FUTURE FUND ADDS HEAD OF PORTFOLIO STRATEGY
Australia's Future Fund has hired Sue Brake from Willis Towers Watson as deputy chief investment officer for portfolio strategy.
She will join in Sydney in June and report to Raphael Arndt, who is the CIO based in the sovereign wealth fund's Melbourne headquarters.
In her newly created role, Brake will head the fund's portfolio strategy function to undertake macroeconomic and capital markets research and design portfolios for administered funds.
Her appointment follows that of Alicia Gregory as head of private equity last month.
Brake will remain a senior investment consultant at Willis Towers Watson in Sydney until early May, a spokeswoman said. The investment consultancy is now considering potential candidates for the role and expects to make an announcement soon, she added.
SUNSUPER NAMES HEAD OF STRATEGY
Brisbane-based Sunsuper has appointed Craig Stevens as head of strategy, effective April 1.
The appointment followed the March 30 completion of its merger with another superannuation fund, AustSafe, when former AustSafe staff transferred to Sunsuper, a Sunsuper spokeswoman told AsianInvestor.
Stevens was previously chief execution officer at AustSafe.
Based in Brisbane, he now reports to Jason Sommer, Sunsuper's chief financial officer.
His role is a newly created one, while his previous position has ceased to exist following the merger, said the spokeswoman.
TAIKANG LIFE HIRES PROPERTY SPECIALIST
Chinese insurer Taikang Life has appointed Alex He as an investment director focused on property.
He confirmed to AsianInvestor that he took up the Beijing-based role this month.
He was previously a senior business development manager at White Peak Real Estate Investment in Beijing, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Taikang Life could not be reached for comment, and White Peak declined to comment on He's departure.
OSTRUM SETS UP ASIA TEAM
Ostrum Asset Management, an affiliate of France's Natixis Investment Managers, is establishing a team across Hong Kong and Singapore, including a new subsidiary in Hong Kong, to expand its real asset private debt management capacity.
The firm has four members based in Hong Kong now, a spokeswoman told AsianInvestor, and will announce details of further hiring in the near future.
Charles Regan started as head of Asia-Pacific infrastructure real assets private debt on February 1, and Alistair Ho joined as head of co-lending for Asia Pacific on April 7.
Both Regan and Ho are based in Hong Kong and report to Denis Prouteau, Paris-based chief investment officer for real asset private debt.
Regan was previously co-founder and managing director of infrastructure financing company Windward Capital Asia. Ho joined from Mizuho Securities, where he was head of structured finance for Asia ex-Japan. The two firms could not be reached for comment.
AMELIE REMOND EXITS ABERDEEN STANDARD
Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) has announced that Amelie Remond, its former head of bank coverage for Asia Pacific based in Singapore, has left and that an investment specialist has joined.
Remond's last day with the UK fund house was April 5, and an ASI spokeswoman said her responsibilities have been taken over by the Asia-Pacific distribution team.
AsianInvestor could not ascertain what her next move might be, and Remond declined to comment.
She had been with ASI in Singapore for 11 years, before which she had worked in distribution at Dutch bank ABN Amro, French fund house Amundi and French insurer BNP Cardif Life.
Meanwhile, Ben Sheehan joined in Hong Kong in February as a senior equity investment specialist for Asia Pacific, a newly created role, said ASI in a statement. His duties had previously been looked after by a global investment specialist team in the UK, said an ASI spokeswoman.
Sheehan reports to Donald Amstad, chief operating officer for distribution and head of investment specialists for Asia Pacific.
Before joining Aberdeen, Sheehan was senior product specialist of Asian equities at HSBC Global Asset Management. An HSBC spokeswoman declined to comment on whether he had been replaced.
JLL RINGS SENIOR CHANGES IN JAPAN
JLL, a US-based real estate services firm, has added two senior executives to its capital markets team in Japan.
Arthur de Haast, chairman of JLL’s global capital markets board, has relocated from the UK in the same role. Kenichi Negishi has taken over as Japan head of capital markets. Both are based in Tokyo.
De Haast will still cover global capital markets but his remit now also includes Japanese inbound and outbound investments, a company spokeswoman said.
Negishi replaces Akihiko Mizuno, who will leave the firm at the end of June, she said. Prior to joining JLL, Negishi was a representative director of Deka Real Estate Lending, AsianInvestor understands.
He now reports to Stuart Crow, CEO for Asia-Pacific capital markets, and to Toshinobu Kasai, managing director at JLL Japan.
CBRE NAMES KOREA HEAD OF CAPITAL MARKETS
US real estate services firm CBRE has appointed Sean Choi as Seoul-based head of capital markets for Korea.
Effective immediately, he oversees the local capital markets business, including property sales and acquisitions, relationship management for domestic and foreign investors, and valuations.
Choi reports to Don Lim, head of Korea, and to Tom Moffat, head of capital markets for Asia, succeeding Lim, who was promoted to his current role in January.
Choi was previously head of the domestic investment division at Seoul-based real estate specialist Vestas Investment Management. As well as a previous stint at CBRE, Choi has also worked at Nomura-Rifa Asset Management and Alpha Asset Management, both Seoul-based firms.
CAMPBELL LUTYENS ADDS PRINCIPAL IN HK
Campbell Lutyens, a London-based fund placement agent and advisory firm, has hired Charlie Yan from Fosun as a principal in Hong Kong with a primary focus on China.
He was most recently a managing director at Chinese conglomerate and investment group Fosun International and before that he worked at Chinese insurer Ping An. In both of these roles he was based in Shanghai and focused on alternative investments and cross-border M&A.
Yan's role was created to put a bigger focus on China, although Campbell Lutyens did cover the market before out of Hong Kong, said a spokeswoman at the firm.
She added that the company did not generally provide specific dates for when employees join or leave, nor details of reporting lines.
Fosun did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
MAYER BROWN ADDS TO HK PRACTICE
US law firm Mayer Brown has added Wu Sheng as a Hong Kong-based partner in the firm’s corporate and securities practice on April 1.
He has experience advising on mergers and acquisitions and investment opportunities in China and elsewhere in Asia, according to a statement from Mayer Brown.
Wu was previously a Hong Kong-based partner focused on China-related M&A at London-based law firm DLA Piper, which did not respond to a request for comment.
CREDIT SUISSE HIRES GLOBAL ESG STRATEGY HEAD
Credit Suisse announced Daniel Wild will join as global head of ESG strategy at its impact advisory and finance (IAF) department later this year, but declined to give a precise date.
Wild was previously co-chief executive of RobecoSam, the Zurich-based sustainable investing arm of Dutch fund house Robeco.
His role is newly created, said Credit Suisse in a statement, and he will remain in Zurich and report to London-based CEO of IAF, Marisa Drew.
A RobecoSam spokeswoman told AsianInvestor that Wild would stay until a smooth handover is completed. Asked about his replacement, she said that its board of directors would present a succession plan to Switzerland's Financial Market Supervisory Authority in due course.
Other people news reported by AsianInvestor.net in the past week:
