2024 Singapore Institutional Investor Roundtable

Charmaine Chin

Managing Director , Blackstone

Charmaine Chin is a Managing Director in Blackstone Multi-Asset Investing (BXMA) and the Head of Asia Manager Selection. Ms. Chin is based in Singapore and leads BXMA’s investment activities across Asia.

Before joining Blackstone, Ms. Chin worked at Fullerton Fund Management in Singapore where she was involved in managing a global portfolio of hedge funds, private equity and private credit funds. She also led due diligence for co-investments and late-stage growth investments. Prior to Fullerton, Ms. Chin spent 12 years as a Partner and Managing Director at K2 Advisors in New York, part of Franklin Templeton’s Alternatives division. There she oversaw all of K2’s investments in Asia, as well as all investments globally in credit and event-driven strategies. Prior to K2, Ms. Chin worked at Goldman Sachs in the Special Situations Group, focused on opportunistic investing across equities and credit.

Ms. Chin began her career in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs in New York and Hong Kong. Ms. Chin received a BA from Harvard University, where she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

Thomas Deinet

Executive Director, SBAI

Thomas Deinet was appointed Executive Director of the SBAI (previously known as the HFSB) in 2008. In 2007, Thomas joined the working group to project manage the development of practice standards proposed by 14 leading international alternative investment managers that led to the establishment of the SBAI.

Prior to joining the SBAI, he was a senior manager at Oliver Wyman, where he extensively worked with major financial institutions in Europe covering asset management as well as corporate and investment banking. Thomas also worked as an analyst in energy trading for a major commodities trading firm.

Thomas is a graduate of the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, with a major in industrial engineering and holds an MSc from Purdue University, USA. Thomas is a CFA charterholder.

Ben Samild

CIO, Future Fund

Ben Samild was appointed Chief Investment Officer of the Future Fund in August 2023, having previously served as DCIO, Portfolio Construction.

As CIO, Ben leads the Future Fund’s investment team investing A$250bn across all asset classes and geographies, with a particular focus on stewarding the Fund’s joined-up whole portfolio approach.

He joined the Future Fund in October 2013, as Director, Alternatives, following a 10 year career in the hedge fund industry, and 4 years as Head of Investment Strategy at LUCRF Super.

Ben is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments.

Ben completed a 6 year undergraduate degree at the University of Melbourne majoring in behavioural finance, psychology and history, and has a Masters of Applied Finance.

Mario Therrien

SBAI Trustee; Head of Investment Funds and External Management, CDPQ

Mario Therrien leads CDPQ’s investment funds activities. The teams he oversees invest in private investment funds and credit in private markets, as well as in venture capital in Québec and internationally. They are also responsible for external management in equity markets, as well as developing and managing strategic and institutional relationships. His mandate consists of adding value by building portfolios with the best external managers, while improving in-house management through the sharing of knowledge and expertise. He sits on the Investment-Risk Committee.

Prior to this role, Mr. Therrien was Senior Vice-President and Head of Strategic Partnerships, Developed Markets. He joined CDPQ in 1993 as an Analyst before taking on the role of Portfolio Manager in the group responsible for absolute return activities. Subsequently, he was mandated to develop external management activities in liquid-asset classes.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master’s degree in Finance from Université de Sherbrooke. He has also completed the Canadian Securities Course given by the Canadian Securities Institute, and is a CFA charter holder.

Harvey Toor

CIO, Singapore Management University

Globally recognised CIO with 20 years+ investment management experience of $50bn++ permanent wealth funds, currently managing the Endowment Fund of Singapore Management University.

As a member of the C-suite and Investment Committee of the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, Harvey helped extend the Yale Model into one of the most sophisticated “endowment” portfolios globally with direct application to Family Offices and large Institutional Investors.

He proposed, architected and was responsible for running the structured institution wide formal Investment Process, was Chairman of the Due Diligence Committee and sat on most senior Committees.

Harvey manages multi-asset class, global investment portfolios on both a direct internal and external basis via strong relationships with leading managers. Portfolios have incorporated all traditional liquid and alternative / illiquid asset classes: Private Equity, Real Estate, Infrastructure, Hedge Funds, direct / co-investments, Venture Capital, global equities, all fixed-income types, FX and all forms of derivatives.

Harvey’s talent is to envision the best incarnation of things, deploy a natural interpersonal ability and cultural sensitivity to gain genuine "buy-in" and ultimately deliver what the stakeholders really want.

Harvey has published a number of investment pieces and holds a Masters in Theoretical Physics from the University of Cambridge.

Betty Tay

MD, Head of External Managers Department, GIC

Betty Tay is Managing Director, Head of External Managers Department in GIC. In her current capacity, Betty oversees the day-to-day activities of the External Managers Department, including portfolio management for all of GIC’s public market external managers programs, manager selection and monitoring, operations and administration for the department. In addition, Betty is a member of GIC’s Business Continuity Plan Steering Committee.

Betty joined GIC in July 1999 as a Senior Portfolio Manager. She served as a Portfolio Manager within the Emerging Markets Group from 1999 to 2002. In this capacity, Betty was posted to GIC’s London office, and was instrumental in developing portfolio management expertise in non-Asia emerging markets. In 2002, Betty joined the External Managers Group.

Betty has over 20 years of experience in international financial markets including trading functions across various products in local and international financial institutions. She began her career as a proprietary trader with the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS). Prior to joining GIC, Betty spent 6 years as a Principal at Bankers Trust Company (Singapore). She served as the Head of the Foreign Exchange Forwards Division and managed the firm’s balance sheet in Singapore.

Betty graduated from the National University of Singapore in 1991 with a BSc in Mathematics. She also holds both Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designations. She completed the Stanford Executive Program in August 2014. Betty is a member of the Investment Advisory Committee for the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism Limited.

Thomas Deinet

Executive Director, SBAI

Thomas Deinet was appointed Executive Director of the SBAI (previously known as the HFSB) in 2008. In 2007, Thomas joined the working group to project manage the development of practice standards proposed by 14 leading international alternative investment managers that led to the establishment of the SBAI.

Prior to joining the SBAI, he was a senior manager at Oliver Wyman, where he extensively worked with major financial institutions in Europe covering asset management as well as corporate and investment banking. Thomas also worked as an analyst in energy trading for a major commodities trading firm.

Thomas is a graduate of the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, with a major in industrial engineering and holds an MSc from Purdue University, USA. Thomas is a CFA charterholder.

Eric Chng

Senior MD, Global Head of Hedge Commercialization & Head of Alternative Solutions, State Street

Eric Chng is the global head of Hedge Commercialization and head of Alternative Solutions for Asia Pacific and Middle East regions at State Street based in Singapore.

As global head of Hedge Commercialization, Eric is responsible for the development, planning and execution of the global hedge funds segment strategy to ensure sustainable growth and investments into our strategic platform capabilities across front to back office.

As the head of Alternative Solutions in Asia Pacific and Middle East, Eric is responsible for the strategic design, solutions structuring, client experience and the overall growth of the business across hedge, private markets and institutional alternatives investors.

David Chua

CIO, Income Insurance

David joined Income Insurance in 2023 as the Chief Investment Officer and a Member of Executive Committee.

With over 20 years of capital market and portfolio management experiences, David Chua is an experienced investment manager and asset allocator with prior track record with Prudential plc, Munich Re, Goldman Sachs, Nomura and Standard Chartered Bank. His core expertise lie in Asset Allocation, Fund Management, ALM and Derivative Hedging.

A CFA charterholder since 2006, he holds a clear grasp of macro trends and proven track record of delivering investment returns for financial institutions. He delivers in strategic and execution roles - developing and implementing total return / active portfolios, constructing liability-driven solutions. With effective stakeholder management and people leadership skills, he is frequently entrusted by CEOs and Board as a strategic thought partner, business change leader and to evaluate M&A transactions.

Jason Tan

Head of APAC, Orchard Global

Mr. Tan is Head of Asia Pacific of Orchard Global. He also serves as Chief Executive of Orchard Global Asset Management (S) Pte Ltd, the firm’s Asia affiliate and heads the firm’s legal structuring group globally.

Prior to joining Orchard Global, Mr. Tan held various origination, structuring, and distribution leadership roles. He established and led the fund solutions group in the securities division at Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong as well as the structured funds business at HSBC Global Markets in London, before co-heading the same group in Asia. Mr. Tan began his career at Allen & Overy LLP in London, specializing in structured finance and derivatives law.

Mr. Tan has an MA in Jurisprudence from Trinity College, University of Oxford, and is an alumnus of Harvard Business School. He is a qualified Solicitor in England and Wales and an Advocate and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore.

Professor Simon Tay

Chairman, Singapore Institution of International Affairs

Simon SC Tay is a public intellectual and advisor to major corporations and policy-makers. He is currently (1) Chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, a globally ranked think tank; (2) Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law; (3) Senior Consultant with WongPartnership, a leading regional law firm; (4) Ambassador for Singapore; and (5) Board Member to Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, a statutory board under the Ministry of Transport.

Previously he has taught at Harvard Law School and Yale University, served on boards for leading global companies including MUFG Bank of Japan, Toyota Japan, and Deutsche Boerse (Asia), and been Corporate Advisor to Temasek Holdings. He has also served Singapore as Chairman of the National Environment Agency and Nominated Member of Parliament.

Gautam Banerjee

Senior MD & Chairman of Blackstone Singapore, Blackstone

Gautam Banerjee is a Senior Managing Director and Chairman of Blackstone Singapore. Mr. Banerjee served as Executive Chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Singapore for nine years until his retirement in December 2012. He spent over 30 years with the firm in various leadership roles in Singapore, India and East Asia. Mr Banerjee is an independent director on the Board of Singapore Airlines Limited, Singapore Telecommunications and GIC Private Limited. Mr. Banerjee is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA).

He graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree from Warwick University in 1977 and was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) by the same university in 2014. Mr. Banerjee was a Nominated Member of Parliament in Singapore from 2007 to 2009 and was awarded the Public Service Medal by the Singapore Government in 2014.