The latest senior moves in and around the Asia-Pacific wealth management sector.

BlackRock
BlackRock Real Assets, part of US-listed asset management titan BlackRock, has appointed Valerie Speth as a managing director for the firm’s Asia-Pacific Renewable Power team.

Speth will lead investment and portfolio management efforts in Southeast Asian economies for BlackRock’s flagship Global Renewable Power strategy and the Climate Finance Partnership programme in Asia. She will be based in Singapore for this newly-created post, reporting to Keith Mangan, BlackRock’s head of APAC for the Renewable Power team.

A qualified mechanical engineer, Speth has more than 15 years’ experience in renewable energy businesses in Europe and APAC, in the areas of strategy, merger and acquisition, and operations. Prior to joining BlackRock, she was regional director, Asia-Pacific, for juwi, a global expert in turnkey renewable power projects. Before relocating to APAC, she led corporate strategy and M&A at juwi in Germany. 

“Our clients increasingly demand more sustainable and private market investments on the journey to achieving net zero. We are delighted to welcome Valerie who brings deep industry expertise and insight in renewable power investments and operations. Rapid population growth, rising GDP and access to electricity throughout APAC are giving rise to greater demand for energy, thereby presenting us with unprecedented investment opportunities for our clients,” David Giordano, BlackRock’s global head of Renewable Power, said. 

BlackRock’s Global Renewable Power platform has committed $1 billion over the last five years to more than 60 projects and partner companies in APAC’s leading renewable markets of Australia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan on behalf of its clients as of 12 July 2021. The Global Renewable Power team intends to invest over one-third of the $4.8 billion raised for strategy in climate infrastructure assets in APAC and, via CFP in climate-related infrastructure in emerging non-OECD markets, across Southeast Asia as well as in Latin America and Africa.

BlackRock manages $297 billion in alternative investments and commitments on behalf of clients worldwide, as of 31 March 2021, across a range of investment solutions in real estate, infrastructure, private equity, credit, hedge funds and alternative solutions.

Nomura
Nomura Singapore has named Gan Chee Yen as a non-executive director. This has happened at the same time as the Japanese banking group is building out its business, such as wealth management, across Asia.

From 2011 to 2019, Gan was chief executive of Fullerton Financial Holdings, a unit of Singapore’s global investment company, Temasek, where he worked in a variety of positions from 2003 to 2011 - as senior managing director, co-chief investment officer, chief financial officer and head of China.

“Chee Yen’s depth of experience in accounting, finance and investment management, as well as his managerial and supervisory roles will add greatly to decision-making and corporate governance at our Singapore boardroom,” Kelvin Ho, CEO of Nomura Singapore, said.

Gan also sits on the board of Singapore-based companies, Heliconia Capital Management, Surbana Jurong, and Pacific International Lines.

Gaw Capital Partners
Gaw Capital Partners a private equity investment firm in Asia, has appointed Kok-Chye Ong as managing director and head of international data centre platform investments (ex-China). Ong is based in Singapore.

Ong will lead IDC platform investments for the country outside the China region, building a professional team and platform to bolster its China platform, where Gaw Capital Partners has already committed $1.3 billion since 2019.

Before this role, Ong worked in the Keppel Group of companies for 10 years as a senior vice president and, since 2014, as the head of strategy and global investments at Keppel Data Centres, a regional data centre owner. Ong has more than 20 years of international experience in data centres, telecom and submarine cable development projects. 

Ong received his bachelor of accounting degree from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and graduated from the Sloan Fellows Program at Stanford University with a master of science in management from the Graduate School of Business in 2007. He is a chartered accountant (CA) in Singapore and fellow of CPA Australia (FCPA) and a member of the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accounts (ISCA) and CPA Australia.