The latest senior executive moves in the global wealth management industry.

Berenberg
Berenberg has appointed Ralf Walter to join its wealth and asset management equity team. He is based in Frankfurt. 

Walter previously worked at Allianz Global Investors, where he was most recently responsible for market-neutral equity strategies. He will report to Matthias Born, co-head of asset and wealth management and head of the equity platform.

To date, Berenberg offers nine equity funds, as well as eight bond and five multi-asset funds. Further fund launches to complement the range are planned. These include equity strategies, such as in the long-short segment for European equities as well as for small companies outside Europe.

Walter has 20 years of experience in equity fund management. The graduate economist began his career in 1998 at ADIG, followed by Cominvest and Allianz Global Investors. 

The wealth and asset management team at Germany's oldest private bank oversees more than €33 billion ($39.1 billion) of assets.

Withers
International law firm Withers has promoted seven lawyers to partner level from across its Asia, Europe and US west coast offices with effect from 1 July 2021. This follows a similar international 12-partner promotion round in January 2021.

The new partner appointees include litigators, property lawyers, an investment fund advisor and a tax and estate planning lawyer:

Tom Hughes (London) advises on commercial property matters, with a particular focus on clients in the hotel and hospitality sector. He advises on the acquisition of properties, as well as assisting with management of the operations.

Jacopo Ligouri (Milan) heads the IP and technology team in Italy, advising on privacy, data protection and IP registration and defence issues. His clients include leading fashion, financial, food, entertainment, technology and life sciences companies.

Kimberley Pallen (San Francisco) is a litigator who advises across a wide range of commercial disputes, including employment litigation, trade secrets and fraud, as well as representing clients on fiduciary matters. Kim also focuses on contentious issues in the arts sector.

Yin Ho (San Francisco) is a commercial property lawyer, advising on all manner of acquisitions, financing and leasing matters, as well as tax and litigation issues.

Kevin Keen (San Diego) advises domestic and foreign clients on tax, estate and trust planning matters, including cross-border family wealth transfer planning, pre-immigration and expatriation planning and compliance. Kevin is qualified to practice in Texas and Florida, which are currently popular states for high net worth US families to relocate to.

Yoshiyuki Omori (Tokyo) works with international and Japanese domestic investment funds, advising on investment transactions and regulatory matters.

Ushan Premaratne (Singapore) is an arbitration and litigation lawyer, conducting commercial arbitrations for clients as well as advising on cross-border commercial disputes. His practice takes in sports and entertainment clients, technology and venture capital and financial institutions.