French firm’s regional sales hub, and reports to Hong Kong-based Ligia Torres, Asia-Pacific chief executive.
Tino Moorrees had previously double-hatted as Asia-Pacific head of sales and Hong Kong CEO, but has now relinquished the former post.
BNP Paribas AM, rebranded from BNP Paribas Investment Partners as of June 1, also named Christian Bucaro as Asia-Pacific head of wholesale distribution in February, in addition to his role as Singapore CEO.
Speciale's appointment comes as several other big investment houses have made big recent sales and client service hires.
Shen Tan started at US firm Capital Group as Asia-Pacific head of institutional sales this month, while HSBC Global Asset Management has named new heads of institutional business for China and Southeast Asia.
Meanwhile, State Street Global Advisors has hired Shirley Hung, Ricky Goh and Sally Wong in the past few months, and Swiss house Gam has appointed Rossen Djounov as its new Asia chief in a regional reshuffle.
Long career
Speciale’s financial services career spans some 30 years, largely covering business development and client service in investment management and capital markets.
Most recently he was Asia-Pacific head of distribution at BNY Mellon Investment Management. He had held the Singapore-based role he held for two years until August 2015, when the US firm shut its managed-account platform Spectrum, retrenched in the region and laid off a number of staff.
AsianInvestor could not ascertain what Speciale had been doing since he left that position.
Before joining BNYM IM, he spent some 11 years in sales at Capital International in Singapore and nearly seven years running business development for Asia at Fischer Francis Trees & Watts, which is now part of BNP Paribas AM.