GEPS NAMES NEW CIO
Korea’s Government Employees Pension Service (GEPS) named Seo Won-joo as chief investment officer (CIO) on May 8, replacing outgoing investment head Lee Chang-hoon.
A GEPS spokesman said Seo will join the pension fund this month to oversee its assets, which stood at W80.7 trillion ($70 billion) in assets under management at the end of 2017. AsianInvestor could not ascertain Lee’s next move, but industry executives familiar with GEPs say he is likely to take a senior role in Korea's asset management industry.
Seo worked as CIO of Seoul-based PCA Life Insurance from 2014 to February 2018, according to his LinkedIn account.
AsianInvestor could not be certain what Seo has been doing since leaving PCA Life.
MSIM HIRES NEW KOREA HEAD
Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) has hired Lee Yoon-Pyo as managing director and head of Korea.
Based in Seoul, Lee joined the firm early May, said a MSIM spokesman. He reports to Hiro Shimizu, head of Japan and Korea for the US asset manager. This is a newly created role to grow its asset management business in Korea, the spokesman told AsianInvestor.
Lee joined from Seoul-based Truston Asset Management where he was co-CEO, managing its fixed income and alternative investment divisions. The departments have respectively have been taken over by Seok Geon Son and Jade Ok since Lee left, respectively, a Truston spokesman told AsianInvestor.
Prior to Truston, Lee worked at the National Pension Service of Korea as head of global private market investment division, head of investment strategy and a member of NPS’ investment committee.
KOREA'S SEMA BRINGS IN NEW CIO
The Korea Scientists and Engineers Mutual-aid Association (Sema) has appointed Huh Sung-moo as its new chief investment officer (CIO) for a two-year term. Huh succeeds Du Yeong Jeong who retired from the $4.6 billion pension fund at the end of April after serving for extended four years in the role, Sema said.
Huh was formerly the head of alternative investment and strategy for Seoul-based Multi Asset Global Investments, formerly known as KDB Asset Management. Before that he had worked for domestic brokerage companies and asset management firms in charge of corporate banking, fund management and product sales.
UBS AM’S EX-INSTO HEAD FOR AUSTRALIA RESURFACES
Anne Flockart, the former Australia head of institutional business at UBS Asset Management, has taken up a new post at Sydney-based fund house Challenger.
She became head of strategy for institutional distribution – a contract-based role – at Challenger last month, according to her LinkedIn page.
A Challenger spokeswoman declined to confirm the date Flockart started or whether anyone else had been in the role previously, saying the firm only commented on C-suite level appointments.
Flockart had left UBS AM in November 2018 around the same time as another member of the three-strong Australian institutional team, James Duck. Their departures just preceded UBS AM’s December announcement that it was transferring the management of its Australian equity and estate investment trust funds to other asset managers.
INDOSUEZ WM NAMES INVESTMENT ADVISORY HEAD
Indosuez Wealth Management, the global wealth management brand of Crédit Agricole Group, has appointed Woo Ting May as head of investment advisory, based in Singapore.
Woo reports to Julien Collin, head of markets for investment and structuring in Singapore. A spokesman at Indosuez declined to be specific about when she joined the company and her predecessor for the role.
Before joining Indosuez, Woo was a director of the active portfolio advisory team at UBS in Singapore. UBS declined to comment on her departure.
COLLIERS APPOINTS MD FOR NORTH CHINA
Colliers, a Canada-based real estate investment management company, has appointed Charles Yan as the Beijing-based managing director for North China.
Yan started the role in April and reports to Tammy Tang, managing director for China based in Shanghai.
He replaced Li Jie, who left Colliers in February, a spokeswoman said.
Charles Yan was previously the Beijing-based executive director for OSG enterprise for Greater China at Cushman & Wakefield. The company declined to comment on its staff arrangements following Yan’s departure.
DEUTSCHE BANK APPOINTS FIXED INCOME WEALTH HEAD
Deutsche Bank has appointed Eric Leung as head of fixed income for emerging markets in its wealth management arm, effective May 7, a Deutsche Bank spokeswoman confirmed.
Leung, based in Hong Kong, has succeeded Cherris Wong, who had been promoted to chief operating officer for North Asia, a spokeswoman told AsianInvestor. He reports to Akshay Prasad, a managing director and head of capital markets Asia of global products and solutions in Deutsche Bank Wealth Management. He is based in Singapore.
Previously Leung had worked at J. Safra Sarasin, a Swiss private banking group. He had worked at the bank for a decade, most recently as head of fixed income Asia.
J. Safra Sarasin did not respond to AsianInvestor's request for comments on when Leung departed or whether a replacement has been identified.
INSURANCE COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA NAMES TWO DIRECTORS
The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has appointed two directors to the board, effective May 2.
Tim Plant, chief executive for Zurich general insurance in Australia and New Zealand, and John Myler, chief executive for the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland Insurance (RACQ), will continue to hold their current positions.
The industry group representing the general insurance sector in Australia added Plant and Myler on the board to help better respond to “the regulatory, political and climate change challenges facing the industry.”
Myler, based in Brisbane, has been with RACQ since May 2017, the insurer’s spokesman told AsianInvestor. Meanwhile, Plant, who is based in Sydney, joined Zurich Australian Insurance in August 2018, according to a release from the insurer.
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