Eastspring names new Japan CEO

Eastspring Investments, the asset management arm of insurer Prudential Corporation Asia, has appointed Tsukasa Sekizaki as president and chief executive for Japan, effective mid-September subject to approvals.

He succeeds Koji Wada who has resigned to pursue other opportunities, said the firm.

Sekizaki has 25 years of financial services experience, having joined Eastspring after 12 years at Deutsche Bank in Japan, where he served as president and CEO of Deutsche Trust Company and Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management.

He left the German firm in March and was replaced in April by Mitsuhisa Murata, who was previously head of structured product sales and asset and wealth management at Deutsche Securities.  

Before joining Deutsche, Sekizaki held distribution leadership roles with other fund houses in Japan, including Fidelity Investments (Japan), where he worked for nearly 15 years.

Eastspring chief executive Guy Strapp said Sekizaki will play a key role in driving distribution growth in one of the firm’s most critical markets. Strapp also paid tribute to Wada’s contribution to building the Japan business.

Eastspring's 50-strong Japan operation has both an institutional and a retail business primarily through white labelling.

Japan's $1.4 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund in April chose Eastspring as one of the managers for its domestic equity portfolio following changes to its management structure.