The latest moves and appointments in wealth management in the UK, the rest of Europe, the Middle East and other select locations.

Robeco
Robeco, a pure-play international asset manager, has made three head of institutional sales appointments for the US and Canada, the Netherlands and the UK, with effect from 1 May.

Angela Ruane (pictured) has been appointed for the US and Canada based in New York; Tim Kruis is taking on the role for the Netherlands based in Rotterdam; and Arabella Townshend for the UK, based in London. They will be responsible for the institutional sales business in their respective regions and will report directly to Malick Badjie, head of institutional sales Europe, North America and Africa, the firm said in a statement.

Ruane brings more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. Most recently, she was with Insight Investments where she was responsible for their US institutional business development efforts. Prior to that, she was with Rogge Global where she spent more than 10 years Among her roles, she was partner and head of North American Distribution. After Rogge was acquired by AGI in 2016, Ruane was brought over to play a hybrid role focused on consultant relations, direct sales and product specialisation for legacy Rogge strategies.

Kruis, who has a 25-year investment and sales career, previously worked with Record Asset Management in Amsterdam as head of institutional advisory, leading business development in Europe with a specific focus on Benelux. Prior to that, he led the Benelux institutional sales teams, first at Amundi and subsequently at Invesco. He has also served in roles focused on business development at City of London Investment Management in London and Capital Dynamics in Zurich. Earlier in his career, Kruis spent 10 years at Robeco as a product specialist both in Rotterdam and New York and as a senior institutional sales manager in Zurich.

Townshend joins from River and Mercantile where she has spent nearly 13 years in a variety of senior sales and marketing roles, including head of global consultant relations and managing director, head of UK institutional distribution. In her most recent role as managing director, head of global institutional distribution, Townshend was responsible for setting the group’s institutional sales strategy across all institutional channels in the UK, the US and Australia. She brings experience in distributing a wide range of products and broader client solutions. Townshend has a keen interest in sustainable solutions, seeding the first of River and Mercantile’s sustainable products and was involved in building their sustainability framework.

Introducing them, Badjie said: “We’re delighted to welcome such experienced professionals like Angela, Tim and Arabella to Robeco and our institutional sales team. Their appointments demonstrate our commitment to preserving and growing our book of business in these key markets. As we continue to lead the industry in sustainable investing, having Angela, Tim and Arabella in place will further build our presence and enable us to work with clients to identify where Robeco’s world-class capabilities and expertise can be of assistance.”

Robeco, based in Rotterdam in the Netherlands with16 offices worldwide, was founded in 1929. As at 30 June 2022, Robeco had €178 ($196.3) billion in assets under management, of which €171 billion is committed to ESG integration. Robeco is a subsidiary of ORIX Corporation Europe N.V.

Facctum
Facctum, a regtech company specialising in cloud-delivered enterprise risk-decisioning technology, has expanded its senior team with the appointment of Syam Chintapenta as chief development officer and Onkar Inamdar as head of engineering.

Chintapenta is an experienced software professional with over 26 years of experience in the banking sector, working for a wide range of firms including i-flex solutions (Citibank), Barclays and Standard Chartered Bank. Chintapenta has experience in building and implementing AML, KYC, sanctions and collections products in the regulatory space along with rich experience in data warehousing for Tier 1 banks. Chintapenta joins Facctum from Apisero, where he was chief delivery officer.

Over the course of his career, Inamdar has worked for a number of consulting and financial services firms such as ZS, Fiserv, American Express, and startups like Flexmoney. He brings over 15 years’ experience in building customer-facing applications across banking and pharmaceutical domains. He will use his previous experience to help Facctum build a robust, scalable, and secure SaaS platform while fostering a people-first culture, the firm said.

Welcoming the two hires, KK Gupta, CEO at Facctum said: “Across the world, many financial service organisations are now facing a more complex and confusing compliance landscape than ever. The addition of Syam and Onkar to the Facctum team highlights our growth in recent years and demonstrates our dedication and investment in helping those organisations across the globe navigate the complexities of the future. With the expertise and knowledge they both bring, I am confident that our customers will continue to benefit from improved compliance solutions and processes. I’m sure Syam and Onkar will be invaluable as we move forward as an organisation.”

Chintapenta added: “The opportunity to lead the development and implementation of products whilst helping clients find the solutions to fit their seemingly ever-changing compliance needs, is both rewarding on a personal level and essential for the wider financial services sector. I’ve already experienced first-hand what Facctum technologies can do when it comes to improving compliance effectiveness, streamlining operations in a scalable manner, allowing firms to address the challenges posed by increased risk management workloads and demands.”

Suntera Global
Suntera Global, a multi-jurisdictional provider of corporate, fund and private wealth services, has promoted Alex Noel to chief financial officer and appointed Tom Cope as group head of finance.

As CFO, Noel is responsible for the oversight and direction of the global finance function, planning and forecasting in line with the group’s strategic goals, as well as driving the ambitious growth strategy and identifying key areas for investment and development.

Appointed to the group board of directors earlier in 2023, Noel was previously director of mergers and acquisitions after joining Suntera Global in 2020. He has over 12 years of industry experience in financial services. Prior to joining the firm, he was an investment professional at Aliter Capital, a mid-market private equity fund investing in the business and support services sector. Noel is a chartered accountant who trained with PwC and worked in its Corporate Finance and Audit and Advisory departments in London and the Channel Islands.

A new addition to Suntera Global, Cope will work closely with Noel to play a pivotal role in leading the Suntera Global finance team to deliver a best-in-class finance function to support the business in achieving its strategic goals. With a focus on integrating systems to increase efficiencies and establish cutting-edge processes, Cope will also lead on the financial integration of acquisitions, seeking to embed operational excellence across the group.

With over 20 years’ experience working in the international financial services industry, Cope has specific expertise of in-house finance functions. Most recently, he spent seven years with a FTSE 250-listed multi-jurisdictional service provider, where he played a key role in transforming the finance team to support the business as it grew from around 300 to 2,500 staff. Cope is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA).

David Hudson, Suntera Global CEO, said: “Over the past year we have continued to evolve our proposition, adding to our footprint in key locations around the world, and we continue to pursue an ambitious strategy driven by both organic growth and acquisitions. Alex has been key in leading on our M&A strategy over the past few years and in his new role will provide greater leadership in overseeing our strategic goals, while Tom’s significant experience will be invaluable in helping us to embed innovative solutions to support our objectives. These are key appointments as we look forward to the opportunities 2023 will bring.”