UK
UK broker and investment manager Brewin Dolphin has appointed Angela Knight, former Economic Secretary to the UK Treasury, as a non-executive board director.

She is currently the chief executive of the British Bankers Association and a trust member of the Port of London Authority.

Edinburgh-based asset manager Martin Currie has hired eight investment managers. The move, intended to strengthen proprietary research, improve delivery and aid new product development, increases the investment team to 51.

The recruits include four analysts. Claire Marwick, who joins from Alliance Trust, and Paul Danes from Nordea Investment Funds are both Japan analysts. Warren Lin, formerly of Fubon Securities, is a Taiwan analyst, and Brian Canavan, previously with Deutsche Bank is an Asia analyst.

There are also four sector managers. Toby McCullagh joins from Bear Stearns to cover the consumer sector and Luca Fasan joins from Sanpaolo IMI Asset Management to cover telecoms, media and technology. Bruce MacDonald formerly of Teather & Greenwood will cover infrastructure, and Rory Stewart previously with Simmons & Co, will cover resources.

Alliance Trust, the investment and financial services group, has appointed Kelly O’Donnell to the newly created role of managing director of Distribution for its financial services subsidiary business, Alliance Trust Savings. She will report to chief executive Janet Pope.

Ms O’Donnell began her career at Morgan Stanley in New York in US institutional equity broking and was appointed to manage US equity sales trading from London.

UBS Global Asset Management has appointed Roddy Sloan as global head of Real Estate Fund of Funds and Securities. He will report to the head of Global Real Estate business, Paul Marcuse, who is also a member of the Executive Committee of UBS Global Asset Management.

Mr Sloan was previously global head of business strategy at AXA Real Estate Investment Managers. Mr Marcuse was chief executive of AXA Real Estate Investment Managers before joining UBS in January.

Adam & Company, the private bank owned by Royal Bank of Scotland, has appointed John Fyfe to head of its Aberdeen office.

Mr Fyfe, who has worked in senior roles for RBS in Aberdeen for a number of years, replaces Douglas Noble who was poached last month by Barclays Wealth to help roll out its own private banking services in Scotland.

Lucy Taylor has joined integrated private client asset management and financial advisory firm Brooks Macdonald as a private client fund manager.

She joins from Fortis Private Investment Management, where she was a fund manager, and previously worked at Teather & Greenwood and Kleinwort Benson.

Wealth manager Towry Law has appointed David Middleton to the newly created role of head of Strategic Marketing, to lead the development of client propositions with a particular emphasis on product development, product delivery and marketing strategies.

Mr Middleton joins from Gartmore Investment Management, where he was head of Commercial Development, and was previously commercial director at Coutts and a main board director of Coutts & Co.

International headhunter Akamai has beefed up its London team with the appointment of Nicholas Wolf.

Mr Wolf was previously at rival firm Armstrong International and will report to Russell Adam, executive director, head of EMEA Investment & Wealth Management at Akamai.

He joins as an associate director and will be covering the private wealth management market in UK, Europe and Middle East.

Emma Pigott has joined the London-based wealth management team at search firm Stephen Raby. Ms Pigott joins from Lockwood Gibb where she was a researcher. She will report to Alex O’Callaghan who leads the practice’s wealth management business and was also previousy at Lockwood Gibb.

London-listed and headquartered broker, advisor and wealth manager Collins Stewart has appointed Martin Bralsford as chairman of its Channel Islands and Isle of Man portfolio management, stockbroking and funds business.

He is the former chief executive of CI Traders, until recently a UK-listed Channel Islands public company.

Specialist US fixed income manager PIMCO has appointed Ilan Heimann and Ryan Blute as product managers in the European Product Management Group. Both will be based in London and report to the group’s head Craig Dawson.

Mr Heimann joins as a senior vice president and product manager responsible for structured products at the beginning of August. He was previously an executive director at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

Advocate and funds specialist Richard Thomas has taken over from Gary Clark as chairman of the Jersey Funds Association.

Mr Thomas is a partner at Ogier with a background in investment funds, securitisation, special purpose vehicles and advising on banking and corporate matters.

Solicitor Karen Farman is transferring from London to Guernsey to head the legal team at Investec Trust on the island.

She has been working as part of Investec Trust’s legal team in London for the past two years on a wide range of matters including trust law and documentation, tax issues and corporate transactions.

Multi-manager specialists Rob Burdett and Gary Potter are joining Thames River Capital to head up the long-only multi-manager team. They will be reunited with colleagues Kelly Prior, Paul Green and Anthony Willis who moved to the company from Credit Suisse in April 2007 and have subsequently undertaken preparatory research ahead of the launch of Thames River’s multi-manager funds.

It is expected that an initial range of five funds will be unveiled in early September.

Strategy consultants Market-Dynamics Research and Consulting has appointed three new associates in its wealth management consulting team.

Tracy Watts - senior associate - and Agnieszka Iskra– associate – will focus on wealth management client acquisition and business development in the UK. Ms Watts has held senior sales management positions at Lloyds TSB Private Banking, Lloyds Abbey Life and Standard Life: she will report directly to MDRC’s managing director Richard Williams. Ms Iskra has a background in sales systems analysis and design.

Sylvie Moracova– associate based in Prague - will coordinate MDRC’s consulting and research projects in Eastern Europe and Russia.

Fidelity International has appointed David Urch as a portfolio manager from the beginning of 2008.

He joins from Scottish Widows Investment Partnership where he has been an investment director for UK equity portfolios since 2003. He started his career at Merrill Lynch in 1996.

Mr Urch will work with Jonathan Cobb, who joins Fidelity in September with the remit of building a team of UK equity portfolios managers, focusing on the institutional market, based in Edinburgh.

Royal Bank of Canada has hired three new senior wealth managers for its Global Private Banking team in the British Isles.

Ivan Narandja, who joins from Credit Suisse Private Banking, will be based in London and will be responsible for providing wealth management services for clients and administrators in the Americas.

Olly Spry joins from Fimat, part of Société Générale Group, where he was an equity sales trader. Also based in London, he will work with high net worth private clients particularly the beneficiaries of company share schemes and international pension plans.

Edward Jenkins joins RBC’s Guernsey office from Barclays Wealth in Guernsey, and will provide wealth management services to individuals, trusts and corporate clients.

Credit Suisse Asset Management has hired Graham Ashby as managing director and co-head of UK equities with Phil True, ending a year-long search to find a head for its UK equity income arm following the departures of Bill Mott, Errol Francis and Leigh Harrison.

Mr Ashby joins from Sarasin Chiswell. Credit Suisse has also made two additional appointments to bolster its UK equity income franchise.

Michael Crawford joins from wealth management and investment advisory firm Bessemer Trust, where he is head of European equities. Mr Crawford used to work with Mr Ashby at DWS Investments, where he managed the firm's UK Blue Chip fund.

The other is Marcus Chandler who worked as an analyst alongside Mr Ashby at Sarasin Chiswell.

Edward Jenkins joins RBC’s Guernsey office from Barclays Wealth in Guernsey, and will provide wealth management services to individuals, trusts and corporate clients.

Protego Real Estate Investors, a European property fund and asset management business, has appointed Alexandra McGhee as associate for business development.

She joins from Bank of Scotland’s integrated finance team in London; before that, Ms McGhee worked at Henderson Global Investors as finance manager to its €1 billion ($1.3 billion) pan-European retail property fund.

Investec Asset Management has hired Richard Benson as a portfolio manager in its specialist currency management team in London. He will report directly to Thanos Papasavvas, head of currency management.

Mr Benson joins from institutional fixed income portfolio manager Fisher Francis Trees and Watts where he was a currency portfolio manager, responsible for the development of medium-term fundamental and thematic views.

UK fund manager Morley has appointed two new business development managers and a distribution support manager. The new team will report to James Bowers, head of distribution solutions.

Jean-Paul Grenade and Siobhan MacDonald will manage the distribution relationships with some of Morley’s largest financial institution clients and will have their own revenue accountability. Shariff Ahmed will provide day-to-day support for the distribution relationships with Aviva group companies and external partners.

Mr Grenade joins from Fidelity International, Ms MacDonald from Scottish Widows and RBS; Mr Ahmed moves over from Norwich Union, like Morley part of the Aviva group.

Investec has strengthened its existing Channel Islands treasury team with the appointment of David Douglas, to work with Greg Ahne. Mr Douglas has experience in cash and FX markets, specifically derivative and capital protected products.

He joins from Anglo Irish Bank, where he was a manager in the corporate treasury sales division. Before that, he had held positions at HBOS, Bank of Scotland and Newton Investment Managers.

Santander Asset Management has promoted Estrella Llorente to be a senior portfolio manager running Abbey’s multi-manager portfolios in London.

She takes over from John Bearman, chief investment officer: he has managed the funds since John Kelly left in May 2007 to join CCLA Investment Management.

UK independent financial advisor Cavanagh Group is opening an office in Chichester with a team of five consultants who previously worked at Barclays Wealth.

Michael Johnson has joined SG Hambros Bank (Channel Islands) in Jersey as a senior private banker.

Mr Johnson joins from Barclays Private Bank and Trust, part of Barclays Wealth where he worked as a private banker operating primarily in the international and resident non-domicile segment.

Morley, an asset management business of major insurers Aviva, has promoted Siobhan Boylan to be its new chief financial officer. She takes over from David Watson, who has himself moved up to be chief financial officer of Aviva Europe.

Morley has also promoted Georgina Marshall to the newly-created position of corporate governance manager. She will report to Anita Skipper, head of corporate governance, who said: "Expanding our governance team is a key part of increasing our focus on activities that add more value to our funds. In particular we want to achieve more comprehensive engagement with companies, not just in the UK and Europe but wherever it is important to the funds."

Switzerland
Clariden Leu is creating a new division, Investment Products & Wealth Management Services from 1 October 2007.

Hans Nützi, who up to now has been chief executive of Private Banking at Clariden Leu, will be appointed deputy chief executive of the bank and assumes the management of the new division.

In future, the market regions will report to the chief executive officer, F. Bernard Stalder.

The four market regions will be headed by Adrian Nösberger, Private Banking Switzerland and External Asset Managers, Adrian FLeuenberger, Private Banking Europe, Rémy de Bruyn, Private Banking Latin America and Senior Private Bankers, and Roland Knecht, Private Banking Eastern Europe, Middle East & Asia.

Clariden Leu has also promoted Erwin Hefti to replace Richard Loretan as head of structured products.

Clariden Leu is due to appoint a new chief executive officer of investments products. Zurich-based Mr Hefti will report to interim chief executive officer of investment products, Martin Klaus.

Mr Hefti was at Bank Leu before last year's merger of Clariden Bank, BGP Banca di Gestione Patrimoniale, Bank Hofmann, Bank Leu and the securities dealer Credit Suisse Fides. He was responsible for securities and structured products trading in the structured products division.

Marina Grossrieder-Lo Guzzo has been promoted to manager of the private client business of Credit Suisse in the Uri, Nid- and Obwalden cantons of Switzerland.

Having previously run the office in Hergiswil, she was responsible for looking after clients in the private banking department before managing a programme for the rationalisation of all Credit Suisse offices in Switzerland.

Josef Vogt is to join Bank Julius Baer as market head, Peter Mueller as sector head, while Matthias Erny and Roland Vogt will join as department heads for the Austria/International sector.

All four join, on 1 December 2007, from Credit Suisse.

The team, which will be located in Zurich, will further strengthen the bank's position in the market for wealthy European private clients, and will also be responsible for the development of the bank's Austrian business, located in Vienna.

Josef Vogt was employed from 1984 in private client advisory services at the Schweizerische Kreditanstalt, the Schweizerische Volksbank and Credit Suisse. In 2001, he was appointed Division Head Germany and Austria at Credit Suisse Private Banking. In his new position as Market Head Austria/International at Julius Baer, Josef Vogt will report directly to Mr Rossi.

Peter Mueller worked from 1983 to 1994 as a portfolio manager and Head of Client Services at the Swiss Bank Corporation in Zurich and Monte Carlo. Subsequently he held various management positions at the Schweizerische Volksbank and Credit Suisse Private Banking. From 2001, he was Deputy Division Head Germany and Austria.

Matthias Erny worked from 1997 to 1999 at UBS as head of client services for wealthy private customers. Following this he became a relationship manager at Credit Suisse Private Banking, where he was employed from 2006 as team leader for Germany and Austria.

Roland Vogt was employed from 1977 to 1987 in the areas of securities, financial analysis and investment advisory services at the Zürcher Kantonalbank. In 1987, he moved to Private Client Advisory Services at the Schweizerische Volksbank. He was appointed Sector Head Germany and Austria at Credit Suisse Private Banking in 2002.

Julius Baer has also appointed Gieri Giger to lead its new private banking office in Zug - a new position that he assumed on 1 August.

Mr Giger was previously head of investment advice for private and institutional clients at Zuger Kantonalbank.

Prior to that, he was at UBS in Zurich in a leadership role for international wealth management market development.

Gustav Stenbolt has been appointed chief executive officer of Valartis Group and Valartis Bank as of mid-September 2007.

In order to comply with regulations, he will step down from his previous positions as vice-chairman of Valartis Group and the Valartis Bank.

Erwin Heri, currently chairman and, since 1 November 2006, interim group chief executive officer, will maintain the positions of chairman of both the Valartis Group and the Valartis Bank.

International
Citi Global Wealth Management has appointed 20-year Citi veteran, Catherine Weir, as its chief executive officer for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.

Citi’s Global Wealth Management business in this region is currently managed as two distinct business groups - Europe and Middle East - managed by Marianne Hay and Akbar Shah as their respective chief executives.

Ms Weir will manage the two businesses as a combined unit, EMEA, from 1 September based in London.

Ms Hay is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities, while Mr Shah is moving to Citi’s GWM business in the Asia-Pacific region to manage its Mega Wealth unit, which provides a differentiated and customised private banking service to clients.

Ms Weir is currently managing director and head of Citi Markets & Banking (CMB) for ASEAN, covering Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. She is also Citi country officer for Singapore, and a member of the Citi Management Committee.

Citi Global Wealth Management also announced that it has appointed Samir Raslan, currently head of Investments for Citi GWM Asia Pacific, to be the head of its Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa business reporting to Ms Weir. His appointment will take effect from 1 October.

Within the CEEMEA establishment, Muwaffak Bibi, who currently leads the Saudi Arabia and Levant business, has been promoted to manage a larger business covering the Middle East and North Africa.

Deutsche Bank's Asset Management division has appointed two new directors to its Global Consultant Relations team. Both will report to Susan Small, Global Head of Consultant Relations.

Julia Beinker, based in Frankfurt, will be the head of Consultant Relations in Europe, effective 1 October. She joins DeAM from Germany's Union Investment Institutional where she was head of Consultant Relations.

Anne Coupe will join DeAM on 4 September as a consultant relations manager in Chicago. She joins DeAM from William Blair & Company where she was a domestic equity product specialist.

Albert Fuss, founder of London-based International Asset Management, is to step down as chief executive officer in favour of Morten Spenner. The move is part of a strategic realignment designed to position the fund-of-funds provider for its next stage of growth.

Mr Fuss will continue as executive director and focus on client relationship management. Mr Spenner joined IAM in 2003 after working for Putnam Lovell.

The realignment will also see Paul McCauley appointed to a newly-created position as portfolio strategist, while Penny Aitken is named head of research in London and Mark DeAngelis is appointed head of research in New York.

IAM was established in 1989 and has $5.2 billion under management. It was acquired by ABN Amro in 2006.

Credit Suisse has appointed Yong-Moon Kim as a managing director and Head of Global Equities for Asset Management. He is the eleventh new recruit in recent months as the Swiss bank seeks to expand its Asset Management Equities business.

Yong-Moon joins from Hong Kong-based Mirae Asset Global Investment Management where he was a managing director and chief investment officer. He also spent four years at UBS as a senior analyst working in New York, Hong Kong and Korea and has worked as a portfolio manager in the US and the UK.

Retail banking and wealth management will be working more closely together at HSBC after the appointment of Alex Hungate to the new role of global head of personal financial services and marketing. He joins in September from news service Reuters, where he was Asia managing director.

Mr Hungate, who will be group managing director of the two departments, will be based in London and will report to HSBC group chief executive Michael Geoghegan. He also becomes a member of the 10-strong global group management board.

He plans to “join-up” the bank by cross-referring more customers between divisions such as retail banking and wealth management.

Standard Bank has appointed three business development executives in its wealth division to focus on building business in emerging markets.

Segun Okubanjo, who will be based in the Stanbic offices in Lagos, Nigeria, and Jack Rezayeff, who will be based in London, will focus on developing private client business, while Innokenty Alekseev, who will also be London-based, will concentrate on specifically building trust business.

Mr Okubanjo will be Standard Bank’s first private banker to be based in Africa, underlining the bank’s plans to build business in West Africa.

Mr Alekseev is a lawyer trained in Russia and at Stanford University who has worked in investment and private banking in Moscow, where he was responsible for developing and delivering products and services for HNW and UHNW clients.

Mr Rezayeff joins with a background in a financial management consultancy for high net worth individuals.

William Huffman, chief executive of Northern Trust Global Investments, the non-US investment management arm of Northern Trust Global Investments and chairman, president and chief executive of its manager-of-managers arm Northern Trust Global Advisors, has resigned for “personal reasons”.

Northern Trust is replacing him with Alan Robertson in all three roles. Mr Robertson most recently served as group head, wealth advisory services, in Northern Trust's personal financial services business.

Richard Bartholomew will take over as the interim chief executive of NTGIL while Northern Trust undertakes a comprehensive internal and external search for the head of that business.

Europe
Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays Bank, has hired Fabrizio Boaron as a managing director and head of private bank coverage, Italy, for Investor Solutions, the retail distribution arm of BarCap. The position is a new one.

Mr Boaron will be in charge of BarCap's investor solutions team in Italy, which provides private banks with structured products across all asset classes.

He joins Barcap from UBS where he headed Italian derivative sales and was managing director of structured credit trading.

Asset manager Principal Global Investors (Europe) has appointed Steven Brown as head of Wholesale Distribution in the UK, a newly created role. He was previously Overseas Business Development Director for M&G Investments.

Denmark’s Saxo Bank has named Soeren Mose as its new executive director for Private Wealth Management. He is to anchor the bank's global investment activities in respect of private banking and wealth management as part of an ambitious growth strategy aimed at the year 2010.

Prior to his new appointment, Mr Mose was chief executive officer of Danish rival Jyske Bank's subsidiary in Switzerland and previously headed Jyske’s private banking business in Gibraltar.

Bank of Ireland Asset Management has overhauled its senior portfolio management team yet again with the announcement of four appointments and one departure.

The Irish fund manager has been in a constant state of flux since 2004 when four key executives defected to set up a global equities operation in Dublin for Australian financial services group Perpetual.

In July, BIAM''s head of equities Paul Boyne quit after a year in the post along with fund manager Jamie Wood.

The latest reshuffle sees former executive Leona Nicholson return to the group as head of Irish equities and head of global products after only resigning in May.

Ms Nicholson is to replace Ivan Fox, who is leaving to start a wealth management business, according to a statement from Bank of Ireland.

The company has also recruited Lance Graham from AIB Investment Managers as head of UK equities and co-manager of eurozone equities, and Peter de Lacy from hedge fund Marble Bar Asset Management as a senior research analyst covering telecoms and technology companies.

Brian Routledge, head of US equities, has also been promoted to head of the concentrated global equity product.

Morley, the UK-based asset management business of the Aviva insurance group, has appointed Spiro Andreadakis and Laura Suárez Pajares to its European Business Development team, as head of European sales administration and Spanish client operations manager respectively.

Mr Andreadakis, who has over 20 years of fund management experience at both UBS and Fidelity, will oversee European distribution activities in Morley's European offices - Milan, Madrid and Frankfurt – and coordinate local client operations and sales administration, as well as Morley's interaction with Aviva Funds Services in Luxembourg. He reports to Adam Lessing, head of Morley's European business development.

Ms Suárez Pajares, who has worked for Franklin Templeton Investments, Bancoval and Bank of New York, will be responsible for managing operations in Morley's Spanish office and developing sales and service systems. She reports to William Pawson, Morley's director general in Spain.

Credit Suisse has made four UK-based appointments to its Eastern European team. André Mankovsky, currently a director at Credit Suisse, has been appointed regional head for Eastern Europe. Based in London, he will be responsible for defining and executing the strategy for the region and managing the existing Russia team, reporting to Tom Slocock, managing director and head of international for Credit Suisse’s UK private banking business.

Valeriy Popritkin, Denis Blashkov and Maria Rumyantseva join the Eastern Europe team covering Russia and will report to Mr Mankovsky. Mr Popritkin joins Credit Suisse as a vice president and relationship manager from US-based LPL Financial Services, Mr Blashkov as a relationship manager from Citigroup Global Markets in New York and Ms Rumyantseva as associate relationship manager.

Schroders Property, a division of Schroders Investment Management, has appointed Rob Bingen as head of its European property multi-manager group.

Asia Pacific
The Hong Kong office of Swiss wealth manager Julius Baer has appointed Catherine Tseng as managing director, market head, focusing on the Greater China region. She joins after 13 years at Credit Suisse - most recently as team head for the Taiwan market - and will report to Andrea Benenati, chief executive North Asia.

SG Private Banking has hired Sing Hwee Tan as a regional chief investment officer for Asia Pacific.

She will report to Alex Fung, SG Private Banking chief executive officer for Hong Kong and North Asia.

Ms Tan joins SG Private Banking from ABN Amro, where she held a number of senior investment positions and was most recently responsible for the development of their ultra high net worth private client segment in Asia.

Merrill Lynch has appointed Wayne Yang as a managing director and Pacific Rim head of the ultra high net worth private investment banking coverage team. The team has been set up to integrate the bank’s private banking arm and its investment banking groups.

Mr Yang joins from Citi where he held a variety of senior roles since he joined the bank in 1990, latterly as the Manhattan region head.

At Merrill he will be in charge of driving new business for the unit, which was launched in May to provide investment banking services to ultra high net worth individuals.

Mr Yang will work out of the Hong Kong office and will report to Damian Chunilal, head of Pacific Rim origination and chief operating officer for the region. He is expected to join in September.

Perpetual in Australia has promoted Gai Ferrington to head of platforms for the wealth management arm.

She was previously senior manager of platforms and investments and will report to the chief operating officer of wealth management, Eric Wang.

Ms Ferrington joined Perpetual 12 months ago after 14 years at ING.

JP Morgan's Chinese joint venture, China International Fund Management, has lost its star fund manager and chief investment officer.

Lu Jun, who is credited with managing the China Advantage Fund to increase in value 400 per cent over the last three years, has quit "for personal reasons."

Swiss private bank Union Bancaire Privee has appointed Shingo Tsuda, former vice president of Daiwa Asset Management (America), as the new president of its Japanese unit, UBP Japan Securities, in Tokyo.

Morgan Stanley has hired four wealth managers from DSP Merrill Lynch for its nascent wealth management business in India.

Amitava Neogi was a director at DSP Merrill and Partha Basu was chief administrative officer.

Himangshu Bhagat and Himangshu Jain were recent joiners at Merrill.

Swiss wealth manager Julius Baer has tapped Credit Suisse to appoint Rick Chan as managing director and senior advisor in its Hong Kong office.

Mr Chan reports directly to Andrea Benenati, Baer’s chief executive officer North Asia, and will also take up a seat as a member of the Asian Management Committee.

He joins Julius Baer from Credit Suisse’s private banking division where he spent almost five years as a senior client banker. Previously he held senior positions at Kim Eng Securities and HSBC Securities.

Former wealth management executive Paul Fegan has been appointed acting chief executive of Australia's fifth largest lender St George after its former chief executive, Gail Kelly, was poached by rival Westpac last week.

Mr Fegan joined St George in 2002 from the National Australia Bank as group executive of Wealth Management, assuming responsibility of Wealth Management and Retail Financial Services in 2004.

Nigel Sze has been appointed as Citi Global Wealth Management Asia-Pacific Investments head.

Mr Sze will assume the role in September and will take over from Samir Raslan, whose new role will be announced shortly.

Mr Sze was most recently a member of the international senior management of Barclays Wealth and chief executive, Asia of Barclays International and Private Banking. He also oversaw all Asian based private banking client activities in the UK and Geneva.

He started his private banking career in 1986 with Citibank as a vice president and regional financial controller and was one of the business heads for the Hong Kong Team before he left in 1993.

He then joined American Express as head of Private Banking in Hong Kong, followed by a six year stint as executive director of the Private Clients Division at Morgan Stanley, Hong Kong.

The head of Merrill Lynch's Indian private banking arm, Rahul Malhotra, has been promoted to run the bank's private banking network across the region.

Mr Malhotra now has responsibility for Merrill's private client operation across Asia in all countries save for Japan.

In his new role he will work closely with Tony Stanton, the head of the managed product group for the Pacific Rim and Abhinav Gorawara, head of equity-structured solutions for the region.

Merrill has named Albert Lee, an executive with its private banking arm, as chief executive and chairman of its Taiwan operation.

HSBC India has appointed Ramnath Krishnan as its managing director and head of Private Banking. He takes over from Subir Mittra who is moving to the group's offices in Europe.

Mr Krishnan, who will be taking over his new position from 1 September, joined the HSBC group in 1995 and has held key positions in India and overseas, including stints in investment banking and corporate banking.

He currently heads HSBC India's strategic planning desk responsible for the direction of the group's India business over the near term.

Credit Suisse has poached a key JP Morgan executive, luring Robert Jesudason across as managing director and head of its financial institutions group for Asia, ex-Japan.

Mr Jesudason was former managing director focusing on private equity investments in financial institutions at JP Morgan's special situations group in Asia.

Bank Pictet & Cie (Asia), the Singapore-based subsidiary of the Swiss private bank, has named Bhaskar Laxminarayan as chief investment officer for Asia, where he will oversee investment strategies in the region for the bank's private clients.

Mr Laxminarayan, who was previously chief investment officer for Asia with Shinsei Asset Management, will be based in Singapore.

HSBC Private Bank has appointed Desmond Liu as managing director and head of China, beginning 10 September 2007, and Chapman Cho as senior director and head of Onshore China, effective today.

Mr Liu joins from DBS Bank, where he was managing director and head of Private Banking North Asia & Greater China. Before that he was managing director at Prudential Bache and Lehman Brothers Securities where he covered various markets, including Greater China, Japan, the Philippines and Singapore. He also worked at Citibank for a number of years.

Mr Cho has worked for the HSBC Group for more than 20 years and was previously based in Singapore.

US
Wachovia of the US filled in the final piece of its executive wealth management team with the appointment of Stan Gregor, former president and chief executive officer of Commerce Bancorp’s Commerce Capital Markets business, to head the Wealth Markets division aimed at individuals with $5 million to $50 million in investable assets.

Wealth Markets sit beside Wachovia’s Private Banking group, which caters to clients with between $250,000 and $5 million, and Wachovia’s family office brand, Calibre, that caters to clients with in excess of $50 million investable assets.

Wachovia recently announced the Private Banking group, previously named Private Advisory Group, would be dedicated to a narrower client segment.

While Mr Gregor said Wachovia was serving the $5 million to $50 million segment before, it had a more generalist approach.

Christopher Conkey, chief investment officer of Boston-based Evergreen Investments, Wachovia’s asset management unit, is to leave by “mutual agreement" on 14 August after more than 20 years at the company.

Mr Conkey was named CIO in 2003 since when Evergreen's assets have increased by 14 per cent to $281 billion. Evergreen’s chief executive officer Dennis Ferro will assume Conkey's responsibilities until the company finds a successor.

Two former A.G. Edwards executives are in line to trouser multi-million dollar incentive bonuses to remain with Wachovia following the Charlotte-based bank’s acquisition of the St. Louis-based brokerage.

Peter Miller, director of sales and marketing at A.G. Edwards, is expected to be appointed co-head of Wachovia Securities’ financial services group, while Gene Diederich, director of branches at A.G. Edwards, is expected to be joint head of Wachovia's private client branch system.

Wachovia has promoted Adam Holtzschue to managing executive of Affluent Credit Services. He succeeds Morrison Creech, who became managing executive for Wachovia Wealth Management Private Banking in June.

First Republic Bank has added to its construction lending team as Mike Burke joins as managing director, construction lending.

Prior to joining First Republic in San Francisco, Mr Burke was a vice president and senior construction lender for Greater Bay Bank in San Rafael.

Bank of America announced the leadership team for its alternative investments group that sits within its new Global Wealth and Investment Management business.

The new team is made up of predominantly internal hires and executives from its recent US Trust acquisition.

The team currently consists of 68 employees including a team of 22 research staff headed by David Bailin, head of the combined Alternative Investments group, who reports to head of Global Wealth and Investment Management, Brian Moynihan.

Steven Suss, chief administrative officer for Hedge Fund & Private Equity Investments within the business unit, was the only external hire, formerly the chief financial officer and chief compliance officer of Heirloom Capital Management.

The firm also named Spencer Boggess, former chief executive of US Trust Hedge Fund Management, director of Hedge Fund Investments in the new group.

James Bowden, former manager of Bank of America's private equity fund-of-funds business, was appointed director of Private Equity Investments.

Kristina McDonough, formerly head of product management for US Trust's Alternative Investment Division, was named Institutional Channel director.

Former national business management executive for The Private Bank of Bank of America, Kathie Andrade, was appointed an executive.

And Suzanne Sack, formerly the northeast regional president of The Private Bank of Bank of America, was appointed US Trust Channel director.

The Alternative Investments Group, expanded through the merger with US Trust, currently oversees $6 billion in client assets, according to the firm.

Bank of America has also announced changes to its divisional structure within its Premier Banking and Investments unit, which provides integrated banking and investment advisory services to clients with up to $3 million in investable assets.

Pat Phillips, president of PBI, which is part of Bank of America Global Wealth and Investment Management, said his organisation will operate through four division executives heading newly-defined geographic regions. Dean Athanasia will head Northeast division, Kim Burdick Southwest division, Matt Howard Pacific Northwest division and Keith Winn South and Midwest division. This team will promote partnerships across the larger Bank of America organisation.

As part of this announcement, Mr Phillips also indicated that Susan Walker, previously the Atlantic South division executive, has been appointed Bank of America state president for Florida and will continue to serve in a regional leadership role for northern Florida and Georgia, reporting to Keith Winn. Further, Mark Benson, previously the central region division executive, has been named chief operating officer for Bank of America Investment Services, Bank of America's retail brokerage.

Riverstone Holdings, a New York-based $9 billion private investment firm specialising in the energy and power sectors, has hired Elizabeth Weymouth as a managing director from JPMorgan Private Bank.

Ms Weymouth will oversee Riverstone's investor relations and communications functions and lead the firm's fundraising efforts. She will also participate on the firm's investment committee and in the oversight of certain portfolio companies.

Patrick Sheppard will join Chicago-based William Blair & Company as chief operating officer of William Blair Investment Management, the firm’s institutional, mutual fund, and wealth management businesses, on 4 September 2007.

He will report to Michelle Seitz, head of investment management and a member of the firm's executive committee. Mr Sheppard was previously president and chief operating officer at the Boston Company Asset Management, a Mellon Financial company, where he was responsible for the firm’s operations, compliance, risk, technology, performance, and administration functions.

Citigroup Global Wealth Management has appointed a senior art advisor to its Family Office Art Advisory Service unit in New York as well as appointed three private bankers in Seattle and one senior professional in Los Angeles.

Citi appointed Jonathan Binstock, former curator of contemporary art at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, as arts advisor for its nine-person niche Family Office Art Advisory Service unit based in New York.

Reporting to Mary Hoeveler, head of the Art Advisory division, Mr Binstock will work with Citi Family Office clients with more than $25 million in assets.

Citi also added three private bankers in Seattle and one senior professional in Los Angeles.

Pankaj Nath, former Bank of America client manager in the business banking group, and Carolyn Stewart, former Wells Fargo private banker, joined Citi as vice presidents based in Seattle.

Former Merrill Lynch Private Client business manager based in New York, Joanna Morgan, joined the Citi private banking team, also in Seattle.

Francis Greco, former director and senior investment banker with Credit Suisse in Chicago, was appointed director and private banker in Los Angeles.

The Seattle trio report to Aya Hamilton, Pacific Northwest region head, while Mr Greco reports to Hale Behzadi, global market manager for Southern California.

UBS Wealth Management US has promoted Paul Santucci to Head of Field Development & Recruiting as of the end of August.

Previous roles include regional director and branch manager positions at Prudential Securities, Salomon Smith Barney and Shearson Lehman Brothers.

Merrill Lynch has hired four specialist executive compensation financial advisors from UBS to join its corporate advisory services group in San Francisco.

The four are Richard Hanson and Jim Lacey, wealth management advisor Ted Rice, and former head of national sales for UBS' corporate equity services group, Steven Cannata.

Northern Trust has boosted its wealth management group with the promotions of Ann Zeiler to senior vice president and Michael Delaney to vice president as they move to increase coverage in the northeast and Californian markets.

JPMorgan Chase has tapped Bingham Legg to appoint Hans Olsen as the chief investment officer of its New York-based private client services business.

Mr Olsen was managing director and chief investment officer of Boston-based wealth manager Bingham Legg Advisors with more than $2 billion of assets under management.

Previously he was managing director, a portfolio manager and a co-chairman of the investment strategy committee at Emerson Investment Management in Boston.

Focus Financial Partners, an independent fiduciary wealth manager, has made two important new appointments.

Richard Gill has joined as a vice president in San Francisco. Formerly at Charles Schwab, he will lead strategic efforts to support brokers in transitioning to independent advisors. In addition, Bettina Eckerle has joined as general counsel at Focus HQ in New York, overseeing all legal activities and external law firm relationships for the firm.

The PrivateBank has appointed Christina Ksoll head of Chicago's Gold Coast office which is located in Chicago's historic Palmolive Building.

Ms Ksoll, a managing director of the PrivateBank, a unit of PrivateBancorp, will be responsible for working with clients as well as the overall operation and business development of the Gold Coast office, which opened in 2005.

Prior to joining The PrivateBank, Ms Ksoll was senior vice president and a division head at Northern Trust, Chicago, where she was responsible for serving the private banking needs of business owners and real estate entrepreneurs.

Morgan Stanley Global Wealth Management has recruited four US private client financial advisors from Merrill Lynch. The bank said the four, who joined as of 17 August, are all big producers.

Brian Stevenson and Greg Barcus have joined Morgan Stanley’s wealth office in Dublin, Ohio. While Daniel Tidwell and Edward Duffy have joined Morgan Stanley's Lewes, Delaware office.

US Trust, Bank of America's wealth management arm, has appointed Karen Roses as a wealth consultant in Boston. In this role, she will be responsible for providing services to wealthy individuals and families. She moves across from Bank of America’s premier banking and investments division where she was vice president and client manager.

Stifel, Nicolaus & Co, the St Louis-based brokerage and investment bank, has appointed John Lee to lead its western expansion.

Mr Lee will serve as senior vice president and managing director and will be based out of the firm's first Private Client Group office in California, located in the city of Roseville. He joins Stifel after 21 years at broker A.G. Edwards, latterly as Pacific Coast regional director responsible for overseeing 72 offices.

BlackRock has appointed Michael Lewers as head of its US Private Client business.

Mr Lewers will have responsibility for driving sales of BlackRock investment products through national wirehouse brokers, as well as through regional broker-dealers throughout the US. He will report to Frank Porcelli, managing director and head of BlackRock's Private Client Group.

Mr Lewers joins the firm from Nuveen Investments, where he spent more than 10 years as national sales manager, distributing mutual funds, closed-end funds and separately managed accounts at large wirehouses, regional brokers and banks. He joined Nuveen in 1997 when it acquired Rittenhouse Asset Management.

First Republic Bank, the California-based private bank and wealth manager, has hired David La Velle as senior relationship manager at its Century Park East office in Los Angeles.

Mr La Velle joined from City National Bank in Los Angeles, where he was vice president and investment and trust consultant. Prior to that, he was a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch in New York.

UBS has recruited Mark Melchiorre as head of O’Connor Credit Strategies, the key hedge fund specialist within the Alternative and Quantitative Investments group.

Mr Melchiorre joins UBS from Credit Suisse Group in New York where he was a senior member of the High Yield Credit Trading group.

He will serve as a managing director focused on expanding O’Connor’s credit trading strategies.

Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown, the US Private Client Services division of Deutsche Bank Securities and Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management, has appointed Russell Smith as a vice president and client advisor in its Houston office.

Mr Smith will work closely with wealthy individuals and families in the Houston area and will report to Arthur Kieval, a director and Houston regional executive.

Mr Smith joins from Citigroup Smith Barney where he was a financial advisor. Previously, he held a similar position at Merrill Lynch.

Evelyn Dilsaver has left San Francisco-headquartered broker and advisor Charles Schwab and has been replaced as president and chief executive of Charles Schwab Investment Management by Randal Merk.

Ms Dilsaver is said by her former employers to be “evaluating other opportunities at other companies”.

Bob Harless has been appointed as director of M&I Wealth Management’s investment division.

Pennsylvania-based multi-family office Pitcairn has appointed Barbara Hauser to the boards of both Pitcairn Company and Pitcairn Trust Company as an independent director.

Ms Hauser recently joined Stanford Group Suisse as senior advisor in its Private Wealth Advisory Unit, where she works closely with ultra high net worth families in Europe, the Gulf Region, Israel, India, South America, and Asia. She previously served as the director of Family Wealth Advisory Services for Citigroup Family Office in New York.

Middle East
Ithmaar Bank announced the appointment of veteran banker Michael McKinlay as executive director, private equity, responsible for private equity investments and funds.

Mirabaud, the Geneva-based private bank, has appointed Rajiv Philip as the chief operating officer of its Gulf subsidiary at the Dubai International Financial Centre. He joins from HSBC Private Bank, where he was senior manager, compliance, for the bank’s Middle East business.

Morgan Stanley has established an equity research team in Dubai to cover the Middle East and North Africa region. The team will be led by Sean Gardiner, who has been with the firm since 2000 and currently heads up the EMEA telecom research team. He will be relocating from London to Dubai and will continue to cover EMEA telecoms. He will be joined by three new hires, all from EFG Hermes either directly or in the recent past.

Mai Attia joins Morgan Stanley from EFG as a vice-president to cover stocks in the construction, building materials and real estate sector across the MENA region, having covered the sector since July 2000.

The National Bank of Abu Dhabi has appointed Saeed Husain Al Khouri as head of its elite banking department.

In this role he will be responsible for meeting what NBAD sees as the increasing demands of high net worth customers: diversifying the services offered to them and developing new ways of meeting their private banking and investment needs.

Credit Suisse has tapped HSBC to hire Mark Idriss as head of Middle East for the Private Banking business in Zurich. He is to join with effect from 1 December 2007.

Mr Idriss was head of HSBC's Middle East and North Africa team in Zurich. He previously worked at Credit Suisse before moving to HSBC.

The team has been further bolstered by the appointment of another four relationship managers for various key markets in the Middle East. They will also be based in Zurich.