From China Merchants Bank to Dongfanghong, and then to Tianhong, the veteran FOF expert Deng Jiongpeng switches teams.

Cailian Press, March 24 — (Reporter Yan Jun) This year’s market-highlighted FOF sector has seen a change of leadership.

On March 24, Dongfanghong Fund announced that Managing Director and Head of Fund Portfolio Investment Department Deng Jiongpeng has stepped down from managing three funds: Dongfanghong Xinhe Balanced 2-Year Hybrid FOF, Dongfanghong Xinhe Steady 3-Month Holding Hybrid FOF, and Dongfanghong Xinhe Active 3-Month Holding Hybrid FOF.

With all management handovers completed, the market rumors about Deng Jiongpeng’s departure have finally been confirmed.

This veteran FOF professional, known for understanding clients within the industry, is very likely to move to Tianhong Fund next. This would be another successful talent acquisition from a leading securities firm asset management company, following several high-profile senior executives joining, further emphasizing Tianhong’s clear strategy to build a core talent hub in the industry.

Announcement of Deng Jiongpeng’s Departure

According to the fund announcement, fund manager Deng Jiongpeng resigned due to personal reasons, with fund managers Chen Wenyang and Xu Yuning continuing to manage the funds to ensure smooth operation. On March 3, Dongfanghong Asset Management announced that Xu Yuning was newly appointed as fund manager for Dongfanghong Xinhe Balanced 2-Year Hybrid FOF and Dongfanghong Xinhe Active 3-Month Holding Hybrid FOF; Chen Wenyang had already been co-managing the same funds since April 26, 2025.

Dongfanghong Asset Management emphasized that moving forward, the company will continue to diligently fulfill its responsibilities, further leverage its research advantages across multi-asset and multi-strategy fields, promote innovation in FOF products, and refine operations to provide investors with a better investment experience.

Data shows that before stepping down, Deng Jiongpeng managed a total scale of 1.159 billion yuan, with his best annualized return reaching 26.27%. Although this scale is modest compared to the hundreds of billions in the public fund track, Deng Jiongpeng’s background is quite interesting.

Before joining Dongfanghong Asset Management, Deng Jiongpeng served as Product Manager in Retail Banking at Guangzhou Branch of China Merchants Bank, Product Manager in Wealth Management at China Merchants Bank, and Head of Investment Product Development Team. From China Merchants Bank to Dongfanghong Asset Management, he is one of the few fund managers with experience spanning from wealth management to asset management.

Unlike fund managers who grow purely through research and investment systems, Deng Jiongpeng naturally has a better understanding of channel pain points and genuine client needs. During his tenure at Dongfanghong, he repeatedly emphasized in public that FOF should not just be a product but a comprehensive solution meeting clients’ wealth management needs.

With Deng Jiongpeng’s departure, Dongfanghong Asset Management’s FOF business landscape is also undergoing adjustments. It is reported that, as an important part of the fixed income sector, future FOF operations will be overseen by Vice General Manager Hu Wei, who is responsible for fixed income. With over 20 years of fixed income research experience, Hu Wei’s inclusion in the large fixed income sector underscores Dongfanghong’s core approach: that the essence of FOF lies in asset allocation and drawdown control, aligning with the principles of absolute return and steady growth in fixed income investment management.

Dongfanghong: Challenges Ahead, but Clear Platform Strategy

Does Deng Jiongpeng’s departure pose a challenge to Dongfanghong’s FOF business?

The company believes that in the short term, it may bring some challenges, but with a solid research inheritance system, Dongfanghong is steadily advancing team transitions and business continuity, gradually expanding its FOF investment.

Building on the existing foundation, Dongfanghong has clarified its next development path: further leveraging its research advantages across multi-asset and multi-strategy fields, planning to develop a series of strategies with clear styles, quantitative features, and distinct profiles. In this transformation, one of the key figures will be Xu Yuning, who specializes in quantitative research and asset allocation. Through long-term strategy library accumulation and model iteration, he provides strong technical support for the team’s multi-asset allocation models, multi-strategy models, and alpha model integration.

Like all current fund companies, Dongfanghong’s FOF business will shift from relying on star managers’ personal capabilities to a systematic, quantitative team-based approach.

Additionally, this transformation is driven by strategic company initiatives. In 2025, Cheng Fei, with over ten years of fixed income experience, joined Dongfanghong as General Manager, injecting new momentum into the company’s development. Since taking office, Cheng Fei has prioritized FOF development and fixed income investment experience. In 2026, he officially proposed the “3+X” business strategy: consolidating core strengths in active equity, fixed income+, and pure bonds, while vigorously developing public and private FOF and other lines of business.

Under this strategic framework, FOF has been explicitly included in the “X” key focus areas, becoming a major growth engine for the company’s next phase.

Tianhong Fund’s “Talent Magnet” Effect

Since last year, FOF issuance has been hot, with the latest FOF scale surpassing 300 billion yuan. Although this is small compared to the nearly 38 trillion yuan in total public funds, the concept of asset allocation represented by FOF is increasingly recognized.

Against this backdrop, Deng Jiongpeng remains optimistic about the future of FOF. He has stated that the value of FOF lies in effective asset allocation that genuinely benefits clients. He believes that with deeper investor education and a more complete pension system, FOF as a tool for broad asset allocation will become even more important.

Turning to Deng Jiongpeng’s potential next destination, Tianhong Fund, if he joins, it will further enhance Tianhong’s “talent acquisition” strategy.

In December 2023, Gao Yang became the new General Manager of Tianhong Fund, making the company a “talent hunter” in the public fund industry. Over the past two years, Tianhong’s personnel changes have been quite high-profile:

In April 2024, Nie Ting, former General Manager of Huatai Securities Asset Management, joined Tianhong as Vice President responsible for equity business, bringing extensive securities asset management experience;

In March and April 2025, Jia Teng, former Equity Investment Director at Zheshang Fund, and Gao Guoxin, former General Manager and CIO of Manulife Fund, joined successively;

On May 13, 2025, Ma Long, former Chief Fixed Income Investment Officer at China Merchants Fund with nearly 90 billion yuan in assets, officially became Tianhong’s Deputy General Manager and Head of Fixed Income, becoming a new leader in Tianhong’s fixed income team. Notably, shortly after Ma Long’s arrival, Tianhong’s former fixed income pillar Jiang Xiaoli left to join E Fund.

In 2026, Tianhong’s talent acquisition continued. On February 12, former Huabao Fund Index Investment Director and “industry-themed ETF queen” Hu Jie, after liquidating all 16 managed products, quickly joined Tianhong just 12 days later.

In the future, Deng Jiongpeng’s joining will likely further expand Tianhong’s strategic layout across equity, fixed income, index, and FOF product lines.

Meanwhile, Tianhong’s Investment Decision Committee has also undergone personnel changes. According to previous reports by Cailian Press, six of the eight members joined Tianhong in 2025, including Gao Yang (Chairman), Tong Jianlin, Yang Chao, Wang Changjun, Ma Long, and Nie Ting. The other two, Chen Gang and Deng Qiang, are veterans who joined in 2011 and 2018, respectively.

(Reporter Yan Jun, Cailian Press)