Manulife Singapore Announces Senior Management Appointments

Online, September 27, 2011 (Newswire.com) - 'Wealth management is a significant strategic focus for our business and setting up this new business unit allows us to capitalise on new opportunities in the wealth management space,' said Ms King. 'We brought in these talented and experienced leaders to support our customer focused business growth plan. In their respective roles, they will contribute to Manulife by providing strong, reliable, trustworthy and forward-thinking solutions to our clients.'

Kwok Keng Han is Senior Vice-President and Chief of Wealth Management. He will establish a Wealth Management Division and provide leadership in delivering the wealth management growth strategy at Manulife Singapore. He brings with him 20 years of experience from the financial services sector. Prior to joining Manulife Singapore, he was Deputy CEO and Head of Institutional Business (Greater China & SEA) with a global investor in Singapore for the last 7 years. Amongst his achievements, he grew mutual fund assets by almost 40 times to more than S$1.5 billion as well as successfully introduced a range of offshore funds and CPF investment-scheme included mutual funds.

'Manulife manages US$498 billion assets globally as at June 30, 2011 and with Singapore being the 3rd largest wealth management hub in the world and growing strongly, we want Manulife to have a strong wealth management presence in Singapore,' continued Ms King.

Hitesh Shah is Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. He is responsible for product development and management, customer relationship management, branding and marketing at Manulife Singapore. He has more than 25 years of experience in Financial Services, spanning Marketing, Product Management, Strategic Consulting, Mergers & Acquisitions and Business Development. He has worked in the UK, New Zealand, Australia, and Asia and for the last 8 years in Singapore where he was a Partner in a Top 4 accounting firm and led the actuarial/strategic consulting business in South and SE Asia. Thereafter, he led the marketing function of a leading insurer in Singapore for more than four years, achieving No. 1 in sales for four consecutive years. He recently led the Product Management & Business Intelligence functions of another leading insurer in Singapore.

Ms King added, 'As Manulife focuses on delivering forward-thinking products and services for our customers, Hitesh will be continuing to build customer centricity into all we do and helping Manulife to be the trusted customer champion with innovative and easy to understand financial solutions.'

Goh Lee Kian is Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer. Lee Kian brings with her 24 years of senior HR experience managing the entire gamut of HR functions, with 13 years in regional HR across Asia Pacific including Korea and Japan. As a strategic business partner, she has successfully formulated and implemented strategies and policies as well as played an active role in organisation restructuring exercises. She has a solid track record of success working with large local organisations, conglomerates and MNCs (US and European) across diverse industries. Lee Kian has played an instrumental role in several change management activities, as well as organisation development activities such as culture building, succession planning, performance management, and streamlining of HR policies and processes.

'Our people are critical to delivering excellence for our customers. Manulife Singapore tops the chart across all financial services industry in Singapore Management University's Institute of Service Excellence in the 2010 Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore. Our people are key for delivering that service excellence,' concluded Ms King.

About Manulife (Singapore) Pte Ltd

Manulife (Singapore) Pte Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Manulife Financial Corporation.

Manulife Financial is a leading Canadian-based financial services group operating in 21 countries and territories worldwide. For more than 120 years, clients have looked to Manulife for strong, reliable, trustworthy and forward-thinking solutions for their most significant financial decisions. Our international network of employees, agents and distribution partners offers financial protection and wealth management products and services to millions of clients. We provide asset management services to institutional customers worldwide as well as reinsurance solutions, specializing in property and casualty retrocession. Funds under management by Manulife Financial and its subsidiaries were Cdn$481billion (US$498 billion) as at June 30, 2011. The Company operates as Manulife Financial in Canada and Asia and primarily as John Hancock in the United States.

Manulife Financial Corporation trades as 'MFC' on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under '945' on the SEHK. Manulife Financial can be found on the Internet at www.manulife.com.