State Street Global Advisors has expanded its SPDR ETFs business in Asia-Pacific with the appointment of four senior executives. Kathleen Gallagher has been appointed as head of SPDR ETFs Australia, in addition to her current role as head of ETF model portfolios for Asia-Pacific and EMEA, Marie Tsang has joined as an SPDR fixed-income strategist for Asia-Pacific, Jean Gan has joined as an SPDR fixed-income sales specialist for Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia, and Robin Tsui has expanded his role to Asia-Pacific gold strategist and gold sales specialist for Hong Kong.

Gallagher began her expanded role earlier this month in Sydney. Tsang, Gan and Tsui assume their new roles from today (September 29), and are based in Sydney, Singapore and Hong Kong respectively.

All four report to Meaghan Victor, head of SPDR ETFs Asia-Pacific distribution at State Street Global Advisors, who is based in Sydney.

From left: Kathleen Gallagher, Marie Tsang, Jean Gan and Robin Tsui. 

Relocating from the United Kingdom to Sydney, Gallagher was most recently the head of ETF model portfolios for EMEA and Asia-Pacific at SPDR ETFs of State Street Global Advisors. In her expanded role, Gallagher will lead, manage and develop the SPDR ETFs business in Australia as well as the ETF model portfolio business in Asia-Pacific and EMEA across all channels, including asset owners, asset managers and financial intermediaries.

The two fixed-income appointments are both newly created roles. Tsang joins State Street Global Advisors from BlackRock, where she was most recently the senior investment strategist for BlackRock portfolio analysis and solutions. In her new role, Tsang will be responsible for State Street Global Advisors' fixed-income ETFs advising Asia-Pacific clients how to best position and employ them in investor portfolios, promoting the strategic growth of SPDR's fixed-income products by working together with the SPDR distribution team.

Gan joins State Street Global Advisors from MUFG Securities, where she was most recently the director for institutional investor sales. Prior to that, Gan held various fixed-income, derivatives and structured products sales roles at JPMorgan, Société Générale, Citibank and UBS. In her new role, Gan will be responsible for developing strategies to drive sales of the global fixed-income SPDR ETFs, focusing on institutional asset owners and managers in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.

"The addition of these fixed income roles will champion the strategic growth of SPDR's fixed income products and strategies in the region,” said Victor. “With declining US Treasury yields, the yield pickup of Asian bonds has become very attractive to investors. With their extensive experience and knowledge in the industry, Kathleen, Marie, Jean and Robin are uniquely positioned to build on the continued success of the SPDR ETFs business in the region, and to achieve SPDR fixed income net new assets and revenue growth in Asia Pacific in particular."

Before taking the expanded role, Tsui was Asia-Pacific gold strategist. Prior to joining State Street Global Advisors in 2016, Tsui was investment product and research manager at the World Gold Council. In his new role, Tsui will lead the sales strategies for SPDR Gold ETFs in Hong Kong, in addition to his gold strategist role which focuses on gold investment strategy and research.

Over the past 40 years, State Street Global Advisors has built a universe of active and index strategies across asset classes to help clients, and those who rely on them, achieve their investment goals through a rigorous, research-driven investment process spanning both indexing and active disciplines.

State Street Global Advisors is the creator of the world’s first ETFs and an indexing pioneer. In Asia-Pacific, State Street Global Advisors manages ETFs listed in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan.