July was a busy month for moves - a new CEO for Julius Baer and the passing away of a former senior figure at EFG.

VP Bank Singapore branch appointed Thomas Jost as its head of intermediaries, a role signifying that the bank is ramping up its move into the market for external asset managers. Jost reports to Reto Marx, who is head of client business in Singapore. A Swiss national, Jost has almost 20 years of experience in the financial sector, including more than eight years in the Singapore financial centre. Previous positions include periods at Credit Suisse, Bank Julius Baer and EFG Bank AG, and VP Bank Singapore.

SANNE, the global provider of alternative asset and corporate business services, named a senior business developer director for Japan. It appointed Makoto Nagao, who has more than 35 years' experience in the financial services sector. At SMFG, Nagao was general manager in areas such as Shinjuku Corporate Business and the Equity Portfolio Department within SMBC, part of the SMFG organisation.

SANNE, named a new director and head of business development for India and Mauritius - Varounen Goinden - based in the firm's Mauritius office. With more than 12 years’ of industry experience, Goinden previously worked at the Juristax Group, where he was responsible for overseeing a portfolio of regulated entities while leading the African expansion strategy of the group. Prior to that he worked at SGG in Mauritius.

Credit Suisse appointed a new chief executive for Australia, Richard Gibb, formerly of Deutsche Bank. At Deutsche Bank, Gibb - who had been with the firm for 10 years - most recently was corporate finance head for the Asia-Pacific region, based in Hong Kong. He had held the post since 2016. Before that, he was global head of financial institutions, based in Hong Kong. In total, Gibb has more than 30 years' experience in investment banking, working in Hong Kong, Sydney and New York. His work has also included stints at Merrill Lynch, Bankers Trust and Westpac.

Xen Technologies, a blockchain-driven platform giving Asian investors the ability to tap into alternative assets such as private equity and hedge funds, named Tim Janke as its new chief financial officer. Janke is based in New York and has more than 20 years of finance expertise. Most recently, Janke was senior vice president at State Street Corporation, leading finance teams analysing trends in relationships across the managers and owners of more than $30 trillion of assets under custody and/or administration at the bank.

As the Hong Kong-based CFO of Asia for Blackstone, Janke was responsible for the finance, tax, regulatory reporting and control infrastructure. Janke began his time in Hong Kong working on Merrill Lynch’s efforts to expand its principal investing platform across Asia and, after the financial crisis, he was responsible for supporting the liquidation of Bank of America’s principal investments around the region. He joined Deloitte & Touche’s international tax practice in Chicago after graduating from Marquette University in Milwaukee. He passed the Certified Public Accountant examination in Illinois and served a wide variety of clients in complex financial litigation matters as part of Deloitte’s Financial Advisory Services practice before relocating to New York City in 2004.

Wealth software firm Finantix appointed IT and business veteran Haruka Homma as country manager for Japan and South Korea to meet the region’s appetite for digital wealth tools. Homma joined Finantix from senior IT posts at IBM, Nucleus Software Exports, Microsoft and Temenos. He also has direct banking experience from management roles at Merrill Lynch, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Fujisoft and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.

Global market index organisation MSCI appointed Chitra Hepburn as head of environmental, social and governance client coverage for Asia-Pacific. Hepburn is based in Shanghai, and reports to Jack Lin, head of APAC client coverage at MSCI. Most recently Hepburn was a managing director at ESG Global, a post she held since February 2017. Prior to this, she was Greater China head of Sustainability, Corporate Communications and CSR for Bayer, across the three divisions of Pharmaceuticals, Crop Science and Consumer Care. Earlier in her career she worked at WestLB, Deutsche Bank and Adelphi Capital Partners.

JP Morgan Asset Management appointed Nick Kim as exchange traded-fund specialist at its Asia Beta Strategies team, with a focus on Asia ETFs. Prior to this, Kim worked at Mirae Asset Global Investment, where he served as global ETF sales vice president. He is based in Hong Kong and reports to Sean Cunningham, head of Asia ETFs at JP Morgan Asset Management.

EFG made four hires for its Singapore branch, including the role of head of the Southeast Asia team. The appointed senior figures were Jennie Hananto, head of Southeast Asia team; Karen Siah, client relationship officer; Leo Yunn Miin, client relationship officer in the independent asset management team; and Nenni Angela as a client relationship officer.

Hananto reports to Oliver Balmelli, deputy CEO and head of private banking, Singapore. She has more than 30 years of experience in the finance industry, including two decades in the area of private banking. Prior to joining EFG, she served as vice chair for Southeast Asia for client advisory at Bank J Safra Sarasin. Siah has more than 15 years of wealth management experience from UOB Private Bank and DBS Bank. Leo Yunn Miin has more than a decade of banking experience and previously worked as an account manager in the financial intermediaries Asia-Pacific area at UBS. Prior to that, she performed several roles at Credit Suisse, including serving as an investment consultant in the external asset managers department. Angela has almost 30 years of industry experience, including 20 years in private banking. She most recently served as director for client avisory at Bank J Safra Sarasin.

The former chief executive of EFG International, Joachim Straehle, who retired at the end of 2017, died at the age of 60. A prominent figure in the Swiss and international private banking world, Straehle became CEO at Zurich-listed EFG International in 2015, and retired at the end of 2017. He was also chief executive of Bank Sarasin & Cie and head of private banking international at Credit Suisse, as well as having spells at UBS and Julius Baer.

Pictet Wealth Management recruited Jeff See in Hong Kong as its north Asia chief operating officer. See, who was previously a senior advisor at Synpulse, also worked at Union Bancaire Privee and Coutts.

PremiaLab, a fintech platform based in Hong Kong and Paris, appointed former top-ranking Societe Generale figure Daniel Fields as a senior advisor to lead its development in the US market. Fields served as the head of global markets at Societe Generale from early 2012 to April 2016, as well as being global head of trading at the French banking group. In all, Field has more than 25 years' experience of working in capital markets and corporate strategy.

Quilter-owned advice firm AAM Advisory added two senior hires to bolster advisory services in Singapore. David MacDonald took on a newly-created post as head of business development and Karen Tan joined as head of business and advisor support.

MacDonald began his career in banking before moving on to lead teams of wealth managers for large financial services groups in the UK. He launched his own consultancy in 2001 working with a variety of global clients to coach and train client-facing sales teams. Tan moved from operations head at Meyado Private Wealth Management in Singapore and before that was assistant director at International Financial Services.

Värde Partners, the $14 billion alternative investment house founded in 1993, appointed Ilfryn Carstairs as co-chief executive, working alongside George Hicks, the co-founder and co-CEO. Carstairs is a partner and co-chief investment officer at the firm and retains the CIO slot. He joined the firm in London 12 years ago and has worked from Singapore since 2017.

Jeffries, the US investment banking house that includes wealth management in its offerings, appointed Jonathan Stone as its Asia chairman. Stone, based in Hong Kong, concentrates on the firm’s “major relationships for investment banking and trading throughout Asia”. Prior to joining Jefferies, Stone spent over three decades at CLSA Ltd, where he was chairman and chief executive. He oversaw CLSA's global operations of broking, investment banking, asset management, research and sales.

Among recent Asia-based hires, Jefferies named Christopher Wood as global head of equity strategy. A global micro-strategy research team also joined, including 20-year veteran Desh Peramunetilleke as head of MicroStrategy Product. These recent hires also came from CLSA and will be based in Hong Kong.

BNP Paribas hired former Natixis executive Chaoni Huang to head sustainable capital markets in the region. In the newly-created role, Huang manages BNP Paribas’ sustainable finance business for corporates and financial institutions, with a focus on asset finance and securitization. She is based in Hong Kong and reports to Liang Si, head of DCM & Syndicate, Global Markets, Asia-Pacific at BNP Paribas.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management, or SMTAM, appointed Kenji Soejima as portfolio manager for its Japan Small Cap Strategy. Based in Tokyo, Soejima works cross SMTAM’s small cap funds as part of the team led by chief portfolio manager Satoshi Marui. Prior to joining SMTAM, Soejima was a small-caps portfolio manager in Japan for seven years.

Bank of China (Hong Kong) elevated its vice chairman, Liu Liange, to the post of chairman. Liu has been an executive director of BOC since October last year, the president of BOC from August 2018 to June 2019, and the president of Shanghai RMB Trading Unit of BOC since October 2018.

A recent joint venture, Purple Asset Management, named former Bank of Singapore chief investment officer Johan Jooste as a managing director. Jooste, who most recently was head of rates at BoS, reports to Purple’s chief executive, Gary Dugan. Jooste serves ultra-high net worth clients and family offices, and provides financial market research. He worked with Dugan before, having been head of fixed income for Merrill Lynch Wealth Management in London when Dugan was chief investment officer at MLWM.

Pictet Asset Management appointed Junjie Watkins as chief executive for Asia (excluding Japan), filling the role vacated by Amy Cho, who left the firm last November to head up Hong Kong business for Schroders. Based in Hong Kong, Watkins joined from TCW Asia, where she was head of investment solutions for Asia. Before that, she headed investment solutions for Greater China at Neuberger Berman Asia.