Speakers
Session: Global Investment Outlook 2025 – Spinning Around
Joseph Little
Global Chief Strategist, HSBC Asset Management
Joseph Little is Chief Global Strategist for HSBC Asset Management and head of the Global Investment Strategy team in HSBC Asset Management based in London. He has been working in the financial industry since 2003. Joseph is responsible for leading our work on macroeconomic and multi-asset research and for developing the ‘house view’.
Previously, Joseph was the Chief Strategist for Strategic Asset Allocation and a portfolio manager for HSBC’s absolute return global macro fund, working on tactical asset allocation. Prior to joining HSBC in 2001, he worked as a global economist for J.P. Morgan Cazenove. Joseph holds an MSc in Economics from Warwick University (UK) and is a CFA.
Xavier Baraton
Global CIO, HSBC Asset Management
Xavier Baraton is Global Chief Investment Officer. He joined HSBC in September 2002 to head the Paris-based Credit Research team and became Global Head of Credit Research in January 2004. From 2006, Xavier managed euro credit strategies before being appointed as Head of European Fixed Income in 2008 and as Global CIO, Fixed Income in 2010.
In this role, Xavier moved to our New York office in 2011 and became regional CIO North America. Having returned to Europe, he has taken on additional responsibilities as CIO for Alternatives and Real Assets in 2016 and for Private Debt in 2019, before being appointed as Global CIO of HSBC Asset Management in July 2021. Prior to joining HSBC, Xavier spent six years at Credit Agricole CIB, including five years as Head of Credit Research. Xavier began his career in 1994 in the CCF Group. Xavier graduated from the “Ecole Centrale Paris” as an engineer with a degree in Economics and Finance in 1993 and holds a postgraduate degree in Money, Finance and Banking from Paris Panthéon Sorbonne University in 1994.
Joanna Munro
CEO, Alternatives, HSBC Asset Management
Joanna Munro is CEO for HSBC Alternatives, based in London. Her most recent role was as Global Chief Investment Officer (from September 2019 to June 2021) and prior to that Global Head of Stewardship and Fiduciary Governance (from 2014) and Chair of the UK asset management business (from 2016).
Joanna’s previous roles included Regional CEO for HSBC Global Asset Management in Asia and CEO for HSBC Multimanager. She joined HSBC in 2005 as Global Chief Investment Officer for HSBC Investments, including Multimanager, Liquidity, Asset Allocation and Solutions. Joanna started working in the industry in 1986, working for Prudential Portfolio Managers as an Equity analyst, BARRA Inc. as an adviser to pension funds on their manager risk, Salomon Brothers Asset Management in the multi-currency fixed income team and ABN AMRO Asset Management where she set up the fund of hedge fund capability as Head of Alternatives. In 2000 she joined AXA Investment Managers and ran business development activities globally for fixed income and the structured asset management business before, in 2003, being appointed Director, Head of UK Institutional where she led the UK sales and global consultant relations teams.
Joanna has a BA (Hons) in Mathematics and Engineering from Queens’ College in Cambridge, an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and an MBA from Stanford University as well as an MA in Creative Writing from Goldsmiths London. She is also a CFA UK Fellow, an ASIP (Associate of the Society of Investment Professionals) and a founding member of the Diversity Project.
Carolineyu Maurer, CFA
Head of China and Core Asia Strategies
Carolineyu Maurer is the Head of China and Core Asia Strategies within HSBC Asset Management in Hong Kong and has been working in the financial industry since 2007. Within the team, Caroline is responsible for leading a team of portfolio managers and analysts based in Hong Kong to manage offshore and onshore Chinese and specialised Asia equity assets. Prior to joining HSBC in September 2020, Caroline worked as the Head of Greater China Equities for BNP Paribas Asset Management, where she was responsible for managing offshore and onshore Chinese equity listed funds and mandates. Prior to that, Caroline managed Chinese equity funds for Henderson Global Investors in London and Singapore. Caroline received an MBA from the London Business School and a Master of Science from the City University, London. Caroline is a CFA charterholder.
Jennifer Passmoor
Portfolio Manager
Jennifer Passmoor is a Portfolio Manager in the Frontier Active Equities team within HSBC Asset Management in London and has been working in the financial industry since 2007. Prior to joining HSBC in 2019, she worked for Vergent Asset Management, a Frontier market focused fund, as a senior investment analyst. Previously, Jennifer worked for 6 years at Duet Asset Management an Africa focused fund. She began her career at JPMorgan joining the Equity research team in Johannesburg. Jennifer has a BCom Investment Management and an Honours in Econometrics from the University of Johannesburg, in South Africa.
Elizabeth Allen
Head of Asian Fixed Income
Elizabeth Allen is the Head of Asian Fixed Income with HSBC Asset Management in Hong Kong, leading the overall Asian fixed income capabilities including portfolio management and credit research. She has been working in the financial industry for over 20 years. Prior to joining HSBC in October 2011, Elizabeth was a Senior Credit Officer at Moody’s Investor Service’s corporate rating team. She also worked in investment banking and corporate lending for Credit Suisse First Boston and Standard Chartered Bank respectively. Elizabeth holds a Masters in Finance from London Business School and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Western Australia and is a member of CPA Australia.
Scott McClurg
Head of Private Credit
Scott is a Chartered Accountant with 27 years’ experience in corporate finance. He has a background spanning Transaction Services, Corporate Finance and industry, having been both on advisory and corporate side as a Finance Director. Scott was previously Head of the HSBC UK Leverage Finance team where he lead the development of the private credit collaboration between the bank and asset management. in October 2022 Scott joined Asset Management to undertake the role of, Head of Private Credit. Scott joined HSBC in 2010 and has held various senior roles across the Corporate bank.
Sefian Kasem
Global Head of ETF & Indexing Investment Specialists
Sefian is the Global Head of ETF & Indexing Investment Specialists at HSBC Asset Management and has been with HSBC Group for over 17 years.
He is based in London and has been working in the industry since 2006. Prior to joining HSBC Asset Management, Sefian worked for HSBC Global Banking and Markets, where he held a portfolio management position within Cross-Asset Trading, worked in Global Credit Trading and also worked as an Asset Allocation Strategist within HSBC Global Research. Prior to joining HSBC Sefian worked as an analyst for a Fund of Hedged funds and Credit Suisse Asset Management within the Fixed Income Portfolio Management team.
He joined the Passive team in 2020, bringing extensive global macro expertise as well as cross asset experience.
He holds a PhD in Mathematical Finance from Imperial College in London and a degree in Finance and Economics at the London School of Economics.