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Weekly roundup of people news, March 20

CLSA loses global trading head; L&T’s India CEO joins Crisil; CME hires regional chief; Vontobel adds RMs; Morningstar bolsters equity team; Mitsubishi UFJ appoints CEO; RBC poaches RMs from UOB; CBRE names Pacific head; and Wealth-X unveils Asia boss.
Weekly roundup of people news, March 20

CLSA loses global head of trading
The global head of trading and execution services at brokerage CLSA, Andy Maynard, has resigned from the company, AsianInvestor can confirm.

It is understood Maynard quit on March 18 for personal reasons. His future destination had not been disclosed as AsianInvestor went to press.

A spokesperson for CLSA said that Nigel Beattie would assume responsibility for CLSA’s global trading and execution service. Beattie was previously the firm’s managing director for new business and product development.

CLSA hired Maynard back in June 2011 to take on what was at that time a newly created position as head of its global trading and execution business.

Based in Hong Kong he oversaw sales trading, block trading, electronic trading, listed derivatives and synthetic equity trading. He also sat on CLSA’s executive committee and broking committee.

Prior to that he worked at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch for 16 years in a variety of roles and locations, latterly as head of execution services for the Pacific Rim. There he was also a member of the global equity management committee.

Maynard first entered the financial industry in 1990 with Baring Futures and later Baring Securities in London, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Indian fund house L&T loses CEO to ratings firm
India’s L&T Investment Management has lost its Mumbai-based chief executive and fund industry veteran Ashu Suyash, it was revealed.

Suyash, who transferred to L&T IM when the firm completed the acquisition of Fidelity’s Indian mutual fund business in November 2012, has agreed to join Standard & Poor’s Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited (Crisil).

She is due to start as managing director and CEO at the firm on June 1. It comes six months after Crisil’s previous managing director and CEO, Roopa Kudva, resigned last September.

Suyash had served as India chief executive for more than two years at L&T IM, which had about Rs220 billion ($3.5 billion) in asset under management. She was also responsible for L&T Capital Markets, which had Rs65 billion in assets under service as the wealth management arm of L&T Finance.

An L&T spokesperson said the firm was in the process of appointing a new CEO, and that Suyash would continue in her post until May 31.

Suyash had worked for Fidelity in Mumbai from 2004 until 2012. In May 2011, her industry standing saw her featured in AsianInvestor’s inaugural list of the 25 most influential women in Asian asset management, as reported.

Prior to joining Fidelity, Suyash was head of strategy and business development at Citibank in India. During a 15-year spell at the US bank she worked in various roles across operations, investment banking, finance, sales and marketing and general management.

Kudva joined Crisil in 1992 and was promoted to CEO in 2007. Despite announcing her resignation last September, Kudva had said that she would stay in the CEO role until a replacement was found.

On February 4 this year, software firm Infosys announced it had appointed Kudva as an independent director.

CME recruits new Asia-Pacific chief
Exchange operator CME Group has hired Christopher Fix as Singapore-based head of Asia Pacific, effective from June 3.

The regional role had been vacant since Julien Le Noble left in October 2014. Since then, London-based William Knottenbelt – who covers CME Group’s business outside of the US – has been responsible for managing CME’s Asia offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore and Tokyo.

Fix will report to Knottenbelt in his new role. He is relocating from the Middle East, where he is CEO of the Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME), which is a strategic partner of the CME Group.

While Fix is stepping down as DME chief, he has been appointed to DME’s board and to the newly created role of chairman of DME Asia. Fix’s responsibilities at DME will be assumed by Owain Johnson, presently DME’s head of products and services.

Prior to assuming the CEO role at DME in August 2012, Fix was Singapore-based head of marketing for commodity futures Asia Pacific at BNP Paribas.

Vontobel Asset Management hires senior RM
Multi-boutique Swiss firm Vontobel Asset Management has hired Bobby Ross Bostic as senior relationship manager in Sydney.

Bostic started in the role on March 2 as the firm seeks to broaden its client coverage in the Australian institutional marketplace. He reports to Jürg Fritschi, Hong Kong-based deputy head of Vontobel Asset Management Asia.

Bostic’s responsibilities include managing client and consultant relationships in Australia and New Zealand and building the bank’s global equity strategies business.

He previously worked at Russell Investments from July 2013 to March 2014 as an investment consultant based in Auckland, where he provided tailored investment advice to institutional clients, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Prior to that he was at Capital Group, first in Singapore as relationship manager between November 2007 and December 2011, and then in Sydney as director for institutional and retail distribution, between January 2012 and April 2013.

Vontobel Asset Management, which managed $90 billion as at the end of last year, established a presence in Sydney in 2014 following a strategic cooperation agreement with ANZ.  It has been in Hong Kong since 2009.

Morningstar unveils equity team head
Independent investment research firm Morningstar announced the promotion of Dan Baker to head its equity analyst team based in Hong Kong.

Baker actually took up his new role in January, reporting to Joel Bloomer, head of Asia-Pacific equity and credit research.

Baker joined Morningstar as a senior equity analyst in May 2014, and will continue to perform this role in addition to his new duties.

A spokeswoman for Morningstar said the firm was bringing its global equity research capabilities to Hong Kong, so it had been building up the equity research team over the past 12-18 months.

Prior to Morningstar, Baker was an equity analyst at Merrill Lynch, where he worked for seven years based in Melbourne, with one year in Hong Kong.

He was also an equity analyst in Hong Kong for Mirae Asset Securities and spent two years in equity sales at RBS.

Additionally Baker worked for eight years in the telecommunications industry as an engineer with Ericsson and as an industry consultant with Ovum.

CBRE appoints new Pacific CEO
Property services firm CBRE promoted Ray Pittman to president and CEO of Pacific operations, covering Australia and New Zealand.

Pittman replaces Sydney-based Tom Southern, who has been promoted to the newly created role of Pacific executive chairman.

When he takes up his new role in June, Pittman will report to Southern, who will continue to report to CBRE’s Asia-Pacific president and CEO, Danny Queenan.

Pittman is currently market leader for CBRE in the US state of Colorado.

Separately, CBRE announced new senior managing directors for the Australian states of Victoria and New South Wales.

Cameron Grier will move from Melbourne to Sydney in the same capacity. There will be a two-to-three-month transition period, said a spokeswoman for CBRE.

Mark Coster, presently director of capital markets, is to replace Grier as senior managing director for Victoria. Coster and Grier both joined CBRE in 2001.

Wealth-X announces new Asia chief
Financial research firm Wealth-X announced the appointment of Derek Ho as its new managing director for Asia Pacific.

Ho started at Wealth-X on March 16 based in Hong Kong. He takes on responsibility for business development in Asia Pacific, reporting to Wealth-X president David Friedman.

Prior to joining, from April 2012 he was general manager of Greater China and Asean for First Advantage, a global outsourcer of background screening services.

He also worked at KNEIP, a European service provider servicing the asset management industry, from January 2011 to February 2012. He helped to launch and establish the firm’s Asian operations.

Prior to that Ho led a regional sales operation for China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan at the Economist Intelligence Unit from June 2008 to September 2010.

Mitsubishi UFJ adds int’l CEO
Japanese firm Mitsubishi UFJ Fund Services has appointed Ken McCarney as its new chief executive.

McCarney is set to start in the new role on April 1 based in Dublin. He replaces Glenn Henderson, who is retiring after serving as CEO for four years.

Henderson will continue to work as an adviser to Mitsubishi UFJ Fund Services, which has some $165 billion of assets under administration.

McCarney retains his current position as Mitsubishi UFJ Fund Services’ chief operating officer, which he has held since February 2014.

RBC Wealth Management poaches two RMs
RBC Wealth Management hired Greater China-focused relationship managers Joanna Koo and Gala Shiu from United Overseas Bank (UOB).

The pair joined the firm’s North Asia team based in Singapore. The hires were announced on March 19. Both are client-facing directors and report to North Asia team head David Tan.

Both Koo and Shiu had served as relationship managers at UOB. Prior to that Koo held RM roles at Coutts and DBS, while Shiu had worked for HSBC and DBS.

Other people moves reported in the past week on AsianInvestor:

OMGI hires old Asia hand for regional expansion

Outgoing MPF chief hints at more government action

Amundi to move into Asia's competitive ETF marketplace

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