State Street bolsters SPDR ETFs team in Asia Pacific
State Street Global Advisors, the asset management business of State Street Corporation, has made four appointments for its SPDR ETFs business in Asia Pacific.
Kathleen Gallagher has been appointed as head of SPDR ETFs Australia, in addition to her current role as head of ETF model portfolios Asia Pacific and EMEA; Marie Tsang has joined as a SPDR fixed income strategist for Asia Pacific; Jean Gan has joined as a SPDR fixed income sales specialist for Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia; and Robin Tsui has expanded his role to Asia Pacific gold strategist and gold sales specialist for Hong Kong.
Gallagher began her expanded role earlier this month in Sydney, while the roles of Tsang, Gan and Tsui are effective now and are based in Sydney, Singapore and Hong Kong respectively. All four report to Meaghan Victor, head of SPDR ETFs Asia Pacific distribution at State Street, who is based in Sydney.
Gallagher will lead, manage and develop the SPDR ETFs business in Australia as well as the ETF model portfolio business in Asia Pacific and EMEA across all channels, including asset owners, asset managers and financial intermediaries.
The two fixed income appointments are both newly created roles. Tsang joins State Street Global Advisors from Blackrock, where she was most recently the senior investment strategist for Blackrock portfolio analysis and solutions. Tsang will be responsible for State Street’s fixed income ETFs, advising Asia Pacific clients how to best position and employ them in investor portfolios, and promoting the strategic growth of SPDR’s fixed income products by working together with the SPDR distribution team.
Gan joins the firm from MUFG Securities, where she was most recently the director for institutional investor sales. Prior to that, she held various fixed income, derivatives and structured products sales roles at JPMorgan, Societe Generale, Citibank and UBS. Taking on the new role, Gan will be responsible for developing strategies to drive sales of the global fixed income SPDR ETFs, focusing on institutional asset owners and managers in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.
Before taking on his expanded role, Tsui was Asia Pacific gold strategist. Prior to joining State Street in 2016, Tsui was investment product and research manager at the World Gold Council. Tsui will lead the sales strategies for SPDR Gold ETFs in Hong Kong, in addition to his gold strategist role which focuses on gold investment strategy and research.
Credit Suisse adds five regional team leaders
Sunny Ho, Edward Lee and Steven Lau will take team leader positions in Hong Kong, and Edith Wong will be a team leader for China, and Mel Chua joins as team leader for Greater China Singapore.
Ho, who was previously head of private banking at China Minsheng Bank, arrived last month and will report to Rickie Chan, Hong Kong market group head. Ho has 22 years of industry experience, including at HSBC, Citibank and Societe Generale. In his new job, he will
Lee was a senior investment consultant for Greater China and has two decades of experience, mostly earlier at Credit Suisse, but also spells at HSBC and Citibank. Lau arrived at Credit Suisse five years ago, after jobs at BNP Paribas and Ernst & Young.
Wong has spent two decades serving ultra-high net worth (UHNW) clients. She joins from JP Morgan Private Bank, where she led a team of China-focused relationship managers. She also worked at UBS Wealth Management in Hong Kong for 12 years. She will report to Martin Loh, China market group head.
Chua was head of the front office at the Bank of China Private Bank for three years, and has 17 years of banking experience, including at Bank of Singapore, UBS and in HSBC Singapore. He will report to John Huang, Greater China Singapore market leader.
Willis Towers Watson grows Asia investments team
Willis Towers Watson, a global advisory and broking company, has expanded its Asia Investments team by a third to strengthen its advisory and delegated investment services to meet increasing client demand for practical investment advice and portfolio management solutions in Asia,
The new appointments enlarge Willis Towers Watson’s team across several asset classes and services, including investing in China.
Based in Hong Kong, they include: Liang Yin, director of manager research, private equity and China specialist, who has recently transferred to Hong Kong from TAI in the UK; Eleanor Wang, associate, who joins the manager research team; and Raymond Kwong, director, and Jason Zeall, associate director, who both join the client consulting team, along with two associates who will also arrive later this month.
Multi-family office makes senior Apac hire
Alvarium Investments has appointed Peter Golovsky as its managing director, head of family office services for Asia Pacific.
He will help grow Alvarium’s platform across the region with a focus on developing the platform in Singapore and Australia.
Golovsky has 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, including a decade in Hong Kong heading up family office and investment advisory businesses.
He arrives from investor services provider IQ-EQ, where he was in charge of private wealth for Asia, based in Hong Kong. Earlier, he was the global head of fiduciary services head, and spent 10 years in private banking, with senior jobs at Macquarie and Westpac.
Alvarium has been in Asia for a decade, and has offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. The firm advises around $21bn in assets on behalf of institutional clients and multi-generational entrepreneurs and families.
Capital Group strengthens ESG client servicing
Capital Group has appointed Belinda Gan as ESG investment director, Europe and Asia client group, effective 1 October 2021. Gen will report to Alexandra Haggard, head of product and investment services for Europe and Asia.
Based in London, Gen will partner with Capital Group’s ESG team to lead the client servicing offering on ESG. Her responsibilities include working with clients, consultants, other intermediaries and Capital Group associates to inform and educate on Capital Group’s approach to ESG and investment philosophy across the company’s range of strategies.
Gen has 17 years of industry experience, with a focus on climate change and ESG during the past eight years. She was most recently an investment director, global sustainability, at Schroders UK and is a member of the Investment Association’s Sustainability and Responsible Investment Committee. She began her career at Goldman Sachs Australia.
In 2021 Capital Group, which has AUM of $2.6trn, joined the UN Global Compact Initiative, and the asset manager is also a signatory to the Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures and the Principles for Responsible Investment reporting framework.
Gam re-hires from Blackrock
Gam Investments has appointed Mary Murphy to the newly created role of head of global consultant relations. She will report to Jill Barber, global head of institutional solutions, and will be responsible for building strategic relationships with both global and UK local consultants.
Murphy joins from Blackrock where she had responsibility for leading some of the firm’s largest strategic investment consultant relationships. She had previously been a client dDirector of UK institutional business at Gam until 2016 and has held a number of roles in other asset management firms over a 15-year career in the industry.
Aviva promotes new head of credit
Aviva Investors, the global asset management business of Aviva Plc, has made Caroline Hedges head of credit, following the promotion of Colin Purdie to chief investment officer, liquid markets, in June.
Hedges will lead teams across investment grade and high yield credit, emerging market debt, liquidity and securities finance. She takes on the new role from her position as head of liquidity and securities finance and sterling liquidity plus portfolio manager. Prior to this, Hedges was a portfolio manager for a range of Aviva Investors money market and short duration bond funds.
