Previously, Cloherty was senior vice president and deputy global compliance chief to James Gallagher, executive vice president, general counsel and chief administrative officer at John Hancock Financial Services.

In his new role, Cloherty is responsible for Manulife's compliance activities throughout the US, Canada and Asia. He reports to J-P Bisnaire, Manulife's senior executive vice president of the corporate development and general counsel, and the audit committee.

Cloherty's previous responsibilities have included serving as advisory counsel to the global compliance community in North America and Asia, as well as chief counsel to John Hancock's chief compliance officer and as chief counsel for Manulife's reinsurance division and head of its legal team. He joined Manulife and John Hancock in 2005.

John Hancock Financial is a unit of Manulife Financial Corporation, a Canada-based financial services group with its principal operations in Asia, Canada and the US.