Yet Another Top-Level Appointment At Coutts

Max Skjönsberg

22 May 2012

Coutts, the wealth management arm of Royal Bank of Scotland, has hired Ali Hammad as co-head of the Middle East region.

Hammad joins from Credit Suisse, where he was most recently head of private banking for the Middle East. Before that, he spent nearly a decade years working with Middle Eastern clients.as a private banker at UBS.

When joining in July, Hammad will be based in London and partner with Amir Sadr, co-head of Coutts in the Middle East, who is based in Dubai. He will report to Alex Classen, chief executive of Coutts International.

Coutts has identified the Middle East as a growth market and believes that region will be an important part of the firm’s plans to expand its international presence to 50 per cent of overall business by 2015.

The wealth manager has been busy on the hiring front in recent days and weeks. At the start of the week, the firm has named industry veteran Gary Dugan for the role of chief investment officer for Asia and the Middle East.

At the end of last week, this publication could exclusively report that Paul Sarosy – latterly of Credit Suisse – joined Coutts as head of investment solutions. Only a few days earlier, the firm appointed Ken Sue as head of products and services in Asia.

In a recent interview, Jonathan Briggs, head of resourcing at Coutts, told WealthBriefing that Coutts is will increasingly be looking for investment professionals when taking on new recruits in the future. The firm is a venerable private bank but as part of its new identity as the wealth management arm of RBS, it wants to broaden the spectrum when looking for new talent.