Asia moves: HSBC appoints new Apac head, Barclays hires country CEO for China, and more

HSBC Asset Management has appointed Daisy Ho as its new regional chief executive officer for Asia-Pacific and Hong Kong. Based in Hong Kong, Ho reports to chief executive Nicolas Moreau. She has more than 20 years’ experience in the asset management industry and joins from Fidelity International, where she was most recently president for China.

Ho has been at Fidelity since 2005, initially as head of relationship management for institutional business in Hong Kong. Ho has also held senior management roles in the wealth management and asset management divisions of JP Morgan, Axa and Hang Seng Bank.

Ho replaces Pedro Bastos, who is moving to the newly created role of chief investment officer of international markets and Asia strategist.

UK lender Barclays has appointed Angela Liu as country CEO for China, reporting to Jaideep Khanna, head of Barclays for Asia-Pacific.

Liu joins Barclays with nearly 20 years of experience in the banking industry. Most recently, she was head of the institutional client group for China and Hong Kong at Deutsche Bank. Prior to that, Liu spent more than 17 years at Morgan Stanley.

Nomura Asset Management Malaysia has named Leslie Yap as its country head. Yap joined Nomura Asset Management in 2008, and was most recently head of investments at the Malaysian branch.

Yap succeeds Nor Rejina Abdul Rahim, who assumes the role of adviser to Nomura Asset Management Malaysia.

State Street has made a couple of senior appointments; Tim Helyar becomes head of Australia while Kevin Hardy becomes head of Singapore and South-east Asia. Both of these newly created roles will report to Mostapha Tahiri, CEO for Asia-Pacific. The appointees will be based in Sydney and Singapore respectively.

Helyar has spent almost two decades at JP Morgan Investor Services, most recently as head of fund services product development for Asia-Pacific at JP Morgan. Helyar has financial services experience across securities services, superannuation and wealth management.

Hardy joins State Street from Additiv Asia, where he was general manager for Asia-Pacific. Hardy has previously worked at a number of global asset managers including BlackRock, Northern Trust Global Investments and State Street Global Advisors.

Allianz has appointed Anusha Thavarajah as regional chief executive of its Asian business. Thavarajah joined the business in December 2019 and is currently serving as regional CEO of life and health.

Thavarajah has more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, having served in various senior leadership roles in the UK, Hong Kong and Malaysia. She has previously served as president of the Malaysia Life Insurance Association.

Hong Kong-based asset management firm Value Partners has appointed June Wong as group president. Based in Hong Kong, Wong will report directly to the group’s co-chairmen and co-chief investment officers Cheah Cheng Hye and Louis So. She will also become a member of the group’s leadership committee.

Wong has three decades of experience in the finance, actuarial and asset management industries across Asia. Most recently, she was Asia ex-Japan chief executive officer for State Street Global Advisors. Before that, she served as vice-chairman for Asia-Pacific at Columbia Threadneedle.

Other senior leadership roles she held include head of Asia ex-Japan institutional business at AllianceBernstein and head of business development at HSBC Asset Management.

She currently serves on the advisory committee of the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong.

First Sentier Investors has appointed Lauren Prendiville as head of distribution in Asia. Based in Singapore, Prendiville brings over 20 years of asset management experience, working across multiple client segments, including pension funds, central banks, sovereign wealth funds, endowments and private clients.

Prendiville joined First Sentier in January 2014, initially as a director for institutional investors. Prior to joining First Sentier, Prendiville was an executive director for institutional business development at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. She has also worked for Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Investec Asset Management.

Prendiville will report to CEO Mark Steinberg for all of her non-distribution responsibilities, and to global head of distribution, Harry Moore, for distribution responsibilities.

Eurizon Capital Asia, part of Intesa Sanpaolo, has appointed Richard Mo as its new head of business development and marketing. Mo has more than two decades’ experience working in asset management in Hong Kong.

Prior to joining Eurizon, Mo was head of business development for China and Taiwan for Jupiter Asset Management. Before that he worked at JP Morgan Asset Management for 15 years, serving in several managerial positions in the firm’s Taipei and Hong Kong offices.