Asia moves: Allianz adds two to China, Allen & Overy appoints new partner, and more

Allianz Global Investors (Allianz GI) has made two appointments to its China business. Leo Shen has been named head of the firm’s onshore fund management business, while Zheng Wang becomes a Shanghai-based portfolio manager, focusing on managing onshore multi-asset investments in China. Shen joins Allianz GI from Mercer, where he was China wealth and investment business leader. He has more than 15 years in asset management and investment consulting. Wang joins from Mirae Asset Investment Management (Shanghai), where he was a portfolio manager with responsibility for investments in China. Zheng has more than 12 years of investment and research experience.

The Hong Kong arm of Manulife has made two senior appointments to strengthen distribution capability. Ivan Chan becomes chief agency officer while Tracy Leung joins the firm as chief partnership distribution officer. Chan has been at Manulife since 1999 and has held various leadership and management positions across sales management, business development, recruitment, sales promotion and training. Leung joins from Standard Chartered, where she was most recently head of bancassurance. Both appointees will report to Damien Green, chief executive officer of Manulife Hong Kong and Macau.

EquitiesFirst, which focuses on asset-backed financing, has appointed Didier Zheng as managing director of the firm’s Beijing office. Prior to joining EquitiesFirst, Zheng was chief executive officer at Dots Institutional Investors. Zheng has also held positions at Fosun International, Shenyin & Wanguo Securities, BNP Paribas and Societe Generale. Didier started his career as a diplomat at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Zheng will be based in Beijing and report to Gordon Crosbie-Walsh, CEO of Asia.

Law firm Allen & Overy has appointed James Ford as a partner in its Hong Kong office. Ford joins from O’Melveny and Myers Hong Kong, where he was global head of its investment funds practice. He will be part of the firm’s funds and asset management group, which provides a full-service offering to fund managers and institutional investors. Ford will focus on those clients active in private equity and other alternative asset strategies.

Allen & Overy has also appointed Melody Wang as a partner and head of the litigation practice of its Chinese joint operation, Shanghai Lang Yue Law Firm. Melody, who will join Lang Yue with a team of three litigators, brings more than 16 years of experience advising multinational and Chinese clients in high-stakes litigation and arbitration, often in a cross-border context.

WeLab Bank, a virtual bank licensed by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, has promoted Tat Lee to the role of chief executive. Lee was previously the firm’s alternate chief executive and executive director.

Lee succeeds Adrian Tse, who has stepped down from the role for personal reasons. Lee has nearly two decades of retail banking and fintech experience. Over the last eight years, he has assumed a number of roles in WeLab including head of product and risk management and, subsequently, as general manager of WeLend, the bank’s online lending platform. Prior to joining WeLab, Lee held senior roles in leading international financial institutions, including HSBC and Standard Chartered’s former consumer finance subsidiary, PrimeCredit.

SGX has appointed Herry Cho to the newly-created position of head of sustainability and sustainable finance reporting. Cho will report directly to the exchange’s CEO, Loh Boon Chye. Cho joins SGX after more than 13 years at ING, where she has been head of sustainable finance for Asia-Pacific since 2017.

FWD Fuji Life Insurance has appointed Hideki Yamagishi as chief executive officer of FWD Japan, subject to regulatory approval. He will replace Norio Tomono, who will step down from his position while continuing to provide executive leadership support in his new role as country manager for FWD in Japan. Yamagishi-san will report to Huynh Thanh Phong, FWD Group CEO. Yamagishi-san joins FWD Japan from NFC Holdings, which provides insurance services, where he was most recently CEO of Japan.

Singapore-based asset manager Eastspring, part of the UK’s Prudential group, has appointed Lilian Tham as a new chief operating officer to replace Jeroen Buwalda, who is moving to a newly-created role as chief of global business services at Prudential Corporation Asia. Tham joins from Schroders, where she has worked since 1994, most recently as Asia-Pacific chief operating officer with oversight of operations, investment services and technology, change and innovation across the region. Tham will be based in Singapore and will report to Eastspring’s chief executive officer, Wai-Kwong Seck.

Aberdeen Standard Investments has appointed René Buehlmann as its new chief executive of Asia-Pacific. René succeeds Hugh Young, who will take on a new role as chairman Asia. René has more than three decades of experience in global wealth and asset management, corporate banking and financial markets, including 29 years with UBS. He was most recently UBS’s head of asset management for Asia-Pacific and global head of wholesale client coverage. Based in Singapore, René will join the executive leadership team and report directly to the firm’s CEO, Stephen Bird.