Citigroup’s insurance investment banking head for Asia, Donald Lacey, is reportedly leaving to become chief operating officer of Ping An Insurance Group’s Global Voyager Fund, sources said.
Lacey, who has been with Citi for almost a decade, will begin his new role at Ping An in the next few months, the sources told Reuters.
Chinese insurance giant Ping An, which is currently the world’s most valuable insurance brand, launched the Global Voyager Fund last May to invest in financial technology (fintech) and healthcare innovations worldwide.
The fund had an initial value was US$1 billion and is led by Jonathan Larsen, who is also an alumnus of Citigroup. After 18 years with the global bank, he joined Ping An as its chief innovation officer.
Ping An has pledged to invest heavily in the Global Voyager Fund in the next three to four years, focusing on start-up firms in three markets – the US, Singapore, and Israel.
According to an earlier report by Reuters, Ping An has ramped up its overseas investments in order to diversify and reduce its dependency on the weakening yuan and slowing economic growth in its home market of China.
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