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

State Street
State Street Global Advisors, the asset management arm of US-based State Street, has named Dr Xinting Jia as ESG investment strategist for Asia-Pacific, effective immediately. The role is a new one at the firm.

Dr Jia reports globally to Karen Wong, global head of ESG and sustainable investing, and regionally to Michele Barlow, head of strategy and research for Asia-Pacific. Based in Melbourne, she will work with clients in Asia to support the firm’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment strategies, developing bespoke solutions to address ESG and performance goals.

Prior to this, Dr Jia worked at CareSuper, an industry superannuation fund in Australia, where she was an ESG specialist. Prior to that, she was head of Asia for responsible investment at Mercer Investments. 

LaSalle Investment Management
LaSalle Investment Management has named Simon Howard and Michael Stratton as co-heads of its Australian operations. Their appointments took effect earlier in December. Both report to Keith Fujii, head of Asia-Pacific, based in Tokyo.

They joined joined LaSalle in 2011 with the opening of the firm’s Sydney office. Prior to this appointment, Howard was head of asset management while Stratton had been head of acquisitions. They each have more than 25 years’ experience across a broad range of asset classes including office, retail, industrial, hotels, retirement villages and residential.

The firm oversees about $73 billion of assets in private equity, debt and public real estate investments (as of end-June 2021).

PGIM
PGIM Investments, part of US-listed Prudential Financial, has made a number of senior hires in Asia.

Sashi Nambiar is joining as managing director, head of Southeast Asia, a newly-created role in which he will lead the firm’s sales and distribution efforts in key markets in the ASEAN region. Effective on 18 December, Nambiar will be based in Singapore and report to Jessica Jones, PGIM Investments’ head of Asia.

Nambiar was previously with Wellington Management, where he was MD, global wealth. During his 20 years of experience in the asset management industry, Nambiar has served in various leadership roles, covering private banks and sub-advisory markets across Asia.

PGIM Investments has also hired Wincy Mak as head of marketing Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, to provide further support for business growth and brand presence in the region. Mak, who will report to Debra Probst, head of international client marketing, has joined from abrdn (formerly Aberdeen Standard Investments) where she was head of marketing for Hong Kong and China.

PGIM Investments is part of PGIM, the $1.5 trillion global investment management business of Prudential Financial.

Fidelity International
Fidelity International has appointed Emmanuelle Pecenicic as head of digital propositions and partnerships, Asia.

In this newly-created role, Pecenicic is responsible for leading Fidelity’s digital-led strategy in the region, with a focus on enabling the best client experience, the firm said in a statement. She will lead the development and build-out of Fidelity’s digital propositions and partnerships in Asia.

Pecenicic was previously at BNP Paribas Asset Management, where she recently led the firm’s global digital strategy.

VP Bank 
VP Bank has appointed Chris Chee as its chief risk officer Asia. 

Based in Hong Kong, Chee will be responsible for all risk management strategies and operations, and will supervise the bank's legal and compliance functions in Asia. He will report regionally to Pamela Hsu Phua, VP chief executive Asia, and functionally to Patrick Bont, VP’s group chief risk officer.

Chee has 20 years of experience in legal, risk and compliance, as well as knowledge of Asian AML/CTF laws and regulations. He has worked closely with Asian regulatory and supervisory regimes and held managerial positions in legal, compliance and risk.  

He began his career at the attorney general’s chambers and the Manpower Ministry of Singapore as public prosecutor prior to moving into the financial services industry.  He held leadership positions at RBC Singapore branch, ANZ Bank Singapore, UBS and DBS across China, Hong Kong and Singapore. He was also a founding board member of the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists’ Singapore chapter in 2013 and its co-chair from 2016 to 2018.

Most recently he was chief legal, compliance and risk officer at BIL Wealth Management where he was responsible for the firm’s implementation and execution of the legal and compliance framework.