Neuberger Berman hires Asia-Pacific solutions head
US fund house Neuberger Berman has lured Alan Yip from rival JP Morgan Asset Management as head of portfolio solutions for Asia Pacific.
Based in Hong Kong, Yip covers all client and product types in his new role and started last month. He reports to Nick Hoar, Asia-Pacific head, and Joe Amato, New York-based president and chief investment officer for equities at the firm, which has $333 billion under management.
Yip's role is a newly created one, although he does partly replace Adam Grotzinger, who was Singapore-based client portfolio manager for fixed income, Hoar told AsianInvestor.
Grotzinger relocated from Singapore to Neuberger Berman’s Chicago office last month, where he is a senior portfolio manager for fixed income.
Yip will be supported by Natalie Ie, who joined in April as a client portfolio manager (CPM) from Hong Kong-based Pleiad Investment Advisors.
She reports to Yip and will cover all capabilities but with a key focus on equities, which were previously covered by Mike Dyer. Formerly a client portfolio manager, Dyer left in April to join M&G Investments.
Yip and Ie will work with institutional clients to create customised solutions and with Neuberger’s intermediary sales teams in Asia to service its intermediary clients on individual asset classes.
In the past, Neuberger had separate Asia CPMs covering different asset classes. Yip's team now oversees all asset classes, creating better synergy between teams, said the spokeswoman.
The two hires follows the arrival of Joe McDonnell in February in the newly created London-based role of global head of portfolio solutions. He was previously head of portfolio solutions for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.
Before joining Neuberger, Yip had been head of insurance strategy for Asia Pacific at JP Morgan AM, which is seeking a replacement, a spokeswoman told AsianInvestor.
Yip has also worked at Belgian insurer Ageas as head of investment and asset-liability management; in risk management and capital markets at various banks; and as an actuarial consultant.
Ie worked in investor relations at Pleiad and before that in equity sales at JP Morgan.
This article has been updated to provide more detail on the responsibilities of Yip's team and information about the hire of Joe McDonnell.