The latest collection of monthly moves within the Asia-Pacific wealth management industry.

Indosuez Wealth Management in Asia made three senior appointments for its Hong Kong branch. They were: 

-- Willie Chue, managing director, Greater China market head; 
-- Steven Wong, MD, senior relationship manager; and 
-- Ada Zhou, director, relationship manager. 

PIMCO announced that its head of Asia-Pacific, Kimberley Stafford, was moving to the firm’s Newport Beach office in the US to become global head of the firm’s product strategy group. In her new role, Stafford is responsible for overseeing traditional strategies and alternatives, which include PIMCO’s private strategies and hedge funds. Stafford has been a member of PIMCO’s executive committee for five years.

Alec Kersman, managing director, became PIMCO’s new Asia-Pacific boss. Kersman is head of strategic accounts in US Global Wealth Management. Both personnel report to Emmanuel Roman, PIMCO’s chief executive.

David Fisher, MD and head of traditional product strategies, became co-head of US GWM Strategic Accounts alongside Eric Sutherland, MD and president of PIMCO Investments LLC. He and Sutherland report to Gregory Hall, MD and head of US GWM. 

Ryan Korinke, head of hedge fund and quantitative strategies, based in Hong Kong, joined PIMCO’s executive office in Newport Beach.

Fenergo, which provides digital transformation, customer journey and client lifecycle management solutions, appointed Gary Brookes as head of sales in Asia. Brookes previously worked in sales leadership roles at Datasite, eFront and Ansarada, working in Asia and Australia. In his new job, Brookes is expanding Fenergo's sales presence in Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Hines, an international real estate firm, boosted its presence in Japan and South Korea. Drew Huffman, managing director and 10-year veteran at Hines, is overseeing the new business initiatives in the two countries. Joining the local team were Hyungsub Lee, a director, in the Seoul office, and Sho Morita, an associate in the Tokyo office; both were new to the firm. 

Offshore law firm Carey Olsen added to its dispute resolution and litigation practice in Hong Kong, appointing counsel Xia Li and Monique Hansen, who returned from secondment with the firm's British Virgin Islands office. Xia has broad experience of handling high-value dispute resolution matters for clients across the Asia region in sectors including banking and financial services, gaming and entertainment, construction and insurance. She joined from another large offshore firm where she practised across its Hong Kong, BVI and Cayman Islands offices. She also spent a decade working for international law firms in London, New York, Beijing and Singapore.

In other changes in Hong Kong, Monique Hansen returned from two years with the firm’s BVI office. She joined Carey Olsen in 2018 and advises on multi-jurisdictional matters across several sectors, including large-scale infrastructure, energy and technology-related disputes.

EFG International named Enrico Piotto as its new chief risk officer. He succeeded Raj Singh, who stepped down as CRO at the end of last year. Piotto performed this function on an interim basis as wall as acting as chief financial officer.

In the new role, Piotto reports to CEO Giorgio Pradelli. Piotto has 20 years of banking sector experience under his belt. Before joining EFG, he served as head of lending for Deutsche Bank’s European wealth management arm from 2018. 

HSBC created three regionally-focused chief investment officers to set strategy for Asia in its recently-merged wealth and personal banking unit. All three roles were new positions.
Fan Cheuk Wan was named as chief investment officer for Asia; Patrick Ho as chief investment officer for North Asia; and James Cheo as chief investment officer for Southeast Asia. Wan and Ho both held senior posts at Credit Suisse in the region before joining HSBC.

Fan Cheuk Wan joined HSBC in 2016. In her new expanded role, she leads the chief investment office in Asia. 

Fan chairs the Asia Regional Investment Committee and is a member of the Global Investment Committee for private banking and wealth management. Prior to HSBC, she spent nine years in private banking at Credit Suisse in various roles, including Asia Pacific CIO, head of equity research and head of research Asia-Pacific. 

Patrick Ho joined HSBC in 2017 as chief market strategist; he currently oversees the investment strategy team in Hong Kong and the Asia advisory model portfolios. Before that he served in senior roles at Credit Suisse Private Banking and UBS Wealth Management. 

James Cheo, who was previously a senior investment strategist at Bank of Singapore, re-joined HSBC in 2019. Cheo has more than 16 years' experience in portfolio strategy, asset allocation and economic research. 

M&G Real Estate appointed Lai Jing Dong as chief investment officer and interim chief executive, Asia, subject to regulatory approvals. The person who held this role previously was Chiang Ling Ng. Reporting to Tony Brown, global head of M&G Real Estate, Lai leads M&G’s real estate business and acquisition activities in Asia, including Australia. Lai joined M&G in October 2016 as head of acquisitions, Asia. With more than 18 years of real estate investment experience, Lai was previously director and head of investments at Straits Real Estate, where he managed an Asia-Pacific investment mandate.
 

Australia-listed Perpetual Private - building a new team focused on family office clients - appointed Nick Lipscombe to head the team, based in Sydney. 

The head of JP Morgan’s international private bank for the past two years, Nicolas Aguzin – known to many as “Gucho” – left the US group to be chief executive of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX). Aguzin, subject to regulatory approval. Aguzin worked for three decades at JP Morgan, serving in a variety of roles, including asset and wealth management, spending time in the Asia-Pacific and Latin American markets.

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, appointed Rachel Lord to lead its Asia-Pacific business. She took over from Geraldine Buckingham, who remained at the firm as a senior advisor. Lord is based in Hong Kong and serves as chair and head of BlackRock Asia-Pacific. Lord most recently headed BlackRock’s business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Her APAC experience began with ANZ Investment Bank in London, helping clients in Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan to access international financing for industrial growth.

Capital Group appointed Andrew Lee as investment director in Hong Kong to support growth of the firm’s global and regional equity portfolios. He is in charge of a range of equity investment strategies, including Capital Group New Perspective Fund (LUX) and Capital Group New Economy Fund (LUX), reporting to head of product and investment services for APAC Andy Budden. Lee was most recently portfolio director for China and Asian equities at Barings, and spent seven years as a product specialist with HSBC.

M&G Investments named Joseph Wong as head of intermediary channels based in Hong Kong in a newly-created role. Wong leads the Hong Kong team in developing intermediary clients and prospects, particularly private banks and external asset managers. Wong joined from the Hong Kong office of Franklin Templeton Investments, where he spent more than a decade. 

PGIM Fixed Income hired Yong Duk Kim as vice president, client advisory, a new role at the firm. Kim is responsible for leading the institutional sales and client relations efforts in South Korea. He reports to Helen Chang, head of Asia-Pacific ex-Japan Client Advisory, based in Hong Kong.

Nuveen, the $1 trillion global investment manager of TIAA, made seven new appointments in Hong Kong and Sydney:

-- Denise Ying joined as vice president, international advisory services. Ying, who is responsible for supporting institutional clients in the Greater China region, reports to Kelvin Cheung, managing director and chief operating officer, Asia-Pacific and Middle East; 

-- Betty Zhang and Mia Yang, join as assistant VPs in client services, and report to Cheung; 

-- Jing Zhou joined as senior director in the alternatives and strategic transactions team, data centre solutions. Zhou reports to Carsten Kebeddies, Asia-Pacific MD and head of the alternatives and strategic transactions; 

-- YoungJee Jang took on the role of associate in the fund management team, reporting to Louise Kavanagh, head of fund management, Asia-Pacific;
 
-- Anthea Trazzera joined as a senior associate supporting transactional activity in the Australian market and will report to Rick Marston; and  

-- Carmen Hawkey is an associate in the Asia-Pacific real estate debt team, reporting to Martin Priestley.

Bank J Safra Sarasin in Asia appointed three ex-Standard Chartered bankers to join its team in Singapore. Anterina Leng, formerly an RM at Standard Chartered since 2016, was named executive director, client advisory, reporting to Dhruv Sawhney, managing director. Before Standard Chartered, she was at Barclays, and also worked at UBS, HSBC, ABN AMRO and UOB.

Eileen Tay was named as director, client advisory, also reporting to Sawhney. She has been at Standard Chartered as an RM in Singapore since November 2016, working at Barclays before that, as well as HSBC, UBS and UOB in Singapore. Yenny Sia joined as vice president, client advisory, reporting to Mary Lee. She had been at Standard Chartered in Singapore as a senior associate director and RM since 2008. Previously, she worked at DBS and UOB.

RBC Wealth Management appointed Xygent Chan as executive director to head a newly-created Hong Kong private bank team. Chan started his new position at the end of December and reports to RBC Wealth Management’s head of private banking for Greater China, Ignatius (Iggy) K K Chong.

Allianz Global Investors appointed Leo Shen and Zheng Wang as head of fund management business, China, and portfolio manager at Allianz Global Investors Asset Management (Shanghai), respectively. 

Shen leads the strategic effort to establish Allianz GI’s onshore fund management business in China. Wang concentrates on managing onshore multi-asset investments in China.