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(Bloomberg) — Royal Bank of Canada named Donald Sanya chief executive officer of its US asset-management business.
Sanya, who joined the bank in 2014 from BlackRock Inc., will take over from Mike Lee, who’s retiring at the end of July, the Toronto-based bank said. Sanya will report to Damon Williams, CEO of the Toronto-based bank’s overall global asset-management business, which has $453 billion of assets under management.
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In his new role, Sanya will seek to deepen relationships with existing institutional clients, pursue additional growth in assets from financial intermediaries such as registered investment advisers and drive awareness of RBC BlueBay Asset Management, the unit’s fixed-income manager, he said in an interview.
“We’re seeing a lot of appetite for fixed income just given that the interest-rate environment that we have is such that investors are able to generate much more return on the fixed-income side,” Sanya said, adding that BlueBay’s assets under management have more than doubled over the past two years in the US.
Born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, Sanya will the first Black CEO of Royal Bank’s US asset-management business, which has about 200 employees across the country. His roots have translated into a personal interest in emerging markets, another area where he’s seen growing interest from investors and would like to focus on expanding, he said.
RBC has a prominent role among emerging-markets equity strategies in particular, with about $35 billion in assets across equity and credit strategies for the category. In late 2022, the firm launched a mutual fund focused on emerging markets excluding China, but also offers China-dedicated strategies as investors are increasingly looking to customize their exposure to the country, Sanya said. The fund has returned more than 26% since its inception, compared to a 16% total return for a broad-based emerging-markets equity gauge, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
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“When you think of the less-efficient markets, you really need an active manager to not only focus on how much money you’re making in the up markets, but protecting you on the downside during times of volatility in markets like EM,” Sanya said.
Sanya has been critical in winning new US mandates and expanding the business’s asset base, according to Williams, and his appointment reflects the firm’s focus on continuing to expand its US business.
“Donald has continually demonstrated exceptional leadership and an ability to thoughtfully drive change on critical priorities,” Williams said in a statement.
Sanya’s promotion comes after Royal Bank adopted a global structure for its investment-banking business last month, and named several executives to new roles, including appointing Matthew Stopnik, who’s based in New York, head of the division.
Read More: RBC Taps Stopnik to Lead Revamped Global Investment-Banking Unit
(Updates with details of assets, fund returns in sixth paragraph.)
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