Former Nomura executive and veteran manager joins Lazard's Japan business as its new head.

Lazard Asset Management, the London-headquartered financial services firm, has named a new representative director and chief executive for its Japan business.

Effective immediately, Yugo Ishida steps in to lead the growth and development of the company's Japan operations, which covers local investment management, as well as Japanese sales and distribution of the parent firm's investment strategies. This is a Tokyo-based role.

Ishida was previously an advisor to the board of directors at Nomura Asset Management. Before that, he held a number of senior global leadership roles at Nomura, including president and chief operating officer of NAM, chairman of Nomura Holdings' European, Asian and North American subsidiaries, chairman and then president and CEO of Nomura Europe and Nomura International, president and CEO of Nomura Italia, director of Nomura International and then executive director and head of investment advisory and marketing for Nomura Hong Kong. He had been with the company for 34 years.

Lazard Asset Management offers a range of equity, fixed-income and alternative investment products worldwide. LAM and its affiliate asset management firms under the Lazard Group managed some $176 billon in client assets as at 30 September 2013.

Ishida is not the only ex-Nomura executive to join Lazard in the past year. In early 2013, Jesse Bhattal, then president and CEO of Nomura's global wholesale arm was hired as senior advisor for the Asia-Pacific region.