Posted inPeople Moves

Lombard Odier names Nakamura Asia Pacific CIO

Lombard Odier Investment Managers has appointed Jean-Louis Nakamura chief investment officer for the Asia Pacific region, as it continues to develop its business there.
Fund Selector Asia

Nakamura succeeds Pranay Gupta, who left the company at the end of last year.

Nakamura had been deputy global CIO for Lombard Odier IM, a role and title he retains. Until January, had been based in Geneva, where Lombard Odier IM’s parent company, the private bank Lombard Odier & Cie, is headquartered, but he has now relocated to Hong Kong.

In his new role, Nakamura reports to Vincent Duhamel, head of Lombard Odier for Asia Pacific.

Nakamura, according to Duhamel, brings with him to Asia “Lombard Odier’s risk-based expertise, which concentrates on helping clients to achieve their long-term investment goals while minimising drawdowns”, a strategy Duhamel said Nakamura helped to pioneer for the company.

As reported, Lombard Odier announced in February that it was rolling out a risk-based strategy that it was said to use to run its own staff pension scheme to private clients, with the launch of two LO Selection Vantage funds.

Growing presence in Asia

Lombard Odier has more than doubled its presence in Asia over the last two years, although it has been present in the region for more than a quarter of a century. In addition to Hong Kong, it has offices in Tokyo and Singapore.

In August, the company announced two other high-level appointments to its Hong Kong team: Fred Horsey was named co-chief operating officer and general counsel, while Christophe Morel was appointed chief risk officer for Asia-Pacific. Both positions were new, and, like Nakamura, both men report to Duhamel.

In addition to growing its Asia staff, Lombard Odier is also forging links with regional businesses. It currently has partnerships in force with JBWere in Australia and KB Kookmin Bank in South Korea, while in Japan, it has partnerships with Bank of the Ryukyus, Yamaguchi Bank, Shizuoka Bank, Momiji Bank, Chiba Bank, Kitakyushu Bank, Ibis Capital Partners, Okazaki Shinkin Bank and Kagawa Securities.

Globally the Lombard Odier Group has a network of some 25 offices in 18 countries, and at the end of December was managing client assets of $233bn.

Part of the Mark Allen Group.