West is moving into the newly-created role of executive director, head of international offices, and will, in addition, take the role of Asia CEO.
Based in Singapore, West will head the Asia operations for the rest of 2015. The firm did not share any further details on the appointment.
“We would like to take the opportunity to think about how best we want to structure the role of Asia CEO going forth,” West said.
According to Principal Global, West’s new role has been created to help address the complexity of managing a global asset management platform, and to provide additional senior management bandwidth outside the US.
West had previously also headed the Asia operations as the managing director of Asia ex-Japan. His other prior roles with the firm were chief executive of the Australian and European businesses.
“Both Andrea [Muller] and Kirk [West] have successfully managed a wide variety of complex challenges facing the organisation and contributed greatly to the rapid development and growth of the firm. We are looking forward to their continued commitment and contributions,” said Jim McCaughan, CEO of Principal.
Muller, who joined Principal in 2010 as Asia CEO, has been instrumental in the growth of the firm in Asia and the Middle East. She also built the asset management aspects of Principal International’s joint ventures in China and Malaysia.
Muller will assume responsibility for all sales, relationship management and client service activities in Asia-Pacific (including Japan and Australia), Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. She will relocate from Singapore to the US.
In October, Muller told Fund Selector Asia that the firm is working on the launch of China-focused strategies. For Hong Kong, she had said the firm had plans to develop local products that suit the needs of the Mandatory Provident Fund.
