AsianInvesterAsianInvester

Pioneer hires consultant-relations manager for Asia

Stephen Teoh joins the firm in Singapore from MFS; his remit includes Australian sales and distribution.
Pioneer Investments has hired Stephen Teoh as head of institutional consultant relations for Asia and Australia, as well as head of sales and distribution for Australia.

It is a new position that emerged out of the companyÆs evolution. Pioneer Investments has grown rapidly via acquisitions and is now a Ç230 billion ($342 billion) global investment management company. Founded in 1928 in the United States, it was acquired by ItalyÆs UniCredit in 2000. The following year it set up an investment centre in Singapore, and in 2002 it acquired Momentum, an Australian funds-of-hedge-funds provider. In 2006 its investment teams were merged with those of HypoVereinsbank under the Pioneer brand.

Integrating these disparate pieces has taken time but now the firm has a global product offering that it believes will appeal to institutional investors. ôOnce you put the pieces in place, the institutional market becomes available to you and consultants will take a look,ö Teoh says.

In Asia, Pioneer has built a retail business, run by Edmund Lacis in Hong Kong. Teoh will work with the firmÆs teams in Europe and the US to pursue global relationships with investment consultants û which in Asia means Cambridge Associates, Mercer Consulting, Russell Investment Group and Watson Wyatt.

The job is similar to some of the work Teoh did at MFS International, his previous employer, where he served as vice president of institutional business in Singapore. At MFS he was responsible for institutional marketing and the provision of investment product advice.

In his new role, he will work to ensure PioneerÆs Asian equity product is rated by investment consultants and work with consultantsÆ on-the-ground teams. Running Australia sales is a similar task, as that market is quite institutionalised. Pioneer doesnÆt offer Australian equities or bonds, but rather sells its global expertise and the Momentum funds of hedge funds. ôWeÆre working with the same product suite that we offer to Asian institutions,ö Teoh says.

Prior to MFS, he was a director at ECM Libra in Kuala Lumpur, and a senior manager for institutional sales at JM Sassoon & Co in Singapore.

MFS has yet to find a replacement for Teoh, and calls to its Boston headquarters regarding the position were not returned.
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