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Summary Of Asia-Pacific Wealth Management Executive Moves - April 2013

7 May 2013

Canberra-based financial planner Australian Unity Personal Financial Services named Jeff Mitchell as its new investment research head. Mitchell was previously the director of fund services as Standard & Poor's and, before that, served as co-head of wealth management for Australia.

Martin Currie Investment Management announced that Andrew Graham is taking over as head of Asia following the resignation of Jason McCay. McCay has been with the firm for 15 years and is leaving in the summer of 2013. Graham has worked for the company for nearly three years and, prior to the appointment, was co-manager of the Martin Currie Asia-Pacific and Martin Currie Asia Long Term Unconstrained Funds.

Managing Partners Limited, the Cayman Islands-based fund manager that specialises in alternative assets, named Benjamin Lim as business development director for Asia. Lim brings 15 years of industry experience to the role and had served as chief marketing officer for Allianz Global Investors in Asia prior to this move. He now reports to Jeremy Leach, managing director for MPL.

LGT Capital Partners, the Swiss investment firm, opened a new office in Beijing which will serves as the hub for its private equity investment activities in Mainland China. The new branch is led by Frankie Fang, the firm's Chinese representative since 2007.

UK-based equity manager Martin Currie appointed Paul Danes as chief executive of its newly-established Singapore office. Danes was previously an investment director. He is joined by Kimon Kouryialas as regional head, Mike Gibb as director, Liping Tan as equity dealer and Steven McCole as head of Asia-Pacific dealing. In a statement Martin Currie said that the new office is just timely as 50 per cent of the assets it manages are invested across Asia.

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management named Anurag Mahesh as head of wealth management coverage in Asia-Pacific. Mahesh was previously head of client assets in the discretionary and advisory units at the firm and sits on the Asia-Pacific executive and global investment committees. He reports to Ravi Raju, head of DeAWM Asia-Pacific.

Alex Thursby, chief executive for international and institutional banking at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, left the firm to take up a new CEO role at National Bank of Abu Dhabi. ANZ is looking at candidates internally and externally to fill the post. In the interim, Gilles Plane, CEO for Asia-Pacific, and Steve Bellotti, managing director for global markets and loans, assume Thursby's post, reporting to chief executive Mike Smith.

BNP Paribas Wealth Management appointed an additional team leader for non-resident Indians, Singapore and South East Asia. Dhananjai Cadambi joined the company in March and is now based in Singapore, reporting to Stephane Honig, head of Indian markets. Cadambi is responsible for relatonship managers dedicated to NRI clients in the city-state and South East Asia. Prior to this, he led the NRI team at Barclays Wealth before moving to Morgan Stanley, where he held a similar position for three years.

Asiya Investments of Kuwait opened a new office in Hong Kong and named executive directors Sulaiman Alireza and Dan Xystus as its heads. The company currently has 20 staff working out of the new branch.

Credit Agricole revealed that its Asian private banking chief executive Georges Zecchin is leaving the company in June this year to "pursue personal interests." The bank is currently looking for a replacement In the meantime, Youssef Dib, head of private banking in Geneva will supervise the Asian activities, while Serge Janoswki and Sen Sui remain respectively as chief executives of the Hong Kong and Singapore branches.

ANZ named former ABN AMRO senior private banking executive Arjan de Boer as its new head of private banking for North East Asia. De Boer is now based in Hong Kong and oversees the private banking operations in both Hong Kong and Taiwan. He will not assume his new role until 3 June 2013. His old post at ABN AMRO was assumed by Ian Pollock.

Westpac Banking subsidiary Ascalon Capital Managers announced Robert Lance as the new country head for Australia, taking over from Jason Collins who has joined BlackRock to become the head of the institutional client business. Lance was previously the co-founder and chief executive of Hong Kong asset manager Dragonback Capital. He now reports to Chuak Chan, chief executive.

Global investment manager BlackRock named Sabrina Gan as director and head of retail distribution in Singapore, responsible for mutual funds and iShares ETFs in the city-state. Gan was previously part of the intermediary retail team at Schroders Investment Management in Singapore.

Mirae Asset Securities, the brokerage arm of South Korea's Mirae Asset Financial, announced that it is reducing its Hong Kong staff numbers by around 20 by end of April 2013, in response to declining global market activity. The company made clear that it is not shutting its Hong Kong office down and that its wealth management operations are unaffected.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the New York investment firm, promoted Japan managing director and chief executive Shusaku Minoda to chairman of Japan. Minoda's former responsibilities were given to Hirofumi Hirano, who joined the company from AlixPartners Asia, where he served as MD and head of the Asia practice.

Australian investment manager Equity Trustees created a new senior role within its private wealth services business. Julie Foster took the position of national manager of advice and personal services, having previously worked for the likes of Tower Australia, Commonwealth Bank, Suncorp and Colonial. The new post is in line with preparations for the new Future of Financial Advice reforms, which will be mandatory by 1 July 2013.

BNY Mellon created a six-person equities team in Tokyo, Japan, led by Miyuki Kashima. Kashima and her group, composed of investment managers, analysts and a trader, joined from ING. She now reports locally to Shizu Kishimoto, representative director and president of BNY Mellon AM Japan, and functionally to Alan Harden, CEO for the Asia-Pacific investment management business.

After Bank of Queensland took over the retail financial services business of billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Group (Virgin Money Australia), it placed industry veteran Brian Bissaker as chief executive of the newly-acquired entity. Bissaker was previously a wealth consultant at Commonwealth Bank Group. The then-VMA managing director David Curneen left the business, but remains a consultant throughout the transition.

Bank of China Hong Kong appointed Zhu Yanlai as deputy chief executive, strategic planning and management, taking charge of the chief executive's office and the renminbi business. Zhu joined the group in October 2001 and was named assistant chief executive in May 2010. She has been part of Bank of China since 1997 and served the Canadian and Macau offices.

Global credit card provider American Express named Yat-Chung (YC) Koh to the position of president for Asia, card services and Susanna Lee to vice president and general manager for proprietary card services in Hong Kong. Koh added to his responsibility as head of the international consumer and small business services in the region. Lee was previously the vice president and general manager for global merchant services in East Asia.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has called a Credit Suisse advisor for violating certain sections of the Financial Advisors Act. The regulator reprimanded the Swiss bank's Singapore branch for allowing Toh Swee Beng to provide financial advisory services on its behalf even though he was not an appointed representative. Credit Suisse confirmed the incident and assured MAS that it has taken action.

Equity Trustees, the Australian wealth management and estate planning firm, appointed an interim chief investment officer while waiting for results of its takeover bid for The Trust Company. George Bourbouras joins the company from UBS Wealth Management, where he served as head of investment strategy and consulting.

Australia’s Russell Investments appointed Siva Sivakumaran as managing director, private client services. Prior to this role, Sivakumaran was the director for infrastructure. The investment division will take care of manufacturing and managing multi-asset solutions for clients. The Australian investments team will be led by Symon Parish, chief investment officer, and supported by a team of investment professionals both offshore and in Australia, including Andrew Sneddon, MD and portfolio manager for multi-asset solutions in Australia, and Graham Harman, senior investment strategist for Asia-Pacific.

The firm is currently conducting a global search for a new managing director for the institutional business as Michael Clarke, the previous MD, left the company to join Challenger Financial.

Suncorp Group, the Australia and New Zealand focused banking and wealth management firm, named a new chief investment officer. Nick Basile gave up his chief executive post at Presima, the real estate fund management arm of National Australia Bank, to assume this key position.

Crescent Wealth, the Australian wealth management firm, strengthened its board with the addition of several known names in the asset management, banking and Islamic wealth management industries. The new Global Advisory board will consist of six members, namely Dr Jamil Jaroudi, chief executive of Nizwa Bank (Oman), Spiro Pappas, CEO of National Australia Bank Asia, Wadah Khantar, former Al Jazeera director general, Toby O'Connor, CEO of Islamic Bank of Asia, Ian Buchanan, a corporate advisory veteran, and John A Sandwick, a Swiss private banker specialising in Islamic structures.

Standard Life plans to set up a hub in Hong Kong to oversee and support its Asia and Emerging Markets unit. The company intends to hire about 20-30 people in Hong Kong and approximately 10 people in Singapore and Dubai.  It will be creating new roles in business development, product services and development, sales and marketing and operations. The new hub, to be rolled out over the next 12 months, will be headed by Alan Armitage, chief executive of Asia and Emerging Markets, who is already based in Hong Kong.

UBS announced a raft of senior management promotions. Betty Tsui will be appointed vice chairman wealth management China, reporting to Kathryn Shih. Ruth Chung will be appointed as regional market manager for wealth management China 1 (the China role is split). Francis Liu will be appointed as regional market manager for wealth management China 2. Meanwhile, Jean Claude Humair will assume sole responsibility as regional market manager for the wealth management Hong Kong market. In addition, he will be appointed as deputy chief executive for wealth management Hong Kong.  Chung, Liu and Humair will all report to Allen Lo, chief executive, Hong Kong, UBS Wealth Management.

BlackRock continues its Asia-Pacific buildout with the appointment of a new global capital markets head. Scott Greenberg moves to Hong Kong from New York to assume this new position, which will have him responsible for developing equity and debt investment opportunities for BlackRock clients in the region. At present, the company operates comparable GCM teams from the London and New York offices. He reports to Steve Sterling, head of GCM, and Mark Desmidt, Asia-Pacific head of alpha strategies.

Jupiter Fund Management, the London-based fund house, is building its Asian team after receiving a type 1 license to operate in Hong Kong. Peter Swarbeck, previously the managing director and head of Hong Kong at BlackRock Asset Management, is now head of Asia-Pacific, while Tony Yu, who joined the firm in January from Franklin Templeton, is to become sales director for Hong Kong.

Coutts, the private bank, appointed David Lam as managing director and head of North Asia, effective from 29 May, having previously worked at GAM, the investment house, in Hong Kong. Ignatius (Iggy) Chong, who was overseeing the North Asia function on an interim basis, will now focus on his roles as market head, Hong Kong and chairman of the Coutts Institute Asia.

Citi is stepping up efforts to grow its trust business in Hong Kong with the appointment of a new chief executive for CitiTrust. Stewart Aldcroft assumes the role of chief executive to lead the CitiTrust team in developing new initiatives and growing its client base in Asia-Pacific. He reports to David Russell, regional head for securities and fund services Asia-Pacific.

Standard Chartered strengthened its Hong Kong/China research capability with a new head. Dorris Chen joins as head of China financials research after holding a similar position at BNP Paribas. She also previously worked at China International Capital Corporation, where she covered the China insurance market.

Income Partners, the Hong Kong-based asset management firm, lost one of its senior executives following a realignment effort that will have the company focus on liquid credit strategies. Jiffriy Chandra stepped down as partner, having been with the company since 1998. He used to lead the firm's private capital initiative, which has been scrapped in favour of increased focus on its core liquid business. Chandra has moved on to create a new private capital business, TransAsia Private Capital, with Eddie Wong, the former CEO of Hong Kong's Winnington Capital.

OCBC saw its head of financial institutions credit risk management switch over to its private banking arm, Bank of Singapore, at the same time bagging a top-level promotion. William Shak joined Bank of Singapore earlier this year as its global chief risk officer, replacing Leander Jansen, who left for personal reasons.

Scott Duncan at Sarasin was promoted to vice chair client advisory, from his previous role of managing director at the bank.

Manulife Financial bolstered its growth strategy in Asia with four senior appointments at its Singapore business. John Curtis is now senior vice president and chief distribution officer for Singapore, responsible for overseeing agency distribution, partnership distribution in bank and financial advisory channels, training and quality assurance. KK Loo assumes the role of chief agency officer, after serving as chief of the accident and health business for Manulife Singapore. He reports to Curtis.