This publication can exclusively report on a major hire for the Greater China region by an executive search firm operating across the Asia region.

Experienced executive search figure Jonathan Hollands has been appointed by Huddleston Jones as a new managing partner for Greater China, joining the firm’s leadership team and responsible for driving growth in the Greater China region, this publication can exclusively report.

Hollands starts his role on 3 September and will be based in Hong Kong.

With more than 13 years' experience covering front-office and C-suite positions in private wealth management, Hollands has formerly held senior roles in Central and Eastern Europe in recruitment, as well as in business process outsourcing industries. Hollands was a British Army officer in the 14th/20th King's Hussars and served in various theatres, including Operation Desert Storm in 1991 as a tank commander; and as a jungle warfare instructor in Brunei with service in Hong Kong, the UK and Germany. Hollands has been a long-standing contributor on the WealthBriefingAsia private banking awards panel.

“This is a breakthrough appointment that cements Huddleston Jones as one of the leading ‘pure play’ private banking search firms in the region, with domestic specialist presence in both Singapore and Hong Kong,” Danny Jones, founding partner, Huddleston Jones, said.

“As a search partner, we like to delve much deeper into the processes and capability of an organisation, to relate platform delivery to our candidate ‘requirement’; appointing Jonathan as our Hong Kong managing partner will only deepen our existing client relationships and help further drive targeted candidate initiatives for our private banking clients across the Greater China region,” Jones continued.

The move follows the firm’s opening of its second international office in the United Arab Emirates - part of its push to bolster its presence in the European and Middle Eastern markets.

"I am delighted to work with Danny and Arran, to position Huddleston Jones as the leading PWM search firm in Asia and the Middle east; The PWM industry is still growing at an unprecedented rate and there is real potential for a pure play private banking focused firm to be at the forefront of our clients’ growth plans and continued success," Hollands said.