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Manulife elevates Nick Ping to timberland deputy CIO role

Ping was responsible for Manulife Investment Management's timberland and agriculture institutional business development in his previous position.

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Nick Ping of Manulife
Nick Ping, Manulife Investment Management

Manulife Investment Management has promoted Nick Ping to the global role of deputy chief investment officer for timberland.

Ping takes over from Tony Cascio, who retires at the end of July and will continue to be based in Melbourne, where he held his most recent role with Manulife as managing director, institutional business, and was responsible for timberland and agriculture’s institutional business development.

Reporting to global head of timberland investments Tom Sarno, Ping will be responsible for the development of investment strategies and growth initiatives, client investment governance, and identifying and mitigating risk exposures related to Manulife timberland investment processes, products and client investments.

“Over the years, Nick oversaw the growth of our timberland and agriculture business in the Asia-Pacific region, which is an important part of our global strategy,” Sarno said in a statement. “As investors around the world pay closer attention to natural capital solutions, Nick will play a critical role in generating returns for our clients, while at the same time creating positive impact on the timberland assets we manage.”

Ping is already a member of Manulife’s timberland strategy team and the timberland and agriculture investment committee. He is also directly involved with business development activities, structuring investment management agreements, and designing timberland investment goals and constraints.

Last year the firm hired Eric Cooperström to the role of impact investing and natural climate solutions managing director.

Cooperström joined from NatureVest and part of his remit is the “development of impact-first investments that emphasize timber and agriculture’s natural ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere.”

Manulife manages approximately 6 million acres of timberland across the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil and Chile. It also oversees approximately 400,000 acres of farmland in the United States, Canada, Chile and Australia.