Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. (BBH) has appointed L. J. Jia as Senior Vice President and Country Manager for China. Jia is responsible for building the bank’s profile in China and for ensuring service delivery to Chinese clients investing internationally.
Before joining BBH, Jia worked for American Express Company in China, serving in several roles before becoming Vice President and Country Manager in 1994. While at American Express, Jia oversaw marketing, distribution and service delivery. He holds an MA in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a BA in English Literature from Beijing Teacher’s College in Beijing.
“BBH has a tremendous opportunity to build a significant presence in an increasingly important marketplace like China,” says Jia. “I am excited to help BBH develop relationships with Chinese institutions and to assist these institutions with the challenges of investing internationally.”
As China take steps to liberalize Chinese institutions’ overseas investment, BBH sees an opportunity to support them, while also developing relationships with those Chinese banks which are looking to offer global custody services.
“BBH’s commitment to expanding our presence in China is driven by a growing marketplace opportunity and our ability to help meet the business goals of our clients,” says Susan Livingston, BBH Partner and Head of Investor Services Asia Pacific. “L.J. has the experience and expertise to ensure that our China-based clients receive the same high level of customer service and tailored solutions that BBH is known for worldwide.”
BBH says it “employs a non-competitive partnering strategy in new markets that are opening up to global investment, such as China.” By which it means becoming global custodian to the domestic banks. “This approach provides the domestic banks with speed to market with a highly competitive offering without the start up and maintenance costs to build and maintain the capability and support infrastructure on their own,” explains BBH. “BBH has found this strategy extremely successful in the European and Asia/Pacific regions. It is currently the custodian to the largest Japanese trust banks, insurance companies, and pension funds and works with numerous Hong Kong-based and regional European banks as a global custodian.”
BBH recently sponsored a global investment conference in Beijing, attended by fund managers and Chinese bankers. Conference speakers included John J. Brennan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vanguard, Dr. Zhu Min, Executive Assistant President, Bank of China, Robert C. Pozen, Chairman of MFS Investment Management, Gao Xi-Qing, Vice Chairman of the National Council for Social Security Fund of China, and Dr. Roger Zhu, Managing Director of Asia Asset Management Department China International Capital Corporation Limited.