Link Promotes Saunders to Board Seat as Hongchoy to Retire at Year-End

Two months after announcing that its chief executive, George Hongchoy, would retire by mid-2026, Hong Kong’s Link Asset Management said on Tuesday that its long-term leader will retire at year-end and introduced a management transition plan.

“Mr Hongchoy will stand down from his role as Group CEO, Executive Director and other official positions with Link by 31 December 2025. Over the coming months, Mr Hongchoy will support a smooth transition to an interim leadership structure,” the manager of HKEX-listed Link REIT said in a statement. 

As part of the transition, John Saunders, who joined Link in March 2024 as group chief investment officer, will be appointed to an executive director position on the company’s board from 1 January, where he will work with executive director and chief financial officer Kok-Siong Ng to take over the chief executive duties on an interim basis, Link said. The two directors will report to chairman Duncan Owen and Link’s board.

“This interim arrangement will allow George to fulfil his wish to retire, leveraging the strong and established leadership team that Link has in place to deliver continuity until such time that a new Group CEO is able to take up the role,” Owen said in the statement. 

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Link Asset Management’s primary task is managing Link REIT, Asia’s largest real estate investment trust, which currently has a market capitalisation of over HK$104 billion ($13.4 billion) with more than HK$226 billion in properties.

Hongchoy had joined the firm in 2009 and had served as chief executive since one year later. “I would like to reiterate the Board’s gratitude to George for his leadership over the past 16 years and to welcome John to the Board. We look forward to continuing to work with John, Kok-Siong, and Link’s wider leadership team to drive forward the business,” Owen said in the statement.

As Link prepares its transition team, the firm’s independent board members have already begun work on identifying a new chief executive to replace Hongchoy, with the company indicating that updates would be provided “in due course.”

Link will be marking its 20th anniversary in November this year, with the firm having expanded in scale and scope to where the listed trust now owns assets in five countries.

Saunders Steps Up

Link is promoting Saunders after the firm in February announced that the former BlackRock executive would lead Link Real Estate Partners, a new business unit focused on managing third party capital.

Now 56, Saunders spent more than a decade at BlackRock, where he served as head of Asia Pacific real estate and global head of the company’s real estate client business after joining the world’s largest asset manager through its 2013 acquisition of regional fund manager MGPA. 

Saunders also has previous experience with CLSA and Hongkong Land in the region.