Manulife Asset Management has recently appointed Ronald Chan as senior managing director and head of equities for its Asia business.

Chan brings over 16 years of equity management experience to the company, having worked at the likes of Hambros Fund Management and Barin Asset Management in the UK. He was most recently the deputy chief investment officer at Pacific Eagle Asset Management.

As equities head, Chan manages a team of nine Hong Kong-based professionals across the greater China and Asia Pacific equities teams. He also oversees a regional team of over 40 equity portfolio managers and analysts across the region and works closely with a team of nearly 40 Beijing-based professionals at Manulife TEDA Fund Management, the company's joint venture in China.

He reports locally to Michael Dommermuth, president and head of Manulife Asset Management (Asia) and functionally to Chris Conkey, the Boston-based global chief investment officer for equities.

Equities have been the talk of the industry since the close of 2010 and are touted to be the asset class of choice for many wealth managers and independent investors in the region. Manulife Asset Management currently handles a number of Greater China equity strategies, including the 2010-launched qualified foreign institutional investor China A-share fund.

The company manages around $11 billion in equities across Asia and records more than $38 billion in assets under management.