GIC’s CIO to step down from Singapore wealth fund

SINGAPORE: GIC Pte Ltd’s chief investment officer (CIO) Jeffrey Jaensubhakij plans to step down after almost three decades at the Singaporean firm, one of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds, according to people familiar with the matter.

The departure of Jaensubhakij, 58, is the biggest leadership change at GIC since January 2017, when he was made group CIO and his predecessor Lim Chow Kiat became CEO.

Deputy group CIO Bryan Yeo, 46, is expected to be promoted to the top investment role in April, two of the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private.

“GIC considers key appointments very carefully and will announce changes in a timely manner,” said a GIC spokesman in an emailed statement.

The change comes at a critical time for GIC as it ramps up private market investments and deals in the US amid expectations of further geopolitical instability and slowing returns.

During Jaensubhakij’s tenure, the firm accelerated a strategy of investing in alternative assets such as unlisted companies and real estate and reducing reliance on stocks and bonds.

That’s helped make the Singaporean firm one of the most powerful active investors in the world.

While it doesn’t reveal its assets under management, GIC is estimated to oversee US$800.8 billion, making it the seventh-largest sovereign wealth fund, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute (SWFI).

Even so, returns have been steadily slowing in recent years. While its annualised returns for the five years ended March 2024 rose slightly from a year earlier to 4.4%, its 20-year annualised nominal return fell to 5.8%.

Jaensubhakij’s departure will mark the end of a near 30-year career at the firm, which has seen him run everything from North American equities to European operations and investments across the globe.

He joined as a senior economist in 1998, having earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Cambridge University and a PhD in economics from Stanford University.

Over that period the value of assets managed by GIC has soared, thanks to both performance and cash injections from the Singapore government.

Assets under management have more than tripled from US$247.5 billion in 2011, according to SWFI, while staff numbers have swelled from over 1,400 as of March 2017 to more than 2,300 last year.

That growth also saw Jaensubhakij spearhead a range of initiatives from the building out of investment platforms to the wooing of more family offices from New York to London.

He also spoke at major events like the World Economic Forum in Davos as one of the sovereign wealth fund’s primary representatives.

Yeo will have spent exactly one year as deputy group CIO when he takes over from Jaensubhakij.

A GIC scholar and graduate of Cambridge University as well as the University of Chicago, Yeo joined GIC in 2003 as an investment officer and climbed up the ranks, working across teams ranging from global credit to fixed income.

Those roles saw him have stints living in London and New York.

Prior to his current position, Yeo was CIO for public equities from 2016 to 2024. But he takes the reins at a time of substantial upheaval for global investors.

Speaking at an event in August 2024, he said that artificial intelligence (AI), energy transition, health care and digitalisation were the biggest investment trends to watch, according to a GIC transcript.

“We have witnessed the rewiring of the world order, with new economic and geopolitical blocs spanning different parts of the world.

“The changing world order is already affecting the global economy across trade, technology, and capital flows,” he added.