The latest moves and appointments in wealth management in the UK, the rest of Europe, the Middle East and other select locations.

Capital.com
Trading platform Capital.com has appointed industry veteran, John Austin as its chief strategy officer.

Based in London, Austin (pictured) will be responsible for implementing strategic direction, fostering innovation and driving initiatives that contribute to the company's growth.

Austin has more than two decades of experience in the derivatives trading and brokerage space, most notably as a senior executive of IG Group where he held group-wide responsibility for dealing, online marketing and data science. More recently he served as chief strategy officer at LMAX Group, where he worked on a series of strategic initiatives in the FX brokerage and crypto exchange space.

Austin has also worked in investment banking, where he was involved in designing and executing large-scale structured transactions for Barclays Capital. Beyond his corporate roles, Austin served on the advisory board of Coinrule, a fintech startup. He holds an MA from Cambridge University and an MSc in finance from the London Business School.

“John’s appointment reflects our dedication to staying at the forefront of the industry and driving Capital.com's growth to new heights,” Kypros Zoumidou, Group CEO, Capital.com, said.

Evelyn Partners
UK wealth manager Evelyn Partners has appointed Bindesh Sajvani as the group chief risk officer, following regulatory approval.

Sajvani was formerly the global chief risk officer at Pendal Group, the owner of J O Hambro Capital Management. Prior to this, he was global chief risk officer for Intermediate Capital Group Plc, a UK publicly listed alternative asset management group, the firm said in a statement.

Sajvani is a qualified accountant who has worked at Ernst & Young as a senior consultant in the business risk consultancy practice. His career has included senior risk and compliance roles in subsidiaries of Lloyds Bank Plc (Scottish Widows Investment Management), Aviva Plc (Morley Fund Management) and at Aberdeen Asset Management (abrdn). Sajvani was previously a member of the Edinburgh University audit and risk committee.

“He is a highly experienced professional who has worked in senior risk and compliance roles for over 25 years. I look forward to working closely with him as we execute our strategy,” Paul Geddes, group chief executive officer of Evelyn Partners, said.

Evelyn Partners have been busy recently making senior appointments in its Leeds and Bristol offices. It has also been expanding, acquiring Harwood Hutton accountants and accountancy and tax specialists Creaseys Group.

Evelyn Partners, which has £54.9 billion ($66.5 billion) of assets under management (as at 30 June 2023), offers an extensive range of financial and professional services to individuals, family trusts, professional intermediaries, charities and businesses. It has a network of offices across 28 towns and cities in the UK, as well as the Republic of Ireland and the Channel Islands.

Maples and Calder
Maples and Calder, the Maples Group's law firm, has appointed Chris Newton as the new managing partner of its British Virgin Islands office. Newton is succeeding Richard May, who is retiring after almost 13 years of dedicated service, eight of which he spent as the BVI managing partner, the firm said in a statement.

Based in the BVI for over a decade, Newton has been instrumental in propelling BVI's corporate, finance, restructuring and insolvency practices over the past seven years. His experience encompasses a wide range of corporate and finance matters, with expertise in complex restructuring. Newton provides strategic counsel to clients across the Group's global network, playing a pivotal role in transactions involving listed companies, secured lending and a number of headline restructuring transactions in the jurisdiction.

Newton will work alongside BVI practice group leaders Ruairi Bourke (co-head of Corporate, Finance and Funds & Investment Management), Joanna Russell (co-head of Funds & Investment Management) and Matthew Freeman (head of Dispute Resolution & Insolvency). The team is also supported by a global BVI practice, under the global leadership of Michael Gagie and European oversight by Matthew Gilbert. 

"Chris is an exceedingly impressive and capable lawyer and his extensive experience and in-depth knowledge of the BVI will undoubtedly make him an exceptional leader," global managing partner, Jonathan Green, said.

ImpactA Global
ImpactA Global (“ImpactA”), a women-led emerging markets impact investment firm, has appointed Antonio Garate Martin as head of asset management, and Gregory Sachin and Laurence Monnier as independent investment committee members.

London-based, Martin will lead the management of the loan portfolio, driving ImpactA’s mission to provide debt financing for sustainable infrastructure in emerging markets. His deep asset management experience will complement ImpactA’s extensive origination, research, structuring and investment expertise, the firm said in a statement this week.

Martin, who has over 14 years of experience in investment management across infrastructure, project finance and real assets, was previously a portfolio manager in the infrastructure debt team at Allianz Global Investors. Prior to this, he worked at Pensions Insurance Corporation and Fitch Ratings.

Saichin, who has over 30 years of experience in credit and EM debt asset management, was most recently head of emerging markets fixed income at Allianz Global Investors. He developed and led two credit/emerging markets debt franchises at Pioneer Investments (now part of Amundi AM) and Allianz Global Investors.

Monnier is an infrastructure and credit expert with over 30 years of investment and risk management expertise in banks, rating agencies and asset managers. She led the growth of Aviva Investor’s infrastructure debt franchise to £4 billion ($5.03 billion) AuM. Prior to this, Monnier managed Fitch’s project finance rating across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. She also served in senior credit and rating roles in Deutsche Bank, RBS, Hypo Real Estate and Moodys. Since 2021, Laurence has been advising infrastructure investors focused on the climate transition.

“This is an exciting time for the firm as we continue to grow our team of seasoned professionals, as we look to catalyse private capital into the Global South to address the funding gap in sustainable infrastructure across emerging markets,” Isabella da Costa Mendes and Victoria Miles, co-CEOs and co-founders of ImpactA Global said.

In March 2023, ImpactA announced the launch of the business and their partnership with Legal & General Capital. Last month, Legal & General Capital invested $100 million into the business, demonstrating its commitment to ImpactA’s strategies.