Ares Management has welcomed Sanat Vallikappen as Principal, Corporate Communications, to lead external communications in the APAC region. He joined the global alternative investment manager's Hong Kong office after 11 years at Nomura, where he most recently served as Head of External Communications and Branding & Marketing, Asia ex-Japan.
With more than two decades of media and comms experience, Sanat started out his career as a crime reporter in Mumbai. He then shifted into financial reporting with titles such as The Economic Times and Mint to cover capital markets, asset management, and private equity in India.
Sanat later relocated to Singapore, where he worked with Bloomberg News to cover banking and finance in Southeast Asia. He pivoted into comms in 2014 with Nomura to head its corp comms function in Singapore, and subsequently moved with the firm to Hong Kong to take up his most recent regional roles.