Centennial Group Principals

Biography: Manu Bhaskaran, Director and CEO-Centennial Asia Advisors, Singapore

Manu Bhaskaran has spent 20 years analyzing political and economic trends in Asia, first working for the Singapore government in the area of regional security and then for 12 years as Chief Economist and Chief Strategist for Asia of SG Investment Bank, the international investment banking arm of Societe Generale. In the latter post, Mr Bhaskaran led and managed analysis of political and economic variables in the region affecting business conditions and financial markets in developing Asian countries. He was responsible for economic forecasting as well as formulating equity investment strategies for the bank's clients. He has thus developed an intimate understanding of major companies, sectors and economies of the region. His work has also given him a unique insight into the dynamics underlying equity markets in Asia as well as a keen sense of the drivers of private portfolio and direct investment flows into the region. His group's clients included, in addition to Societe Generale's departments, a large number of major private equity and portfolio fund managers as well as multi-national companies from the US, Europe and Asia itself.

Mr Bhaskaran was also instrumental in developing the firm's brokerage businesses in Southeast Asia and in the South Asian sub-continent in the early and mid-1990s, in his role as a member of the Executive Committee of the firm. He was also responsible for the entire research function of the investment bank.

Mr Bhaskaran is a well-regarded commentator on Asian financial and economic affairs, having penned columns for the Far Eastern Economic Review and continues to have regular columns in business weeklies such as the Nikkei in Japan. He is a frequent speaker on Asian issues at major conferences such as the World Economic Forum. In the course of his work, Mr Bhaskaran has also developed excellent personal contacts with policy makers as well as business leaders in Asia.

Although Mr Bhaskaran left service with the Singapore government in 1989, he has continued to participate in several governmental initiatives. He is also on the board of a listed Singapore government-owned company and is a Council Member of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs which advises the Singapore Foreign Ministry. He has also served as a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, a Singapore think tank.

Mr Bhaskaran has a Masters degree in Public Administration from the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Bachelors degree in economics from Cambridge University. In addition to these, he has also qualified as a Chartered Financial Analyst.