Franklin Templeton Investments has appointed Manraj S. Sekhon as chief investment officer (CIO) of Emerging Markets Equity.

In his role, Sekhon will oversee Franklin Templeton’s more than 80 experienced emerging markets equity investment professionals based in 20 offices around the world and representing over US$45 billion in assets under management.

Scheduled to join the firm’s Singapore office on February 19, Sekhon will report to Stephen Dover, head of Equities for Franklin Templeton Investments.

Dover commented that “as part of the next phase in the evolution of our emerging markets teams, we are pleased to bring on a leader who I am confident will best leverage the breadth of our investment talent across emerging markets equities to deliver the high quality investment strategies and performance that our clients expect.”

Sekhon has managed portfolios on behalf of pension plans, sovereign wealth, endowments, insurance, family offices and private wealth clients.

Prior to joining Franklin Templeton, Sekhon served as the chief executive, CIO and director of Fullerton Fund Management, a Singapore-based asset manager.

In that role, he was responsible for driving the strategy and growth of the business globally as well as overseeing all investment capabilities.

Prior to that, Sekhon served as director and head of International Equities at Henderson Global Investors, where he led a team managing Global and EAFE (Europe, Australasia & Far East) portfolios for clients around the world.