A round-up of moves around the world for October.

Raymond James opened a new branch in London, headed by principal Harry Burnham, who joined from JM Finn. Burnham began his career at Williams de Broë in 1996, moving on to Brewin Dolphin in 2000, where he spent 13 years. He has also worked at Ashcourt Rowan Asset Management (later acquired by Towry Asset Management) before joining JM Finn in 2016.

Newton Investment Management appointed Ilga Haubelt as head of equity opportunities in a newly-created role. Haubelt is based in London and reports to Newton’s chief investment officer, Curt Custard. She manages a team of 10 responsible for all of Newton’s active equity strategies that are not managed on an income basis, the group said. These include its global, Asian, US, emerging, UK and European equity areas. Haubelt came from Deka Investment, where she was head of global equities.

SANNE, the provider of alternative asset and corporate administration services, appointed a new director in Madrid: Paloma Gonzalez. Gonzalez was previously at CITCO where she worked for more than 12 years heading up the Madrid office. She has 19 years of industry experience.

SANNE also appointed Chris Warnes as head for the UK. In London, Warnes took over from Jason Bingham, who was promoted to managing director. Having worked in the industry for over 20 years. He joined SANNE in April 2017 as a director in the real estate business.

JM Finn, the UK-based wealth firm, appointed two managers who formerly worked at Rathbones. Stephen Wright, who looked after clients’ investment portfolios at Rathbones for more than 30 years, joined the firm, along with colleague Steve Thornton, who was at Rathbones for 27 years.

UK wealth management group Tilney appointed Mike Divers as director, investment management. He is based in Birmingham. Divers, who has spent 19 years in the industry, joined from Brooks Macdonald where he worked for 10 years as a senior investment director and head of office for the Midlands.

HSBC Global Asset Management appointed John Ware as senior product specialist for hedge funds in its alternatives team. Based in London, he reports to Steven Ward, global head of alternative products, HSBC Global Asset Management. Before this, Ware was senior product specialist for BlackRock Alternative Advisors, the firm’s hedge fund solutions platform. Prior to joining BlackRock, he worked in the Ultra High Net Worth client team at Barclays Wealth as a specialist delivering cross-platform solutions, including alternative investment opportunities.

Crestbridge, the global administration, management and corporate governance solutions business, appointed Michael Johnson as group head of fund services. He replaced Michael Newton, who took on the newly-created role of head of client delivery. Johnson has more than 17 years’ experience in international financial services. Prior to this, Johnson worked at Intertrust, where he was head of fund services in the Channel Islands. Among other roles, he is vice chair of the Jersey Funds Association.

Law firm Taylor Wessing appointed Osama Hassan as the managing partner of its Dubai office. Hassan has practised for over 30 years and joined the firm's office in Dubai. He heads the Middle East group and the corporate practice in the region for Pinsent Masons. He returned to Taylor Wessing after serving as head of corporate and co-managing partner for Taylor Wessing Dubai up to 2011.

Investment firm CANDRIAM named Benjamin Rumary as senior relationship manager in its London office. He is responsible for distributing the firm’s funds to discretionary clients in London, alongside Ryan Welch who joined CANDRIAM earlier this year. Rumary began his career in the financial services industry with Old Mutual Asset Managers in 2006. Since then he has worked in sales and marketing at LV Asset Management and AXA Investment Managers. He joins CANDRIAM from Smith & Williamson, where he was an associate director in sales responsible for London discretionary clients.

Deutsche Wealth Management appointed Rajesh Mahadevan to head GPS for emerging markets. Mahadevan moved from heading Deutsche’s Middle East and South Asia business in Dubai. His new post is in the group's Singapore office. Mahadevan previously headed investments and sales in the Middle East for Bank of America Merrill Lynch; he was also head of investment products at Citigroup.

UBS veteran Samuel Descovich moved to GPS Americas at Deutsche. Descovich is in charge of developing products and solutions for the region, including alternative investments, capital markets, and trust and custody services. He is based in New York and will report to global division head Lavanya Chari, and regionally to Patrick Campion, head of wealth management Americas. 

Daniel Freedman, who co-founded London & Capital, died suddenly. He left a wife, Elaine, and two daughters, Laura and Samantha.

London & Capital appointed Jacob Holden as head of operations in the US family office business. Holden will report to Robert Paul, partner at the firm, and is based in London. Holden joined from Schroders wealth management division where he was head of operations for the Americas team. In this role, he worked with a wide range of private individuals and institutional clients and was responsible for the team’s technical and operational efficiency.

Legal & General Investment Management appointed risk veteran Margaret Ammon as chief risk officer. Prior to this, Ammon was CRO at M&G Asset Management. She reports to chief executive Michelle Scrimgeour.

Schroders added Michael Leonard to the newly-created role of solutions manager that focuses on credit portfolios. Previously, Leonard was at insurance broker LV=, where he was most recently head of investment, overseeing strategic asset allocation and balance sheet hedging as well as derivative design and execution. Before that he had investment management roles at Societe Generale Securities Services, Credit Suisse and Aegon UK.

Vivien Konrad joined the team as a solutions manager, transferring from Schroders’ Zurich office, where she was a treasury and foreign exchange trader. Leonard reports to Ross Pritchard, Schroders’ head of liability and duration solutions management; and Konrad reports to Patrick O’Sullivan, who leads on strategic asset allocation analysis for insurers. Gidon Aarons also joined the team as a defined contribution and retirement analyst. Prior to this, he worked for consultant Lane Clark & Peacock - most recently as associate DC investment consultant.

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Collas Crill Guernsey, part of offshore law firm Collas Crill, recruited a new associate. Stephanie Setters, joined its international private client and trusts team, supporting group partner Joanne Seal. Setters advises local and international clients on wills and estate planning, estate administration, probate, guardianships, powers of attorney and trusts. Setters, who previously worked for the firm in the Jersey office, qualified as a solicitor in 2010, and as an advocate in 2013.

Hilbert Investment Solutions, which provides cross-asset, structured solutions covering equities, rates and commodities, appointed Zak de Mariveles as a non-executive director. He founded and is chairman of the UK Structured Products Association. De Mariveles started his career in financial services at Gerrard Vivian Grey before joining Barclays de Zoete Wedd, and Barclays Capital in 1992. 

Legal & General Investment Management, part of L&G, appointed Margaret Ammon as chief risk officer, subject to regulatory approvals. She was CRO for asset management at M&G. In her new role, Ammon reports to Scrimgeour, chief executive of LGIM.

BNP Paribas named Elena Goitini as its head of private banking and wealth management in Italy. Goitini previously worked at Unicredit Group where she had senior roles in Italy and Central Eastern Europe. 

Union Bancaire Privée, the Geneva-based private bank, appointed former senior UBS figure René Mottas as wealth management head for Europe, taking over from Pierfranco de Vita, who recently decided to retire. Mottas’ role is to “speed up UBP’s expansion in its priority markets and to optimise its business in Europe”, the firm said. The European business comprises its Zurich, Lugano, London, Milan and Monaco branches, as well as its Luxembourg subsidiary, the Swiss market, the external asset managers (EAM) segment, and the European countries managed from Geneva. With 35 years of experience, Mottas has worked in a number of high-ranking positions at UBS in London, Zurich and Luxembourg, among others.

Brown Shipley appointed former Coutts manager Shanti Kelemen to the newly-created role of investment director. Kelemen reports to Brown Shipley’s chief investment officer Toby Vaughan. She joined from Coutts where she was portfolio manager and director. Kelemen previously worked in investment banking and asset management at the Royal Bank of Scotland and Boston Capital, with a primary focus on derivatives. 

City of London law firm, Druces appointed Julian Washington, a business development specialist with a background in the legal sector, as the new head of business development. Washington spent almost 20 years as a lawyer in private practice with major London firms before moving into a second career in business development in the financial services industry. At Royal Bank of Canada he rose to become head of BD in London and later led the bank’s thought leadership offering in the UK, acting as an ambassador for RBC in the private wealth market.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the global investment firm famed for private equity buyouts, made a raft of appointments across the world. In the Americas, Pete Stavros and Nate Taylor were promoted to co-lead the private equity business and will run day-to-day operations of the business and continue to report to Joe Bae, KKR’s co-president and co-chief operating officer.

In Europe, Mattia Caprioli and Philipp Freise were promoted to co-lead the PE business. They assumed responsibility for day-to-day operations of the business and continue to report to Johannes Huth who oversees KKR’s activities in the region.

In Asia-Pacific, Hiro Hirano and Ashish Shastry were promoted to co-head the PE business in that region, running daily operations, and reporting to Ming Lu who oversees KKR’s activities in Asia-Pacific.

Jupiter appointed Magnus Spence as head of investment trusts. Spence, who joined Jupiter in 2016 as head of alternatives, took over responsibility for Jupiter’s investment trust business from Richard Pavry, who left the firm. Spence has nearly 20 years’ experience in the alternatives asset management industry. 

Mashreq appointed a new chairman, Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair. He took over from Abdullah Ahmed Al-Ghurair who stepped down after 23 years in the post. His Excellency Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair was subsequently elected chairman of the board of directors of the bank. Ahmed Mohamed Abdelaal was appointed as the new chief executive of the bank. His Excellency Abdul Aziz was CEO of Mashreq for nearly last 30 years. He remains active in other leadership roles in the UAE financial and business sector and focuses more on philanthropic initiatives, including the Abdulla Al-Ghurair Foundation for Education.

Natixis appointed Joseph Pinto in the newly-created role of chief operating officer of Natixis Investment Managers and Philippe Setbon as chief executive of Ostrum Asset Management. Pinto reports to Jean Raby, CEO of Natixis Investment Managers, a member of the senior management committee of Natixis in charge of asset and wealth management. Setbon replaced Matthieu Duncan, who resigned as CEO of Ostrum Asset Management to pursue other interests. Pinto began his career in 1992 with Crédit Lyonnais, working in the securitsation business in New York before moving to Lehman Brothers in London in the Corporate Finance division. From 1998 to 2001, he was project manager at McKinsey & Cie in Paris. 

From 2001 to 2006, he was deputy CEO and member of the board of directors of Banque Privée Fideuram Wargny. He joined AXA IM in January 2007 as head of business development for France, South Europe and Middle East. He then took the leadership of the markets and investment strategy department in 2011 and became COO in 2014, also serving as a member of AXA IM’s management board.

Setbon began his career in 1990 as a financial analyst at Barclays Bank in Paris. Between 1993 and 2003, he was with Groupe AZUR-GMF, first as a portfolio manager for European stocks, then as head of asset management. He then moved to Rothschild & Cie Gestion as head of equity portfolio management before joining Generali Group in 2004, where he had a succession of senior roles, including CEO of Generali Investments France, CEO of Generali Investments Europe Sgr, and CIO of Generali Group. He joined Groupama in 2013 as CEO of Groupama Asset Management. Setbon serves as vice president of the French Asset Management Association (AFG).

Raymond James appointed Nick Levens to offer wealth management services in Cumbria, operating under the name of Raymond James, Kendal. Levens offers a personal discretionary investment management service. He began his career in the financial services sector in 1996 at Prolific Unit Trust Managers Limited, before moving to London with Henderson Investors. In 2000 he moved back to Kendal to work at Gerrard (now Barclays Wealth) before spending the last 17 years at Sanlam Private Wealth (formally Border Asset Management).

Cazenove Capital appointed Alex Neilson as a portfolio manager in the Chester office in the northwest. Nielson, who previously worked at Cazenove Capital for four years, re-joined after three years with Investec Wealth & Investment where he was an investment manager, responsible for the management of multi-asset private client investment portfolios. 

Brooks Macdonald Group, the UK wealth management firm, appointed Dr Niall O’Connor as fund manager for the IFSL Brooks Macdonald Defensive Capital Fund, after the previous fund manager and group co-founder, Jon Gumpel, decided to step down. O’Connor joined the firm in 2013 and was deputy fund manager for DCF since 2016. He has over 20 years of investment experience, including leading the development of a range of derivative pricing and risk models for independent risk monitoring. His background includes five years as an analyst at Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank; he was also part of the Nevsky Capital team. O’Connor reports to Richard Spencer, group chief investment officer. 

Saranac Partners appointed David Bloom as non-executive director. Bloom is a partner at Noé Group, a family-run investment and asset management group specialising in real estate and technology-led investment and private equity. 

Ashburton Investments, the asset management business of FirstRand Limited, appointed equities speclalist Patrice Rassou as chief investment officer. Rassou joined Ashburton from UK wealth manager Sanlam Investment Managers, where he was head of equities. Before that, he worked at Thesele Group, Old Mutual Asset Management and PwC. He holds an MSc in economics from the London School of Economics, an MBA from Manchester Business School and is a chartered accountant.

Edmond de Rothschild, the international wealth manager, appointed François Grandvoinnet to head up the activity of Cleaveland, the French arm of the group’s real estate platform, which it bought in June 2016. Grandvoinet is chairman of Cleaveland, an investment company which was set up in 2005. Grandvoinnet replaced Laurent Fermaut and Dominique Bonin, Cleaveland’s founders, who left the company.

Lyes Badji, who has been finance director since 2012, was appointed managing director of Cleaveland while Clément Brazy, senior fund manager, took over Badi’s function. Grandvoinnet has more than 30 years’ experience in real estate. 

UK wealth management firm Tilney added staff in Belfast with three appointments. Simon Martin moved internally to become director of financial planning; Ulster Bank veteran Chris McVeigh joined as managing partner, and Alison Dean was named financial planner.

Mediolanum International Funds Ltd, the Irish asset management division of the Mediolanum Banking Group, appointed Luc Simoncini as the new head of the product specialist team. Simoncini reports to the investment chief operating officer, Michael Paterson, and is based in the firm’s Dublin office. Simoncini rejoined the company from Kames Capital (part of Aegon Group), where he was an equities senior investment specialist and a member of the investment team for the past five years.

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Mediolanum International Funds appointed Damian Barry as head of multi-asset multi-management in a newly-created role. He reports to chief investment officer Christophe Jaubert. He joined from Seven Investment Management, where he was in charge of its multi-asset portfolios. Before that he managed large multi-asset portfolios for Threadneedle and Russell Investments for a wide range of global institutional and retail clients.

Discretionary portfolio specialist JM Finn hired Luke Powell as a business development manager in charge of building relationships with financial advisors. Powell moved from a sales role at Legal & General Investment Management and is responsible for distributing JM Finn’s discretionary portfolio management services to financial advisors.

Investec Asset Management appointed Lucia Pino-Garcia as a chief technology officer. Pino-Garcia worked as a technology specialist in finance for more than two decades. She was most recently global head of fixed income and liquidity technology at JP Morgan Asset Management where she was also responsible for overseeing all asset management technology in the EMEA region.

European private bank KBL epb named Olga Miler as group head of marketing. Miler is a dual Czech-Swiss national. Miler co-founded SmartPurse, a startup that provides financial tools for women and is a high-profile figure in financial services with specialist experience in sustainability, gender-smart investing, and women and finance.

KBL epb also appointed Emmanuel Fievet to join its group executive committee. He took a leadership role in Luxembourg. Fievet, most recently CEO of Edmond de Rothschild (Suisse), serves as chairman of KBL Luxembourg executive committee and chief executive of KBL Luxembourg, the group’s private bank in the European jurisdiction. Prior to his role at Edmond de Rothschild (Suisse), Fievet served at UBS Wealth Management, Citigroup and JP Morgan in posts spanning front-office management, investments and product development, asset management and private equity.

Brewin Dolphin announced that non-executive director Paul Wilson had resigned from the board after serving for six years.

Brewin Dolphin appointed a new financial planner in its Bristol office, James Shattock. Shattock has more than 20 years’ experience as a financial advisor, and most recently was employed at Hargreaves Lansdown, where he spent 18 years in their advisory services division. Previously, he worked at Sedgwick (now Barclays Wealth) and Friends Provident.

Fine wine investment management services firm Cult Wines appointed Eddie Kir as head of business development, North Asia. Operating from Hong Kong, Kir focuses on expanding the company’s network of partnerships with financial intermediaries in mainland China, Hong Kong and Japan, including local and regional wealth managers, family offices and private banks. Kir has more than 20 years of business development, sales and marketing experience at asset management firms, having worked in both New York and Hong Kong. He was most recently head of asset management, Asia at Commerzbank.

Refinitiv, the data provider, hired Cornelia Andersson as global head of M&A and capital raising. Andersson, a member of the I&A proposition leadership team, is based in London. She reports to Pradeep Menon, managing director of investing and advisory. She joined from Blackstone, where she was senior vice president, global head of research and market data, leading the firm’s market data and business intelligence functions globally.

Ashburton Investments, the asset management arm of FirstRand Group, appointed Sizwe Nxedlana as its new chief executive. Nxedlana moved internally to replace Boshoff Grobler, who moved into a treasury role at FirstRand, one of South Africa’s largest financial services institutions. Nxedlana has been at FirstRand for more than a decade, most recently as CEO of First National Bank (FNB) overseeing its wealth and investment business. 

Smith & Williamson, the UK financial services group which is merging with wealth manager Tilney, appointed Carla Stent as a non-executive director. Stent chairs the group audit and risk oversight committee. Stent is chair of Marex Spectron, a commodity brokerage and is a non-executive director of Post Office Limited, where she also chairs the audit and risk committee. Her executive career has included senior roles at Virgin Group and Barclays Bank.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management made two appointments to its international equity team. Candida de Silva joined as a senior portfolio specialist and Helena Miles did so as a generalist research analyst. De Silva is based in London after spending 11 years at BlackRock, most recently as head of its UK charities and endowments business. Miles moved over from the capital group where she covered luxury goods and retail. 

UK-based wealthtech firm JHC promoted Andrew Watson to the newly-created post of chief product officer. Watson, who was previously in charge of product strategy and regulatory change, has been at the firm for 18 years.

Julius Baer created a “simplified” top management structure, cutting leadership numbers to nine from 15. Executive boards of Julius Baer Group Ltd and the group’s main operating entity, Bank Julius Baer & Co, were aligned with the same people on both boards.

Structure:
-- Philipp Rickenbacher, chief executive; 
-- Yves Robert-Charrue, head of Switzerland and Europe, Middle East, and Africa; 
-- Jimmy Lee Kong Eng, head of Asia-Pacific; 
-- Beatriz Sanchez, head of Americas; 
-- Nic Dreckmann, chief operating officer and head of intermediaries; 
-- Nicolas de Skowronski, investment and wealth management solutions, head of wealth management solutions; 
-- Yves Bonzon, investment and wealth management solutions, chief investment officer; 
-- Dieter A Enkelmann, chief financial officer; and  
-- Oliver Bartholet, chief risk officer. 

Bank J Safra Sarasin hired Sasja Beslik as head of sustainable finance development to further strengthen the value proposition of the Bank’s asset management. Beslik, an environmental, social and governance financial expert, joined from Nordea Asset Management where he had been head of group sustainable finance since 2017. He joined Nordea in 2009 as head of responsible investments and identity and was promoted to chief executive of Nordea Investment Funds in 2011, while also being a consultant to the World Bank.

Julius Baer appointed five senior bankers for Brazil, based in Zurich. The new market head of Brazil, Jorge Torea, and his team report to Beatriz Sanchez, head of Latin America and a member of the executive board.

The new senior wealth managers include:
-- Jorge Torea, market head of Brazil; 
-- Oliver Raess, deputy market head for Brazil; 
-- Giovanni Vodola, team head; 
-- Giorgio Bossi, senior relationship manager; and 
-- Ivano Massacra, senior RM.

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The chief of the investment team at Invesco in the UK, Nick Mustoe, stepped down after a decade in the post; he was succeeded by Stephanie Butcher, a European equity fund manager.

Banque SYZ hired Mehdi Lakhdar and Andrea Bodini-Nocent to serve local clients from Geneva and Lugano, respectively. Lakhdar, who is based in Geneva, has had a number of client-facing roles at Swiss and international institutions, including UBS, Barclays and most recently at Banque Cantonale de Genève.

Bodini-Nocent is based in Lugano and has been in corporate advisory posts, covering merger and acquisitions transactions for mid-cap companies. Most recently, he worked in the private banking division for international markets at EFG in Luxembourg. Lakhdar and Bodini-Nocent report to Lorenzo Romano, head of Switzerland and Europe, based in Geneva.

LGIM Real Assets appointed Denizer Ibrahim as head of retail and futuring. He joined from BNP Paribas Real Estate, where he was director and head of commercial place-making and master-planning. In the newly-created role, he reports to Michael Barrie, head of fund management at LGIM. Before BNP Paribas, Ibrahim worked in urban design at the pop-up rental service Appear Here and the London School of Economics’ Cities Programme.

Multi-family office Stonehage Fleming named John Connolly as its new chairman of the board. He succeeds Charles Erasmus, who was chair for the past two decades. Connolly’s long career in financial and corporate services includes a number of FTSE 100 chairmanships and 45 years at Deloitte, where he became a senior partner and global chairman. He chairs the security services firm G4S, was chairman of Amec Foster Wheeler consultancy before it merged with the Wood Group, and is executive chair of business services firm Cogital Group. Earlier this year he stepped down as chairman of Great Ormond Street Hospital charity and remains a council member of the CBI.

RWC Partners, the UK-based asset management business, appointed a new head of legal and compliance, Huan Ke. Huan Ke has more than 19 years of experience and joined from Macquarie Asset Management where he spent eight years as head of legal for the Macquarie Investment Management and Macquarie Private Credit business divisions. In that role, he was responsible for managing legal matters for the two businesses across the EMEA region, as well as advising on European regulatory changes such as the MiFID II investor protection and transparency legislation.

Maven Capital Partners, the UK private equity and property house, hired Carolyn McEwan to join the property investment team as investment manager. McEwan joined from Cushman & Wakefield, where she qualified as a chartered surveyor and spent seven years primarily in the capital markets team. 

Offshore law firm Carey Olsen appointed litigation and insolvency specialist Justin Davis as counsel in its British Virgin Islands office. Davis has particular experience of obtaining and opposing freezing injunctions, asset disclosure orders, receivership orders and anti-suit injunctions. He has more than 16 years' experience as an advocate.

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Asia-Pacific
Cult Wines, the fine wine investment manager, appointed Kazuaki Takabatake as commercial and strategy director for Asia-Pacific. He is based in Singapore and has almost 30 years of senior management experience covering strategy, mergers and acquisitions, business-development, sales and marketing at a number of banks and technology firms. Takabatake has worked in London and across the Asia-Pacific region. Takabatake’s previous employers included Yamaichi, Industrial Bank of Japan, Patsystems. He was chief executive of Saxo Capital Markets-Asia Pacific for seven years. Prior to joining Cult Wines he was managing director of Oanda Asia Pacific.

 

Cult Wines also appointed Eddie Kir as head of business development, North Asia. He operates from Hong Kong. Kir has more than 20 years of business development, sales and marketing experience at asset management firms, having worked in both New York and Hong Kong. He was most recently head of asset management, Asia at Commerzbank.

SANNE, the alternative asset and corporate business services provider, appointed Wendy Cheng as country head for Hong Kong. Cheng has more than 11 years of industry experience.

Tokio Marine Life Insurance Singapore, which provides services including wealth management, appointed Gilbert Pak and Michael Kuek as chief marketing officer and chief and appointed actuary respectively. Prior to this, Pak was regional head of product management at Allianz Asia Pacific for eight years. He brought over 27 years of marketing, product development, actuarial and financial management experience across Asia. Kuek has almost 24 years of experience in the insurance industry. Prior positions held were as chief actuary, China Life Insurance Co (Singapore) and Great Eastern Life Indonesia. Besides possessing the Actuary Fellowship qualification, he is also a Certified Enterprise Risk Analyst.

Citigroup named Peter Babej as chief executive in its Asia-Pacific region. He took over from Tim Monger who acted as interim CEO. Monger focuses now on his chief financial officer function. Babej has been at Citigroup since 2010 when he joined as co-head of the financial institutions group in ICG. He became the sole head of the group in 2017. Prior to joining Citigroup, Babej had senior banking roles at Deutsche Bank and Lazard.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the private equity and investments titan, promoted Hiro Hirano and Ashish Shastry to co-head the PE business in that region, running daily operations, and reporting to Ming Lu who oversees KKR’s activities in Asia-Pacific. KKR also promoted figures in other regions.

M&G Investments appointed Lorretta Ng as head its Asian business. Ng replaced Alex Jeffrey. Prior to this, she was CEO of Eastspring Investments Taiwan from 2011 and before that, was chief marketing officer at the same business. Previously, she was head of product, marketing and business operations at Eastspring Singapore.

Natixis appointed Joseph Pinto in the  newly-created role of chief operating officer of Natixis Investment Managers and Philippe Setbon as chief executive of Ostrum Asset Management. Pinto reports to Jean Raby, CEO of Natixis Investment Managers, a member of the senior management committee of Natixis in charge of asset and wealth management. Setbon replaces Matthieu Duncan, who resigned as CEO of Ostrum Asset Management to pursue other interests.

Lombard Odier appointed Valerie d’Argembeau as head of private clients in Singapore. Previously, she had been executive director at the Swiss bank since October 2012. Before working at Lombard Odier, d’Argembeau was regional head of strategy and market development, Asia, at Societe Generale Private Banking from July 2008 to September 2012. From September 2006 to July 2008 she was at Barclays Wealth, and earlier in her career she was a senior engagement manager at Mercer Oliver Wyman.

Refinitiv, the data provider which is the subject of a $27 billion takeover by the London Stock Exchange Group, hired Cornelia Andersson as global head of M&A and capital-raising. Andersson, a member of the I&A proposition leadership team, is based in London. She reports to Pradeep Menon, managing director of investing and advisory. She joined from Blackstone, where she was senior vice president, global head of research and market data, leading the firm’s market data and business intelligence functions globally.

Golden Equator Capital, the Singapore-based investment house, appointed Pooja Gurbani, a figure involved in creating family offices in the region, as a partner in its venture investments team. Pooja Gurbani’s responsibilities include mentoring portfolio companies and maintaining strategic partnerships across the innovation and investment communities. Gurbani has more than 20 years of experience managing different types of investments in financial centres in London, New York, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Prior to joining Golden Equator, she was most recently managing her family office where she oversaw investments in various asset classes and developed a keen interest in investing in new innovative businesses.

BNP Paribas appointed a number of senior figures to join its wealth management operations across Asia. It named Andy Chai, who has been head of wealth management for Greater China Markets, and Arnaud Tellier, head of wealth management Singapore and Southeast Asia, as co-chief executives of wealth management across Asia-Pacific. Chai and Tellier assumed joint responsibility for the strategic direction and operations of BNP Paribas’ Wealth Management business in the region.

Chai oversees Greater China markets, including mainland China, Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan and leads the strategic client segment across Asia. Tellier covers the Southeast Asia, India and international markets, while investment services and key support functions report to him.

Both men will report hierarchically to co-CEO of BNP Paribas Wealth Management, Vincent Lecomte, and functionally to CEO Asia-Pacific of BNP Paribas Group, Eric Raynaud.

Separately, David Lim, a market head for Southeast Asia, was appointed head of wealth management Singapore and Southeast Asia, reporting to Tellier. Pierre Vrielinck, who had been CEO Asia-Pacific since 2017, returned to a senior leadership role within BNP Paribas Wealth Management in France. Veteran BNP Paribas banker, Mignonne Cheng, retained her role as Asia chairman for wealth management.

Standard Chartered Private Bank appointed Cedric Lizin as regional head, ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations and South Asia) private banking. Srinivas Siripurapu, who left to spend more time with his family in India, had been at the bank for three years.

Prior to this move, Lizin was head of wealth management and senior executive officer for Dubai at UBS. His roles included those of chief operating officer, and building platforms in Asia and an onshore Japan business. Lizin is based in Singapore and report to Didier von Daeniken, global head, private banking and wealth management.

EFG Bank appointed Manoj Ramarao as head of global for South Asia and managing director. He is based in Singapore and reports to EFG deputy chief executive officer and head of private banking in Singapore, Oliver Balmelli. Ramarao joined after having been in a number of senior posts at Bank of Singapore, where he was most recently team head for subcontinent and NRI South East Asia.

MSCI, the global provider of indices used as benchmarks for investment funds, appointed Doug Walls as Asia-Pacific head of index products. He replaced Ted Niggli, who moved to a newly-created global role within the company as head of OneMSCI Commercial Programs, to focus on commercial innovation at MSCI.

Based in Hong Kong, Walls reports to Diana Tidd, global head of index, and collaborates with Jack Lin, head of APAC client coverage, and the index and APAC leadership teams to deliver solutions for MSCI clients. Walls previously served as the head of Asia-Pacific product development and management for Fidelity International. He has also held other key senior positions during a 20-plus-year tenure in the Asia-Pacific region, including APAC head of product and strategy and innovation and head of product development at various global asset management companies, such as BlackRock. Niggli continues to be based in Shanghai.

BIL Suisse, a private banking subsidiary of Banque Internationale à Luxembourg, hired Roger Groebli as market head for China. Groebli is based in Zurich, reporting to Marco Schaller, head of private banking, BIL Suisse. He joined from Credit Suisse, where he was head of private banking North Asia, APAC and Switzerland. Prior to Credit Suisse, Groebli was CEO for Reyl Overseas from 2012 to 2015.

PwC Singapore appointed Paul Pak as the new leader of its asset and wealth management practice. He succeeded Justin Ong, who had led the practice since 2006. Since 2012, Pak has led the risk, regulations and compliance team within PwC Singapore’s AWM practice. He has more than 22 years of experience working with and helping asset management, asset servicing and wealth management businesses in Asia-Pacific, the UK and the US.

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North America
Raymond James welcomed advisors Kevin Bannister, Mark Raney, Nevin Cavanaugh, and Hobie Bannister to Raymond James & Associates, its advisor broker/dealer in Des Moines, Iowa. The advisors joined RJA in the firm’s West Des Moines, Iowa office managed by Steve DeVenney, from RBC Wealth Management where they previously managed $240 million in client assets. Aimee Holmes, senior registered client service associate, also joined. Together, they operate as Bannister, Raney Cavanaugh (BRC) Wealth Group of Raymond James.

Cavanaugh, vice president of wealth management at BRC Wealth Group, has been a financial professional for 20 years, beginning his career with Merrill Lynch, and later working at UBS Financial Services. Bannister, vice president of wealth management at BRC Wealth Group, has been in the industry for 23 years. Raney, vice president of wealth management at BRC Wealth Group, has been in financial services for 28 years, working with UBS Financial Services and later RBC Wealth Management. Hobie Bannister, senior investment portfolio analyst at BRC Wealth Group, has 45 years of experience in wealth management. Holmes, senior registered client service associate, joined BRC in 1999 and has been with the team ever since for over 20 years.

The firm also brought over two groups of advisors to its network: one in Tennessee and the second in Boston. Raymond James brought in Roper Fields, Thomas Fields and B V Lawson to its employee advisor broker/dealer. These advisors joined from Wells Fargo, where they previously managed about $150 million in client assets under advisement and generated over $1.6 million in revenue. The team operates as Fields Wealth Management of Raymond James and was joined by senior registered sales associate Tammy Alexander. In Boston, the firm added to its financial investment banking practice. Joiners were Robert Hutchinson as managing director, Andrew Stager as director, Calvin Chau as vice president and analyst Frank Elder. 

Raymond James appointed Gary Wardein, senior vice president, wealth management, to join Raymond James & Associates in San Diego, California. Wardein joined RJA in its Rancho Bernardo office from Merrill Lynch, where he previously managed $206 million in client assets. Joining Wardein was his daughter, Erin Bethge, financial advisor. Together, the two operate as Wardein Wealth Management of Raymond James. Wardein has 41 years of financial services experience, beginning his career in the industry with Merrill Lynch in 1978. He and Bethge run their practice as father and daughter.

A financial advisory group collectively overseeing $990 million in client assets – and $1.6 billion under advisement – joined RJA. The advisors, who joined from UBS, are Arun Sardana, Adam Proger, Paul Grambsch and Reilly Loflin. The team operated as SPG Fiduciary Partners of Raymond James and will be located in the Bethesda, Maryland office, which is a part of the Chesapeake Complex managed by Warren Wright.

Alex. Brown, a division of Raymond James, brought over client advisor Eric Dexter to a new branch opened in Portland, Maine. The Portland area is part of Alex. Brown’s Atlantic region, managed by regional director Brett Kellam. Dexter joined from Wells Fargo, where he managed $250 million in client assets. He has been in the financial services industry for nearly 25 years.

Raymond James welcomed John Jennings, financial advisor, to Raymond James Financial Services – its independent broker/dealer in Vero Beach, Florida. Jennings joined RJFS from Morgan Stanley, where he previously managed $106 million in client assets. He has five years of financial services experience, beginning his career with Morgan Stanley in 2014. 

The firm hired two strategists to join its private client group investment strategy team. Kevin Giddis took on the new role of chief fixed income strategist after leading the firm’s fixed income division, and Scott Day joined as senior investment strategist. 

Giddis had multiple senior leadership roles with Raymond James; formerly at Morgan Keegan for more than 20 years, most recently he was executive vice president and co-head of fixed income capital markets. Day has more than 25 years of financial services and investment management experience, joining from Goldman Sachs Asset Management where he was a managing director.

Evercore Wealth Management appointed Steven Chung as a managing director and portfolio manager. Prior to this, Chung worked at State Street Global Advisors. Chung is based in New York and reports to Brian Pollak, a partner and portfolio manager at Evercore Wealth Management.

Sotheby’s, the global auction house, appointed Charles F Stewart as chief executive. He joined from Altice USA, where he had served as co-president and chief financial officer from 2016. Stewart succeeded Tad Smith, who had served as CEO of Sotheby’s since 2015. Smith became a shareholder of the company and senior advisor to Stewart. In his former role, Stewart helped establish Altice USA as a significant technology, telecommunications and entertainment provider, working towards its $2.0 billion initial public offering in 2017. Stewart joined Altice USA after two decades of banking and finance experience spanning the US, Latin America and Europe.

Don Valentine, who founded the renowned Silicon Valley venture firm Sequoia Capital, died at the age of 87 at his home in California. The VC entrepreneur’s firm is responsible for minting a large number of high net worth individuals and his business model has been copied and studied around the world. Valentine worked in California’s Silicon Valley for almost four decades. His business has backed big-hitters in the tech space such as Oracle, Cisco, Microchip Technology, Linear Technology, and Network Appliance. One of his funds invested in Atari, the pioneering videogame company started by Nolan Bushnell, and in Apple Computer, a company started by a onetime Atari employee, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who later went on to build Apple. Valentine served on the boards of Atari and Apple.

Valentine graduated from Fordham University before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area to work for Fairchild Semiconductor, one of the earliest technology start-ups that ultimately spun off computing giants Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, and National Semiconductor.

Montgomery Wealth Management set up a new wealth advisory firm, based in Morristown, New Jersey, founded by a former senior figure at Morgan Stanley. The business is led by chief executive William Shinners, who was previously a managing director at Morgan Stanley.

Jane Fraser, who has run Citigroup’s global private bank and its US consumer and commercial banking arms, and most recently its Latin American business, became the bank's new president. Stephen Bird left to pursue an opportunity outside the firm. Fraser took on his role as CEO of global consumer banking. 

Ernesto Torres Cantu, CEO of Citibanamex, succeeded Fraser as chief executive of Latin America. Fraser has been at the bank for 15 years, having joined from McKinsey to run client strategy in the corporate and investment bank. During the financial crisis, she led its corporate strategy and M&A group, Citigroup said. Most recently, she served as CEO of Latin America, where she and Ernesto Torres Cantu have been overseeing Citigroup’s investment in Citibanamex.

Torres Cantu, appointed CEO of Citibanamex in 2014, is a 30-year veteran of Citigroup, having joined as a corporate banker in 1989. Bird’s departure rounds out a 20-year career at Citigroup. He has served in several posts, including head of consumer banking in Asia-Pacific and ultimately CEO of the region.

RBC Wealth Management recruited a new group called IC Team, formerly of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, to join its Reno branch in northern Nevada. The IC Group is composed of Paul Comcowich, senior vice president - financial advisor; David Lubelt, SVP – financial advisor; Clifford Lubelt, AVP – financial advisor; Robin Brunson, financial advisor; and senior registered client associate Kimberlie Jones. The team manages about $405 million in assets.

Deutsche Bank Wealth Management, part of Deutsche Bank, hired Samuel Descovich as head of global products and solutions for the Americas. Descovich is responsible for developing and delivering products and solutions to wealth management Americas clients, including alternative investments, capital markets, and trust and custody services. Prior to this, Descovich worked at UBS Global Wealth Management. He was Americas’ head of capital markets solutions for six years. Before that, he was Americas head of structured products distribution for seven years and managed a global equity sales desk for five years. Earlier in his career, he had various investment roles at Lazard Asset Management, Nomura Asset Management and Salomon Smith Barney. Based in New York, Descovich reports to Lavanya Chari, head of global products and solutions, and regionally to Patrick Campion, head of wealth management Americas.

Boston Private, the wealth management, trust, private and commercial banking firm, appointed Patrick Dwyer as managing director, head of strategic business development. Dwyer has more than 30 years of experience in the industry. Before his new role, Dwyer served as private wealth advisor at Merrill for nearly three decades. 
Main Management, a firm based in San Francisco, appointed Darol Ryan as managing director. With nearly 17 years of experience in investment management for high net worth individuals and institutions, Ryan focuses on expanding relationships with existing and prospective clients. 

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Americana Partners – part of the Dynasty Financial Partners network - appointed David M Darst as chief investment officer, reporting to president Jason Fertitta. Darst is also a consultant and senior investment advisor to Dynasty Financial Partners working with Dynasty’s chief investment officer and director of investment platforms Joe Dursi. The CIO is based in Houston, Texas and New York City. Prior to this, he held senior executive posts with Petiole Asset Management in Zurich and The Family Office in New York and Bahrain. Yale College and Harvard Business School-educated, Darst is a financier, university educator, and the author of 13 books. For 17 years, Darst was a managing partner and chief investment strategist at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, where he served as vice chairman of the Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Global Investment Committee. 

PKF O’Connor Davies, the US accounting, tax and advisory firm, launched Family Advisory Services, a new offering that advises private business owners, ultra-high net worth families, their family offices and the advisors which serve them. The group is led by Steve Prostano. Prostano, a certified public accountant and attorney with an LL.M in taxation, has worked for 35 years in the professional services sector. Prior to his new role, he was the head of Family Wealth Advisors, a division of Bank of the West Wealth Management, an affiliate of BNP Paribas. Prostano also served on the Bank of the West’s senior management committee. He founded The UHNW Institute, a non-profit, independent think tank that issues thought-leadership content for ultra-wealthy families, advisors and family offices. (Family Wealth Report is the exclusive media partner of the institute. Prostano is also a member of FWR’s editorial advisory board.)

Prior to his roles with Bank of the West, Prostano was chief executive of Silver Bridge, president of Atlantic Trust and a global partner of Amvescap, president of Chase Global Asset Management and executive vice president of the Private Clients Group of FleetBoston Financial. He also held senior positions with Mellon Bank and KPMG, where he began his career.

GCW Global Customized Wealth appointed California-based Tim Babich as a partner. Babich continues to manage Nexxus Holdings, an investment firm primarily dedicated to managing his personal investments. Babich founded and is a director of the RUNX1 Research Program, a philanthropic grant-funding and advocacy foundation for patients with the RUNX1 Familial Platelet Disorder. Babich was the founder and chief executive of Fortelus Capital Management, a multi-billion London-based hedge fund focused on special situations and distressed debt. He also founded and was chairman of FCM Bank, a Malta-based online bank which was founded in 2012 and sold to a European payments platform in 2017.

Pelion Venture Partners, an early stage venture capital firm, added Jeff Kearl as managing director. Kearl co-founded Stance in 2009 and was its chief executive from inception until joining Pelion this month. Besides his entrepreneurial experience at Stance and other start-ups, Kearl has a track record of angel and venture investing in consumer tech and software.

Argent Trust Company appointed Catherine Gotzkowsky as trust associate in the New Orleans office. She reports to Mark Milton, director of institutional services at Argent, and is responsible for working closely with clients and the administration of trust and investment accounts. Gotzkowsky has 28 years of diverse work experience, including banking operations, sales and compliance.

Refinitiv, the global data provider, hired Cornelia Andersson as global head of M&A and capital raising. Andersson, a member of the I&A proposition leadership team, is based in London. She reports to Pradeep Menon, managing director of investing and advisory. She joined from Blackstone, where she was senior vice president, global head of research and market data, leading the firm’s market data and business intelligence functions globally.

Addepar, a wealth management technology platform, hired Don Nilsson as chief product officer. In his new role, Nilsson drives development of the company’s software solution that specializes in data aggregation, analytics, and portfolio reporting to provide insights and clarity to investment portfolios. Nilsson joined from FactSet, where he spent the last 23 years of his career. Most recently, he was the senior vice president of product development, responsible for running FactSet’s global product development function and overseeing development across the entire FactSet platform.

Bank of New York Mellon Wealth Management named Rick Calero as head of lending and deposits. Calero reports directly to chief executive Catherine Keating in this position. With more than 20 years of industry experience in strategic business planning, banking and lending, Calero joined the firm with prior positions at TIAA, Umpqua Financial Holdings, Citigroup and Regions Financial. He is a US Army veteran.

Dowling & Yahnke Wealth Advisors appointed a former US Navy pilot Andrew Christopher as an associate advisor. Prior to this, Christopher served for 10 years in the US Navy as a naval officer and an F/A-18 Super-Hornet pilot. He joined two other Dowling & Yahnke team members who previously served as US navy officers: Will Beamer CFA, CFP®, president, chief investment officer, principal, and Mark Wernig, CFP®, lead advisor, principal.

Envestnet’s founder, chairman and chief executive, Judson Bergman, and his wife, Mary Miller, died in an automobile accident in San Francisco, California. The board of directors named Bill Crager, who is president of Envestnet and chief executive of Envestnet Wealth Solutions, as interim CEO. Crager has served as president of Envestnet since 2002. The board of directors also appointed Ross Chapin, the lead independent director of Envestnet’s board of directors, as interim chairman of Envestnet’s board.

London & Capital, the wealth and asset manager, appointed Jacob Holden as head of operations within the US Family Office. Holden reports to Rob Paul, partner at the firm and is based in London. The US Family Office provides wealth and investment advice to US-connected private client families and trusts, advising families on the structure and asset allocation of their investments within the complex tax regime of the US. Holden is a specialist in offshore trusts and fiduciaries.

DriveWealth Holdings, which provides digital trading technology, appointed Julie Coin as its president. Coin has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. Coin has worked in strategy, transformation management and operations at companies including Galaxy Digital, E*Trade Financial Corporation, Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch. Most recently, Coin was chief operating officer of Galaxy Digital, after serving as an independent consultant for a variety of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency start-ups. 

Fiduciary Trust Company, the wealth advisory firm, appointed Rick Tyson as vice president and investment officer. Tyson brings nearly three decades of financial services experience to his role at Fiduciary Trust, where he focuses on business development. He joined from Wilmington Trust, where he served as VP, senior wealth advisor. 

Citi Private Bank appointed Jon Blum, based in New York, reporting to Cesar Chicayban, as head of the bank in the New York metro area. Blum focuses on family offices, working with the bank’s private capital group. Prior to this, Blum worked at Citi’s global investor sales business, where he was a global relationship manager for nine years. In this role, Blum was responsible for hedge fund coverage across all markets products. Before he joined the US bank, Blum was a managing director and the head of business development at Liberty Square Asset Management.