Manulife Investment Management has appointed a deputy chief investment officer to its timberland investment business in the Asia Pacific region.
Nick Ping has been named deputy CIO, timberland at Manulife Investment Management (IM), according to a statement, succeeding Tony Cascio who will retire at the end of July.
Based in Melbourne, Ping reports to global head of timberland investments Tom Sarno. Ping is also a member of Manulife IM’s timberland strategy steam as well as the timberland and agriculture investment committee.
Ping was previously a managing director for the timberland and agriculture's institutional business in APAC. Prior to joining Manulife IM in 2008, he worked in resource planning at Australia’s Hancock Victorian Plantations and as well as forest appraisals, due diligence and strategic planning at Helsinki-based Pöyry Management Consulting.
Asset Size
According to Manulife IM, it manages approximately 6 million acres of timberland across the US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, and Chile as part of its private markets strategies. It also oversees approximately 400,000 acres of prime farmland in major agricultural regions of the US and in Canada, Chile, and Australia.
«As investors around the world pay closer attention to natural capital solutions, [Ping] will play a critical role in generating returns for our clients, while at the same time create positive impact on the timberland assets we manage,» Sarno said.
