Han Yik (2019 Annual)

Head of Institutional Investors
World Economic Forum

Han Yik is the Head of Institutional Investors at the World Economic Forum and a thought leader on global long-term investment strategy.

Han works with the senior leadership of the world’s largest asset owners (sovereign wealth funds and government pension funds) and with top government officials from across the globe on issues around long-term investing as well as providing strategic guidance on initiatives involving public-private cooperation. He has written articles and reports on various investment topics and leads the Forum’s initiative on Global Retirement Investment Systems Reform, addressing the challenges of the global pension crisis, receiving extensive press coverage from media outlets such as Bloomberg, The Financial Times, Barron’s and others. In addition, he has been a speaker at various global conferences, including those held by the CFA Society, the Asia Risk Congress, Salesforce and CROSAPF and has led a number of private sessions for asset owners and investors during the WEF Annual Meeting in Davos.

Previously, Han was a Senior Institutional Portfolio Strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Between 2008 and 2015, he managed $2.5 billion (USD) in multi-asset class portfolios where he consistently outperformed the benchmark. As a quantitative risk expert, he also developed customized liability-driven investment strategies for his clients.

Han began his career in management consulting at Towers Perrin (currently Willis Towers Watson) and Mercer, where he advised large multinational companies such as Citibank, MasterCard and Pfizer on financial strategy relating to employee benefits and retirement plans, as well as providing analytical support in private equity mergers and acquisitions.

Han earned his B.S. in Applied Mathematics with a concentration in Operations Research from Yale University, where he won the Benjamin F. Barge Prize for Excellence in Mathematics. In his spare time, Han has served as a board member for Materials for the Arts, a local non-profit devoted to creative recycling and reuse of donated materials as arts materials for underserved public schools.