A round-up of executive moves in the global wealth management sector during January 2021.

UK and Europe    
Banque Cantonale Vaudoise named a new chair of its board of directors. The Vaud Cantonal Government appointed Eftychia Fischer to the post, replacing Jacques de Watteville, who had been chairman since 2018. 

Fischer, who already serves on BCV’s board, has extensive experience in banking and finance. After graduating with a BSc in physics from Imperial College London, Fischer began her career in 1986 as an interest-rate derivatives trader at Societe Generale Strauss Turnbull in London. She then held managerial positions at firms in Paris and Zurich, including JP Morgan & Co, Julius Baer, and EFG International. In 2010, she joined UBP as the head of the treasury and trading division. 

BlackRock named West Lockhart as Europe, Middle East and Africa head of BAS Wealth, its alternative investments specialist business. Lockhart, who joined BlackRock Alternatives Specialists to lead the private market strategy in the EMEA segment, has a background in the wealth and family offices space, having served in a variety of roles at the world’s largest asset management firm. Lockhart joined BlackRock in 2007 and was named managing director in 2010.

Richard Luddington was named senior advisor at Rothschild & Co. Based in the UK, he advises clients across the firm’s global advisory division, primarily focused on sovereign and quasi-sovereign clients in the CEE and EMEA regions. Luddington spent 30 years in the industry, the last seven as vice chairman of global capital markets at Morgan Stanley. Prior to that he held leadership posts in emerging markets, capital debt and sovereign advisory at JP Morgan and UBS.

Global technology provider Finantix made two hires to meet European growth demands. Guillaume Namur joined as delivery product manager and Fabien Guy joined as a senior project manager; both are based in Geneva.

Namur began his career with a global professional services firm in Paris, before moving into software products working with a number of African banks. He was most recently head of digital platforms at HSBC Private Banking, where he focused on delivering staff portals, client websites, and providing client lifecycle management. Guy began his career with former Deutsche Bank-owned Alex Brown, followed by front- and middle-office roles at Merrill Lynch. He moved from HSBC.

Momentum Global Investment Management appointed Andrew Hardy as director for investment management. Hardy assumes full oversight of MGIM’s UK investment team and is responsible for managing relationships with key clients and partners. Hardy had worked at MGIM in London since 2005. He was co-head of research for the last five years and a portfolio manager for more than 10 years. 

Stonehage Fleming, the multi-family office, appointed Steven Brown as director of group business development. He is responsible for leading the distribution of the firm’s flagship Global Best Ideas Equity fund into the UK wholesale market. Based in London, Brown reports to Andrew Clarke, group head of business development, and works with Gerrit Smit, the fund manager and his team. Previously, Brown was a wholesale and discretionary sales director at Merian Global Investors. Before that, he worked at RBS, and started his career at M&G Investments and Principal Global Investors.

LGT, the Liechtenstein-based bank, appointed Roland Matt as chief executive of LGT Bank Ltd and member of the senior management board of LGT Private Banking. He was slated to take over from Roland Schubert, who was appointed as a new member of the board of directors of LGT Bank Ltd, taking effect from the start of 2022.

Carmignac, the French asset manager, appointed Abdellah Bouziane as global head of compliance, leading this function in the seven countries where the firm operates. Prior to this, Bouziane spent 13 years with AXA Investment Managers in various senior compliance roles, including head of compliance for the UK subsidiary and for the Asia-Pacific region. He began his career in 2003 as an auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers. He also holds a master’s degree in economy and law of banking and finance.

BMO-GAM appointed environmental heavyweight Dr Ben Caldecott to join its Responsible Investment Advisory Council to further the group’s net-zero investment aims. The council's president is the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.

Caldecott is well known in academic circles as a environmental, energy and sustainability specialist. He is founding director of the Oxford Sustainable Finance Programme at the University of Oxford and founded and co-chairs the Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment (GRASFI), and alliance of global research universities promoting green finance research.

Standard Life Aberdeen added three personnel to bolster its investments, advisor and personal (savings and wealth) business divisions. In other moves, Chris Demetriou widened his remit to lead the investments business across the UK, EMEA and the Americas. He took over responsibilities in April from Gary Marshall, who was due to retire later in 2021. David Mouille joined the corporate development team, reporting to James Aird; and Julie Scott, CEO of 1825 and interim lead for the Personal business, left to become chief customer officer at Royal London.

Newton Investment Management, which is part of BNY Mellon Investment Management, named Ami Shah as UK equity income portfolio manager. Shah joined Newton at the start of January and, subject to certification, he is co-lead manager of the Newton UK Equity Income strategy and the BNY Mellon UK Income fund. Prior to this, Shah was a portfolio manager and research analyst at Wellington Management. He was a member of the Wellington’s value team, which has responsibility for managing about $65 billion for institutional clients across a broad range of income and value equity mandates.

Butterfield Group appointed Amy Glover, based in London, as vice president, strategic relationships for group trust. Glover was most recently the global director of private clients for ALM/Legal Week, where she was responsible for the management of the private client intermediary network and played a major role in its Global Elite Membership Club.

Zurich-based IHAG Privatbank named former Falcon Private Bank chief executive Martin Keller as its CEO, and widened its board of directors. Keller took over from Daniel Lipp, who left IHAG Privatbank. Keller joined from an institution that shut its doors last year. IHAG Privatbank also expanded its board with Marianne Müller, member of the executive board of SWA Swiss Auditors, and Christoph Mauchle, most recently a member of the group management of Liechtenstein-based VP Bank.

Brewin Dolphin appointed Davina Rich as the new head of research and Guy Foster as chief strategist. Rich joined Brewin Dolphin’s West End office in 2019 as investment director. Foster moved from head of research to lead the Investment Solutions team which drives asset allocation for the firm and leverages the research team’s output to build investment strategies. Brown Shipley also appointed Rehana Hasan as head of legal. Based in London, Hasan reports to Rachel Macfarlane, group head of legal, and to Alan Mathewson, Brown Shipley CEO. Prior to this, Hasan was at Tilney, where she spent eight years as group general counsel and company secretary. She played a significant role in the company, including recently advising on its merger with Smith & Williamson. Previously, she was group general counsel at Towry, prior to its merger with Tilney. Before Towry, she served in legal roles at WorldSpreads and at Duke Street Private Equity.

Netwealth, a “challenger” wealth manager, named a longstanding figure in the asset management sector, Edward Bonham Carter, as its chairman. With a career including more than 25 years at Jupiter Fund Management, culminating in seven years as group chief executive and six years as vice chairman, Bonham Carter served on Netwealth’s board of directors for three years as a non-executive director. He is a client of and investor in the business. He is also an independent director of Land Securities Group and ITV alongside other advisory and leadership roles.

Edinburgh-based Saracen Fund Managers appointed former Investec manager David Taylor in a new role as business intelligence manager to help build clients. Reporting to CEO Graham Campbell, Taylor’s primary focus is on applying data-driven approaches to client relationship management, communications and operations. He previously spent seven years as an investment manager at Investec Wealth & Investment, also in Edinburgh. Before that, he was part of a quant team at UBS Global Asset Management in New York.

Law firm Kingsley Napley appointed two new partners: Christina Kelly and Michael Mulligan joined the firm as partners in the Corporate and Commercial and Dispute Resolution teams respectively.

Kelly, who joined from Taylor Wessing, specialises in real estate finance, acting for lenders (bank and non-bank, at senior and mezzanine levels) and borrowers, including REITs and high net worth family offices. Mulligan, who joined from Shakespeare Martineau, specialises in contentious insolvency and commercial litigation covering corporate recovery, bankruptcy, fraud and enforcement.

RBC Wealth Management promoted Gail McCourt to head private client fiduciary services for its British Isles business based in Jersey. McCourt took on an expanded role leading the fiduciary and technical trust teams, reporting to RBC Europe chief Dave Thomas. She started her career at RBC in 2003. For the past four years, she was in charge of fiduciary management.

Global services group IQ-EQ promoted Frederique Meyer as deputy managing director of its Switzerland business. Based in Zurich, Mayer joined the group’s private wealth division in 2014 as a director. Her role involved leading private wealth growth across IQ-EQ’s Geneva and Zurich offices and sitting on the group’s Swiss board. She has spent two decades in the private wealth sector, including six years with Rothschild & Co and three years as partner of a multi-family office.

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Hawksford, the corporate, private client and funds business, named Richard Summerfield as chief people officer. Summerfield has strategic and operational responsibility for Hawksford’s people management and all related human resources activities for nearly 450 colleagues across Europe and Asia. He was most recently chief people officer at Ocorian and a member of its executive board. He is a founding council member of the Jersey Good Business Charter and has held a number of business advisory positions throughout his career.

Fletcher Day expanded its family division, adding five new partners in London and one in Manchester, bringing the number of partners in the team to seven. Siobhan Lomasney, Shameela Ahmed, Caroline Ford, Emma Nash, and Ashleigh Spencer joined the London team, and Anita Shepherd joined in Manchester as part of expansion plans for the North West.

Rothschild & Co appointed Warwick Newbury as a non-executive director to the board of its UK wealth management business (Rothschild & Co Wealth Management (UK) Ltd). Newbury has more than five decades of experience in the wealth management industry, both in the UK and Switzerland, having held a number of senior positions including head of Coutts Private Banking, CEO of the SG Hambros Group (now Kleinwort Hambros) and, most recently, chairman of Sandaire.

Impax Asset Management appointed Sean Maguire as a managing director in its equity/infrastructure team, reporting in London to team head and managing director, Carsten Johansen. Macquire’s primary focus is sourcing and closing new investment opportunities in the renewable energy sector. He spent more than a decade in renewables having worked for European developers and utilities focusing on M&A, debt raising and PPA structuring.

Baillie Gifford, the investment firm, appointed Kirsty Gibson as co-manager of its £808 million Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust. He joined Gary Robinson on the fund. Co-manager Helen Xiong, who joined Baillie Gifford’s Global Alpha team last year, stepped down from the trust. Gibson joined Baillie Gifford in 2012 and is an investment manager in the US equities team as well as co-manager of the open-ended Baillie Gifford American Fund.

Brown Shipley appointed Philipp Iarmaltchouk as head of its UK financial intermediaries market in a newly-created role. Larmaltchouk is in charge of establishing a UK desk as part of the wider Quintet Private Bank offering led by FIM group head Stephan Matti. He was previously a director at Julius Baer International, where he was responsible for business development for intermediaries across the UK and Europe. Brown Shipley also appointed Sam Fearon as a client advisor based in its Manchester branch. He reports to Jon Sherlock, client director in Manchester. Fearon joined from HSBC Private Bank where he was most recently a director of its North West private banking business. 

International corporate investigations firm Black Cube appointed Adrian Leppard to join its strategic advisory board. Leppard served for 32 years as a police officer, completing his career in 2016 as the Commissioner of the City of London Police. Leppard, who received the Queen’s Police Medal in 2012 and was appointed CBE in 2016, was the national UK policing lead for cyber and economic crime for five years. 

UK-based wealth manager JM Finn appointed Bill Tibbits as an investment manager, having previously worked at Investec, where he spent the previous nine years. His appointment marked a return – Tibbits started his investment management career at JM Finn in 2004, before joining Singer and Friedlander. Tibbits is based in JM Finn’s Winchester office, where he reports to investment director, Simon Tufnell.
 

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HSBC made three senior appointments in its wealth and personal banking unit. Willem Sels was appointed global chief investment officer, private banking and wealth management, while Jan-Marc Fergg was made global head of wealth products, environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing and mutual funds, and Patrick Boumalham took on the role of global head of ultra-high net worth solutions. Sels chairs the global investment committee and has functional oversight of all market strategists, content experts and asset allocation specialists globally within private banking and wealth management. Since joining HSBC in 2009, Sels was a fixed income strategist and the global chief market strategist for private banking, a role he served in for the past five years. Prior to HSBC, he was global head of credit strategy at Dresdner Kleinwort and spent seven years at Goldman Sachs in fixed income, economics and commodities research. 

Jan-Marc Fergg is responsible for the products distributed to clients in the bank’s Jade, Premier and Personal banking segments, as well as leading the teams working on funds and ETFs for wealth management and private banking. Before HSBC, Fergg spent 20 years at UBS in a variety of senior roles.

Boumalham is responsible for managing a dedicated team of regional UHNW specialists across public and private markets. He was global head of markets products within the private bank since 2017, having joined HSBC Global Markets in 2005 and subsequently serving in senior Investment Solutions Sales roles covering markets across the UK and Europe.

Global wealth firm Hawksford appointed Brian Balleine as director of private client services. Based at the firm’s headquarters in Jersey, he focuses on developing relationships with intermediaries globally to expand overall cross-border business. Balleine was most recently regional head of Butterfield’s Asia trust business based in Singapore.

Vontobel added four people to its emerging markets fixed income team. 

Carlos de Sousa joined as emerging markets strategist and portfolio manager in Zurich. The emerging markets economist was previously at global forecasting and consultancy Oxford Economics, where he was responsible for thematic macro and strategy research on EM and frontier markets with a focus on distressed sovereigns and global-wide EM trends. 

Nuria Jorba Arimany joined as research analyst in Zurich, with a background in emerging markets corporate bonds. She previously spent 10 years at Union Bancaire Privée in Zurich, where she was head of EM corporate credit research. She also spent time at Dresdner Kleinwort/Commerzbank in London.

Cosmo Zhang joined as research analyst in Hong Kong. With a background in APAC corporate credit, Zhang previously spent five years with Invesco Asset Management, where he led analysts covering Asia ex-Japan corporate credits for Invesco’s global fixed income teams. 

Pius Yang Xue joined as a second research analyst in Hong Kong. He moved from Dymon Asia, where he was a senior investment analyst focused on Greater China high yield, and stressed and distressed credit. He gained experience in advisory and credit and equity investments at Hong Kong-based LIM Advisors, Partners Group, and Houlihan Lokey.

Quintet Private Bank named a former UBS senior figure, Eli Leenaars, as group chief operating officer. Leenars, who replaced Colin Price, oversees functions including operations, IT, corporate communications, marketing and real estate. Leenaars, a Dutch national, previously worked for nearly a quarter-century at ING Group, where he became a member of the executive board of ING Group, ING Bank and ING Insurance. 

Veteran lawyer Charles Martin was named senior advisor at Rothschild & Co. Based in the UK, he provides strategic counsel and advises clients across the firm’s global advisory and wealth management divisions. He spent close to four decades as an M&A lawyer at Macfarlanes, with the last 12 years as senior partner.

Waverton Investment Management appointed industry veteran Seb Dovey as a non-executive director. Dovey co-founded wealth management consultancy Scorpio Partnership, which was acquired by global financial group AON in 2014. He also maintains board roles at firms in the US and Europe, including at F2 Strategy, FiComm, and Moneyhub.

Global family office Stonehage Fleming appointed Andrew Clarke as group head of business development. Based in London, he reports to group CEO Chris Merry. Clarke was most recently executive director in London for XY, an international group specialising in consulting services and managing large estates for ultra-high net worth multigenerational families.

Standard Chartered drew from its own ranks to name Steve Brice as chief executive of its wealth management business. He replaced Alexis Calla, who left the bank. Brice’s previous Standard Chartered roles included chief economist (Southeast Asia), head of research (Middle East and South Asia) and head of global markets (Southern Africa). Based in Singapore, Brice is originally from the UK, but has lived in Asia, Africa and the Middle East for the past 20 plus years.

London law firm, Payne Hicks Beach appointed Nick Manners as a partner in its family department. Manners, who joined on qualification in 2010 having completed his training contract with the firm, rapidly progressed to partner level. 

Rothschild & Co appointed Andrei Brougham and Alvaro Rosado to join its global advisory business in London as managing director and director respectively. Brougham and Rosado formed part of a specialist team within equity advisory focusing on sponsor-led secondaries transactions. Brougham and Rosado, were previously part of the secondaries team at PTJ Parkhill. 

Investor services group IQ-EQ appointed Chris Marsden as its new group general counsel and member of the executive leadership team. Marsden, who qualified as a solicitor in 2005, holds a degree in modern history and a postgraduate diploma in legal practice from the University of Oxford. He started his professional life practising at Hogan Lovells before joining Clifford Chance, where he worked with financial institutions and private equity firms on M&A and corporate transactions in the financial services sector. Prior to joining IQ-EQ, Marsden was general counsel, EMEA for Link Group, where he was responsible for the management of the cross-border legal team, secretariat and insurance arrangements.  

A former senior private banking figure at Barclays, Salman Haider, joined Habib Bank AG Zurich as its chief executive. Haider is based in Dubai. Haider's previous role - from July 2019 to January 2021 - was managing director, regional head for global growth markets (Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia), at the private banking arm of Barclays. Before this, he was MD, head of the UK consumer bank and international and personal banking for Europe, Middle East and Asia, at Citigroup. Prior to joining the US firm in 2015, he worked for four years as MD, head of Southeast Asia private wealth management, at JP Morgan.

 

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Newton Investment Management appointed Euan Munro as its chief executive officer. Munro reports to Hanneke Smits, CEO of BNY Mellon Investment Management. Munro, whose investment career spans three decades, was most recently CEO of Aviva Investors and a member of the global executive committee for seven years. Prior to this, he was head of global multi-asset and fixed interest investing at Standard Life Investments.

River and Mercantile Group appointed one of the UK’s most prominent asset management industry figures, Martin Gilbert, to its board as deputy chairman. Gilbert is also chairman of digital bank Revolut and senior independent director at Glencore, the commodity trading and mining company, and is chairman of Toscafund, the asset manager. Gilbert was a co-founder and chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management, which became a major UK and international business. 

CFA Institute, the global association of investment management professionals, named Lutfey Siddiqi, CFA, managing director, regions and society relations. Siddiqi reports to Margaret Franklin, CFA, president and CEO. Initially, he will be based in Singapore. Siddiqi is a visiting professor-in-practice at the London School of Economics and Political Science and an adjunct professor at the National University of Singapore, specialising in risk management. 

London-based Asset Value Investors named Makiko Shimada as investment analyst to support the company’s research and engagement efforts in Japan. Prior to this, Shimada worked at Goldman Sachs, where she was a member of the advisory group in its investment banking division in Tokyo for more than three years. She holds a BA in economics from the University of Tokyo.

Aegon Asset Management appointed Lindsay Hudson as head of inclusion and diversity. She also joined the company’s senior management team. The UK-based role carries global responsibility for inclusion and diversity across Aegon AM, with Hudson reporting to chief risk and compliance officer Jane Daniel. Hudsom was formerly EMEA head of diversity and inclusion at Invesco, establishing the firm’s I&D programme. Before that, she was Invesco’s EMEA operations governance.

Offshore law firm Harneys named Henry Mander as the new global practice head of trusts and private client litigation. It also appointed team members John McCarroll and Chris Pease as partners, and promoted several figures to the status of counsel.

Mander leads the firm’s British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands trusts practice. McCarroll, who is a member of the BVI litigation team, has been a silk since 2013, specialises in advocacy. He acts and advises in all areas of commercial work with a particular emphasis on shareholder disputes, restructuring, trusts, fraud and asset recovery.

Harneys promoted seven personnel to counsel: Kimberly Crabbe-Adams, Sonia Hamshaw, Valentina Hadjisoteriou, Marcia McFarlane, James Smith, Sarah Thompson, and Carolynn Vivian.

Hamburg-based investment bank Berenberg hired two senior bankers in its investment banking division for continental Europe. Dominik Bär joined as head of DACH Investment Banking, and Andreas Franzen joined as head of ECM execution and structuring in Continental Europe. Bär was most recently managing director for the DACH region at US investment bank Lazard, advising corporates on IPOs, capital increases, block placings and M&As. Franzen joined from Deutsche Bank, where he was a director in the equity capital market division.

The daughter and son-in-law of Robert Vrijhof - founder of Switzerland-based wealth management house, WHVP, took over the business. WHVP, which is also registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, specialises in serving US clients. Jamie Vrijhof-Droese and Urs Vrijhof-Droese took the helm.

The Financial Conduct Authority appointed Quilter chief executive Paul Feeney as the chair of its independent Practitioner Panel. Feeney took up the post and succeeded Tulsi Naidu, CEO of Zurich UK, who has been a member of the panel since 2015. Feeney was appointed as CEO of Quilter (previously Old Mutual Wealth) in August 2012. He was CEO of asset management, long-term savings, after joining Old Mutual in January 2012.

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North America
Advisor360°, a provider of an integrated suite of productivity tools for advisors, clients, and broker-dealers, appointed Chris Ollendike as senior vice president of sales. Ollendike has more than 20 years of experience providing bank trusts, broker-dealers, and registered investment advisors with wealthtech solutions, ideas and strategies. His most recent position as executive vice president, director of sales was at InvestEdge, which was sold to Featheringill Capital in 2020. Prior to that role, Ollendike co-founded FolioDynamix, a sales-focused software-as-a-service provider of investment management programs and wealth management platform solutions. (FolioDynamix was sold to Actua Corporation in 2014.)

CFA Institute appointed two new managing directors to join the leadership team. Paul Andrews was named managing director of research, advocacy and standards and Barbara Petitt was been named managing director of professional learning. Both report to CFA president and CEO Margaret Franklin.

Chilton Trust appointed Thomas Walsh as senior vice president of the Naples and Southwest Florida region. 

Walsh has worked for nearly 20 years with wealth management clients. Most recently, he served as a principal and senior client advisor at Bessemer Trust. He began his career with an investment focus as a portfolio analyst with a Sarasota-based RIA. Walsh holds a master of science in finance from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and a bachelor of science in finance from the Lutgert College of Business at Florida Gulf Coast University.

Touchstone Investments, a mutual fund company, promoted Mary T Mock to senior vice president and head of distribution. Mock started her career at Western & Southern Financial Group (Touchstone's parent company) in 2004 as director of corporate recruiting. In 2006, she began her tenure at Touchstone Investments, a member of Western & Southern. She led sales teams as sales desk manager and regional vice president before serving as divisional vice president. In this latest role, Mock led mutual funds distribution within wirehouse, regional, bank and independent channels in the South division.

UBS hired Lynn Hunter, a market administrative officer to lead business administration, financial management, talent development and operations across eight UBS branches in San Diego, California. Hunter has experience as vice president and business service manager with Morgan Stanley and as vice president and business initiatives manager for California with Wells Fargo Private Bank.

Icon Wealth Partners, a privately-held wealth advisor business based in Houston, Texas, appointed two senior figures. Brooks McGee and James Pavlik joined Icon as managing partners from Houston-based RIA Avalon Advisors, where they were both managing directors. Joining McGee and Pavlik are Allison McKibbon, senior client relationship manager and Jack Wiesen, senior investment analyst.

Julius Baer recruited six new relationship managers for the Hispanic American market. These hires formed a new team, based in Zurich, under the lead of Philipp Frischknecht; they report to Andrea Cuomo, sub-region head for Hispanic America (HISPA).

Frischknecht joined from Credit Suisse, where he headed the private banking international segment for Latin America. He was responsible for a team of about 15 RMs covering 10 countries in the region. He brings 15 years of experience in the private banking industry.

Rodolfo Lizárraga Delgado, senior RM, brings 12 years of private banking experience. He joined from BBVA in Zurich, where he was a team head. Ricardo Amorin, who has two decades of banking experience, was formerly at Credit Suisse. Jürgen Ritz, who also joined from Credit Suisse, has 10 years of banking experience. Horacio Ruiz Moreno is an experienced banker and wealth manager who previously worked at Credit Suisse and Banco de Galicia y Buenos Aires SA. Alejandro Moreno Basols, who joined from Credit Suisse, also worked at BBVA and Edmond de Rothschild.

EisnerAmper appointed Susan N Dupuis as a principal in its personal wealth advisors group. Dupuis has more than 20 years of experience providing tax consulting and compliance services to high net worth individuals, trusts and estates, private foundations and closely held businesses. Dupuis previously built and managed her own boutique practice. Prior to joining EisnerAmper, she served as a tax partner for a national accounting firm in Boston. 

Concurrent, a partnership of advisors affiliated with Raymond James Financial Services, appointed two teams in Kentucky. Tracy Thacker, head of Thacker Wealth and Retirement, and his team comprising Tammy Duncan, Penney Brooks, and Debra Thacker joined the Concurrent network. They were formerly with Edward Jones and hold $259 million in assets under management. Thacker is a native of Owensboro with more than three decades of experience in retirement, estate and financial planning, as well as portfolio and risk management. 

Brian Shapiro, former chief strategy officer at Private Client Resources, created a new business, Altstmark. The business is a software-as-a-service solution aimed at removing inefficiencies within private capital markets management and reporting. The firm is targeting private banks, investors, trust companies and wealth advisors. Shapiro was CSO at Private Client Resources from September 2017 to September 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile. He was also an operating partner and advisor, private equity and real estate fund services, for NES Financial. 

Aaron Wealth Advisors appointed Jennifer Barry as an investment advisor, managing director in Chicago responsible for providing comprehensive wealth management services to individuals, families, and related institutions. Barry previously had a 26-year career at Citigroup where she was a regional sales manager/MD for institutional equity sales in Chicago. Prior to her management role in Chicago, Barry was a senior sales producer in the Citi Boston office from 1997 to 2009.  She was a financial analyst at Salomon Brothers in High Yield Capital Markets from 1994 to 1996.

Sanctuary Wealth welcomed a new wealth management firm, Alluvial Private Wealth, to its embrace. The business, based in Marion, Ohio, and led by Lars Olson, oversees $435 million in client assets under management. In addition to Olson, the team includes his wealth advisor partners Manoj Sharma and Lisa Bush, both of whom worked with the Olson Vincent Sharma Group in Merrill Lynch’s Marion, Ohio office. Alluvial Wealth also has three wealth associates: Brooke Olson, Julie Webster, and David Olson, the last being Lars’ father and a Merrill Lynch veteran who came out of retirement to work with the team.

Prior to launching Alluvial Private Wealth, Olson spent 26 years with Merrill Lynch, rising to the position of wealth management advisor, senior vice president. He became a Certified Financial Planner™ in 2004 and has continued his professional education and earning certifications throughout his career. 

Wealthspire Advisors, the investment advisor, named Jim DeCarlo as its chief strategic growth officer. This was a newly-created role. DeCarlo, based in Fulton, Maryland, reports to Wealthspire chief executive, Mike LaMena.

Argent Financial Group, the US group operating across much of the southern states of the US, appointed Jason Farrington as creative director. Farrington is responsible for maintaining brand standards and design work that in the past required businesses to use outside vendors. 

Bank of New York Mellon Wealth Management, overseeing $265 billion of assets under management, named Charmaine Tang as senior client strategist, in Dallas, Texas. She reports to regional president, Todd Carlton.

Tang has 25 years of industry experience. Most recently, she was an executive director with JP Morgan Private Bank and the philanthropic market executive for the Central and West regions at Bank of America Private Bank. Prior to that, she was an equity analyst at Citi Investment Research and an investment banker at Morgan Stanley.

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Schechter Investment Advisors, an independent registered investment advisor and private capital firm, added Alan Slaughter as director of investment services. Slaughter, a senior investment services professional with more than 14 years of experience in family office service and asset management, served in several roles with investment advisor firms in the Boston area, including Via Global Advisors, Merrill Lynch, Lake Street Advisors, and Athena Capital Advisors.

Thrivent, the US financial services group, named two senior figures within its advisory and wealth management businesses. It appointed Nikki Sorum as senior vice president of Thrivent Advisors and Luke Winskowski as senior vice president of Advice and Wealth Management. Previously, Sorum was senior vice president of membership and served in several key field and marketing leadership roles at Thrivent. Winskowski leads the newly-created advice and wealth management organization. Winskowski was previously vice president and head of the Thrivent Advisor Network, Thrivent’s platform for independent investment advisors, which he will continue to oversee.

Fiduciary Trust International appointed Miles Powell as regional managing director and senior relationship manager, based in Washington, DC. Powell, who reports to Lawrence Sternkopf, also oversees Fiduciary Trust International’s office in Arlington, Virginia. He came from Wells Fargo Private Bank in McLean, Virginia, where he served as managing director and senior director of investment and fiduciary services for more than a decade. In that role, Powell was responsible for the performance of the firm’s investment and fiduciary business in the mid-Atlantic region. 

Christian Mitchell joined The Holdsworth Group as a managing partner to lead a new consulting and advisory practice at the Pasadena California-based investment firm. Mitchell spent 40 years in global professional services on the corporate, government and non-profit side, advising on governance and finance, capital markets and mergers and acquisitions. 

Raymond James brought on board advisors Randy Campbell, Eric A Johnson, Mason McGiboney and Stacy Womack to its independent advisor channel. The group is based in Franklin, Tennessee.

The team, which includes registered client service associate Elizabeth “Beth” Wood, operates as Campbell Johnson McGiboney Wealth Advisors. Campbell, the original founder of the team’s practice, has more than three decades of industry experience, beginning his career with The Robinson Humphrey Company, which through mergers and name changes evolved as Morgan Stanley. Johnson, director and senior portfolio manager at CJMWA and RJFS financial advisor, has been in the industry for more than 23 years, with experience at Smith Barney/Morgan Stanley. He and Campbell formed their business partnership and began working together as a team in 1996. 

McGiboney, director at CJMWA and RJFS financial advisor, began his financial services career in 2014 after graduating with a degree in finance from Tennessee Technological University. Prior to joining Raymond James, he worked with the team at Morgan Stanley. Womack, director of retirement plans at CJMWA and RJFS financial advisor, joined the team in 2016 and brings over 25 years of hands-on experience in the corporate retirement plan industry. He is a member of the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries and the National Association of Plan Advisors. Wood started her career in financial services over 18 years ago. Throughout her career, she has served in various roles, from back office to branch support.

Sheila Patel, chairman of Goldman Sachs Group’s asset-management unit, left the division after almost two decades at the firm. She is stepping down from the partnership and will become an advisory director this year.
 

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Asia-Pacific
BNP Paribas appointed former Standard Chartered senior figure Michael Yong-Haron as head of wealth management for North Asia and chief executive and CEO for wealth management in Hong Kong.

 

Yong-Haron worked at Standard Chartered for more than four years as managing director at the private bank in Hong Kong. He was at StanChart from August 2016 until January this year. Prior to this, he was regional head of wealth management, north Asia, at Royal Bank of Canada and before that, a managing director at Credit Suisse. He was also an RM at Credit Agricole Indosuez in Hong Kong.

Allianz Global Investors appointed Leo Shen and Zheng Wang as head of fund management business, China, and portfolio manager at Allianz Global Investors Asset Management (Shanghai), respectively. 

Shen leads the strategic effort to establish AllianzGI’s onshore fund management business in China and is responsible for the overall management of this business. Wang concentrates on managing onshore multi-asset investments in China. Shen has extensive network and management experience in China’s financial industry with more than 15 years working in asset management and investment consulting. He joined AllianzGI from Mercer where he was China wealth and investment business leader. Wang has more than 12 years of investment and research experience. He joined AllianzGI from Mirae Asset Investment Management (Shanghai) where he was a portfolio manager with responsibility for investments in China.

Eurizon, the asset management company of Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo Group, appointed Dickson Man as head of Asia distribution. Based in Hong Kong, he reports to Sean Debow, CEO of Eurizon Capital Asia. The role is a new one for the firm. Dickson brought eight years’ experience in the asset management industry at T Rowe Price, BlackRock and NinetyOne, servicing clients across Asia. Before that, he spent over five years at global consumer brands.

Investor services group IQ-EQ built a real estate team in Asia. Neil Synnott relocated to Singapore and following that appointed team manager Denish Leang. Synnott joined IQ-EQ Luxembourg in 2017 and moved to Singapore at the end of 2020. With more than 15 years’ international financial services experience and a specialism in real estate funds, he holds responsibility for a complex portfolio of international real estate and private equity clients. Leang handles day-to-day servicing of IQ-EQ Singapore’s real estate fund clients. Prior to joining the firm, Leang was a manager within PwC’s Financial Services asset and wealth management division, specialising in private equity and real estate. With a solid auditing background, Leang’s past experience also includes multiple years at EY specialising in real estate and internal audit with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC).

Butterfield Group named Mark Farrell as head of trust at its business in Singapore. Prior to joining Butterfield Trust (Asia) Limited, Farrell worked in the private client industry for more than 30 years, specialising in wealth planning and trust administration. He has worked for banks and law firms in the UK and Switzerland, as well as prominent trust companies in Singapore. Farrell leads the Butterfield team responsible for the provision of trust and fiduciary services to high net worth families in the region.

Aberdeen Standard Investments appointed René Buehlmann as CEO of its Asia Pacific business to help expand the franchise in the region. He succeeds Hugh Young, who took on the new post of Asia chairman and retained his director positions on fund and UK investment trust boards. Buehlmann is in charge of developing the APAC investment business across segments and distribution channels, reporting to ASI chief executive Stephen Bird. Until a year ago, Buehlmann was group managing director and Asia-Pacific head for UBS Asset Management in Hong Kong, where he led regional operations and managed the global wholesale business. 

Citi Private Bank’s head of Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand, Adam Proctor, returned to the UK. Taking on his existing role in January 2018, Proctor was head of managed investments, Asia-Pacific, private bank and before that, head of global clients, private bank in the UK. He has also worked at Barclays’ wealth management business.

William Blair Investment Management named Lih-Yann Tan as head of Asian distribution; Tan is employed through the firm’s local affiliate William Blair International Singapore Pte. Tan is based in the firm’s Singapore office and reports to Tom Ross, partner and head of International Distribution. Previously, Tan, who has more than 20 years of asset management experience in Asia, was head of institutional business development, Asia ex-Japan at NN Investment Partners. Before this, she worked at Lion Global Investors Limited and DBS Asset Management (now known as Nikko Asset Management).

Hines, the international real estate firm, appointed Chiang Ling Ng as chief investment officer, Asia reporting to global CIO David Steinbach. Based in Hines’ Singapore office, Ng works alongside Ray Lawler, Asia-Pacific chief executive, and Lee Timmins, CEO of Eurasia/India, to expand the firm’s reach across the Asia-Pacific region. Ng brought more than 20 years of experience to Hines in the real estate private equity space. Prior to this, she served as the CEO and CIO for M&G Real Estate’s Asia business. Before this, she worked at Goldman Sachs.

JP Morgan Asset Management appointed Felix Lam as head of investment stewardship for Asia ex-Japan and Robert Harden as a sustainable investing research analyst. Both people are based in Japan and report to Jennifer Wu, global head of sustainable investing. Lam is responsible for advancing JPMAM’s regional stewardship approach by leading corporate engagement as well as overseeing proxy voting and stewardship reporting. He joined from CCB International Securities, where he served nearly eight years including most recently as head of power, energy and materials research.

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Nomura appointed more than 20 private bankers and investment advisors in its international wealth management business, a move following the appointment of Ravi Raju as head of IWM in September last year. 

Some of the senior hires included:

Client coverage area
Wayne Yang joined as managing director and group head, Greater China, from Baxian Private and Investment Bank, where he was CEO. He started his career more than 30 years ago and has held multiple senior level positions at private banks including two stints spanning two decades at Citi's private bank. He has also served in leadership roles at the Asia-Pacific private banking teams of Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank.

Trevor Mak was hired as MD and relationship manager for Hong Kong. He joined from UOB Kay Hian where he had been MD, private wealth management, since March 2020. Before that, he was an MD at Citigroup's private bank, covering Hong Kong HNW clients for over 12 years. He started his banking career with Standard Chartered in 1984 in Hong Kong, and has worked in private banking at UBS, Coutts, Standard Chartered and Julius Baer.

Johnny Liu was appointed as MD focusing on family office coverage for Greater China. He joined from Aldworth Management, a family office, where he was a partner. Before that he was MD and head of global UHNW advisors, Greater China, at UBS's private bank. He has also worked at HSBC, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank in wealth management and investment banking roles.

Kitty Chen joined as MD and team lead for China. She moved after a short stint as MD with Union Bancaire Privee in their Hong Kong office. Before that, she was an executive director at Credit Suisse's private bank, where she spent eight years covering mainland China-based clients. She has also worked in the private banking divisions of Merrill Lynch, ING and HSBC.

Adil Khan was appointed MD and group head, Southeast Asia, focusing on the NRI market in the Middle East and Southeast Asia as well as the Middle East market. He joined from Citi Private Bank where he was managing director and team head for the global India business, and was responsible for the Middle East desk in Asia, working with bankers from the Middle East booking business into Asia. Prior to that, he was Middle East CEO for EFG Bank, based in Dubai.

Brajesh Jha was appointed MD and group head, Southeast Asia. He joined from BNP Paribas Wealth Management where he was MD and head for Southeast Asia markets, which included Thailand and Vietnam for three years. Prior to BNP, he spent over 10 years with UBS, both in wealth management and investment banking in multiple senior roles.

Mohit Gupta joined as MD and team lead for Southeast Asia NRI from BNP Paribas Wealth Management where he was MD and team head, Indian Markets, covering family offices and UHNW clients from Singapore. Prior to this, he was in various investment advisory roles with Credit Suisse and Standard Chartered for 12 years.

Charly Madan was appointed MD and team lead, Southeast Asia, focusing on Thailand and Vietnam. He joined from BNP Paribas where he was also MD and team leader responsible for UHNW clients in Thailand and Vietnam. He has over 30 years of experience in financial services and has had several senior roles in Thailand including chairman of CNP REIT, CFO and CRO of Pruksa Real Estate, country executive, Thailand, and Asia Pacific head of capital and portfolio management at Royal Bank of Scotland, head of corporate banking at Bank of Ayudhya and country officer at Citibank.

Nini Rojanavanich was appointed executive director and RM, Southeast Asia, covering Thailand and Vietnam. She joined from BNP Paribas Wealth Management in Singapore where she was a director in the UHNW client segment for Thailand. Prior to that, she was with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation in charge of its Financial Institutions Group in Thailand, and has served in other leadership roles with institutions including Royal Bank of Scotland, Citibank, Bangkok Bank and ABN AMRO.

Umesh Pandey was appointed RM, Southeast Asia, covering Thailand and Vietnam. He was previously at BNP Paribas Wealth Management which he joined in October 2019. Prior to that, he was in the media industry, having spent 16 years over two stints at the Bangkok Post where his last role was as editor-in-chief. He has also worked as a Thailand correspondent for Reuters and The Wall Street Journal.

Kripa Bathija joined as an RM covering family offices and UHNW clients in Southeast Asia. She was a director at Bank of Singapore covering a similar demographic of clients for over seven years. She has also worked with Citibank across various geographies for seven years, with the majority of that time being spent with the firm’s Singapore wealth management unit focused on the NRI business.

Investment Products & Advisory Solutions
Akshay Prasad joined as MD and head of investment products and advisory solutions, Asia-Pacific, from Deutsche Bank's wealth unit where he worked for nearly 14 years. His last role there was as MD and head of investment advisory, Global South Asia, where he managed a sales team delivering cross-asset advisory and discretionary solutions for clients across Asia and Europe. He started his career with Citi's wealth management unit.

Sooraj Arur joined as head of lending and Credit Solutions, Asia-Pacific. He was previously at Deutsche Bank where he was a director in structured lending, originating financing deals, structuring credit solutions and negotiating bespoke loan documentation for Asia Pacific wealth management clients in markets including Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, India and the Middle East. Before Deutsche, he was a credit specialist at Citibank.

Aditya Sehgal joined as executive director to help drive transformation and business development for investment products and advisory solutions. He came from Deutsche Bank Wealth Management, where he was a director and cross-asset investment specialist. There, he provided bespoke multi-asset structured solutions for clients' investment and hedging needs by partnering with coverage teams in Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai. He worked at Deutsche for 11 years.

Infrastructure and Platform
Mohan Kuppuswamy joined as head of architecture and technology, Asia-Pacific, from HSBC where he was program head for the platform, implementing Avaloq for Singapore and Hong Kong. Prior to that, he worked for eight years in multiple roles at Deutsche Bank in Asia and Europe, and for over a decade at Citibank including at its private bank in treasury, operations and technology.

TS Murali was appointed head of front office risk and supervision, Asia-Pacific. He joined from Citi Private Bank where he was business unit manager, South Asia, for seven years. In this role, he managed the sales support team directly, ensuring that the business operated within applicable regulatory frameworks with appropriate operational and control infrastructure. He has worked at Citigroup and its affiliates since 1993 in various roles across business and operations.

Standard Chartered Private Bank appointed Suresh Nair as senior client partner in Singapore where he focuses on the Asian city-state’s market. Nair reports to Adeline Chow, team head, private banking Singapore/Malaysia. Nair joined from Bank of Singapore, where he was responsible for the Singapore, Malaysia and International teams. With more than 20 years’ experience as a banker, Nair worked at JP Morgan, HSBC Private Bank and American Express before joining Bank of Singapore. Key markets which he covered during this period were predominantly in Southeast Asia, with some exposure in the Dubai Market.

The head of sustainable finance for the Asia-Pacific region at Netherlands-listed banking group ING, Herry Cho, left the firm to pursue a new opportunity. ING launched its sustainable finance franchise in Asia in 2017 with Cho’s guidance. 

Manulife Investment Management appointed Grace Ho as head of direct digital business and portfolios for Asia, a new role at the firm. Previously, she was chief marketing officer for Asia.  

Crestbridge, which provides private equity and real estate administration solutions, appointed Alex Di Santo as group head of private equity. Di Santo is responsible for developing and carrying out Crestbridge’s private equity fund services strategy. He has additional responsibilities in raising the business’ profile in the private equity fund services space. Based in Jersey, Di Santo brings with him over 17 years’ experience in the financial services industry, of which 14 years have been focused on private capital fund administration. 

Vontobel in Asia added people to its emerging markets fixed income team, including a strategist/portfolio manager and three new analysts. Cosmo Zhang joined as research analyst in Hong Kong. With a background in APAC corporate credit, Zhang previously spent five years with Invesco Asset Management, where he led analysts covering Asia ex-Japan corporate credits for Invesco’s global fixed income teams. He spent five years before that as a director at Fitch Ratings inside the firm’s APAC corporates group. Pius Yang Xue joined as a second research analyst in Hong Kong. He moved from Dymon Asia, where he was a senior investment analyst focused on Greater China high yield, and stressed and distressed credit. He gained experience in advisory and credit and equity investments at Hong Kong-based LIM Advisors, Partners Group, and Houlihan Lokey.

Singapore-based Maitri Asset Management appointed DBS veteran Lawrence Lua to join its advisory board. Lua is based in Singapore. Lua was managing director and global head of private banking at DBS, where he spent a decade. He stepped down a year ago to become a senior advisor. His 35 years in banking across Asia includes roles at Julius Baer, Merrill Lynch and Citibank.

Capital Group appointed Tetsuya Koizumi as the president of its Japan business and head of Japan Client Group. Koizumi brought more than 30 years of industry experience to the firm, most recently serving as representative director and president at Deutsche Asset Management. Prior to that, he spent 14 years at Fidelity Investments where he was executive vice president and head of its pension sales and pension business divisions. He started his career with Nippon Life where he served for over a decade at its Japanese and US offices.

Asiaciti Trust appointed Ross Belhomme as managing director of its Singapore office, bringing private client trust and fiduciary services experience. Belhomme relocated from Europe, where he was managing director of Alvarium Investment’s fiduciary business and a director of Geneva-based Guggenheim Investment Partners. Prior to that, he held positions at US and UK banking and financial services firms, including JP Morgan and HSBC, according to his public profile. 

Deacons promoted two of its figures to the level of partner. The two newly-appointed partners are Stefano Mariani from the corporate commercial group and Kelley Loo from the intellectual property group. 

Mariani heads the tax and trusts practice at Deacons. He has a range of advisory and contentious tax experience, from corporate taxation and group reconstructions to personal taxation, trusts and estate planning, and management. He advises on all matters of Hong Kong and international tax law, including tax-efficient structuring and restructuring, and tax appeals before the Board of Review and the higher courts. His experience includes cross-border tax planning and double taxation treaty-driven tax structuring. Mariani is also a solicitor advocate with higher rights of audience in civil proceedings before the High Court and Court of Final Appeal. 

Loo is dual-qualified in Hong Kong and New Zealand, with experience of handling all aspects of IP work ranging from brand clearance, trade mark prosecution work all the way up to IP enforcement proceedings (including disputes involving patent, copyright, registered design, film distribution, computer software licensing and trade secrets amongst others). She also advises clients on all aspects of IP commercial, data protection matters (including handling data breaches) and national security law as relevant to online platform clients.

Manfred (Fred) Liechti in Singapore passed away on 2 January, aged 52. Fred – as everyone knew him - was a well-known personality in the Singapore wealth management sector, having first worked in the Asian city-state in 1996 at UBS, before stints in Sydney and London. He finally moved to the jurisdiction full-time in 2003 where he was regional sales manager for Southeast Asia. He worked for UBS for more than 24 years, including roles as country head for Indonesia and head of financial intermediaries. He moved to Coutts as market head for Southeast Asia. A further role at ANZ followed; he embarked on his own entrepreneurial endeavours.

Equities First Holdings appointed Didier Zheng as managing director in the Beijing office to drive domestic partnerships in Greater China. He reports to the chief executive for Asia, Gordon Crosbie-Walsh. Didier joined from Dots Institutional Investors, where he was CEO responsible for more than US$30 billion in managed assets. He also served as deputy general manager in investor relations and executive director in fixed income at Fosun International. Didier started his career as a diplomat at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has also held posts at Shenyin & Wanguo Securities, BNP Paribas and Société Générale.

The chief executive of Bank Pictet & Cie (Asia), Dominique Jooris, stepped down after having been in the post for four years. Pictet appointed Sharon Chou as CEO of Bank Pictet & Cie (Asia), the group’s private banking entity in Singapore. Pictet also hired Kian Seng Yap and Rayson Tan as chief financial officer for Asia and chief risk officer for Asia respectively, two newly-created positions.

Chou oversees the activities of the bank and leads the business development of PWM in South and South East Asia. She reports to Fong Seng Tee, CEO of PWM Asia ((BPCAL). Most recently Chou was deputy CEO of PWM Asia, and prior to that was CEO of the Hong Kong Branch and Head of North Asia, PWM. (Alex Ng took on both the roles of CEO, Hong Kong Branch and head of North Asia, Pictet Wealth Management Asia, when he joined in November 2019.) Prior to joining Pictet, Chou worked for BNP Paribas in Hong Kong for 14 years in risk management, as head of counterparty risk for the private banking division in the region, and as regional head of credit and risk management.

Khoo Ai Lin was named chief executive of Zurich Life Insurance Malaysia Berhad (ZLIMB). She succeeded Stephen Clark, who remained as executive director of the Swiss insurance giant’s Malaysian business. As CEO, the 20-year veteran is responsible for growing the group’s life insurance business across Malaysia through its existing branch network. Ai Lin, who is based in Kuala Lumpur, reports to ZLIMB’s board. Most recently, she was group CEO of Kuala Lumpur-based online insurer Tune Protect.