Europe

Mauro Costa has joined Banca Arner Italy as president. He joins from UBS where, since 2005, he served as vice president in Monte Carlo. He was also chief executive of Italy from 2001.

He will share with current managing director Davide Jarach, managing director, the task of developing the Italian private banking business.

Arner Bank has recently revamped its management structure with a new post of general manager, to be filled by Arner senior executive Giulio Romani.

Merrill Lynch appointed Lucia Granda as market leader for Iberia, Global Wealth Management, and has made three senior appointments, adding wealth structuring and discretionary services to the advisory solutions it offers clients. 

Ms Granda joined Merrill as an equity research analyst in 1997, covering the telecom industry, and became a GWM financial advisor in 2006.  Prior to joining Merrill, she was a research analyst with Beta Capital where she covered companies from several sectors in Spain. In her new role, she will be based in Madrid and will report to Gilles Dard, GWM Market Leader for Continental Europe.

Alberto Spagnolo joins as head of GWM’s Iberia discretionary business. Mr Spagnolo has 12 years experience of managing multi asset portfolios. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, he worked at M&B Capital Advisers, an independent Spanish investment firm, where he had became a partner in 2005. Before that he held a variety of investment roles at BBVA.

Regis Molowny joins Merrill Lynch as head of Wealth Structuring for Iberia.  He was previously with Cuatrecasas, a prominent Spanish law firm, where he became a senior advisor of the Financial and Tax Department after 12 years.

Carlos Chacón has been appointed as head of Risk Management for GWM’s Iberia discretionary business. Most recently, Mr Chacón was head of Control at March Gestión de Fondos SGIIC.

Mr Spagnolo, Mr Molowny, and Mr Chacón report to Ms Granda and will be based in Madrid.  

Border Gestion Privée, the Paris subsidiary of Bordier et Cie, a Geneva based private bank, appointed Christophe Burtin as managing director and Charles Brunswick as associate director.

Mr Burtin was until recently responsible for a team of private bankers at Rothchild & Cie Gestion in Paris responsible for developing the domestic high net worth market. In the new role, he will focus on French resident clients alongside Jacques Van Zuelen who is managing director for international clients.

Mr Brunswick has also been hired out of Rothschild & Cie Gestion in Paris where he managed a book of high and ultra-high net worth clients.

Troika Dialog, the Russian bank, has recruited Renaissance Investment Management’s head of wealth management, Alexey Ischenko, to its private banking operation.

A new head of private banking has been appointed by UniCredit Group, as part of a number of senior management changes by the Italian bank.

Marina Natale, who has been head of mergers and acquisition and business development at the group since 1998, has been appointed to the role. In her new position, she will report to Sergio Ermotti, deputy chief executive. She replaces Dario Frigerio, who will focus on his role as head of the asset management division.

Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, chief executive of Bank Pakeo, a Polish bank that is part of UniCredit, has been appointed to UniCredit's management committee. The Italian bank also appointed Gabriele Piccini, the head of the retail division in Italy, to its management committee.

US fund manager Pioneer Investments has appointed Sophie del Campo as country head for Spain and Portugal, reporting to Jose Castellano, head of Spain, Portugal and Latin America.

Ms del Campo was previously head of sales for Credit Agricole Asset Management in Madrid. Prior to that, she worked with ING Group and

Austrian-based banking group Raiffeisenbank has appointed Andrey Voklov as head of its private banking operations in Russia, joining from Renaissance Investment Management.

In his role, Mr Voklov will be responsible for developing and implementing the division's strategy for working with high net worth individuals, setting the division's tasks and monitoring their execution, and expanding the range of products and services offered to wealthy clients.

Besides Renaissance, he has worked at Citi in various managerial positions.

Merrill Lynch has appointed a wealth structurer to its wealth management unit in the Benelux region of Europe, hiring Charlotte Hultman, who joins from Glitnir Bank, where she was director of wealth management. In her new role, she will be based in Luxembourg and report to Steen Foldberg, Global Wealth Management market director for Luxembourg, Merrill Lynch.

One of the most senior executives at Liechtenstein Global Trust, Heinz Nipp, is to leave LGT at the end of this year after serving at the Alpine state-based firm for 26 years.

Most recently, Mr Nipp held the position of chairman of wealth management for Asia.

Stefan Duchateau, president of Belgian-based firm KBC Asset Management, has decided to leave the KBC group for personal reasons.

Antoon Termote, who is a senior general manager responsible for payments at the KBC group will be proposed as new president of the KBC Asset Management executive committee.

Thames River Capital has appointed Mike Juraschek as sales manager for Germany.  Based in Frankfurt, he will be responsible for further developing Thames River's presence in Germany.

Mr Juraschek was most recently a freelance sales consultant acting as an advisor to a number of banks and financial institutions.

Fawzi Kyriakos-Saad has been appointed chief executive of Credit Suisse Russia/

In his new capacity, Mr Kyriakos-Saad will be responsible for private capital, investment banking and asset management in Russia. He will be based in Moscow and will report to Eric Varvel, Credit Suisse chief executive for EMEA. Mr Kyriakos-Saad’s previous role was as Credit Suisse general director for Russia, the CIS and Turkey.

Merrill Lynch has appointed four financial advisors from Fortis Private Investment Management and Bank Degroof to strengthen its wealth management business in the Netherlands.  The four will form a team based in Amsterdam and will report to Geoffrey Bruyn, market leader for the Netherlands, Global Wealth Management, Merrill Lynch.  

Joining Merrill Lynch from Fortis PIM are Martijn Duijnstee, Rob van Duist and Floris van Zinnicq Bergmann. Jeroen van Lom joins from Bank Degroof. All four have extensive private banking experience, according to a statement from Merrill.

Prior to Fortis PIM, Mr Duijnstee, Mr Van Duist and Mr van Zinnicq Bergmann worked as senior financial advisors for banks including ING, MeesPierson, Prudential-Bache and Dryden. Before Bank Degroof, Mr van Lom worked as a financial advisor for Van der Moolen, ITC and Intal.

UK

SG Hambros, part of SG Private Banking appointed Mayssoun Habra as senior private banker. Based in London, Ms Habra will report to Phil McIlwraith, SG Hambros group commercial director and to Patrick Thiriet, global market manager for the Middle East at SG Private Banking in Dubai.

Ms Habra joins from the National Bank of Dubai in London.

Swiss wealth manager Julius Baer hired Stephen Moore in new role of head of sales for the UK. He joins from Threadneedle Asset Management.

London-headquartered Collins Stewart Fund Management hired Mike Brown as head of fund sales, joining from Investec Asset Management.

Axa & Winterthur Wealth Management appointed a new senior sales team led by David Thompson, managing director of sales and marketing. The new team includes Linda Wallace, national sales director, north, and Frank Parsons, national sales director, south. Mike Morrow will take the position of head of business transition and development. Nick Lee was appointed head of marketing and value added services in 2007 and will also be joining Thompson’s team, reports said.

Terry Townsend will be head of key accounts and Mark Steers will be head of financial institutions and ABL.

Kerry Duffain joined multi-fund alternative asset manager BlueCrest Capital Management as head of its UK institutional business, coming from Pioneer Global Investments. 

UK-based Europe Arab Bank hired Moorad Choudhry as head of treasury. Previously, Mr Choudhry was head of treasury at KBC Financial Products.

Close Investments, part of the UK-listed Close group, has switched a team to run its smaller companies funds after Andrew Buchanan and Kate Tidbury moved to Octopus Investments.

Deryck Noble-Nesbitt is arriving from Close Private Asset Management to head the team with the help of Sam Barton, who is joining from Unicorn Asset Management.

The Paris-headquartered investment management firm bfinance appointed a senior managers for its London offices.

Mathias Neidert has been hired as a senior research associate, reporting to managing director of research and development, Olivier Cassin.  He will carry out manager selection projects over multiple asset classes, from the initial quantitative screening of the manager universe to the qualitative assessment of individual managers.

Previously, he worked for the global custodian and fund administrator RBC Dexia in Luxembourg. Meanwhile, the firm has also hired two new analysts, Fredrik Hallberg and Philippe Letscher, starting on 4 August and 1 September 2008 respectively.

Meanwhile, Miranda Barham takes up responsibility by bfinance for its marketing and communications strategies in all of its markets, currently Europe, North America and the Middle East. She previously was associate director with the public affairs and strategic communications consultancy, at APCO Worldwide.

The Financial Services Authority, the UK financial regulator, has appointed the former managing director of the Cheltenham & Gloucester mortgage lender firm as its new head of its retail markets section. The FSA said Jon Pain will be managing director of Retail Markets and also join the FSA’s board.

Antoine Sreih was confirmed as chief executive officer of London-based Europe Arab Bank. He took over on an acting basis from Phillip Monks who resigned in April to pursue other opportunities.

Mr Sreih was previously appointed chief operating officer and executive board member of EAB in December 2005 and has held several senior appointments within the Arab Bank Group.

UK wealth management firm Rathbone Brothers is to take on another 20 staff at its Liverpool offices, increasing its workforce in the northwestern city to more than 300 people.

Helvetica Wealth Management Partners has hired John Stanton as general manager of its Philharmonic suite of funds of hedge funds.

The London-based Brooks Macdonald wealth management group has expanded its mortgages and employee benefits teams. Steve Smith has joined Brooks Macdonald Financial Consulting from Andersen Charnley as senior mortgage consultant and Rebecca Rowntree has joined as employee benefits consultant from Thomsons Online Benefits. 

WAY Group, a UK private financial services business, added to its sales force to increase its penetration of the UK independent financial advisory sector.

Rod Smith, a chartered financial planner, joins as regional sales manager for London. Peter Atkins, meanwhile, takes on responsibility for the South and South East. WAY’s North East region will be managed by Les Lamb who joins from Isle of Man Assurance Company.

At UK private bank Brown Shipley, Gordon Campbell takes up his role as private client senior manager at the new Birmingham office. David Craig will join to lead the team later in 2008 as private client director when his notice period has expired.

Rensburg Sheppards Investment Management appointed Chris Ring as a senior investment director in its private client team. Mr Ring joins from Shore Capital.

UBS Wealth Management has arranged to replace all client advisors who are leaving the discretionary investment management business to join  startup firm Vestra. Some Forty new staff have been recruited for the UK discretionary business, 18 of whom are client advisors. The new hires are both internal and external.

Angela Kellock and Angela Hughes, who work in Smith & Williamson’s Private Client Tax Services department, have been promoted to director and associate director, respectively, while Kirsty Smith has been promoted to director in the National Assurance Technical Group. Smith & Williamson also added to its Bristol office with the appointment of Sue Faiers to the role of associate director in its financial services team.

Ms Faiers has more than 22 years experience and has spent the past 17 years working within the independent financial services sector.

Two investment management teams have joined Charles Stanley’s asset management arm following its acquisition in April of the UK private client stockbroking business of Insinger de Beaufort. The two teams, led by Frank Martin and Elissa Bayer, will add total funds under management of over £250 million.

Barclays Wealth, has expanded its financial planning team in Edinburgh, and the appointment of four new financial planners, led by Jamie Corcoran.

Graeme Inglis, joins Barclays Wealth from the HBOS, Paul Turnbull, previously worked at HSBC, Richard Fletcher, from Albanach and Andy Winnington, have joined the new team.

Douglas Noble has been promoted to office head in Edinburgh.  In the new position, Mr Noble will oversee the firm’s private banking and investment management divisions, reporting to Mark Little, regional director in Scotland.  Mr Noble joined Barclays Wealth from Adam Bank last year. Meanwhile, Simon Racle, the head of Barclays Wealth's regional offices in Manchester, has resigned.

James Field, a director within the private client advisory team at the wealth management arm of UBS has resigned from the firm.

Rothschild Private Banking & Trust has appointed three senior private bankers to its UK teams, adding to a number of recent appointments.

Richard Jennings, James Fairbairn and Nicholas Barran will join Rothschild from UK-based fund management firm GAM. Their appointment follows those of Philip Stevens and Amanda Lyons from UBS earlier this year as senior private bankers based in London.

Baring Asset Management appointed Quintin Ings-Chambers as director, responsible for leading business development activities for the private clients division across London and Guernsey. He joins from wealth management firm Rensburg Sheppards.

International private client law firm Withers has moved partner Julian Lipson up to head its family law practice. Mr Lipson is expected to lead the international expansion of Withers’ family practice in response to a

South Africa-based Standard Bank appointed Steven Bowen from JPMorgan as head of its private client trust business in Jersey. Prior to joining Standard Bank, Mr Bowen worked for JP Morgan for over twenty years.

Jeremy Hippolite is joining Credit Suisse as a director and product specialist in asset management for its multi asset class solutions business. Mr Hippolite joins from Coutts, where he was a senior specialist private banker.

Brewin Dolphin, the UK private client investment manager, appointed Jonathon Croggon as divisional director for the UK South West.

UK-listed Standard Chartered Bank appointed Richard Holmes as chief executive, Europe. Mr Holmes was previously chairman and chief executive of American Express Bank.

Investec Bank (Channel Islands) hired Kevin Allen to take over from Tony Grimes as head of its new Jersey branch. Mr Grimes moves to be head of risk and compliance in Jersey.

Mr Allen joins from Royal Bank of Scotland International, where he was head of portfolios in the offshore real estate finance team.

UK-based Lloyds TSB Wealth Management appointed a US banker, Tracy McCarthy, as its regional sales director for central England. Ms McCarthy joins from Mellon Private Wealth in the US.

JPMorgan Private Bank appointed a senior Bear Stearns manager to its private banking team in London. Darren McDermott will join its UK operation.

Global investment manager BlackRock appointed Alexis De Mones as global product specialist in its London fixed income team. Mr de Mones reports to Michelle Scrimgeour, chief operating officer, institutional fixed income, at BlackRock. Mr de Mones joins from ABN Amro Asset Management.

Credit Suisse appointed James Leigh-Pemberton as chief executive officer in the UK, reporting to Eric Varvel, EMEA region chief executive. Mr Leigh-Pemberton, the son of former Bank of England Governor Robin Leigh-Pemberton, will be responsible for the private banking, investment banking and asset management client business in the UK and will be charged with finding synergies between the divisions.

UK private bank Brown Shipley, a subsidiary of Belgian-owned KBL, hired Richard Moore as banking services director to work in its regional office in Manchester. He joins from RBS-owned private bank Adam & Co. Brown Shipley also recruited Edinburgh-based Graham Auld from rival Deutsche Tilney. It will open a new client office in the Scottish city’s centre. Mr Auld will be joined by Victoria Drysdale, who also comes from Deutsche Tilney.

Pauline Gale, head of trusts at the London operation of Royal Bank of Canada Wealth Management, has left, the bank has confirmed.

RBC Wealth Management has made two appointments, taking Konstantinos Dedes as a private banker from Julius Baer. Mr Dedes will focus on growing RBC’s private client base through his contacts in Greece and Cyprus. Mr Dedes reports to Mark Evans, Head of Global Wealth Management at. Meanwhile, Roberto Islas has joined as a private banker from Clariden, the Swiss bank.

Ascentric, a UK firm offering wrap services for investments, appointed David Harvey as IT director and Alex Mitchell as programme manager.

Ermitage Asset Management appointed Daniel Eichner as head of relative value strategies. He joins the Jersey-headquartered firm from rival US-based fund-of-funds manager Lighthouse.

Donald Pepper is joining London-based New Star from Merrill Lynch International in September 2008. He will lead its ten-strong hedge fund team, looking after both its single-manager funds and funds of funds.

Nucleus Financial Group, the wrap platform that offers clients access to tax-advantaged investment products, legal expertise and funds, has appointed Neil Howitt as finance director. He joins from St. James’s Place Wealth Management Group where he was finance development director.

UK boutique investment manager Dawnay Day Quantum has hired Catherine Halford as sales manager.  She will be responsible for clients in the Midlands and South-West of England as well as a number of key London clients.

Ms Halford joins from JP Morgan Asset Management.

Paul Sheriff, finance director of UK-listed Arbuthnot Group, parent of private bank Arbuthnot Latham, has resigned to take up a position as chief financial officer with listed alternatives manager Record Group.

International
A former senior manager at Deutsche Bank has been appointed chief executive of a joint venture wealth management business set up by Australian bank Macquarie and India's Religare Wealth Management Services.

Vikas Agnihotri will be CEO of Religare Macquarie Wealth Management, the firm said. Mr Agnihotri will oversee the business operations based in the head office in Mumbai and shall be responsible for taking key decisions, designing strategies and successful implementation, with the focus on creating, preserving and growing wealth.

He will report to the six-member company board which has an equal representation from both Religare and Macquarie.

At his previous role at Deutsche Bank, Mr Agnihotri was the commercial director private and business clients. Prior to Deutsche, he worked at Standard Chartered Bank in various senior leadership positions such as sales director–consumer banking, head of service consumer, regional head branch banking–west and national manager of channel development & projects.

Janus Capital International, the international arm of US Janus Capital Group, has hired Fidelity International  executive Michael Jones as head of  financial institutions for the firm’s European business.
In this new position, he will be based at Janus Capital’s London office with responsibility for overseeing and developing the firm’s business with discretionary wealth managers and private banks as well as investment banks, global asset managers and multi-manager organisations. He will report directly to Erich Gerth, chief executive officer of Janus Capital International.

Mr Jones was most recently head of wholesale at Fidelity International, where his group looked after three client segments of the business, covering wealth management, including private banks, family offices, retail bank distribution arms, fund of funds and insurance companies. He will join Janus in September 2008.  

HSBC Global Asset Management has promoted Phil Reid to the position of head of External Distribution, Wholesale. He was previously head of Private Bank Distribution, a role he had had since joining the organisation in January 2007.

In a statement, HSBC Global Asset Management said that Mr Reid will continue to lead the important relationship with HSBC Private Bank, in addition to the intermediary client base. 

Additionally, Dan Rudd, previously head of UK External Distribution, has been appointed head of Wholesale for HSBC Global Asset Management in the Middle East, North Africa region. Mr Rudd has relocated to Dubai and will build up the presence of HSBC Global Asset Management among wholesale clients in the MENA region.

Mr Reid and Mr Rudd both report to Andy Clark, managing director, at HSBC Global Asset Management in the UK and MENA region.

Mr Clark said that the HSBC Global Asset Management proposition continues to gather momentum and that the multi-asset HSBC Openfunds range had raised £137 million ($273 million) since launch in November 2006.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has confirmed the appointment of Jeremy Jensen, Justin Ong and Steven Crosby as the new regional leaders of its Global Private Banking & Wealth Management practice. The trio have taken over the leadership of the practice from long-standing PwC wealth management supremo Bruce Weatherill who has recently left the firm to start his own consulting business.

With Mr Jensen based in London, Mr Ong in Singapore and Mr Crosby in New York, the new leaders will be responsible for the coordination of advisory and assurance services to wealth managers in EMEA, Asia Pacific and the Americas respectively.

CB Richard Ellis Investors, a global real estate investment management firm, has made three senior appointments to its global multi-manager business. The appointments are the latest in a series of senior-level hires made by the business. 

Ian Gleeson joins the team as chief investment officer. Based in London, he will have overall investment responsibility for the GMM investment programmes. He joins from Morley Fund Management where he was head of international property multi-manager, with responsibility for global mandates.

Scott Brown joins as managing director, Americas.  Based in Boston, he will lead the American operations and will be responsible both for developing the investor client base in the region and GMM’s investments in the US, Canada, Mexico and South America. He was formerly a principal and head of global real estate at Ennis Knupp & Associates, a US multi-asset consulting firm, where he established the real estate practice. 

New York-listed hedge fund firm GLG Partners has poached two senior managers from US investment bank Morgan Stanley.

GLG said it has appointed Karim Abdel-Motaal and Bart Turtelboom as co-heads of a number of GLG funds. They will be based in London.

Prior to Morgan Stanley, Mr Abdel-Motaal worked as a trader at Tudor Capital, where he managed one of that firm’s emerging markets trading books and at JP Morgan, where he was the global head of emerging local markets research for five years.

Mr Turtelboom joined Morgan Stanley in 2004 from Vega Asset Management, where he was an emerging markets portfolio manager. Prior to this, he was a director at Deutsche Bank in London, where he was responsible for covering Deutsche Bank’s large clients in emerging markets.

GLG said it had appointed Driss Ben-Brahim, who oversees Goldman’s emerging-markets trading. He has been targeted by GLG to help expand its special-situations business.

The job will include running the roughly $1.2 billion emerging-markets special-situations fund that is now run by Greg Coffey, the GLG fund manager who is leaving the firm in October.

Switzerland
Bermuda-headquartered Butterfield Bank has named Cornelio Cappelletti as the managing director of Butterfield Asset Management (Switzerland). The Zurich-based offshoot specialises in providing wealth management services to private clients.

Mr Cappelletti will report to Jim Parker, Butterfield’s country head for Switzerland. He has held senior positions at Credit Suisse, Wetzikon, St Gallische Kantonalbank and Linthgebiet and was chief executive officer at Sparkasse Horgen before leaving to join a partnership specialising in asset management. He replaces Iain Little, who has left the bank.

Swiss bank Julius Baer said its board of directors has proposed to elect Leonhard Fischer, its co-chief executive officer for election to the board of directors at next year’s annual meeting.

Mr Fischer is also a member of the board of directors of RHJ International and former chief executive of the Winterthur Group and member of the executive board of the Credit Suisse Group.

Manuel Echeverría, chief executive of Geneva-based Santander-owned Optimal Investment Services is leaving the alternative investments manager.

Mr Echeverría is leaving to pursue a new business venture and will be replaced by his deputy, Esteban Estevez.

Four of Optimal’s managers are also leaving. Caron Bastianpillai, head of long/short equity, Hugh Burnaby-Atkins, head of relative-value and global macro, Sebastien Poiret, co-manager of the Optimal Global Trading fund and Balkir Zihnali, a US Opportunities fund manager are leaving.

Swiss private bank, Bank Sarasin has hired between 15 and 20 private client advisors from Credit Suisse for its Basel operation.

Sarasin was not currently able to provide details of the names or when they are due to join.

The hires are part of chief executive officer Joachim Straehle’s, target to increase the numbers of client advisors at the Swiss private bank from 295 to 400 by the end of the year.

Last month it was announced that Werner Rueegg will take over as head of Bank Sarasin’s business unit Private Banking Basel from 1 January 2009, succeeding Thomas Vonaesch, who will concentrate on looking after selected clients based in Basel.

Mr Rueegg will join Bank Sarasin on 1 September 2008, also from Credit Suisse, where he was most recently regional manager for Northwest Switzerland and head of the Private Banking unit for that region.

Swiss-headquartered Arner Bank has revamped its management structure with a new post of general manager, to be filled by Arner senior executive Giulio Romani.

Mr Romani, who has spent 22 years at the bank, has been a member of its executive board since 2006. He will continue to be on the boards of directors of several affiliates of the Arner Group. Meanwhile, he will be joined in his new role by Piero Colonna and Oscar Crameri as members of general management.

Jacques Schrämli, former president of the executive board, will join the board of directors of Arner Bank.

The move has not been made as a result of the house arrest in May this year of Nicola Bravetti, a former manager at the bank, contrary to some media reports, a spokesperson for the bank told WealthBriefing.  He has since left Arner Bank.

The changes to Arner Bank’s management structure had been discussed some time before the Bravetti matter, the spokesperson said.

Dr Martin Sieg has been named the new chief financial officer of the Swiss-based Vontobel Group.
He will replace Dr Axel May, who will pursue a new challenge outside the group.

Dr Sieg joins from Zürcher Kantonalbank where he has held various management functions since 1994.  He was most recently a member of the Executive Board and head of Investment & Private Banking.

He previously also headed equities and equity derivatives trading, treasury and asset management at the cantonal bank. 

Clariden Leu, the Zurich-based private bank owned by Credit Suisse, has appointed a team of six relationship managers and one assistant for its Basel office.

The team, which is joining towards the end of the year, is currently at Basel-based Bank Sarasin, and is headed by Andreas Schwendeler, who will take over as head of the unit.

The current head of the Basel office, Peter Ettlin, will become head of the family offices/EAM department and will act as deputy head of the Basel unit.

International law firm Baker & McKenzie has significantly expanded its private banking team in Switzerland by hiring five lawyers bringing its team to 23. 

Brice Thionnet, who is a Swiss tax lawyer, joined Baker & McKenzie Geneva from the Zurich law firm of Altenburger. 

Another Swiss and French Tax lawyer, Rémi Sacerdote, joined Baker & McKenzie Geneva from the Geneva law firm of Borel & Barbey. 

After practicing law with Interpol and Herbert Smith, Cindy Chambaud, joins Baker & McKenzie Geneva private banking team. 

Brent Vanderbrook joins Baker & McKenzie Zurich from the Denver, Colorado firm of Sherman & Howard, where he was a member of the firm's private client practice for five years. 

Michael Parets joins Baker & McKenzie Zurich from the New York law firm of Katten Muchen Rosenmann. Formerly, Mr Parets was with the law firm of Day, Berry & Howard, the successor firm to Hughes & Whittaker. 

These five lawyers are in addition to three previous hires in Zurich, Dharshi Wijetunga, from Baker & McKenzie in Singapore, Fabricio Gonzalez, from Baker & McKenzie Barcelona, and Milan Patel, formerly a tax litigator with the US Internal Revenue Service.

Credit Suisse has lost two senior long serving client facing managers in Zurich.

Marc Sulser, who observers have described as a driving force for building up Latin America private banking activities for Credit Suisse in Switzerland in Zurich, resigned at the end of June.

Mr Sulser is believed to have joined Julius Baer in Zurich.

Also leaving Credit Suisse is Elena Geltner who is believed to have 20 years advisory activities in the Spanish market.

Asia Pacific
Goldman Sachs has appointed Kaven Leung, the recently departed head of Citi’s wealth management business in Asia to a new role as deputy head of Asia private wealth management, starting at the end of the summer.

Mr Leung will report to David Voon, Goldman’s wealth management head in Asia, and will be based in Hong Kong. Part of his remit will be to extend the firm’s wealth and investment management partnership.

Mr Leung was managing private bankers in Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and India.

Deepak Sharma, who heads Citi's global wealth management outside the US, will take on the additional responsibility of chief executive Asia-Pacific.

The departure of Mr Leung comes three months after Tan Su Shan rejoined Morgan Stanley in Asia after leaving her role as head of Citi Private Bank’s wealth management business in Singapore.

Financial Risk Management, a global fund of hedge funds group with offices in Europe, Asia, North America and Australia, has hired Au King-lun as chief executive officer of FRM Hong Kong.

Dr Au will lead FRM’s business efforts in Asia ex Japan and Korea and will also head FRM’s newly-opened Hong Kong office.

He will join FRM in September from HSBC, where he has been working for the past 11 years, most recently as head of institutional business, Asia Pacific, for HSBC Global Asset Management  in Hong Kong.

Barclays Wealth has hired Vishal Jain as a director, focusing on the ultra-high net worth market in India.  Mr Jain joins the firm from Citi. In his most recent position, he worked as a senior client coverage banker with Citigroup Private Bank and was a founding member of a team that was tasked with setting up the private banking business in India.

In his role with Barclays Wealth, Mr Jain will be responsible for developing key client relationships.  He will be based in Mumbai and will report to Satya Bansal, chief executive of Barclays Wealth India.

Northern Trust has appointed Florence Chua as head of operations in its Singapore office. The position is a new one, aimed at supporting the company’s continued plans for growth in the region.

Ms Chua joins Northern Trust from Citi, where she has worked in various regional functions in securities and fund services over the past 11 years.  

US-based banking giant Citi said the head of Asia-Pacific wealth management business, who has been in charge of nearly 2,000 people, has resigned.

ING, the global financial services group, has hired Alliance Trust's chief executive to head its Asian fund arm, filling a vacancy created in January when ING's previous Asia fund chief was poached.

The firm said Alan Harden would take up the role of chief executive of ING Investment Management Asia/Pacific by the end of the year. London-listed Alliance was quoted as saying that Mr Harden's resignation would take effect from a date in the autumn "yet to be agreed".

Mr Harden was hired as chief executive of Scotland-based Alliance in 2004. Developments during his tenure included recruiting Katherine Garrett-Cox as chief investment officer and the growth of its financial services business.

ING said before this Mr Harden spent more than 20 years in Asia and the Middle East working for Standard Chartered and several investment management firms, including three and a half years as the Asia Pacific regional head of Citigroup Asset Management.

Mr Harden would also be appointed to ING Investment Management's global management board and become a member of ING Group's management council, the firm said.

He will be based in Hong Kong and report to Hans van der Noordaa, head of ING Insurance Asia/Pacific.

Four senior staff at ABN Amro India have quit to join IndusInd Bank, a so-called new generation bank with connections to the prominent Hinduja brothers.

Anish Behl will head the strategy and wealth management division, Ramesh Ganesan has joined as head of transaction banking, Sanjeev Anand as head of small and medium enterprises, while Soumitra Sen will be the new head of branch distribution.

Romesh Sobti, IndusInd Bank's managing director and chief  executive officer, was earlier the country head of ABN Amro.

US-based Merrill Lynch has appointed Antony Hung as the head of wealth management for the Pacific Rim region, the bank has confirmed. He has worked at the firm for 15 years.

Mr Hung, who continues to be a member of the Pacific Rim operating committee, will head Merrill Lynch's wealth management unit in the Pacific Rim region (Asia and Australia).

He will report to Bob McCann, president of Global Wealth Management, and Jason Brand, president for Merrill Lynch in the Pacific Rim.

Previously, Mr Hung was heading the Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities division for the Pacific Rim and he would continue to hold the post till his successor is appointed.

As the head of FICC division, he was responsible for all sales, trading, liability management and structuring of fixed income, currencies and commodities products, along with principal investments in the region.

Mr Hung joined Merrill Lynch in 1993 in fixed income sales covering Greater China.

RBS has appointed Paul Davies as head of ABN Amro’s private client business in India, recently acquired by the RBS group. Following a transition phase, the business in India will operate under the RBS Coutts brand, the international private banking arm of the group.

Mr Davies has held senior positions at NatWest Bank and Coutts in the UK and Switzerland. He moved to Singapore in 2000 to assume the role of head of private banking, Asia Pacific and was subsequently chief executive officer of Coutts Asia Pacific. He has been seconded from RBS Coutts, where he is currently responsible for business and strategy development for RBS Coutts’ business globally outside the UK.

He leads a team comprising about 60 staff in five branches in India, including 30 private bankers.
Bank Sarasin-Rabo ( Asia), the Singapore-based subsidiary of Bank Sarasin, has confirmed Reto Marx as head of south-east Asia, responsible for marketing and business activities, as reported by WealthBriefing in May 2008.

Mr Marx reports directly to Enid Yip, chief executive officer, Asia. He joins Sarasin from Credit Suisse Private Banking Singapore, where he was most recently the market head responsible for the Asia international wealth management team - including coverage of external asset managers - as well as market leader for Australia.  

Hong Kong-based hedge fund SAIL Advisors has hired Goldman Sachs managing director Vincent Duhamel as its new chief executive.

Mr Duhamel will replace Eliza Lau, who previously served as both chief executive and chief investment officer. The firm said Ms Lau would remain as chief investment officer and continue to oversee its portfolios, reporting to Mr Duhamel. The firm had about $2.5 billion in assets under management at the end of June 2008.

SAIL was established in 2003 by Search Investment Group, the family office of SAIL chairman Robert Miller, who co-founded the retail chain Duty Free Shoppers.

Citi has appointed Hak Bin Chua as its head of research for Singapore, joining from Deutsche Wealth Management.

In his previous role, he was Chief Asian Strategist. At Citi, Mr Chua will report to Adrian Faure, head of Citi Investment Research Asia Pacific and will continue to be based in Singapore.

Linedata Services, the Paris-based IT firm, has appointed Andrew Miller to the role of heading the business’s Asian operations with a brief to significantly expand the company's presence in the region.

Before joining Linedata, Mr Miller was managing director of Xinhua Finance for the Asia Pacific region where he was responsible for sales, operations, technological development of solutions and human resources.

Andreas  Kuhnle has been hired from Deutsche Bank to be associate director of alternative investments product development at Barclays Wealth.

Based in Singapore, Mr Kuhnle will report to Barbara-Ann King, Barclays Wealth global head of alternative product development, as well as locally to Werner Schlossmacher, head of private bank coverage for Barclays Capital in Asia.

Morgan Stanley has hired Neena Prasad into its Private Wealth Management division in India as a private wealth advisor for the northern region. She will be based in New Delhi.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, she was with Salomon Smith Barney in New Delhi - where she was chief representative for India - and GE Capital (commercial finance), as well as in private banking at BNP Paribas and ING.

Middle East & Africa
Credit Suisse said it has made a number of senior appointments in its Middle East and North Africa equities business.

Wafiq Nsouli and Ali Salaam join the Swiss bank as directors and co-heads of the equities department in the Middle East and North Africa region. Based in Dubai, they will report to Bassam Yammine and Bruno Daher, co-chief executives of Credit Suisse in the Middle East, locally and Ian Dalglish and Guy Rigden, co-heads of EMEA Emerging Market Equities.

Mr Nsouli joins Credit Suisse from HSBC, where he was head of equities sales in Dubai since January 2007. Mr Salaam joins from Deutsche Bank, where he was a director and head of regional equity sales in Dubai.

Credit Suisse has also appointed Hans Zayed as a director and head of the equity research product in the Middle East. Mr Zayed joins the bank from Merrill Lynch, where he was a senior research analyst dedicated to the MENA region. In addition, Guillaume Danis has been appointed as a director in the HOLT Sales team, where he will be responsible for building HOLT's suite of innovative products in the MENA region. HOLT is the Swiss bank’s company research platform.

UBS said it has appointed Per Larsson as chief executive for the Middle East and North Africa and as a member of the group managing board.

Mr Larsson will join UBS on 1 October and will be based in Dubai, reporting to Alex Wilmot-Sitwell, chairman and chief executive of UBS Group, EMEA.

Michel Adjadj will be appointed chairman for MENA, in addition to his current role as head of UBS’s Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East and African Wealth Management business.

Until recently, Mr Larsson was the chief executive of Borse Dubai and chief executive and board member of the Dubai International Financial Exchange. In this role, he developed the DIFX into a fully functional exchange attracting the biggest initial public offering in the Middle East through DP World and growing the Sukuk market on the DIFX to become the world's largest.

Mohamed Sammakia will become chief executive of UBS Saudi Arabia, subject to receiving the usual regulatory approvals. He is currently a managing director in UBS’s fixed income division and president of the Middle East region, based in London. He has worked in the Middle East and North Africa regions for more than 30 years.

John Fraser, chairman and chief executive of UBS Global Asset Management and executive board member at UBS, will also become chairman of UBS Saudi Arabia, and Mohammed Al Dhoheyan, currently chief executive of Development and Management House for Investments – an existing Capital Markets Authority-regulated firm in the region -  will assume the role of vice chairman.

UBS said it is to open an equity research office for its investment banking arm in Dubai, covering equities in the United Arab Emirates and the rest of the region.

Stephen Andrews, currently European banks analyst at UBS in London, will relocate to Dubai to become head of Middle East research and banks analyst.

Mr Andrews will report to Nick Pink, head of European equity research. Mr Andrews joined UBS four years ago and has covered the banking sector for 11 years.

Latin America

Wachovia Wealth Management has appointed William Bourbeau as wealth management director in Florida, succeeding Anne Alexander, who has been appointed executive of strategy and execution for the wealth markets group, based in Jacksonville.

Mr Bourbeau, who was previously head of the premier banking and investment group at Bank of America in Florida, will be based in Palm Beach.

Morgan Stanley poached four high net worth private client professionals from Citi Group’s Smith Barney to service the Latin America market based in New York.

The firm has hired two investment representatives: executive director Ruben Lerner and executive director Manuel Uranga; and sales assistants Dolores Alcaide-Mendez and Jennifer Ramos.

Mr Lerner and Mr Uranga will focus on Venezuela within Morgan Stanley’s existing Latin America business and report to Fabian Onetti, executive director and sales manager of the New York Latin America/International office.

 Janney Montgomery Scott, a wealth management, financial services and investment banking firm, hired Thomas Simcik as senior vice president and private client group regional manager for the firm's Philadelphia region. He was most recently office manager for four Smith Barney offices in greater Philadelphia.

His experience includes management roles at Legg Mason Wood Walker and Prudential. Janney has around a hundred private client offices in the eastern US.

Janney Montgomery Scott, a US full-service wealth management, financial services and investment banking firm headquartered in Philadelphia, has appointed Francis McAleer to its wealth management unit.

He has been appointed as director of wealth management sales and marketing.

Mr McAleer joins Janney from Constellation Funds Group & BHR Institutional Funds, where, as executive vice president and managing partner, he was responsible for the oversight of all distribution channels.

DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, a US private equity investment affiliate of Credit Suisse, has named Nicole Arnaboldi as chairman of DLJ MBP and its investment committee.

This expansion of her responsibilities is in addition to her current role as co-head of Illiquid Alternatives, along with Steve Kantor.

Four DLJ MBP senior partners - Ed Johnson, Kamil Salame, Susan Schnabel and Colin Taylor - will report directly to Ms Arnaboldi and will together form DLJ MBP's management committee.

Steven Rattner, formerly the head of DLJ MBP, has retired after more than 20 years at the bank.

Juan Dibildox has joined Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management office in Miami as an investment representative. Reporting to Jon Mallon, executive director and manager of the private wealth office in Miami, he will cater to high net worth clients in Mexico.

Mr Dibildox joins from Lehman Brothers, where he served as a financial advisor in the firm's Miami office, also covering Mexico.

Cantor & Webb, a US law firm, hired a tax and international finance specialist, Joel Karp, to act as counsel.

Mr Karp, who runs his own law practice, has moved his offices to Cantor & Webb’s facilities.

ING, the Dutch financial conglomerate, said it has hired an ex-Nationwide senior manager for its US management operations.

The Dutch firm said Tariq Khan has been appointed as senior vice president to head market development and multicultural initiatives for its US wealth management wholesale distribution division. Previously, Mr Khan served as vice president for market development and diversity at Nationwide.

GLG Partners, the New York-listed hedge fund, has appointed Jamil Baz to the post of chief investment strategist, joining from US bond fund manager Pimco, where he was a portfolio manager.

Regions Bank, based in Coral Gables in Florida, has hired Christina Cruzpino as senior vice president and international private banking manager. She was previously at Bank of America for 23 years and was most recently business banking executive.

Other recent appointments at Regents Bank include those of Diana Duys, Adriana Martinez, John Polit and Ricardo Ramirez. They have been named vice presidents and international private banking relationship managers.

A commentator and investment researcher, Mike Burnick, has been appointed by US firm Weiss Capital Management as its new director of research and client communications.

Formerly senior editor and director of research for the Sovereign Society, a membership-only investment research firm headquartered in Florida, Mr Burnick will now lead Weiss Capital Management's investment research and client communications work.

David Heintzman, who has headed Stock Yards Bank & Trust parent SY Bancorp since 2005 as chairman, chief executive and president, has passed the president's role along to James Hillebrand, who has been with the bank twelve years.

Mr Heintzman will retain the other positions.

Mr Hillebrand, most recently the executive vice president and director of private banking, will look after commercial banking and private banking, along with all retail banking, including the residential mortgage company. He was also appointed to the board.

The bank also announced the promotion of Philip Poindexter, to the new position of chief lending officer.

Monument Wealth Management is the name of a new boutique wealth management firm that will offer financial planning, investment advice and asset management to high net worth clients in the greater Washington DC area.

Based in Alexandria, Virginia, the Monument team will be independent advisors within LPL Financial, an independent broker/dealer that supports 11,000 financial advisors across the US.

M&I Wealth Management, a US firm, has appointed Monika Ludwig as officer for trust services. She is responsible for assisting clients with a variety of personal trust needs including trust and estate management, investment management and individual retirement account and custody services, according to media reports.

Prior to joining M&I, Ms Ludwig worked at Royal Palm Bank of Florida.

Convergent Wealth Advisors, part of New York-listed City National, has appiointed Duncan Rolph as a managing director in its Los Angeles office.

Mr Rolph was most recently with Bel Air Investment Advisors where he worked with high net worth individuals, families and foundations.

JPMorgan Private Client Services has promoted Michael G. Robinson to market manager of its Bloomfield Hills office.

In his new role Mr Robinson will head up the banking, trust and investment services provided to high net worth clients.

First Republic Bank has appointed Bruno Fellin as managing director of First Republic Wealth Advisors. He will work with high net worth individuals, families, businesses and foundations from the bank's New York office.

Prior to joining First Republic, Mr Fellin worked for Wachovia Wealth Management as an investment strategist in New York.

The former chief financial officer of Lehman Brothers, Erin Callan, who was demoted last month following the firm’s second quarter record loss, defected to rival Credit Suisse, where she will be a managing director and head of the investment bank's global hedge-fund business.

She will start in the newly created position at the start of September based in New York.

Andrew Schmeidler has been appointed as a director of A. R. Schmeidler & Co, the Hudson Valley Bank's New York-based investment manager.

Mr Schmeidler is currently a senior vice president of the firm and handles high net-worth clients as well as corporations and foundations.

Richard Geissert has joined Northern Trust as second vice president in its private banking division in Indian River County, Florida. He will manage private and commercial banking relationships.

Earl Morgan, senior vice president and senior banking officer of private banking for Northern Trust in Indian River County, said:

Silvercrest Asset Management, a US investment house catering to high net worth individuals and institutions, has hired J. Allen Gray as managing director with responsibility for institutional sales and consultant relations.

Most recently, Mr Gray served as a managing partner and a member of the management committee of Osprey Partners Investment Management, and as president of the Osprey Concentrated Large Cap Value Equity Fund.

US-based Greycourt, a provider of financial advisory services to wealthy families and select endowments, headquartered in Pittsburgh has appointed Margaret Towle a specialist in high net worth investor portfolios and alternative investments, as a managing director based in the Portland office.

Prior to joining Greycourt, Ms Towle was chief investment officer of Northern Trust Global Advisors where she was responsible for launching NTGA's alternative investment business and managing the firm's asset allocation.

New York-based multi-family office, Shelterwood Financial Services, has appointed Tara Duffy as a managing director, reporting to William Rankin, president and chief executive officer.

Ms Duffy was previously a director and portfolio manager at Global Hedge Strategies.

JPMorgan, the US bank, has appointed two branch managers for its Bear Stearns private client services group.

JPMorgan said Donald Nejedly will lead its Bear Stearns' private client services group in San Francisco, while David Stafman will head the group in Chicago.

Previously, Mr Nejedly worked at Deutsche Bank for more than three years until October 2007.

Morgan Stanley's Wichita office is expanding to 24 staff with the addition of a ten-strong team from Citi-owned competitor Smith Barney.

The ten comprise six financial advisers - Thomas Kirk, Steve Bahm, Bryan Green, Margaret Dechant, Sarah Hampton and Pamela Tormey - and four client service staff, Stephanie Murphy, Denice Robinson, Ammie Denton and Amanda Maier.

The group is led by Mr Kirk and Mr Bahm, both of whom were senior vice presidents at Morgan Stanley.

As Smith Barney lost a $4 million team to Morgan Stanley, it pulled in another team: Drew Dusebout, Brett Grimes and Ricci Mancinella have joined its office in Santa Barbara. They came from the Santa Barbara office of UBS, where they had fee income of $4 million and looked after $1 billion in client assets.

Smith Barney have also hired a $5 million team from Morgan Stanley in Illinois. Eugene Lerner, Michael Stoken, Walter Gondeck and Mingdong Tan joined Smith Barney's Deerfield office. They oversaw a combined $505 million in client assets.

A team of 13 investment professionals from Invesco Global Asset Management is to provide new management leadership for the AIM Global Value fund.

The new team includes portfolio managers Ingrid Baker, Lindsay Davidson, Michele Garren, Erik Granade and Kent Starke. It replaces portfolio manager Glen Hilton, who has left the firm.

Signature Bank, a bank operating in New York, has appointed a team of four from North Fork Bank, a rival US bank now known as Capital One.

The bank said that it has hired Alan Roth as a private client banking group director and senior vice president. Along with three of his colleagues who are joining Signature, this deposit-gathering team will be based out of the bank's Madison Avenue office in Manhattan.

Mr Roth spent seven years with North Fork Bank, where he led a private client banking team. Prior to banking, Mr Roth had established a 15-year career in commercial real estate.

Signature Bank also named Katherine Mulvey as group director and vice president and both Blerina Limaj and Celena Mangelli as associate group directors and vice presidents.  Signature Bank also appointed three new banking professionals at its private client banking team. They will be based out of Signature Bank's private client banking office at Madison Avenue in Manhattan.

Paula Hillan and Debora Cacamese were each named associate group director and vice president while Antonella Arcese will serve as senior client associate.

Most recently, Ms Hillan was Assistant vice president and private banking associate at the Signature Bank branch at Avenue of the Americas in New York for 13 years.

US-based First Republic Bank, the private bank and wealth management business has appointed Steven Solomon as managing director of First Republic Investment Management.

Mr Solomon will work with high net worth individuals, families, businesses and foundations and serve their investment management needs at the bank's office in Newport Beach, California.

Prior to joining First Republic, Mr Solomon worked for Bank of the West's wealth management division as vice president, senior portfolio manager.

Former LaSalle Bank chairman, president and chief executive Norman Bobins has joined the board of Chicago-based PrivateBancorp and is to chair its Chicago operating subsidiary.

Mr Bobins left LaSalle in 2007 after Bank of America bought it in October.

London-based GLG Partners, the hedge fund business, has hired Goldman Sachs partner Driss Ben-Brahim, who oversees Goldman’s emerging-markets trading.

A director of corporate governance at Calpers, the giant US pension fund for Californian public sector workers, has left the firm to work for Shamrock Capital Advisors, the firm initially set up in the late 1970s as a family office.

Dennis Johnson will be the managing director at Shamrock’s Activist Value Fund, a four-year old fund with $1.2 billion of assets under management. Mr Johnson will join Shamrock on 1 August.

Mike Balkin is returning to Chicago-based investment manager, William Blair & Company, as co-manager of its small-cap growth strategy, rejoining Karl Brewer and Colin Williams, both principals and co-managers.