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Weekly roundup of job-hoppers, May 3

Pimco adds credit PM, UBS names head of real estate, Esemplia hires equities specialist, Northern Trust appoints sales head and Aditya Birla Sun Life unveils new CEO.
Weekly roundup of job-hoppers, May 3

DB credit trader resurfaces at Pimco
US asset manager Pimco has hired ex-Deutsche Bank credit trader Ronie Ganguly as a senior vice-president and Asia credit/emerging markets corporate portfolio manager.

Ganguly started on April 22 in Pimco’s Singapore office and reports to Rob Mead, head of Asia-Pacific credit portfolio management and head of portfolio management for Australia. He also reports to Ramin Toloui and Michael Gomez, global co-heads of emerging markets portfolio management.

Ganguly replaces Malcolm Chua, who joined Pimco in November 2011 as a corporate bond trader. He left in March.

Ganguly spent seven years as an Asian high-yield bond specialist at Deutsche Bank, and will focus on Asian/EM fixed income at Pimco.

The firm, which managed over $2 trillion as of March 31, has been adding credit portfolio managers and analysts in Asia for over two years, and Mead told AsianInvestor it would continue to bulk out its Asian credit team this year.

A DB spokeswoman declined to comment on whether a replacement had been found.

Pimco, which is owned by global insurance conglomerate Allianz, had $180 billion in Asia-Pacific sourced assets as at the end of last year, by AsianInvestor estimates.

UBS to install Asia-Pac head of real estate
Switzerland’s UBS Global Asset Management named Trevor Cooke head of global real estate for Asia Pacific in what is a newly created role.

Cooke, who starts on May 27, will be based in Sydney and report to Thomas Wels, head of global real estate. Wels previously handled Cooke’s responsibilities.

Cooke joins UBS from Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC), a $75 billion institutional investment manager, where he was a managing director overseeing business development and product initiatives in Asia, Europe and North America.

A spokeswoman confirms that QIC has yet to find a replacement for Cooke.

Esemplia adds equities specialist
Legg Mason Global Asset Management affiliate Esemplia Emerging Markets hired Samantha Ho as head of Hong Kong and China equities.

Ho will manage the company’s Hong Kong and China equity investment team from its Hong Kong office. She replaces Crystal Chan, who left in March.

She spent eight years at Invesco Hong Kong, most recently as investment director and lead manager of the Invesco Hong Kong and China fund and the Invesco PRC equity fund.

Previously Ho worked at Manulife Asset Management in Hong Kong, managing insurance, mutual funds and MPF investments, focusing on Greater China.

A spokeswoman confirmed that Ho left Invesco last year for personal reasons, declining to comment further. Media reported that she left last June and has since been replaced by Mike Shiao and Lorraine Kuo, investment director and fund manager in the Asian equities team, respectively.

Northern Trust appoints new sales head
Northern Trust has named Angelo Calvitto head of sales for its Australian and New Zealand business.

Calvitto, based in Melbourne, has taken over Jeremy Hester’s position, who will work out of Northern Trust’s London office as head of sales for the company’s global fund services business for its UK clients.

Calvitto assumed the role in February, having previously been senior vice-president, head of client services and relationship management at Northern Trust. He joined in 2008 and reports to Rohan Singh, country head for Australia.

Aditya Birla Sun Life AM names CEO replacement
Singapore-based Aditya Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company has named Vikas Gautam CEO following the departure of Anu Sahai a month ago, as reported.

Most recently, Gautam was senior executive officer at the asset manager’s Dubai office.

Gautam has been with the group since 2008. Previously, he held stints at Citibank, Prudential ICICI Asset Management Company and BNP Paribas Bank.

With under Rs73.2 billion ($1.35 billion) in AUM as at the end of 2012, Aditya Birla AM is the international arm of India's Birla Sun Life AM, which is part of India’s Aditya Birla Financial Services Group and a joint venture with Canada's Sun Life. 

Separately, Aditya Birla AM announced the launch of the India Dynamic Bond Fund, an open-ended fixed-income feeder fund. The fund invests nearly all of its assets in the onshore Birla Sun Life Dynamic Bond Fund, which has $2.7 billion under management.

Other people moves reported by AsianInvestor in the past week:

Neuberger readies suite of EM, Asian bond funds

CIMB-Principal rings changes at the top

BlackRock hires from Principal to start Reits team

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