Following a short handover, period Davies will succeed Charles Cade as chair of the board. Cade, who has served as the interim chair since January 2026, will continue as the company's senior independent director.

Davies is an internationally experienced chair who has held senior positions across the legal, banking and sovereign sectors, with extensive experience of leading international teams in Asia and the Middle East. He is chair of ICBC Standard Bank. As firmwide managing partner of Linklaters from 2007 to 2015, Davies led the firm to record financial performance and grew the international network of the business in Africa, Australia, Asia, the Middle East and in the US. Earlier, he spent 12 years in Hong Kong and Tokyo culminating in the role of Asian managing partner. He went on to serve on the executive committee of Lloyds Banking Group, leading its people, legal and strategy functions. Most recently, Davies worked as a senior executive in the

“It is a great privilege to be asked to chair VEIL, the largest and longest established investor in one of Asia's most dynamic economies.” Davies said. “Vietnam's growth, reform agenda and capital market development make this an exciting time for the company."

Cade added: "His international leadership experience, his understanding of Asia and emerging markets, and his expertise in governance and stakeholder engagement make him well suited to lead the company through its next phase. The board's work to narrow the discount and strengthen demand for the company's shares will continue, and I look forward to supporting Simon as senior independent director."

Foster Denovo
, a UK-wide group, has appointed Aytekin Can (pictured below) to oversee the vital role data is playing in reshaping wealth management and employee benefits’ consulting, the firm said in a statement. The firm has created the new role of head of data strategy and management information delivery in order to respond to the speed and scale of Foster Denovo’s AI adoption.

Aytekin Can

With more than 20 years’ experience working with advisory firms growing by acquisition, Can is joining as Foster Denovo is creating its own “data lake.” By doing so, it is transforming the way data is used, stored and accessed. Instead of multiple systems, log-ins and legacy technology, all core data will be in one place for advisors and support colleagues to access, analyse and interrogate. To do this, the group has partnered with agentic AI specialist Palindrome to redefine how data is used across the business, enabling automation and dramatically streamlining back-office processes.

“We’re determined to grasp the opportunity presented by AI and to do so, how we manage data is absolutely critical,” Foster Denovo Group managing director Helen Lovett said. “Aytekin brings decades of specialised experience in this crucial area to drive us even further forward.”