Barings taps John Park as S.Korean asset management head

Barings LLC has appointed Chong Hak (John) Park as head and sole representative director of its South Korean asset management arm, effective Jan. 1, 2024, the global investment firm said on Thursday.

Park has led the overall investment units including equities, fixed income, investment solutions and product structuring as a co-representative director at Baring Asset Management Korea Ltd. since 2020.

He rejoined Barings in 2004 as the head of the investment strategy team and was promoted to chief investment officer in July 2008. Before rejoining, he was an investment analyst on the equity team at DWS Asset Management Korea Co. between 2003 and 2004.

He joined Barings in 2000 from SEI Investments, where he served as an investment analyst from 2000 to 2003. Prior to that, he worked as a researcher at Korea Investment & Securities Co. for more than eight years from 1990. 

Meanwhile, Ike (In-su) Bae, the current co-representative director of Baring Asset Management Korea, will retire next month after working 12 years at the firm.

Additionally, Hong Kim and Sam Kim, who have been managing institutional business at the Seoul office, have been promoted to co-heads of sales for the Korean unit. They will oversee sales for institutional and retail investors. 

As a subsidiary of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., Barings manages more than $347 billion in assets including public and private fixed income, real estate and equities as of Sept. 30.

AUM in the Korean asset management arm surpassed 15 trillion won ($11.4 billion) this year.

Write to Ji-Eun Ha at hazzys@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.