Leadership
As Executive Officer and Head of Americas / Europe of Nippon Life Insurance Company, Mr. Yao oversees business operations on those continents. He most recently worked as Executive Officer and Regional CEO for Asia Pacific of Nippon Life and Chairman of Nippon Life Asia Pacific (Regional HQ) Pte. Ltd. in Singapore.
Since joining Nippon Life in 1995, Mr. Yao has held various senior leadership positions including General Manager of the Global Insurance Business Department and the Global Business Planning Department. These past positions provided him with extensive experience in international M&A.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in Law from Kyoto University and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
As President and CEO of Nippon Life Global Investors Americas, Inc. (NLGIA), Mr. Ishida oversees investments and operations of NLGIA. Since joining Nippon Life in 1994, Mr. Ishida has held several leadership positions prior to becoming the President and CEO of NLGIA. He most recently served as the General Manager of the Foreign Equity & Alternative Investment Department of Nissay Asset Management Corporation.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Kyoto University and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He is a Chartered Member of the Security Analysts Association of Japan (CMA).
Fixed Income Team
Our Fixed Income team invests primarily in US investment-grade corporate bonds and CMBS.
We use a bottom-up investment approach that provides our customers with stable and risk-efficient returns over the long term.
Communication plays a key role in our investment philosophy, allowing our highly experienced team to achieve proven success through numerous market cycles. The team’s portfolio managers have faith in our analysts to provide responsible and effective recommendations. Our analysts become deeply familiar with their assigned sub-sectors by conducting multifaceted qualitative and quantitative evaluations of the company fundamentals. Their recommendations are further refined by conducting regular investment meetings and engaging in day-to-day communication under a free and open culture.
Through these efforts to improve investment performance, our AUM has been growing.
Equity Team
Our Equity team actively manages long-only US equity portfolios and strives to achieve long-term reliable performance throughout the cycle.
Our main alpha source is bottom-up analysis. We use a sophisticated bottom-up research framework to evaluate the long-term growth of companies including a proprietary sustainability evaluation . The team is highly collaborative. We deepen our investment theses through comprehensive discussions and dialogue between team members and our investments. We also closely monitor market opportunityand risk to adjust our portfolio.
Our experienced investment professionals have diverse backgrounds. Our sector analysts have a great deal of ownership and discretion in investment decisions under very experienced portfolio managers. This enables us to enhance investment expertise, leading to reliable and repeatable long-term performance.
As a member of Nippon Life Group, we also have a global perspective leveraging our research teams in Tokyo, London, and Singapore.
Private Equity Team
Our Private Equity team aims to maximize financial returns by partnering with top-tier private equity firms. We invest in differentiated strategies through our bottom-up approach to evaluating investment opportunities.
With our long-standing history of Private Equity Fund investments over 20 years, we are known as one of the most well-respected Asian LPs in the industry, having built many strong and enduring relationships with leading GPs.
At the core of our strength lies our ability to construct well-diversified globally portfolio through NLGIA’s local sourcing network and collaboration with our international investment teams based in London and Tokyo.
Private Debt Team
Our Private Debt team manages FoFs investing in various strategies that span across the middle market universe, covering the US, European, and Global strategies. We address the ever-changing market environment to aim for a range of returns from the high single digits to low teens digits performance.
Our team has a critical responsibility to attain income returns consistently and sustainably over the medium-to-long term. To minimize downside risk and realize the sophisticated risk-return profile, we conduct rigorous research and thorough due diligence, allowing us to fulfill our duties to our policyholders.
Our team strives to maintain performance well above the finance market through our wide perspective, investing in managers who provide flexible capital to middle-market borrowers across senior secured loans, unitranche loans, and subordinated debt.
Real Asset Team
Our Real Asset team invests mainly in real estate and infrastructure funds in the US and Europe, seeking to achieve stable risk-adjusted returns over the long term.
Through our careful and strategic construction of diversified portfolios, we strive to make resilient investments able to withstand market cycles.
We have experienced investment managers who seek best-in-class investments through active monitoring of fund offerings, frequent dialogue with market participants, and an in-depth due diligence process.
The Real Asset team’s European investment capabilities are further enhanced by members based in London.
