July saw notable hires by large banks such as Credit Suisse and HSBC. The banks have made a big point of their hiring drive in the region.

Janus Henderson named Tomoyasu Tanimoto as head of distribution in Japan. He is based in Tokyo and reports to Suzanne Cain, Janus Henderson’s global head of distribution. With more than 28 years’ experience in asset management, Tanimoto has had particular focus on fixed income and institutional asset raising.  He joined from Fidelity, where he has worked since 2006 and was promoted to head of corporate sales in 2008.  

Global real estate advisor, Knight Frank, promoted Emily Relf, director in its Asia-Pacific capital markets business, to the role of head of global capital strategies. Based in Singapore, Relf continues to report to Neil Brookes, who was recently appointed to lead global capital markets for Knight Frank, also based in Singapore. Relf has been in Singapore since 2015 after joining Knight Frank as a graduate in London in 2011. 

AMP Capital appointed three new figures to its Community Infrastructure Fund: Odette Linnett as investment director, Carolyn van Leuven as senior advisor and Mathew Pirotta as associate.

Indosuez Wealth Management appointed four senior figures in Singapore and Hong Kong. They were: Bernard Mueller, head of risk for Asia and for the Singapore branch; Kristin Chung, head of risk for Hong Kong SAR branch; Eric Chan, senior director, investment advisory for Hong Kong SAR branch; and Anthony Cheng, senior director, investment advisory for Hong Kong SAR Branch.

Credit Suisse appointed Stella Lau as market leader in its private banking China Singapore market, continuing a run of senior hires in the region. Lau re-joined the Greater China Singapore group as its second market leader. She is based in Singapore and reports to Keng Cheong Lock, market group head, private banking for Greater China Singapore. With close to 20 years of experience, Lau has focused on the China market. She was also part of Credit Suisse’s private banking team covering the Greater China market from 2010 to 2012. Lau began her wealth management career at Citibank in 1997. Prior to re-joining Credit Suisse, she was head of the China market at JP Morgan for four years. Lau was previously with UBS as a China desk head for five years where she led her team of UHNW relationship managers for the Singapore and Malaysia market.

Credit Suisse appointed Shirley Law as market leader for Singapore. She has been a team leader at the Swiss bank since 2013. As part of her role, Law reports to Dominique Boer, market group head in Singapore. Prior to joining Credit Suisse, Law was a senior banker at UBS for eight years, covering Greater China and other Asian markets. Law manages three teams under three new team leaders: Kent Choi, Siang Jin Foo and Luke Hui.

Janice Hu was named as new CEO of China, as the bank continues a run of senior appointments in mainland China and the surrounding region. With more than 25 years of experience in the financial markets in China, Hu worked for 20 years at the Zurich-listed bank. She has had various senior roles across its China franchise, including vice chairwoman of Credit Suisse China and head of China investment banking. In her capacity as vice chairwoman of China, Hu was instrumental in Credit Suisse becoming a majority shareholder of its China securities joint venture in June 2020. Hu took over from Zhenyi Tang, who left the bank to pursue other opportunities in the financial services industry.

Three family members of IQ-EQ, the international investor services group left the organisation. Shanker Iyer, Sunil Iyer and Sanjay Iyer left in August to pursue other interests. Shanker was IQ-EQ’s chairman for Asia. His sons Sunil and Sanjay were managing director, Singapore, and managing director, Hong Kong, respectively. Shaker Iyer had been chairman of the firm since May 2018.

Michael Marquardt started at IQ-EQ on 1 September, taking the job of regional chief executive for Asia, is based in Singapore. Prior to his new role, he was partner, chief operating officer, at Zerobridge Partners, based in Hong Kong, according to his public profile. The firm also appointed Jerome Kong as associate director in Shanghai.

Credit Suisse named Nicole Dunn as team leader for its private bank in Australia; she runs a group of relationship managers in the country. Dunn reports to Michael Marr, head of private banking Australia. Dunn previously worked at National Australia Bank, where she was most recently director of investor sales. Prior to this, Dunn worked for FC Funds Management, BT Financial Group in Private Wealth Sales and ANZ in its Global Markets Division. 

The firm also named Joyce Low as market leader for Malaysia, a newly-created role. Low ontinues to report to Jin Yee Young, market group head for Singapore, Malaysia and South Asia Switzerland. She  joined the Swiss bank 25 years ago and progressed to becoming a senior client partner before becoming a team leader. 

JP Morgan Asset Management appointed Lee Bray as Asia-Pacific head of data science, a new role created by the US firm. Bray is continuing as APAC head of equity trading and is based in Hong Kong. An employee of JP Morgan for more than 20 years, Bray has extensive experience in the technological evolution of trading techniques through quantitative approaches, including significant use of machine learning and large-scale data processing to create a systematic trading environment.

BNY Mellon Investment Management appointed Paul Liu as head of intermediary, Southeast Asia, a newly-created role. Liu is based in Singapore. Before this role, Liu was head of wholesale at Lombard Odier Investment Managers for Asia ex-Japan, covering private bank and family offices in China, Hong Kong and South East Asia. Prior to this he spent more than five years as head of retail sales for UOB Asset Management where he led a team focusing on the intermediary channels in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and China. Most recently he was a sales director at Guotai Junan International Asset Management Singapore, responsible for the firm’s overall distribution strategy in Asia-Pacific across both institutional and intermediary markets.

HSBC appointed former UBS senior manager Stefan Lecher as regional head of investments and wealth solutions for Asia-Pacific. Lecher is based in Hong Kong, reporting to Lavanya Chari, global head of IWS. Over a period of 17 years, Lecher worked in different roles in UBS's global wealth management and asset management business lines. Most recently, he was head chief investment officer for global investment management in Asia-Pacific. 

Value Partners Group appointed Winnie Lam as its managing director in the chief operating officer’s office. Lam is responsible for managing the firm’s overall operations and back-office functions. She reports directly to the group’s co-chairmen and co-chief investment officers Dato’ Seri Cheah Cheng Hye and Louis So. Lam has more than 30 years’ experience in the fund management and financial services industry across Asia. Most recently, she spent 14 years as head of operations, Asia at First Sentier Investors (formerly known as First State Investments), based in Hong Kong. 

DWS Group named Vanessa Wang as head of client coverage for Asia-Pacific. Based in Hong Kong, Wang joined from Amundi and leads coverage teams of DWS in the Asia-Pacific region, providing investment solutions to institutional and wholesale clients and partners. She reports to Dirk Goergen, head of DWS’s client coverage division and member of the executive board of DWS Group, who is based in Frankfurt.
 

Zurich Malaysia – part of Switzerland’s Zurich insurance group of companies – named Junior Cho as the new country head. He took the helm from Stephen Clark, who recently retired. Cho, who reports to Zurich’s Asia-Pacific chief executive, Tulsi Naidu, continues as Zurich General Insurance Malaysia Berhad’s CEO. He initially joined Zurich as head of market management across General Insurance and General Takaful. Cho has 30 years of experience in the insurance and financial services sector. He has worked in several senior management roles in business strategy, sales, marketing, distribution, customer management, operations and technology, including overseeing regional operations.

Indosuez Wealth Management in Asia appointed Alfred Low as head of the north Asia market and strategic partnerships for the bank’s Singapore branch. The role was a new one for the firm. Low is based in Singapore. Prior to this, Low worked in senior management and advisory roles covering North Asia clients at HSBC Private Bank, Credit Suisse Private Bank, UBS Wealth Management and Citigroup Private Bank. Before banking, Low worked in a variety of capacities for the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Singapore.

BlackRock Real Assets appointed Valerie Speth as a managing director for the firm’s Asia-Pacific Renewable Power team. Speth leads investment and portfolio management efforts in Southeast Asian economies for BlackRock’s flagship Global Renewable Power strategy and the Climate Finance Partnership programme in Asia. She is based in Singapore for this newly-created post, reporting to Keith Mangan, BlackRock’s head of APAC for the Renewable Power team. A qualified mechanical engineer, Speth has more than 15 years’ experience in renewable energy businesses in Europe and APAC, in the areas of strategy, merger and acquisition, and operations. Prior to joining BlackRock, she was regional director, Asia-Pacific, for juwi, a global expert in turnkey renewable power projects. Before relocating to APAC, she led corporate strategy and M&A at juwi in Germany. 

Nomura Singapore named Gan Chee Yen as a non-executive director. From 2011 to 2019, Gan was chief executive of Fullerton Financial Holdings, a unit of Singapore’s global investment company, Temasek, where he worked in a variety of positions from 2003 to 2011 - as senior managing director, co-chief investment officer, chief financial officer and head of China. Gan also sits on the board of Singapore-based companies, Heliconia Capital Management, Surbana Jurong, and Pacific International Lines.

Nomura appointed former Bank of Singapore senior figure Gareth Nicholson as chief investment officer and head of discretionary portfolio management, based in Singapore. In his most recent position, Nicholson was executive director, head of fixed income discretionary portfolio management at Bank of Singapore. Prior to that, he spent 12 years with Aberdeen Standard Investments as its senior portfolio manager. 

Gaw Capital Partners, a private equity investment firm in Asia, appointed Kok-Chye Ong as managing director and head of international data centre platform investments (ex-China). Ong is based in Singapore.

JP Morgan Private Bank appointed Koh Bee Eng as the head of JP Morgan Trust Company (Singapore) Pte. Koh is based in Singapore and reports to Martin Pollock, head of international trusts and estates. With more than 20 years of experience in the trust industry, Koh brings extensive experience to this role, including trust management and administration, business management, financial control and compliance. Prior to this, she was the trust centre resident manager and director of Credit Suisse Trust Limited in Singapore. She also spent some years with Standard Chartered Trust (Singapore) Limited and Rothschild Trust (Singapore) Limited as resident manager and board member of these companies. 

Citi Private Bank appointed former Credit Suisse figure Lillian Liao as new global market head for China, based in Singapore. Liao reports to North Asia head of private banking Rudolf Hitsch.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority approved the appointment of Donald Chen, one of its senior figures, as executive director (Corporate Services) with effect from 1 November. Chen took over from Linda So, who was due to leave the HKMA for personal reasons - also on 1 November.

Chen, who served as an administrative officer in the HKSAR from 1994 to 2019, has policy formulation and public administration experience. His last position in the Hong Kong SAR government was deputy head of the policy innovation and co-ordination office. Chen joined the HKMA in 2020 as senior advisor in the external department and has been involved in market outreach and mainland-related market development work.

Barclays hired a former UBS executive, Evonne Tan, as head of its private banking business in Singapore. Tan reports to James Penny, head of Asia ex-India, private bank. She focuses on building on the collaboration between the private bank and Barclays's corporate and investment bank in Singapore. Prior to this role, she was at UBS from 2014 as a senior client advisor with the UHNW SEA division. Prior to that, she was at Magenta Advisors for two years in Singapore. She founded and led that business, an asset management and investment advisory firm. Before this she worked at Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank.

HSBC Asset Management appointed Ray Chun as exchange traded funds business development director, based in Hong Kong. Chan reports to Jaqueline Pang, head of ETF sales, Asia-Pacific. In this newly created role, he is responsible for driving the growth of HSBC and Hang Seng ETF penetration from the distribution perspective, covering various segments ranging from insurance, asset managers, pension, private banks and intermediaries. Chan, who brings more than 20 years of experience in the asset management industry, specialises in ETF investment advisory, distribution for institutional and intermediary in Asia.

Citi Private Bank appointed Seamus Yin as global market manager for Mainland China South and West, based in Hong Kong. In this expanded role, Yin assumed overall responsibility for leading CPB’s coverage of clients from the Central, Western, and Southern parts of Mainland China, including the key provinces of Guangdong and Fujian. Yin has more than 10 years' experience of working with top entrepreneurs from China. He joined Citi Private Bank in 2014.

Offshore law firm Carey Olsen promoted litigation lawyer Henry Tucker of the firm's Hong Kong office to join the partnership. Tucker joined Carey Olsen Bermuda in 2017 before relocating to Hong Kong in 2019 to help spearhead the firm's offering of on-the-ground Bermuda legal advice to Asia clients. Prior to his move to Hong Kong, Tucker, who was called to the Bermuda Bar in 2011, regularly represented clients before the Commercial Court, Supreme Court and Court of Appeal for Bermuda.

Capital Group appointed Murray Brewer to the newly-created role of head of Australia Client Group. Based in Sydney, he reports to Guy Henriques, head of client group for Europe and Asia. Brewer brings more than 30 years of industry experience, most recently serving as director, country head of distribution, Australia and New Zealand for T Rowe Price. Prior to that, he was director and head of distribution at Schroders Australia. He began his career at Lloyds Bank, followed by Westpac and then AMP Asset Management where he was head of its multi-manager segment.

Hines, the international real estate firm, appointed Kian Fong Lim as managing director in Singapore. He will oversee new business initiatives in the city-state and Southeast Asia, and report to Ray Lawler, CEO of Asia-Pacific. Lim has more than 11 years of experience in the pan-Asian real estate private equity space. 

Standard Chartered appointed Anshu Sharma Raja as chief information officer for the consumer, private and business banking arm. Sharma is based in Singapore, and reports to group chief information officer Michael Gorriz. Paul Macpherson, who has served as CIO for the CPBB business since 2018, left to pursue opportunities outside the bank. Sharma joined the bank in September 2018. In her role as global head, retail banking products technology, she has led and modernised the bank’s digital platform for individual and business banking clients.

With effect from the start of August, HSBC appointed Jackie Mau as head of global private banking for mainland China. Based in Shanghai, Mau reports to Richard Li, executive vice president and head of wealth and personal banking, China on an entity basis and functionally to Siew Meng Tan, regional head of global private banking in Asia. With more than 20 years of extensive financial industry experience, Mau has served in various roles at HSBC in its global banking and markets businesses in Hong Kong, Southern China and Thailand.