Sun Life Financial’s newly unified asset-management division plans to hire about 20 senior executives as it looks to turn a collection of investment managers into a more coordinated global powerhouse.
Tom Murphy, who becomes president of Sun Life Asset Management on January 1, said he would add senior people across the company’s existing managers and Sun Life’s insurance and wealth businesses, helping those operations originate capital, design products and deepen ties with large institutions.
“We’re not looking to create an army,” Murphy said in an interview. “Our objective is to find the best talent to help us achieve our ambition. We’re trying to help them connect dots and to collaborate better.”
The build-out comes after Sun Life in October grouped all of its asset-management businesses – including MFS Investment Management, SLC Management and its stake in India’s Aditya Birla Sun Life Asset Management, as well as the pension risk-transfer unit – under a single structure that generated more than C$1.4 billion (US$1 billion) in earnings last year and oversees about C$1.5 trillion in assets.
As part of the first wave of appointments, Toronto-based Sun Life named Karim Gilani as global head of strategic solutions and partnerships on Thursday, reporting to Murphy. Gilani previously ran Sun Life’s Greater China, Singapore and international high-net-worth operations and earlier served as Asia’s chief risk officer and chief financial officer. He will be joined by Stephanie Harris, who becomes associate vice-president in the strategic group. Both appointments take effect on January 1.
Their team will lead Sun Life’s efforts to form new partnerships with insurers, reinsurers, banks, sovereign funds and global wealth managers. Their mandate included tapping new sources of permanent capital, including so-called insurance sidecar structures, where insurers put certain assets and liabilities into separate vehicles with dedicated asset managers, Murphy said.
