Lion Global chief gets lifetime achievement award

Singapore

LION Global Investors (LGI) chief executive Gerard Lee has been awarded a lifetime achievement award by pensions and investment journal Asia Asset Management.

The "Best of the Best Lifetime Achievement Award (Asean region)'' was given at AAM's inaugural Best of the Best Asean awards dinner yesterday, held in collaboration with the Investment Management Association of Singapore.

IMAS yesterday jointly hosted its annual conference with Bloomberg.

For Mr Lee, the award caps a career of more than three decades, which included an early stint as chief investment officer at Temasek's Fund Management Division, and later as chief executive of Fullerton Fund Management. He joined LGI in 2010.

AAM said it was the first time it honoured an individual in Singapore for the award. Last year AAM named Mr Lee CEO of the Year (Singapore), in recognition of his leadership and strategic foresight.

With him at the helm, LGI's assets under management grew from around S$29 billion in 2010 to around US$41 billion (S$55.8 billion) as at end-March. The firm has also won a number of performance awards.

Mr Lee is known for being a champion of the interests of retail investors. He believes products typically available to the wealthy should be made accessible to the man-in-the-street as well, at lower costs. In 2017 the firm launched the Lion Global Disruptive Innovation Fund, and the Lion-Phillip S-Reit ETF which is Singapore's first ETF investing in Singapore Reits screened by Morningstar, at a low cost.

Last year, the firm launched the Lion Global All Seasons Fund, an actively managed multi-asset fund with a total expense ratio of just 0.5 per cent, in an effort to help retail investors reap more returns by reducing costs.

Mr Lee told BT it is important to look into one's purpose in a career. "Beyond a certain point, one must go beyond money to find fulfilment and it's not easy to find in finance... My purpose is to create financial products for the man in the street which previously was available to only high net worth individuals. And to do so cheaply and affordably.''

The issue of high costs in the retail investment marketplace is, however, an "uphill climb'', he said.

"The main issue is that funds are still sold and not bought and intermediation is taking away too much of the potential return for the retail investor. While LGI has tackled the supply side, we have, unfortunately, not been very successful in tackling the demand side. It's an uphill climb but I do believe that there will be a Kodak moment for the intermediaries/distributors...''

A "Kodak moment'' refers to a point where digital transformation threatens corporates' survival.