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Summary of Asia-Pacific Executive Moves In Wealth Management - October 2012

8 November 2012

State Street Global Advisors named Jacqueline Pang as head of capital markets for Standard & Poor's depositary receipt exchange-traded funds, one of its businesses in Hong Kong. Before joining SSgA, Pang was the capital markets head at Amundi Investment Solution.
 
Ian Pollock, the chief executive of VP Bank's Asia business quit from the Singapore-based position after a board-level decision to scale back in the region, which could result in substantial job cuts. Reto Isenring, managing director, was chosen to succeed Pollock, taking full responsibility for the Singapore subsidiary in the meantime. 
 
Societe Generale made two appointments to its Japanese private banking business. Laurent Depus starts his expanded private banking role in 1 October in addition to his post as chief country officer for SG Group in Japan. He succeeded Christophe Billard, who has moved to another position with the bank. Meanwhile, Guillaume Burtschell was appointed head of corporate and investment banking in Japan and president of Societe Generale Securities, Tokyo branch, replacing Depus. Burtschell was formerly deputy head of principal finance in London since 2007. 
 
HSBC appointed Tom Grimmer as the new head of communications for its Asia business, based in Hong Kong. He was previously managing partner, China, for Kreab Gavin Anderson, a global communications consultancy. 
 
DST Global Solutions, the investment technology firm, named Meredith Odgers as its new marketing director for Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong. Odgers was previously the vice president of marketing at TORA before she joined DST Global Solutions. She now reports to Philip Hogan, managing director of DST Global Solutions.
 
Henderson Global Investors expanded its Asian offering with the addition of Shiro Tsubota as chief executive for Japan and Mabel Chan as head of retail distribution. Tsubota joined from PIMCO, where he was head of operations for the Asia-Pacific region. Chan joined from UBP Asset Management (Asia), where she was executive director/head of distribution, Asia (excluding Japan).
 
Scotiabank, the Canada-based international bank, hired Rod Reynolds as senior vice president, Asia-Pacific & Middle East. Reynolds returned to the firm after a sabbatical during which he worked on poverty alleviation and supply chain development projects in India. His most recent role was as managing director and head of global banking and markets for Europe-based operations.
 
Coutts hired Puneet Matta, the former head of wealth management at Credit Suisse's India unit, as managing director and regional head of non-resident Indian business for Asia. Based in Singapore, Matta will "drive a proactive sales management culture and lead the teams to achieve financial targets".
 
MSCI, the New York-based investment and performance analytics specialist, named Chris Ryan as managing director based in Hong Kong. Ryan was previously the chief executive of Perpetual, the Australian asset manager. He left the company in February 2012. He takes over from Deborah Yang, who will be moving to Paris in December to assume the newly-created role of head of the Europe, Middle East and Africa index business. Her new position includes oversight of India. 
 
Squire Sanders, the US-headquartered law firm, named Joon Yong Kim as head of its new office in Seoul. Kim is a lawyer licensed in the US and who was admitted as foreign legal consultant by the Ministry of Justice in July. Kim is joined by corporate partner Edward Ghiyun Kim, who relocated to Korea from the Tokyo office.
 
Jenny Santi, the head of philanthropy services for South East Asia at UBS, resigned from her role after five years. Santi told WealthBriefing Asia by email that she plans to take a break, but will be staying close to the philanthropy sector. She was based in Singapore at the Swiss bank, and advised clients on how to donate money to charities including setting up philanthropic structures.
 
US investment manager State Street further expanded its business in Southeast Asia, with the the appointment of Kelvin Sng starts as a client relationship manager in Singapore. Before State Street, Sng held the position of vice president, sales and business development for HSBC Securities Services. He also held operational roles at Schroder Investment Management (Singapore) and Bermuda Trust (Singapore). He now reports to Jacqueline Wong, head of client management for Southeast Asia.
 
JPMorgan Asset Management announced Nicholas Weindling as the new head of its underperforming Japan fund just a week after its previous leader took the helm. Weindling replaced Robert Lloyd, who assumed the role in the last week of September. Lloyd had taken over from David Mitchinson, who left to "pursue other opportunities." 
 
Eastspring Asset Management Korea named Woong Park as its new chief executive. He replaces Wonki Lee, who took a corporate career break after leading the Korea arm for two and a half years. Park was previously the CEO and president of Mirae Asset Global Investments in Hong Kong. He was also the international chief marketing officer for Mirae in Korea. 
 
Arena Investent Management, the Australian firm, appointed David Ross as its new chairman. Ross joined the company from Lend Lease Corporation, where he served several key positions, including as global and US chie executive of real estate investments. He also previously functioned as CEO Asia-Pacific and CEO of General Property Trust. His appointment comes as Arena completes a restructuring initiative for its board, which now has five directors.
 
Investec Asset Management, the South Africa-based investment manager, expanded its Asian presence with a new office in Singapore and the appointment of Tobie van Heerden as head of institutional sales for South East Asia and Korea. Van Heerden joined the company as head of Asia institutional business in March 2012. His appointment comes as Investec continues to build its regional presence, with a focus on emerging market debt. He reports to Mark Samuelson, managing director of Australian and Asia institutional business.
 
Segantii Asset Management, the Hong Kong-based hedge fund, announced Nigel Hellewell as its new chief operating officer. Hellewell was previously from from BlueCrest Capital Manageent, where he was partner for four years until June 2012. His appointment was concurrent with the addition of Ambrose Meau to the team. Meau used to be the head of trading at Isometric Investment.
 
BNY Mellon appointed former ING Investment Management senior employee Navin Suri as Asia-Pacific head of intermediary distribution to push an expansion effort in the region. Suri is now based in Hong Kong and reports to Alan Harden, chief executive for the bank’s investment management arm, and PeterPaul Pardi, the firm’s head of global distribution, based in London. 
 
Standard Life, the Edinburgh-based insurance firm, expanded its retail investment business with the establishment of its first full service branch in Singapore and named Neal Armstrong as its chief executive. Armstrong joined the firm in March from Swiss Insurer, Zurich Life, where he was director of Zurich Life Insurance and principal officer of Zurich International Life in Singapore.
 
BMO Global Asset Management, part of Bank of Montreal, appointed Amit Prakash as head of wealth management products for Asia. Based in Hong Kong, Prakash now covers the investment product development and marketing needs of all BMO entities and businesses - as well as BMO's strategic partners - in Asia.
 
Plan B Group announced the resignation of its chairman and two directors as part of a reorganisation initiative that follows its takeover by IOOF Holdings in July. Chairman Bryan Taylor, executive director Cragi Lubich and independent director David de Burgh have left the firm. Since the acquisition by IOOF, the resulting entity had had no need for a chief executive for Plan B, resulting in the departure of Andrew Black in 28 September. As a result, Christopher Kelaher, managing director for IOOF, and David Coulter, chief financial officer for IOOF, joined the company's board. All management staff remaining from Plan B now report to IOOF.
 
Manulife Malaysia named George Chew as CEO after serving as head of individual financial products in Manulife Hong Kong. His appointment came as the company moves to expand its Malaysian insurance business.
 
RBC Wealth Management, part of Royal Bank of Canada, named Lionel Choi as the new private client director in its Singapore-based trust office. Choi is based in Singapore and reports to Hilary May, managing director, RBC Trust Company (Singapore). He joined  from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he worked since 2004. 
 
The chief executive of ING Investment Management’s Asia-Pacific region, Grant Bailey, was reported to be leaving the firm. His departure comes as ING is in talks to sell its Asian investment management business as part of the Dutch financial services firm's strategy of divesting assets. The firm has not confirmed to-date.
 
Visa, the international electronic payments firm,  named Ooi Huey Tyng as the new country manager for Brunei and Singapore. Ooi brings around 20 years of industry experience to her new role and has previously worked for the likes of Citibank and UOB. She replaced Meranda Chan, who is now head of marketing, South East Asia for Visa.
 
Australian Philanthropic Services, the Australian non-profit organisation, appointed Antonia Ruffell as its new CEO. Ruffell joined the firm after serving as philanthropy services manager at Perpetual, where she was oversaw private ancillary funds and advised philanthropists on effective grant making. She took over from Rachel McLennan, who had left to pursue other interests.
 
Royal Bank of Scotland named John Shelley as its new chief risk officer for Asia-Pacific, responsible for overseeing the risk management functions in the region. Shelley was previously the chief administrative officer for markets and international banking, Asia-Pacific. He replaced David Thomas, who left in June 2012 to become head of risk management at Malaysia's CIMB Bank.
 
Million Dollar Round Table, the global organisation for financial advisors, appointed Ross Hultgren as the new chairperson for Australia. He assumed his new role after serving as financial advisor and principal for Chapman Welsh Financial Services. MDRT has around 38,000 members practising in 79 countries.
 
Vikram Pandit, the chief executive of Citigroup who was appointed at the start of the financial crisis, stepped down from this post. He was succeeded by Michael Corbat, who previously ran the firm’s Europe, Middle East and Africa business. John Havens, president and chief operating officer, resigned in light of Pandit’s decision. Havens, who also ran the institutional clients group, said he had planned to retire at the end of the year. It is not clear who will replace him at this time.
 
National Australia Bank appointed Spiro Pappas as the new chief executive for Asia. Pappas joined the company in 2009 as head of the institutional bank. Prior to that, he spent 11 years with ABN AMRO Bank. His appointment was concurrent with the hire of David Thorn as global industry sector head, based in Asia. For this post, Thorn will relocate to Hong Kong from Sydney in December 2012. 
 
Bank of America Merrill Lynch hired Margaret Ren for the role of China executive and chairman, in addition to being a member of the Asia-Pacific executive committee. Ren was previously the chairman for corporate finance, Greater China at BNP Paribas and before that served as chairman of China investment banking at Merrill Lynch. She reports to Matthew Koder, Asia-Pacific president, and now works closely with Huang Xiaoguang, president of the China division at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
 
BNP Paribas has strengthened its Asia-Pacific wealth management capabilites with a clutch of senior hires, made over the last four months. Brian Kenyon was appointed regional head of wealth planning solutions for Asia-Pacific in August, based in Singapore; Berry Wong joined BNP Paribas Wealth Management in early October as regional head of wealth planning services, Asia-Pacific, reporting to Kenyon; Anton Wong was appointed head of key clients group, Asia-Pacific, in early October, based in Hong Kong, while Angela Yang joined BNP Paribas Wealth Management in July as key clients solutions manager, reporting to Wong.
 
Threadneedle hired four senior Hong Kong-based fund managers as part of its Asian build out. John Peta joined Threadneedle from Boston-based Acadian Asset Management, where he was head of emerging market debt. In addition, the firm announced the appointments of Tammie Chan as a fund manager, principally focusing on investment grade insurance funds, Ryan Staszewski as a corporate credit analyst with the investment grade team and James Waters as fixed income investment strategist. Threadneedle’s fixed income team  now comprises 48 investment professionals.
 
Sherry Liu, the former chairman and chief executive for Royal Bank of Scotland's China business, joined US investment bank Jefferies & Co. RBS said it had replaced Liu with Alex Chu, the head of international banking for North Asia, who also assumed the role of chair of the board of RBS China.
 
CITIC Bank, the Chinese bank and wealth management firm, named Zhang Xiaowei as its new chief executive following the retirement of Chan Hui Dor Lam Doreen in August. Chan had been working at CITIC for 15 years and assumed the chief position in 2002. She will stay with the firm to ensure a smooth transition until the end of this year. Zhang was an executive director, general manager and alternate CEO at Wing Lung Bank and brings almost 30 years of financial services experience in Mainland China and Hong Kong to his new role.
 
HSBC Vietnam strengthened its premier and wealth management arm with the appointment of Ian Casingena as its new vice president. Casingena, senior private clients manager for retail banking and wealth management at HSBC Malta, will take up his new role at Vietnam starting 1 January 2013.
 
Brookfield Financial, the Canada-headquartered financial services firm, named Richard Brown as managing partner to its newly-established financial advisory office in Hong Kong. Brown brings 25 years of industry experience to the role, most recently as managing director and regional head of treasury services at BNY Mellon in Hong Kong.
 
ClearView Wealth, the Sydney-based wealth manager, overhauled its board following its acquisition by alternative asset manager CCP BidCo. The changes include the resignations of directors David Goodsall, Anne Keating and John Murphy, and the appointments of David Brown, Gary Burg, Bruce Edwards, Les Fallick, Nathanial Thomson and Gary Weiss as directors. Gary Weiss becomes deputy chairman while Michael Alscher was appointed as an alternate director to Thomson. The announcement come on the heels of a reshuffle revealed a week prior, which saw director Anthony Eisen and alternate director, Michael Jeffries, leave, and Ray Kellerman, Susan Thomas and Simon Swanson appointed.
 
ING Direct, the branchless bank brand of Dutch group ING, appointed Mark Woolnough as the new head of third party distribution in Australia after serving as head of broker distribution at the firm. 
 
The wealth management and investment division of Barclays hired Adeline Chien as senior managing director to service ultra-high net worth individuals in Hong Kong. Chien joined from EFG Bank in Hong Kong, where she was team head, responsible for serving high net worth clients in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. She reports to Rickie Chan, market head of Hong Kong at Barclays.
 
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the American private equity firm, announced the launch of its Asia-Pacific head office in Singapore led by Ming Lu, member and regional leader of South East Asia. KKR has invested more than US$1 billion in Asia since 2005 and is looking to further grow its business in the region.
 
Infocus Wealth Management, the Australian wealth firm, announced that its founding director Darren Steinhardt is leaving his role as managing director, but will remain with the firm to mentor and serve as brand ambassador. He will be replaced by Rod Bristow, who assumes the role of chief executive. Bristow was previously the chief operating officer at Infocus. 
 
Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation appointed Dennis Tan as the new head of consumer financial services Singapore and group premier banking. Tan joined the bank in 2009 as head of branch and group premier banking. Prior to that, he spent 16 years at Citibank Singapore, where he was a managing director for sales and distribution head of the global consumer banking unit. In addition to his new post, Tan also joins the OCBC Bank management committee. He reports directly to the chief operating officer. 
 
Eric Morin resigned from the French bank BNP Paribas to take up the role as head of Southeast Asia at Sarasin. His previous job title was head of wealth management international and other Asian markets, namely Korea, the Philippines and Thailand. He is set to join Sarasin by January 2013. Morin fills up the space left by Grace Barki, who resigned in June for the equivalent job at Royal Bank of Canada Wealth Management.
 
AXA Investment Managers appointed Qi Sun, an economist, for emerging Asia, based in Hong Kong. Sun joined from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority where he focused on China economy and financial reform. Qi is now part of the 12-person research and investment strategy team, led by Eric Chaney, head of research at AXA IM and chief economist of the AXA Group. He reports to Franz Wenzel, AXA IM chief strategist based in Paris.
 
SFG Australia, the wealth management firm formerly called Snowball Group, appointed Dan Powell as the new head of actuate advice for the B2B services business. Powell brings 25 years of wealth management experience to SFG Australia, most recently serving as director of corporate and IFA distribution at AMP. Prior to that, he worked as executive director of sales and marketing at ING Australia.
 
JP Morgan Worldwide Securities Services hired Michael Drumgoogle as head of direct custody and clearing for Asia-Pacific following the launch of its new branch in Hong Kong. Drumgoole joined from SetClear, where he used to be the deputy chief operating officer. The launch of the DCC platform is part of the company's global rollout strategy for the division
 
Alec Khoo, of Adelaide, South Australia, was banned from providing financial services for three years, after he was found to have offered unsound advice to clients, resulting in a “significant” loss on their investments. Khoo was an authorised representative of Professional Investment Services and provided financial advice to clients of his business known as Alec Khoo & Associates.
 
SinoPac Financial Holdings, the Taiwanese bank and asset management firm, named Steve Bernstein to lead its newly-created Hong Kong fund administration arm with effect from 1 December 2012. Bernstein has been providing consultant services to SinoPac over the past months through Inflection Point, his independent advisory practice in Hong Kong. He is expected to begin hiring for his projected 10-person team when he takes office. 
 
Australia and New Zealand Bank Asia chief executive Gilles Planté was named Asia-Pacific CEO in the latest bout of restructuring at the lender. Planté remains based in Hong Kong, reporting to Alex Thursby, CEO international and institutional banking. Vishnu Mohan, chief executive of Fiji, was appointed as CEO for the Pacific, reporting to Planté. Mohan replaced the previous Pacific CEO Michael Rowland, who took a new ANZ role as general manager, transformation, customer experience and business productivity.
 
BNP Paribas Wealth Management rehired Samir Bimal, a former employee, as the new managing director and chief executive for its onshore India business BNP Paribas Investment Services India Private. This followed his predecessor Sharad Sharma being promoted to lead the group’s wealth management unit in India. Based in Mumbai, Bimal reports to Stephane Honig, head of wealth management - Indian markets, and locally to Jacques Michel, CEO and country head of BNP Paribas Group India.