Bank J Safra Sarasin has named a new managing director for South East Asia.

Bank J Safra Sarasin, the Swiss private banking firm with a wide Asian presence, has appointed a former Bank of Singapore executive to lead its Southeast Asia business.

Hena Hoda joins the firm as managing director, client advisory for Southeast Asia. She takes over from Geraldine Low who, according to her LinkedIn profile, is now the founding partner of Berioza Associates, a provider of corporate advisory services in Singapore. 

Hoda was previously a managing director and market head of the India subcontinent desk and Southeast Asia at Bank of Singapore. She moved to Singapore from Mumbai with ING Asia Private Bank, which became BoS after it was acquired by OCBC in 2010, in 2001 to start the India desk. She originally joined ING in Mumbai in 1999 and had previously worked for Ernst Young Private in India.

In her new Singapore-based role, she reports functionally to Yelandur Nagendra, deputy chief executive for Asia, and locally to Eric Morin, chief executive for the Singapore branch and Southeast Asia. Nagendra himself is quite new to the firm, having joined just in March, also from Bank of Singapore.