The latest moves in wealth management from across Europe and the Middle East.

Payne Hicks Beach
Payne Hicks Beach, the London-based law firm, has created a new management board and changed the heads of its family and private client departments, to take effect from 1 June.

Private client partner, Robert Brodrick, will become chair of the management board, which will also consist of the head of dispute resolution, Dominic Crossley and the head of corporate, Jonathan Gatward. Virginia Farquharson remains as the firm’s director of management.

Alastair Murdie will retire on 31 May after a career as a private client solicitor, head of department and senior partner. Ian Airey will also step down as head of the firm’s family department to focus on his practice as a partner. 

Rebecca Cockcroft and Philip McGuirk have been appointed co-heads of the family department. Having joined the firm in 2014, Cockcroft's practice encompasses all aspects of private family law. McGuirk has been at Payne Hicks Beach for nearly 20 years and has particular expertise in financial remedy work with extensive experience in complex international family financial disputes.

The private client department will be led by partner, Rosamond McDowell. She specialises in tax and estate planning advice, including contentious trust matters. 

Octopus Group
Octopus Group has appointed Ruth Handcock as the new chief executive for its investments business. She takes over from co-founder Simon Rogerson who remains CEO of the group and will become the executive chairman for Octopus Investments.

This is the first time a new CEO has been appointed for Octopus Investments since the company was founded in 2000.

Handcock joined Octopus from UK challenger bank Tandem in July 2018 as chief customer officer, working across operations, sales and marketing. 

BNP Paribas 
BNP Paribas Asset Management has named Christopher Dunn to take up the newly-formed role of global head of client satisfaction, part of the French firm’s client experience team, also a new entity. 

Dunn joined in January and reports to Melanie Aimer, global head of client experience.  Based in New York, he will shortly relocate to Paris.

Prior to this, Dunn was at Greenwich Associates, where he was a vice president within its investment management practice.  He previously worked at Fidelity International in its global institutions group and at UK Trade & Investment, the UK Government’s international business development arm.  He has a master of international business from the Fletcher School at Tufts University in Massachusetts.