The $1 trillion global investment manager of financial planning firm TIAA, has made seven new appointments and strengthened its leadership team in Asia Pacific to better service its growing base of institutional and private clients in the region.

The new hires join the firm's Hong Kong and Sydney offices and span client services, fund management and sales, Nuveen said in a statement. They include:

  • Denise Ying, vice president, international advisory services (IAS), who will be responsible for supporting institutional clients in the Greater China region.
  • Betty Zhang and Mia Yang, assistant vice presidents in client services.
  • Jing Zhou, senior director in the alternatives and strategic transactions team, data centre solutions, who will contribute to the growth and management of the firm's real estate alternatives platform. 
  • Young Jee Jang, associate in the fund management team.
  • Anthea Trazzera, senior associate, who will support transactional activity in the Australian market.
  • Carmen Hawkey, associate in the Asia Pacific real estate debt team.

Last year, Nuveen named Henry Chiu as the firm’s head of private wealth in Asia, to capitalise on the growing Asia wealth management segment, and promoted Shu Watanabe to head of Japan Real Estate transactions.

Regional Leadership Changes

Joining the Global Executive Leadership Team is Hong Kong-based Louise Kavanagh, who will be taking on the dual role of head of funds management and CIO for Asia Pacific, overseeing the firm's real estate business in the region.

Rick Marston will assume the title of head of Australian Transactions, with an additional regional office sector role, reporting to Kavanagh

The renewed leadership line-up will enable Nuveen to «maximise mixed-use opportunities that will emerge in a post-Covid-19 world,» and is part of a broader global shift towards a sector-based organisation model, the statement said.

Growing AUM

In 2020, Nuveen achieved total committed client inflows of more than $8 billion in Asia Pacific and Middle East, doubling its annual target of $4 billion.

Since 2016, the firm has grown its assets under management (AUM) in the region five-fold to nearly $30 billion from $6 billion.