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Weekly roundup of people news, Nov 11

Rest Super restructures equity team with two senior hires; Aware Real Estate brings in new head of finance and operations; Capital Group names regional head of fixed income business development; Vontobel taps new head of sustainable equities business from Lombard Odier; Amundi appoints senior roles for multi asset and ESG; and more.
Weekly roundup of people news, Nov 11

REST SUPER RESTRUCTURES EQUITIES TEAM

Chris Drew

Australian industry superannuation fund Rest Super has promoted Chris Drew to head of portfolio construction of external equities, and Sonia Bluzmanis to head of research of external equities, amid its restructuring phase of the listed assets team.

The appointmetns have been in effect since the end of October. Both Drew and Bluzmanis will hold responsibilities across the fund’s externally managed listed equities portfolio, both in Australia and globally. They will be based in London in their new roles and report to Kiran Singh, head of listed assets.

Sonia Bluzmanis

Drew and Bluzmanis joined the super fund 18 months ago as the head of Australian equities and senior manager of global equities, respectively.

Prior to joining Rest, Drew was an investment manager for public markets with Australian Catholic Superannuation for six years. Before that, he spent three years with Sunsuper as a portfolio analyst and then as an investment manager, primarily responsible for managing the Australian equities portfolio.

Before joining Rest, Bluzmanis spent almost five years as a portfolio manager at Australian pension wealth manager BT, and 10 years at Colonial First State as a senior investment manager.

AWARE REAL ESTATE NAMES HEAD OF FINANCE

Tracey Whitby

Aware Real Estate - a subsidiary of Aware Super established in June - has hired Tracey Whitby as its new head of finance and operations.

In her new role, Whitby will be responsible for the finance, business operations and governance functions of the fund. She will also provide strategic and best-practice finance and operational advice during the establishment and growth phase of the platform.

Whitby will be based in Sydney and report to the firm’s chief executive Michelle McNally.

Whitby was previously the chief financial officer of Lincoln Place, an Australian real estate fund manager which specialises in the development, management and operation of Land Lease Communities.

Lincoln Place did not respond to AsianInvestor's request to comment on Whitby's replacement.

Aware Real Estate is a subsidiary of Aware Super. It was established in June to oversee the Australian pension fund’s directly owned local build to rent, industrial and office properties.

CAPITAL GROUP HIRES HEAD OF FIXED INCOME BD FOR ASIA AND EUROPE

Scott Steele

Capital Group has appointed Scott Steele to the newly-created role of head of fixed income business development for Asia and Europe, according to an announcement on Tuesday (November 8).

Based in London, Steele will be responsible for building the fixed income distribution strategy and product development roadmap for clients and intermediaries in Asia and Europe.

He will report to Alexandra Haggard, head of product and investment services for Asia and Europe.

Steele has more than 30 years of industry experience, with expertise in fixed income and distribution across Asia and Europe. He was previously the global head of fixed income client portfolio management at Janus Henderson Investors for over four years.

Before that, he held several leadership positions at PIMCO, including head of wealth management, Hong Kong and Singapore and head of institutional, Asia ex Japan.

Janus Henderson Investors did not respond to AsianInvestor's request to comment on Steele's replacement.

VONTOBEL APPOINTS NEW HEAD OF SUSTAINABLE EQUITIES

Jean-Louis Nakamura

Vontobel has appointed Jean-Louis Nakamura as head of sustainable equities business on Monday (November 7), replacing Hans Speich who is retiring.

Reporting to Christel Rendu de Lint, deputy head of investments at Vontobel, Nakamura will lead the firm’s sustainable equities business and its 35 investment professionals based in Zurich, Milan and Hong Kong. Nakamura will be based in Zurich, a spokesperson told AsianInvestor.

With 27 years’ experience in the public and the private sectors, Nakamura joins Vontobel from Lombard Odier, where he spent 14 years and was chief investing officer (CIO) in Asia Pacific and chief executive officer (CEO) of the firm in Hong Kong.

A Lombard Odier spokesperson told AsianInvestor that Nakamura was replaced by Yankai Shao as head of investment solutions for Asia, effective November 1. Shao joined Lombard Odier in 2011. Vincent Magnenat, limited partner and Asia regional head, will replace Nakamura as interim CEO for Lombard Odier's Hong Kong office.

Previously, Nakamura was Lombard Odier Investment Managers’ head of multi assets and deputy global CIO in Geneva. He started his career in the public sector, between 1995 and 2003 he was senior economist at the French Treasury and Deputy Financial Counselor at the European Union Council. From 2003 to 2008, he was CEO and CIO of the Civil Service Pension Fund and the French Pension Reserve Fund, where he was responsible for strategic and tactical asset allocation.

AMUNDI APPOINTS REGIONAL ROLES FOR INVESTMENT AND ESG

Florian Neto

Amundi on Monday (November 7) announced the appointment of Florian Neto as head of investment, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and head of multi asset, Asia, and David Poh as head of investment and ESG strategies in South Asia.

Based in Hong Kong, Neto supervises Amundi’s investment teams in Hong Kong and Taiwan. He is also directly responsible for the multi asset platform in the Asian region. He is the lead or co-lead portfolio manager of a range of open-ended funds and institutional multi-asset mandates for Asian clients.

Neto also leads the outsourced chief investment officer function for Asian institutional clients. He has been contributing to the global research process of the platform with a focus on emerging markets.

Neto joined Amundi’s international graduate programme in New York in 2010 and was since with the company’s Hong Kong and Paris offices in different investment roles. Before the promotion, he was the director and head of multi-asset North Asia and lead portfolio manager for three years.

David Poh

Meanwhile, Poh, as the new head of investment and ESG strategies for South Asia, will be based in Singapore.

He joined from Amundi BOC (Bank of China) Wealth Management as head of research, a role he took in 2020. Before that, he was with Amundi as head of equities in February 2018, where he was subsequently appointed head of investments for Singapore in November 2019.

Amundi declined to provide more details about the two appointments, including their reporting lines, starting dates, and whether they are newly created roles or replacement. 

GAM’S JIAN SHI CORTESI TAKES ADDITIONAL ROLE

Jian Shi Cortesi

GAM Investments announced on Monday (November 7) that investment director, Jian Shi Cortesi will take additional responsibilities of GAM China and GAM Asian equity strategies to her existing role, pending regulatory approval.

Cortesi currently manages the GAM Asia Focus and the GAM China Evolution equity strategies. Pending regulatory approval of her new responsibilities, the current manager Rob Mumford will have direct responsibility for managing the China and Asia equity strategies in the interim.

Cortesi will lead a team focused on Asian and China equity strategies, supported by a new senior analyst Wendy Chen as part of the wider collaboration within the global equities team led by Mark Hawtin.

She will also work in close collaboration with Swetha Ramachandran, investment director for the firm’s luxury brands strategy. Cortesi will report to David Dowsett, global head of investments and will continue to be based in Switzerland.

Mumford will remain a member of the emerging markets equities team with a particular focus on the firm’s sustainable emerging market equity strategy.

M&G REAL ESTATE HIRES ASIA PROPERTY RESEARCH HEAD FROM JLL

Regina Lim

M&G Real Estate has hired Regina Lim as director, head of property research Asia from JLL. Starting on Monday (November 7), she will oversee the research team to produce strategic investment recommendations on the Asia Pacific property market, the firm announced the same day.

Lim replaces Jonathan Hsu who has since moved onto another internal role in M&G on fund management, it told AsianInvestor without elaborating.

Based in Singapore, she will work closely with Lai, Jose Pellicer, global head of investment strategy, and Richard Gwilliam, global head of research to deliver and ensure consistent methodology is applied to the view formation of prospective performance for the property markets within Asia Pacific.

Lim reports to Jing Dong Lai, CEO and CIO of M&G Real Estate Asia.

An industry veteran with over 20 years of experience, Lim joins M&G from JLL, where she spent seven years and was most recently head of strategic advisory and capital market research in Asia Pacific and Southeast Asia until November.

This appointment follows the joining of Martin Seol as director, portfolio management, head of targeted strategy, Asia Life Fund, and Daniel Cho as director, acquisitions in South Korea, as well as the appointment of Ikeda Seiko as head of Japan earlier this year.

JLL declined to comment on Lim’s replacement. 

COLLIERS NAMES NEW APAC MD

Chris Pilgrim

Real estate services and investment management company Colliers has appointed Chris Pilgrim managing director for Global Capital Markets in Asia Pacific, effective January 1, 2023.

Pilgrim steps into a newly created role to support Colliers’  Global Capital Markets growth strategy in Asia Pacific, a spokesperson told AsianInvestor. He will focus on serving institutional investors looking for direct and indirect real estate strategies. Pilgrim reports to Sam Harvey-Jones, chief operating officer in Asia Pacific at Colliers, the spokesperson added.

Joining Colliers as a Global Capital Markets director in June 2021, Pilgrim is currently based in London but will relocate to Singapore in early 2023.

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