The chairman of the board of Switzerland’s UBS, Kaspar Villiger, announced he will step down earlier than expected, to be succeeded by Axel Weber at the bank's annual general meeting next year, hastening the change of the guard at the bank in the wake of a $2.3 billion rogue trader loss. UBS will appoint Sergio Ermotti as its permanent chief executive before its investor day on 17 November, according to media reports. Swiss weekly paper the SonntagsZeitung said the board would make the appointment on a telephone conference so Ermotti could present the bank's new strategy in New York as permanent CEO.

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Aberdeen Asset Management hired Dr David Smith as a forensic corporate governance expert to its Singapore-based Asian investment team as head of corporate governance. He joins from Institutional Shareholder Services, where he spent four years, most recently as head of Asia-ex Japan research.

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Solution Providers, the Swiss management consulting firm for financial institutions, hired Sarah Luheshi as principal consultant in its Singapore office effective 28 November 2011. Before, Luheshi established the Singapore presence of Owen James, the UK-headquartered wealth management consulting and events firm.

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Piyush Gupta, chief executive and director of Singapore's DBS Group Holdings and DBS Bank, was named a member of the board of directors of the Institute of International Finance. This is the first time an executive from a Singapore-headquartered bank is appointed to the IIF board, the Washington-based association of financial institutions worldwide, said the firm.

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Credit Suisse named Olivier Thiriet as chief executive for Japan effective 1 January 2012. Thiriet is the head of cash equities for Asia-Pacific and will assume the new responsibility as Japan chief in addition to this role.

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Investment house Ocean Dial Group named Gaurav Narain as the head of research at its Mumbai subsidiary, Ocean Dial Advisers Private. He joined from New Horizon Investments.

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Altamount Capital Management, the India-based multi-family office, named Murlidhara Kadaba as non-executive chairman. He was until recently senior managing director guiding its strategy and business development.

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Manulife Asset Management named Kisoo Park managing director and portfolio manager for the global multi-sector fixed income team in Hong Kong. Park has over 20 years of foreign exchange and global fixed income experience, previously serving as founder and chief operating officer of an Asia-focused event driven hedge fund.

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Man Group, the London-listed investment manager, appointed a country chair of China following its acquisition of rival GLG Partners year, as part of an aggressive push into Mainland China. Yifei Li previously worked at GLG which was acquired by Man in October 2010.

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Noah Holdings, the wealth management firm that caters to high net worth clients in China, appointed Shusong Ba and Ji Liu as independent directors to its board. Shusong Ba is the deputy director of the Research Institute of Finance under the Development Research Center of China's State Council.

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Macquarie Private Wealth, the Australian manager, announced the hiring of 19 advisers across six states including four from Perth-based adviser Plan B. The wealth manager made the hires over the last six months. These include Michael Harwood, Michael Moursellas, Ryan Wareing and Andrew White in Perth. In Queensland, Scott MacKenzie, Emmet Ryan, Matthew Cahill, Joshua Derrington, Ben Kirkegaard and Lawrence Williamson joined the company in Brisbane. Macquarie also hired five private client advisers in Canberra. Paschal Leahy and Luke Furner specialize in defined-benefit superannuation, Bob Backer focuses on advising clients in the defence and public sectors about retirement planning and super, and Hena Power and Penny Ponder specialise in portfolio management and SMSFs. In South Australia, Macquarie Private Wealth hired David Duncan to provide advice for business owners and self-funded retirees, and risk specialist James Inglis. On the direct equity side, it hired Paris Magdalinos from Lonsec in Melbourne and Patrick Hunt from Lonsec in Sydney.

The Antipodean wealth manager also recruited Mark Chartres from Intersuisse as senior investment advisor for its Melbourne wealth management office. Also Emil Walter was recruited as a successor to Mark Matthews for the role of Asia strategist. Walter was the head of regional strategy for Asian equities at Royal Bank of Scotland. Matthews left the company for Julius Baer early this year.

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The chief executive of Australian investment manager Challenger, Dominic Stevens, resigned after nine years at the firm to take “a career sabbatical”. Stevens will be replaced by current chief financial officer and group chief operating officer Brian Benari, who will succeed Stevens in February next year.

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ANZ Wealth appointed Neil Younger as head of practice-based financial planning. Younger was previously the general manager for Commonwealth Financial Planning, the graduate program under Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

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BT Financial Group, the wealth management arm of Australia's The Westpac Group, launched a new business unit that highlights the firm's Magnitude financial advisory business. The new divison is led by Phil Butterworth, who is credited for establishing and leading the DKN Financial Group, a wealth services provider that was recently taken over by IOOF Holdings.

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MLC, the wealth management affiliate of National Australia Bank, appointed Megan Beer as general manager of group insurance. Beer brings almost 20 years of financial services and over 12 years of insurance experience to the role. She was previously the head of finance for MLC Insurance, where she worked for the past two years.

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State Street Corporation appointed two executives to its Australian Global Markets team. Sinclair Scholfield will lead the firm's securities finance business in Australia and New Zealand as managing director, while Jonathan Gencher was named head of e-Exchange, the firm's electronic foreign exchange trading service. 

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Bank of Melbourne Private, the newly-established Australian wealth manager, appointed Jonathan Ayres to head its private division. Ayres joined from National Australia Bank where he spent more than a decade in senior roles, including as head of financial planning for NAB Private and as a regional executive. He most recently served as senior investment specialist with NABInvest.

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UK-based accountant Ernst & Young made a number of senior appointments for its asset management arm in Asia-Pacific. Roy Stockell was appointed head of asset management for Asia-Pacific, in addition to his current role leading the asset management group for Europe, Middle East, India and Africa. Ernst & Young also appointed Elliott Shadforth, George Saffayeh, Teresa Tso and Christine Lin all in senior asset management positions in Asia-Pacific.

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Bravura Solutions, the wealth management software developer, named Jason Wilby as manager for global strategy, risk and planning. Wilby was previously the head of change, global wealth management at Bravura. He joined the firm in 2008 as head of human resources, global wealth management.

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Citi promoted its Asia-Pacific co-head Stephen Bird to the position of sole chief executive of Asia, while his former co-head, Shirish Apte, became chairman of the region. Since 2009 Bird and Apte shared the role, with Bird focusing on China, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan, and Apte concentrating on South and Southeast Asia. Both appointments are effective from 1 January 2012.

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Man Group, the London-listed investment manager, appointed a country chair of China, Yifei Li. She previously worked at GLG which was acquired by Man in October 2010, and is a well-respected Chinese business woman.

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Banca della Svizzera Italiana appointed George Lam as a new investment advisor on the China-Taiwan team of its Singapore wealth management business. He joined the Lugano-headquartered bank from HSBC Private Bank where he was a director in the investment group.

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Goldman Sachs' former Asia co-president Yusuf Alireza, whose departure was announced early November 2011, resurfaced at troubled commodities trader Noble Group as chief executive. Alireza left Goldman after 19 years at the firm and replaced Ricardo Leiman, who resigned. David Ryan remains as sole president as Goldman Sachs in Asia Pacific ex-Japan. 

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Credit Suisse hired David Murray, formerly chief executive of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, as senior advisor based in Australia. Working from Sydney, Murray will work with private clients as well as the corporate and institutional divisions of the bank in Australia and Asia-Pacific.

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Charles de Boissezon, the former chief executive at Banque Piguet, the Swiss private bank, took the post of CEO at Hinduja Bank , part of Hinduja, the giant India-based conglomerate with substantial banking and finance interests. Boissezon was appointed CEO of Banque Piguet in 2004 and retired from the firm in 2008.

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Australia and New Zealand Bank, the fourth largest bank in Australia, appointed Nigel Williams as chief risk officer and member of the management board. Williams served as the managing director, institutional Australia since 2008 and previously worked as managing director, director for institutional and corporate and commercial banking in New Zealand. He joined the firm in 2004. His appointment takes effect 16 December 2011. 

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MLC, the wealth unit of National Australia Bank, reshuffled its advice and marketing senior management ranks with moves effective 1 February 2012. Greg Miller, previously the general manager of MLC Advice Solutions and MLC Direct, will move to a full-time position as general manager of MLC Direct. His old role will be assumed by Tom Reddacliff, who used to be the general manager of Godfrey Pembroke. Reddacliff will in turn replaced by Peter Smith, who used to serve as general manager for distribution for MLC's UK operations. 

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IOOF Holdings, the Australian investment management firm, made several changes to its sales and distribution team. Leah Waldie, previously the northern regional manager is now covering the newly-created role of national key account manager. Concurrent with the appointment was the creation of state manager roles in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia, to be managed by former business development managers Georgia Nides, Julie Wise, Matt Kent and Nathan Morgan, respectively. 

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Two former members of BNP Paribas's top Asia private banking ranks were named in new roles at rival firms. Serge Janowski, the former chief executive of wealth management of Hong Kong and North Asia at BNP Paribas, was named CEO of the Hong Kong branch of Crédit Agricole Suisse. He started the role 14 September. Meanwhile, Sharon Chou, who headed up credit and risk at the BNP Paribas's private banking arm, left to join Pictet as head of wealth management for North Asia. She succeeds Franco Cheng, who becomes senior advisor to the board of directors and a non-executive board member of Pictet .

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Barclays Wealth said it will add over 20 senior private bankers to its Greater China division within the next twelve months. The new recruits will join its existing ranks of 100 relationship managers in Asia-Pacific. Currently Greater China clients are served mainly out of Hong Kong, but the bank plans to add a Singapore-based Greater China desk too. 

The bank recruited Deepak Malhotra as managing director and wealth advisor to focus on high net worth families from South Asia effective January 2012. Malhotra is from Grant Thornton and at Barclays will be working closely Jonathan Burth, head of key clients, and Andrew Tailby-Faulkes, head of client advisory.

The UK wealth manager also bolstered its Greater China desk with the hire of Januar Tjandra as head based in Hong Kong. Tjanda began on his new role in 5 December. He was hired from Goldman Sachs, where he served as relationship management executive for Taiwan. He also served as head of the Hong Kong and Taiwan desks.

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HSBC appointed Bernard Rennell, an 11-year HSBC veteran, as chief executive officer for its private banking unit in North Asia. He has served as global head of private wealth solutions for the bank since 2009.

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Ibbotson Associates Australia, a subsidiary of US-based asset management firm Morningstar, has named Matthew Esler head of advisor services. Esler was previously an executive director for strategy and technical services at Midwinter Financial Services. He reports directly to Chris Galloway, general manager for investment services. 

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Phil Kearns, the former captain of Australia's national rugby union team, was been named chief executive officer of Centric Wealth. He will take the reins at the Australian wealth advisor from 12 December.

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Banque Degroof Luxembourg, the Belgian private bank, opened a Hong Kong representative office and appointed Cecilia Chin as its chief representative and general manager. Chin used to head sales and investor relations at SAIL Advisors, a fund of hedge funds group. 

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Julius Baer, the Swiss bank, named Frank Keller as chief financial officer for Asia and Tobias Murer chief operating officer for North Asia effective 1 January 2012. Keller joined the bank in November 2009 from HSBC Private Bank, while Murer has been deputy COO of Julius Baer Hong Kong since 2009. Both replace Ian Pollock, who has quit after two years running the roles jointly.

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The Royal Bank of Scotland announced that Brian Hartzer had left to lead a newly-created wealth management unit at Westpac Private Bank. Hartzer now leads Australian Financial Services, which covers Westpac's wealth management unit BT Financial Group, Westpac retail and business banking, St George Banking Group and banking products and risk management. Hartzer begins on his new role next year. Also newly appointed is John Arthur to lead Group Services, another division at Westpac, as group chief operating officer. Both Hartzer and Arthur report to Gail Kelly, chief executive of Westpac.

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US asset manager Titanium hired Paul Stanley as senior portfolio manager for its Sydney office. Stanley will be responsible for the TAM ASX 200 All Weather Fund, working with Peter Rice, chief investment officer. He previously worked for UBS Global Asset Management as portfolio manager.

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MLC, the wealth management arm of National Australia Bank, named Jeremy Duffield as non-executive director. Duffield is the chairman of the Australian Centre for Financial Studies and before the appointment served as director on the boards of Vanguard Investments Japan and Singapore.

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Hunter Hall, the ethical investment manager, appointed James McDonald as deputy chief investment officer to replace newly-departed officer Jack Lowenstein. McDonald was previously a senior portfolio manager at the company.

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Kames Capital, the UK investment manager, opened an office in Hong Kong and appointed James Cooper from Liminal Image as head of business development. Cooper reports to Martin Harris, head of distribution.