Weekly roundup of people news, Oct 11
LEGG MASON OCEANIA HEAD TAKES OVER ASIA
US fund house Legg Mason has promoted Andy Sowerby to head of Asia Pacific ex-Japan, in addition to his role as head of Australia and New Zealand. He took up the expanded post on October 1 and remains in Melbourne, where he has led the fund house's Australia and New Zealand operations since August 2016.
Sowerby replaces Lennie Lim, who will help with the transition over the next few months before retiring on March 31, 2020. He aims to pursue other interests after 30 years in financial services, including 12 years with Legg Mason, according to a company statement.
Sowerby will continue to report to Terry Johnson, head of global distribution.
FIRST STATE SUPER MAKES NEW APPOINTMENTS
The A$100 billion ($67.7 billion) First State Super superannuation fund has appointed Graeme Arnott as deputy chief executive and Sarah Forman as group executive for advice (a role overseeing the development of First State Super’s advice products and services), according to a release dated October 8.
Arnott has been promoted from his previous position as the acting group executive for advice, a role he has held since First State Super integrated with StatePlus in April. Before the merger he was the chief executive of StatePlus.
The promotion is going to be temporary, with Arnott having announced that he intends to step down from the newly-appointed role around mid-next year to pursue other opportunities.
In his deputy CEO role, Arnett is responsible for policy, communications and developing growth strategy, among other duties.
Forman has succeeded Arnott as group executive for advice. She joined from BT Financial Group as national manager.
The superannuation fund has also named Peter Chun as group executive member growth, responsible for marketing, digital and business development. He will replace Suzanne Holden, acting group executive member growth, who will be returning to Sydney Trains to be its chief customer officer in early December.
AXA IM NAMES ACTIVE FIXED INCOME HEAD FOR EUROPE AND ASIA
Axa Investment Managers has promoted Marion Le Morhedec to head of active fixed income for Europe and Asia, tasking her with building a strategy to accelerate its footprint in this business area.
Le Morhedec was previously head of product specialists and solutions for the core investment platform. She will retain that role until a replacement is appointed, said a company spokeswoman.
Le Morhedec reports to head of core investments Hans Stoter. Both are based in Paris.
London-based Chris Iggo had held Le Morhedec's role previously as part of his duties as chief investment officer for fixed income. His role has now been broadened to CIO for core investments.
The objective of having a separate active fixed income head is to further adapt the platform to the low-rate environment and integrate research in the investment approach, said the spokeswoman.
CARLYLE POACHES GOLDMAN ASIA M&A HEAD TO RUN KOREA INVESTMENTS
Alternatives manager Carlyle has hired John Kim to lead its investment activities in Korea as a managing director of the Asia buyout team, effective March 2020.
Lee Sanghyun had previously led Korean investment activities since 2011 but left the firm earlier this year.
Kim will start in the role in March 2020, having previously been head of mergers and acquisitions for Asia ex-Japan at Goldman Sachs, where he had worked since 2000.
At Carlyle he will report to XD Yang, managing director and chairman for Asia, and Greg Zeluck, co-head of the Asia buyout team.
Goldman Sachs has named Raghav Malia and Jun Min, co-heads of technology, media and telecommunications for Asia Pacific, to replace Kim as co-heads of M&A for the region.
EVERSTONE POACHES TEMASEK INDIA INVESTMENT EXEC
Everstone Capital, a Singapore-based private equity and real estate fund manager, has appointed Vibhor Kumar Talreja as a managing director in its Mumbai office to lead private equity investments in the financial services sector.
He will take up the newly created role next month and jointly report to chief executive and co-founder Sameer Sain, chief investment officer and co-found Atul Kapur and chief business officer Sanjay Gujral. All of them are based in Singapore.
Sain and Dhanpal Jhaveri, vice chairman for India, previously led Everstone's private equity investments in financial services, a company spokesman said.
Before joining Everstone, Vibhor was with Singapore state investor Temasek's India operation for 12 years, where he led decision-making on investments across private and public transactions.
Temasek said Talreja left in September, but declined to comment on who was now taking care of his former duties.
KNIGHT FRANK HIRES IN SINGAPORE
Real estate services firm Knight Frank has appointed Daniel Ding as the head of investment and capital markets in Singapore covering land, building and global real estate, with effect from January 1, 2020.
He will report to Wendy Tang, group managing director at Knight Frank Singapore.
According to a spokeswoman, Ding’s role is newly created as Knight Frank Singapore is expanding its investment and capital markets team to cover both outbound and inbound capital seeking direct real estate investments.
Ding will work alongside Ian Loh, head of investment and capital markets (land, building and collective sales), who until now had also covered global real estate investment.
Ding last held the position of group chief executive at Singapore-listed Soilbuild Construction. He left Soilbuild on August 30, according to an announcement from the company, after taking over the role as group chief executive five months prior. He had worked at Soilbuild for more than seven years, and before that was was a senior investment manager at Singapore-based real estate firm Mapletree Logistics Trust.
Soilbuild did not respond to queries as to who had replaced or would replace Ding.
EX-ANBANG INVESTMENT DIRECTOR JOINS CRYPTO PLATFORM
Gillian Wu, formerly a Hong Kong-based investment director at China's Anbang Insurance, has joined cryptocurrency exchange platform Huobi in Hong Kong, according to her LinkedIn profile. The company declined to confirm or provide additional information on the appointment, when contacted by AsianInvestor.
Wu left Anbang in May. In addition to being the chairwoman of investment committee, she was also the fund manager for Anbang Asia Select Fund and its qualified domestic institutional investor (QDII) mandates.
Anbang, which was taken over by China's insurance regulator in early 2018, could not be reached for comment.