Posted inPeople Moves

Aberdeen’s investment director quits after 21 years

Aberdeen Asset Management has confirmed that its Asian equity investment director, Chong Yoon-Chou, will be leaving at the end of January.

Aberdeen AM told Fund Selector Asia that Chong has decided to take a break from the industry.

“This follows the clarification of succession planning, with Devan Kaloo appointed head of equities in June and Flavia Cheong simultaneously promoted to lead the Asian equity team on a day-to- day basis,” Aberdeen AM said.

The firm said that Chong’s departure will not impact its equity investment team, which is comprised of mainly of senior analysts.

Chong Yoon-Chou joined Aberdeen in 1994 as a graduate trainee. In the earlier part of his career, he was involved in refining Aberdeen AM’s investment process and portfolio construction techniques.

Chong was made a director in 1998. He then spent time in Australia as an investment director and he took on the responsibility of restructuring portfolios. In 2007, he was transferred to London to lead the pan-European equity team.

In June 2008, Chou returned to Singapore and joined Aberdeen AM’s Asian equities team.

Aberdeen, which has an emphasis on emerging markets, has had significant outflows in recent months and is working through a period of underperformance. Recently, the CEO Martin Gilbert, denied rumours the firm was for looking for potential buyers.

Part of the Mark Allen Group.