July proved to be a busy month for moves in regions such as Asia, with a number of big-brand banks seeing senior figures arrive and move on.

UK moves 
Robertson Baxter, based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, hired Jo Sparagna as operations manager, a newly-created role, while Stephen Crawshaw joined the client services team.

Sparagna joined from Azure Consulting and is responsible for managing all internal departments including the client services, technical and finance teams. She also leads the firm's human resources process, while overseeing the learning and development of all staff. Crawshaw joined after 11 years as a workflow senior administrator at Capita Asset Services. As client support administrator, he supports the firm's financial advisors, while carrying out administrative work to ensure records are kept accurate and up to date.

Rowan Dartington hired three new investment managers in London, Manchester and Liverpool, an equity research analyst in London and a stockbroker in Bristol. In London, the company appointed investment manager Gregg McAlister from RBC Wealth Management. In Manchester, Johnny Arthur joined from Hanson Asset Management, where he was head of investment management for two years. In Liverpool, David McNiven joined from Quilter Cheviot after four years as investment director. Arthur and McNiven represent Rowan Dartington from St James’s Place offices in Manchester and Liverpool. 

Rowan Dartington also hired equity research analyst Andrew Wace from Axa Investment Managers, where he covered retail, tobacco, aerospace and defence, and engineering sectors. In Bristol, stockbroker Edmund Mills joined from Beaufort Securities.

Woodford Patient Capital Trust appointed Carolan Dobson and Alan Hodson as non-executive directors. Dobson is currently chairwoman of Aberdeen Smaller Companies Income Trust, JP Morgan European Smaller Companies Trust and Brunner Investment Trust. She has more recently been appointed as a non-executive director to the boards of the BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust and Schroder UK Growth Fund. She also served as head of UK at Abbey National Asset Management. Hodson is non-executive director at JP Morgan Elect and HarbourVest Global Private Equity. He stepped down as chairman of Blackrock Commodities Income Investment Trust last year. Hodson was also chairman of trustees of the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity from 2007 to 2015 and a partner at Mill Street Asset Management until the company went into liquidation in 2014.

UHY Hacker Young appointed Chris Smith as a new partner within its London office. Smith was previously audit partner for Barnes Roffe in London, where he advised owner managers and entrepreneurs. Before that, Smith spent 13 years as audit senior manager in KPMG's middle markets team.

GAM appointed Tim Rainsford from Man Group as its new group head of distribution, responsible for global sales and marketing as well as product development. Rainsford was previously global co-head of sales and marketing at Man. He succeeded Craig Wallis, who will step down from GAM's group management board at the end of this year.

Jupiter Asset Management appointed UK financial industry luminary Magnus Spence as head of investments, alternatives, a newly-formed role. Spence is responsible for building out the firm’s capabilities in the alternative investments segment. He focuses on Jupiter’s range of long/short equity UCITS products. Spence reports to Stephen Pearson, chief investment officer. 

BNP Paribas Investment Partners appointed Jean-Charles Sambor to the new role of deputy head of emerging market fixed income. Sambor joined from the Institute of International Finance, where he was Asia-Pacific regional director and chief executive of IIF APAC, based in Singapore, advising central banks, government policymakers, supranational organisations, asset managers and regulators. Before that, he was managing director and head of global emerging and frontier fixed income at Everest Capital. Now based in London, he reports to L Bryan Carter, the firm's head of emerging market fixed income.

Thomas See, head of structured fund management, left the firm, which also merged its structured fund management team with its portfolio solutions unit. See’s departure came after Schroders announced last month the separation of its multi-asset investments and portfolio solutions business into two separate units following the departure of Nicolaas Marais. See handed over to Schroder income managers Kevin Murphy and Nick Kirrage. 

Edinburgh-based Saracen Fund Managers hired Megan Heather-Cooley in the newly created role of fund specialist. Heather-Cooley works with the managers of Saracen’s existing funds – TB Saracen UK Alpha, TB Saracen Global Income & Growth and TB Saracen UK Income – to boost the information provided on portfolio changes and investment strategy.

Allfunds Bank appointed former Royal Bank of Canada director Nick Emmins to spearhead its new investment research offering to UK wealth managers and other third-party fund buyers. Emmins, based in London, was until recently a director at RBC, where he helped develop the bank's Luxembourg-based global fund trading platform. He has also held roles including head of business development at BNP Paribas Securities Services, head of institutional sales at BNP Paribas Asset Management and head of investment sales at M&G Investments.

Nick Irish, head of global equities at UBS Global Asset Management, left the firm “to pursue other opportunities”. Irish, based in London, joined the firm back in 2008 as a senior portfolio manager within the core/value equities team, having previously held a similar role for two years at HSBC Asset Management. He has also worked at Schroders.

Charles Burbeck took over leadership of the global equity team on an interim basis. He previously served as co-head alongside Irish. Before joining UBS Asset Management in 2013, he worked at Barclays Wealth & Investment Management as global head of equities.

Eaton Vance Management International appointed Hari Thirumalai as senior analyst, a new role within its global high yield team. Thirumalai joined from BTG Pactual, where he spent three years as a credit analyst specialising in high yield. He also worked for Brummer & Partners Asia in Singapore, where he worked on sovereign, investment grade, high yield and special situations investments across Asia. Before that, he worked for UBS in London as a senior credit strategist, and for Bank of America Merrill Lynch in global proprietary trading.

IAM Advisory appointed Simon Bowden and William Kay as directors of its board. Bowden, based in Guernsey, joined IAM Advisory back in 2003. As well as heading up a number of client portfolio relationships, he is a member of the investment committee heading up fixed income and foreign exchange research. Bowden, a member of the IAM Advisory management team, advises clients ranging from institutional investors to sovereign wealth funds and ultra-high net worth individuals. Kay, previously an associate director, is based in IAM Advisory’s Jersey office. He brings 40 years of experience in wealth management, including private banking, trust and corporate services and running a private family office.

Jonathan Polin, chief executive of Sanlam UK, joined the advisory board of CoInvestor. CoInvestor is an investment platform that enables private investors to co-invest alongside professional enterprise investment scheme fund managers.
Polin took the helm of Sanlam UK after Johannesburg-listed Sanlam announced it was combining all of its UK businesses – including financial advisor Sanlam Wealth Planning and discretionary fund manager Sanlam Private Wealth – into a single entity. Polin became CEO of Sanlam Private Wealth in October, having previously served as CEO of Ashcourt Rowan. In other high-level changes at CoInvestor, Sam Plumptre, an existing board member, was appointed CEO to support founder Charles Owen in the management of the business. Matthew Peacock, founding partner at Hanover Investments, joined the board as non-executive chairman. 

T Rowe Price appointed Matthew Jenkins to the newly-created position of head of strategic partners. He joined from Neptune Investment Management, where he has worked since 2007, latterly as head of advisory sales and strategic partners. Previously, he held roles at MetLife and Scottish Widows. He is based in London.

Fund manager Anthony Cherrington left London & Capital following the company's sale of its advisor solutions business. There were no plans to replace him given his job was linked to the recent sale. Cherrington worked at London & Capital for almost four years, having previously spent three years as a portfolio analyst at Russell Investments. Before that, he held similar roles at Mercer Investment Consulting and Goldman Sachs.

Brewin Dolphin appointed Louise Shaw and Nicholas Regan to the newly-created roles of divisional directors in its London office. Shaw joined after nine years at Kleinwort Benson where she was a client director. Regan has over 20 years’ experience in the financial services sector, and joins from BNP Paribas, where he was head of Asian equities in Europe. He previously held a similar role at Credit Suisse. Shaw reports to James Campbell-Johnson, divisional director, investment management, London and South East. Regan reports to Simon Blowey, divisional director, financial planning, London and South East.

Law firm Winckworth Sherwood appointed barrister Camini Kumar to its family team. Kumar joined from law firm Penningtons Manches. Kumar, an Oxford classics graduate with a first class law degree and Masters in European law, was called to the Bar in 2008. She has spent six years practising from chambers in London.

Rothschild Wealth Management appointed former Barclays Wealth & Investment Management employee Marcus Baker as a director in its UK business. He is based in London. Baker has 10 years’ experience providing wealth management, investment and structuring advice to international and UK based high net worth individuals, families, trusts and corporate clients, including resident non-domiciled clients. He worked at Barclays Wealth & Investment Management for 10 years (2006-2016). 

Allianz Global Investors appointed Kacper Brzezniak as a junior portfolio manager within its fixed income team in London. Brzezniak worked as a global fixed income trader at the Royal Bank of Scotland before spending three years as an interest rate derivatives and FX options trader at the National Bank of Fujairah in Dubai. He recently completed an MBA at Yale. Based in London, he reports to Mike Riddell, manager of the £71.5 million ($94.9 million) Allianz Strategic Bond Fund, which invests in fixed income across credit, inflation, duration and currencies.

Irwin Mitchell Private Wealth hired Olga Powell, an associate legal executive, within its trusts and tax planning team. Powell was previously a legal advisor at Blake Morgan and also worked at law firm Thomas Eggar before it merged with Irwin Mitchell last year. Fluent in Russian, she advises clients on tax aspects of UK private trusts, charitable trusts, wills and estate planning. She will be based in the firm’s Chichester office.

William Ladenburg left Close Brothers for private investment office Sparrows Capital. Ladenburg was previously private client director at Close Brothers Asset Management, where he worked for six years. Before Close Brothers, he spent four years with wealth manager WH Ireland. He is now director, head of client relationships at London-based Sparrows Capital, managing existing and new client relationships as well as helping to identify new business opportunities.

Guy Monson handed over his duties as managing partner at Sarasin & Partners to Greg Matthews to focus on his chief investment officer role. He became senior partner. Matthews leads the business and chair the firm's executive committee. Matthews joined Sarasin & Partners in 1994 after a career at Smith & Williamson as a chartered accountant. He has been chief operating officer of Sarasin & Partners since 2010, previously serving as the chief financial officer of the Sarasin (UK) Group since 2002. He was formerly chairman of the Financial Services Authority’s Smaller Businesses Practitioner Panel and a member of the FSA’s Practitioner Panel.

Head of operations Tim Temple succeeded Matthews as chief operating officer. Temple joined the firm in 2005 and became head of operations in 2009. Prior to this, he worked at WM Company, Deutsche Asset Management, and The Bank of New York. 

Separately, Sarasin also appointed six new partners: Chris Bell (legal counsel), Edward Campbell-Johnson (private clients), Phil Collins (asset management), Ruadhri Duncan (charities), Melanie Roberts (charities), and Tim Temple (operations).

Northern Trust Asset Management, part of Chicago-headquartered Northern Trust, appointed Julia Kochetygova as a senior environmental, social and governance (ESG) research analyst in London. Kochetygova was previously head of sustainability indices at S&P Dow Jones Indices, where she led the global S&P ESG index development, including the launch of several new sustainability index families.

Aviva Investors hired Bryony Deuchars as a fund manager within its emerging market equities team. Deuchars, who has 16 years’ investment management experience, joined from Schroders, where she was a senior equity analyst, covering emerging markets. Previously, she was an equity analyst with WestAM.

Man GLG appointed a group of five investment professionals, completing hires for its recently-created emerging markets debt team. The team is based in New York and London, working under the firm’s head of emerging markets debt strategies, Guillermo Ossés, who joined the business at the start of the year.

Phil Yuhn joined as a portfolio manager based in New York. Yuhn was previously a portfolio manager at American Century Investments, and prior to that worked alongside Ossés as a senior portfolio manager at HSBC Global Asset Management.

Jose Wynne joined as a portfolio manager based in New York, coming from Barclays, where he was head of FX research and managing director. Prior to this he worked within the North America FX strategy team as well as spending time as a senior emerging markets strategist.

Lisa Chua joined as a portfolio manager based in New York. She previously worked alongside Ossés as part of the emerging markets debt team at HSBC Global Asset Management in the US.

Ehsan Bashi joined as a portfolio engineer based in New York. Bashi was previously a manager at KPMG, advising clients on risk management related matters.

Maria do Carmo Cal joined as a product specialist, based in London. She was previously managing director and head of capital markets at Banco Itaú BBA International, leading the development of the bank’s debt syndicate offering. 
Cazenove Capital appointed Kim Nelson as regional business development manager, based in Edinburgh. Nelson joined from Tilney Investment Management, where she was an investment advisor based in the firm's Glasgow office. She has eight years’ investment experience, having also worked at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management and Standard Life Investments, according to her LinkedIn profile. Her role is a newly-created one. 

Discretionary investment manager Quilter Cheviot appointed Bronia Widdows to its office in Llandudno Junction, North Wales. Widdows has around 30 years’ industry experience. She joined from Coutts & Co, where she was an associate director. Her previous responsibilities include investment planning, financial advice, discretionary portfolio management, inheritance tax planning, trusts, wills and estate. She is also authorised to provide investment advice to charities.
Eaton Vance Management International appointed Tjalling Halbertsma as managing director, responsible for leading business development globally.

Halbertsma joined from Nuveen Investments in London, where he was most recently head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He managed a team covering a range of markets focused on leveraged loans, US and global equities, and US fixed income. Before Nuveen, he worked at Man Group, Morgan Stanley and UBS Investment Bank. In the new role, he reports to Matt Witkos, president of Eaton Vance Distributors.

DBS Private Bank opened a wealth management office in London, appointing Jeremy Parlons from Royal Bank of Canada as UK market wealth management head. He joined after four years as a director at RBC Wealth Management in London, where he was responsible for building the firm's exposure to ultra-high net worth and family office clients as well as working on several cross-banking client transactions and collaboration committees. Before RBC, he spent nine years with Credit Suisse Private Banking.

Old Mutual Wealth appointed Iain Wright as chief risk officer, replacing Kevin Lee-Crossett. Lee-Crossett previously held the joint role of chief risk officer and chief legal officer. He now solely serves as chief legal officer, responsible for the legal functions of the Old Mutual Wealth business.

Wright joined from Sun Life Financial, where he was senior vice president, enterprise and operational risk. He previously served as chief risk officer at Prudential UK and Europe. He has also worked at the London Stock Exchange as head of equity and debt markets. He is based in London and reports to Paul Feeney, chief executive of Old Mutual Wealth.

 Neptune Investment Management appointed Stewart Cowley as a fixed income consultant. Cowley was most recently head of fixed income and macro at Old Mutual Global Investors, where he managed the Old Mutual Global Strategic Bond and Old Mutual Managed funds. During his 30-year career in the industry, he has also held senior executive roles at Invesco, Hill Samuel Asset Management and Newton Investment Management.

Fund manager Sarah Emly returned to JP Morgan Asset Management after a nine-month period of sick leave. Emly, who stepped down in September last year, resumed her role as a portfolio manager within the firm's European equity group on a part-time basis. Based in London, she has been with JP Morgan for over 20 years and specialises in managing UK institutional portfolios. 

Parker Fitzgerald promoted Jeremy Scott to the new role of vice chairman. Scott was managing director, head of institutional relationships. Previously, he was global financial services leader and global board member at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He is based in London. 

PIMCO, the investment firm, appointed Gene Frieda as global strategist for its emerging markets and global strategies, and Yacov Arnopolin as emerging markets portfolio manager. They are based in London.

Frieda reports to Andrew Balls, MD and chief investment officer for global fixed income. Arnopolin reports to Michael Gomez, MD and head of the emerging markets portfolio management team. Frieda previously worked at Moore Capital Management, where he was a partner and senior global strategist. Arnopolin was a managing director and portfolio manager at Goldman Sachs Asset Management in New York, where he helped oversee emerging market portfolios for institutional clients such as pension funds, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds.

Tom Milson from Lloyds Private Banking joined the London office of GWM Investment Management as executive director. Milson, who has nearly 20 years of industry experience, was at Lloyds Bank Private Banking. He spent the last six years there as a senior private banker, responsible for managing and overseeing over £500 million ($654 million) in client assets. Before that, he was an independent financial advisor at the bank.

AXA Investment Managers appointed John Stainsby, formerly of JP Morgan Asset Management, as head of its UK private client group. He leads UK distribution efforts among wholesale and institutional clients. At JP Morgan Asset Management, Stainsby worked for 16 years, most recently as its head of UK institutional business. 

Legal and General Investment Management appointed Stephen Gray to the newly-created role of head of wealth management. Gray, who has 18 years of industry experience, joinws from AXA Investment Managers, where he was head of discretionary sales. Previously, he was regional sales manager at Framlington Unit Management. Gray is based in London and reports to Simon Hynes, head of UK retail sales. 

Kames Capital hired Yasmine Ellis as business development manager within its UK wholesale distribution team. Ellis joined the London-based team from Schroders. In her new role, she is responsible for building and maintaining relationships with UK private banks, financial institutions, fund of funds, discretionary and advisory wealth managers, stockbrokers and family offices in London. She reports to Kames' head of UK regional sales, Mark Savage.
Cerno Capital  appointed Jonathan Reed to the newly-created role of private client director.

Reed joins after six years at HSBC Private Bank, where he was an associate director. While at HSBC, he was selected to take part in the bank’s Next Generation Future Leader Programme, which fast-tracks talented employees into senior management roles. He was previously a client advisor at Seven Investment Management. Before that, he worked at Brown Shipley.

Law firm Bircham Dyson Bell appointed Elizabeth Neale to be head of private wealth, succeeding Helen Ratcliffe, who stepped down from the role after five and a half years. Neale has been with Bircham Dyson Bell since 1998.
Separately, other recent changes at the firm included the appointment of Matt Braithwaite as partner; Simon Weil, formerly a partner in the charities team, returning to the department to support the firm’s international offering, and the appointment of Geoff Kertesz as head of the firm’s wills and trusts disputes team.

Brewin Dolphin hired Philip Thitchener as a business development manager covering intermediaries in the South West. Thitchener has 25 years of industry experience, much of which he spent providing investment solutions to independent financial advisors. He joined from Bristol-based Whitechurch Securities, having previously worked at JP Morgan Asset Management. In his new role, he works out of Brewin’s Exeter and Plymouth offices.

Asia-Pacific
Standard Chartered appointed a top International Monetary Fund executive, José Viñals, as its new chairman. He replaces Sir John Peace, who will step down on 1 December. Viñals is the financial counsellor and director of the monetary and capital markets department of the IMF. His role includes oversight and direction of its monetary and financial sector work. He is the IMF’s chief spokesperson on financial matters, including global financial stability. He was a member of the plenary and steering committee of the Financial Stability Board for seven years. Viñals started his career as an economist before spending 25 years at the Central Bank of Spain, where he rose to be the deputy governor.
Lawrence Lua was promoted to the role of deputy head of DBS Private Bank. Lua was previously head of South and Southeast Asia at DBS Private Bank and will continue to report to Tan Su Shan, the group head of consumer banking and wealth management. Lua joined DBS Private Bank in 2011.  

Standard Chartered also hired former senior Barclays manager Srinivas Siripurapu as regional head, private banking, ASEAN and South Asia and as global head, non-resident Indian clients. He took over the regional leadership for ASA from Peter Kok. Kok was most recently the MD and regional market manager at UBS, where he led the wealth management business in Singapore and Malaysia, as well as the external asset management in Singapore and Hong Kong. 

Standard Chartered added to its advisory team in the ASEAN market region. Doreen Tan was appointed as an associate director and investment advisory for ASEAN International. She covers managed investments and capital markets products for the bank’s non-resident India and global India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and international clients. She spent the bulk of her career in Citi Smith Barney and Citicorp Investment Bank, starting as a management associate in research advisory in 2008. Alfred Foo joined as associate director, investment advisory for ASEAN International. In this role, he covers managed investments and capital markets products for NRI/global India, Malaysia,
Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and international clients. He was most recently with the Vanguard Group in Pennsylvania.

In other moves, the head of India private banking at Standard Chartered, Sandeep Das, left the bank.

DBS hired Joseph Poon, former head of UBS UHNW segment in Singapore. Poon left UBS in May this year after a restructuring of the Swiss bank's Singapore management. Poon had been at UBS since May 2012, having previously served as managing director at Julius Baer, where he was a member of the firm's Asia executive committee. Prior to this, he was chief executive of Macquarie Private Wealth Asia in Singapore and responsible for building up the UHNW segment in Asia.

Societe Generale announced new country heads for Japan and Switzerland. Raphael Cheminat was appointed group country head for Japan, with effect from 1 September 2016, subject to regulatory approval. He replaced Guillaume Burtschell who took on a new role within the group. 

Hugues de la Marnierre was appointed group country head for Switzerland, in addition to his existing roles as head of corporate and investment banking in Switzerland as well as senior banker covering Swiss financial institutions. He replaced Yves Thieffry who was recently appointed chairman of the board of directors of Societe Generale Private Banking Switzerland.

UBS Asset Management appointed Hayden Briscoe to the new role of head of fixed income, Asia-Pacific. Briscoe joined from Alliance Bernstein, bringing over 24 years of fixed income and currency experience. Based in Hong Kong, he oversees all fixed income portfolio management and business activities in the region. He reports to John Dugenske, global head of fixed income at UBS Asset Management. He also joined the firm's asset management APAC executive committee.

Another of Singapore's cluster of independent asset managers added to its team. River Valley Asset Management appointed Anand Ramachandran as partner and fund manager. Ramachandran was previously a senior portfolio manager with Legg Mason International Equities, firstly in Singapore and then in London for nine years.

Arnulfo de Pala was appointed chief investment officer at TriLake Partners, the Singapore-based firm. A Filipino and US national raised in the Philippines, de Pala joined in July. He has a financial sector career spanning more than 25 years.

Mumbai, India-based banking group IDFC appointed Vishal Kapoor as chief executive of IDFC Asset Management Company. His most recent role was at Standard Chartered Bank as managing director, head of wealth management, India.

Withers appointed seven new partners across its offices in Europe, the US and Asia. In Asia, Laurence Ho was promoted in the wealth planning and tax team in Hong Kong, as were Samantha Gershon within the family team in Hong Kong and Lim Hui Ying within the litigation and arbitration team in Singapore.

National Australia Bank unveiled top-level management changes. Senior figures Michaela Healey, group executive, governance and reputation; Renee Roberts, group executive, enterprise services and transformation; and Gavin Slater, group executive, personal banking, left the bank. The business and private banking arm is led by Angela Mentis. A newly created customer-facing business unit was created, Corporate & Institutional Banking, and Cathryn Carver will hold the role of chief customer officer, CIB, while an “internal and external executive search is conducted”. Andrew Hagger is to lead consumer banking and wealth management, a segment also changed by NAB.

Al Rajhi Bank Malaysia, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the world’s largest Islamic bank, Al Rajhi Bank, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, appointed Datuk Dr Nik Norzrul Thani Bin Nik Hassan Thani as its new chairman. Datuk Dr Nik has more than 35 years of local and international experience in the legal, academic and Islamic banking sectors. 

Credit Suisse’s private banking operation in Asia recruited Stella Kong and Edwin Lim as market group heads for China and Taiwan, respectively. Kong and Lim, who are based in Hong Kong, joined existing market group heads Alex Ng and Orchid Yuan in leading the bank's China and Taiwan franchises respectively. The newly-appointed duo have more than 30 years’ experience in senior frontline leadership roles covering Greater China markets with major financial institutions. 

Kong previously worked at Standard Chartered, where she was the deputy regional head of private banking, Greater China and North Asia. Prior to that role, she was vice chairman of China at Sarasin Rabo Investment Management, head of private banking for China and North Asia at ABN AMRO, and head of the Taiwan market at both Deutsche Bank and UBS. Edwin Lin previously was head of Northeast Asia for HNW at JP Morgan Private Bank. That role is not being replaced by JP Morgan. 

Credit Suisse appointed Marcel Schuler as chief operating officer of international wealth management. Schuler replaced Romeo Lacher, who held the COO position at the IWM business since November last year. He has in the past served as head of operations for Credit Suisse’s private bank. 

Teddy Chu was appointed as head of Credit Suisse trust and estate advisory, Hong Kong. Eleanor Yuen formerly held the role. Based in Hong Kong, Chu leads a specialised team providing wealth planning services. He reports to Stefan Aegerter, global head of trust and estate advisory, and locally to Rajesh Manwani, head of investment solutions and products, Asia-Pacific. 

KPMG Australia appointed Craig Wishart to the post of chief information officer. He took over the role from Anthony Stevens, who led the firm’s digital services team in the newly-created role of chief digital officer. Wishart is a technology and operations executive who has led the delivery of large-scale business transformations, cloud services implementation, and service operations change programmes. He previously worked at UXC, where he was chief information officer and chief technology officer. Prior to this he was CIO and executive general manager for customer services at Service Stream. He has also held various executive IT roles at ANZ Bank, Telstra, Rio Tinto and Sensis.

Thirdrock Group appointed Suanjin Tan as senior portfolio manager and Yi-Lin Lee as senior fixed income strategist, portfolio manager. The pair co-manage a discretionary fixed income strategy. Previously, Tan was lead portfolio manager for China credit and head of Asian private credit for BlackRock, co-managing fixed income portfolios in excess of $8 billion. In addition to his portfolio management responsibilities, Tan was also a senior credit analyst with a particular focus on Chinese corporates and oversaw the firm’s China research efforts. Before that, he was investment director and head of Southeast Asia at Citi Venture Capital International.
Lee brings over 15 years of investment banking experience in global credit and interest rate markets to Thirdrock. She has worked for the fixed income trading businesses of Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Haitong International, with management responsibility in the last two roles. 

Former HSBC Private Bank employee Michael Hua, who left his Singapore-based role three months ago, resurfaced at Liechtenstein-headquartered LGT. Hua was in charge of HSBC’s private bank relationship groups serving the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. He joined the bank in 2004, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to this, he worked at Coutts for around six years.

Mercer, the consultancy, expanded its delegated investment solutions offering to Singapore, led by Soon Kian Lee, a principal at the firm and head of investments for the ASEAN region. The move followed Mercer’s launch late year of the business in Japan. Soon joined the firm in 2006 and reports to Jeffery Schutes, Mercer’s growth markets investments business leader and global leader for alternatives. Soon will also work with Amit Popat, a partner and business leader for the delegated solutions business, growth markets, who is based in Singapore.

Commonwealth Bank’s wealth management unit, Commonwealth Private, named Marianne Perkovic as a new executive general manager, based in Sydney. Perkovic joined Commonwealth Bank in January 2010 as Colonial First State general manager for distribution and she was in charge of the organisation’s wealth management advice business for the past four years. 

Australia-listed ClearView Wealth appointed three new business development managers. James Blanton was appointed to the role for New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. He has worked in the financial services sector for 15 years. He was previously a senior business development manager for the Asteron NSW team. Meanwhile, Nick Dowling took up the same role for Victoria and Tasmania. He has worked in the sector since 2000. Before joining ClearView, he worked for five years at Macquarie. Richard Monroe was named business development manager for Queensland. He has worked in financial services for 16 years, spending time as both a financial advisor and a life insurance business development manager. 

Deutsche Asset Management, part of the Frankfurt-headquartered bank, appointed Victoria Sharpe as managing director and head of real estate for the Asia-Pacific region. Sharpe is based out of Singapore and reports to Pierre Cherki, head of alternatives. Sharpe has more than 30 years of experience developing and executing global real estate strategies, working in London, New York, Singapore and Munich.
The head of India private banking at Standard Chartered, Sandeep Das, left the bank. As part of the change, Aman Rajoria, who is executive director and market head, West, took over in the interim.

Nerine Trust Company in Hong Kong appointed Michelle Sng as wealth and estate planning manager. Singapore-born Sng is a qualified Australian lawyer and has worked in private client practice advising clients on matrimonial issues and assisting in international arbitration matters. She later joined a trust and corporate service provider as a wealth and estate planning manager, advising high net worth individuals for succession and estate planning. 

TriLake Partners, which is headquartered in Singapore, appointed a former Credit Suisse executive, Dr Daniel Brunner, as executive director, senior client relationship manager. Prior to joining TriLake Partners, Dr Brunner was MD at Credit Suisse in the private banking and wealth management division, based in the Zurich head office. He has held a number of other roles in different parts of the Credit Suisse group. He has also been a board member of the Swiss-Asian Chamber of Commerce since 2011 and is co-chair of the Philippines chapter. 

Old Mutual Global Investors, part of Old Mutual Wealth, appointed Gerard Clancy to the post of head of sales for Southeast Asia, based in Singapore. The role was a newly-created position. Clancy reports to Carol Wong, managing director, Asia-Pacific, who is based in Hong Kong. Previously, Clancy worked at Columbia Threadneedle Investments. There, he was executive director, wholesale distribution, for two years. 

Data protection and information management firm Commvault appointed Matthew Johnston as area vice president for the ASEAN region and South Korea. Prior to Commvault, Johnston held a number of software leadership roles at Dell, including managing director for Greater China and general manager of solution sales in Asia-Pacific and Japan.

Jersey Finance appointed An Kelles as business development director for Greater China, replacing Yumei Zhang, who left the organisation. Kelles joined from Intertrust Group’s Hong Kong office, where she was business unit director for the European and private equity teams. Before that, she was a corporate lawyer and business unit manager at ATC Corporate Services in Luxembourg, which later merged with Intertrust. She has also worked in the international business team of law firm Matheson in Dublin, Ireland.

---

North America

Doris Meister is joining Wilmington Trust on August 15 as an executive vice president to head up its wealth management unit - a newly-created role, the firm confirmed. Meister was previously head of global wealth advisory and fiduciary solutions at BNY Wealth Management. Based in New York, she joins William Farrell as the second member from Wilmington Trust on M&T's management group, which is comprised of 15 executives.   

Private Client Resources, the data aggregation and wealth reporting firm, brought in fintech veteran Bob Miller as vice chairman and strategic advisor. As founder and chief executive of four fintech companies, Miller is an expert in the consolidated investment data space and has a strong background providing managed solutions to the financial services industry. His most recent company, CorrectNet, was a venture capital-backed provider of aggregation and reporting for institutional asset managers, prime brokers and hedge fund administrators.

BNY Mellon added Marleny Cheshier as a senior wealth manager in Newport Beach, CA. Cheshier spent the last 18 years at Northern Trust, where she was most recently a vice president and senior portfolio manager. In her new role at BNY Mellon, she will report to Michael Silane, senior director of portfolio management.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management introduced a new US role to foster stronger coordination among its regional offices, naming Thomas Dicker as head of US markets. Based in Boston, MA, Dicker will oversee BNY Mellon's 38 wealth offices throughout the country, reporting to Don Heberle, chief executive of BNY Mellon Wealth Management. Previously, there were three market presidents, covering the East, West and New York-Tri State areas, the firm confirmed. Dicker - who most recently served as chief operating officer - has held several other leadership posts and client-facing roles during his 29 years with BNY Mellon, including overseeing the acquisition of the firm's offices in Toronto, Chicago, and Menlo Park, CA. The firm said it has not named a new COO.

The head of JP Morgan’s global wealth management business, Phil Di Iorio, is to retire at the end of the year. Di Iorio has held the role since 2011, having previously served as head of private banking products and practices since 2005. JP Morgan said a successor has not yet been named.

Steven Mattus joined Deutsche Bank Wealth Managementas head of global products and solutions for the Americas region, following on from a number of moves in recent months. Mattus previously held senior roles at Credit Suisse Private Bank, most recently as head of assets and investments in the Americas. Before that, he founded and led Credit Suisse’s advisory solutions group, a role in which he designed and rolled out products and platforms for ultra-wealthy clients. In his new position at Deutsche, Mattus - a managing director - will be based in New York. He will report to Patrick Campion, head of wealth management for the Americas (who joined in May), and to Bernd Amlung, global head of products and services.

Paul Vosper joined PIMCO as an executive vice president and real estate strategist in New York, as the firm said it continues to expand its alternatives investment platform. Vosper joined PIMCO’s real estate team of 49 investment professionals globally and reports to Jennifer Bridwell, managing director and global head of PIMCO’s alternative products. Vosper previously held roles at Morgan Stanley as co-head and chief operating officer of Alternative Investment Partners. In that role, he was responsible for AIPs real estate investment strategies and developing real estate solutions for institutional and private clients.

Steven Bishop joined Noyes’ wealth management group in Indianapolis, IN. Bishop joined Chichago, IL-based Noyes from City Securities Corporation, where he has been a financial advisor since 2003. He started his career in 1997 as a financial advisor at NatCity Investments.

HSBC Private Bank named Joe Abruzzo as head of business for North America, succeeding Patrick Campion, who joined Deutsche Bank Wealth Management in May. Based in New York, Abruzzo will be responsible for HSBC’s private banking strategy across North America, particularly in the US – a key market for HSBC Global Private Bank, the firm said. He was most recently head of large corporate banking, having joined in 2014 as head of northeast corporate banking. He previously held senior roles at JP Morgan in commercial and investment banking. Abruzzo will report to Marlon Young, regional head of global private banking for the US and Latin America. He will also serve as a member of the HSBC Global Private Bank Executive Committee.

Compliance consultancy Cordium appointed Doug Morgan as group chief executive. Morgan succeeded Michel van Leeuwen, who left Cordium last year. He joinsedfrom SunGard, where he oversaw the asset management back-office servicing and accounting space. He has also held various roles in the asset management industry, from global custodians and asset managers through to hedge funds, funds of funds and private equity firms. He will initially be based in New York before relocating to London in the third quarter.

Withers appointed seven new partners across its offices in the US, Europe and Asia. In the US, the new partners are Marissa Dungey in Greenwich, CT, and Rebecca O'Toole in San Diego, CA. Both are part of the firm's wealth planning and tax team. In Geneva, Ian Perrett became partner within the wealth planning and tax team. In London, Nicholas Vaughan became partner within the real estate team. Meanwhile, in Asia, Laurence Ho was promoted in the wealth planning and tax team in Hong Kong, as were Samantha Gershon within the family team in Hong Kong and Lim Hui Ying within the litigation and arbitration team in Singapore.

Vestorly, the content marketing and relationship analytics platform, brought in Neil St Clair as vice president of growth, a newly-created position at the firm. St Clair joined from the Boston, MA-based RIA Shepherd Kaplan, where he was director of marketing. At Vestorly, he is also tasked with developing the firm's content studio, Vestorly Bespoke, and will report to chief executive Justin Wisz.

US Trust, part of Bank of America, made as string of hires across California, Florida and Washington. In the Golden state, John Aylward and Tiffany Barbara joined US Trust's Los Angeles branch as a private client manager and private client advisor respectively. They previously worked at PNC and BNY Mellon, respectively. Meanwhile, in Florida, Chris O’Gorman has been appointed as a private client advisor in Fort Lauderdale. He previously worked at Creative Sports & Entertainment Finance.

Additionally, Josh Renick joined the Boca Raton, FL, office as a private client advisor. He was formerly an enterprise staffing manager at Bank of America. Lastly, US Trust hired Brecken Diller as a private client manager in Seattle, WA. Diller joined from Comerica, where he was a vice president and trust specialist.

PIMCO, the global investment management giant, named Emmanuel Roman as its next chief executive, taking over from current CEO Douglas Hodge. Hodge will become a managing director and senior advisor when Roman joins PIMCO on November 1 in Newport Beach, CA. Roman was previously CEO at the alternative asset manager Man Group, a role he assumed in 2013 (Luke Ellis has become CEO at Man Group). He also previously spent 18 years at Goldman Sachs, served as co-CEO at GLG Partners and was also chief operating officer at Man Group in 2010 following the firm’s acquisition of GLG.

John Stuntebeck joined US Trust as a non-profit institutional sales director, responsible for driving growth within the firm's outsourced CIO business throughout the southeast. Stunteback was previously a regional director at SEI Investments, focused on new business development and marketing efforts. He specialized in endowments, foundations and non-profits. At US Trust, he will report to Bernie Reidy, national philanthropic sales executive.  

BNY Mellon Wealth Management ramped up its workforce in the Windy City with five appointments. Kevin Kosmak took on a newly-created team leader and senior wealth manager role, while Scott Sandee joined as a senior wealth director. The firm also appointed Kelly Demers as a vice president and residential mortgage banker, Daniel Abbatacola as an underwriter in life insurance premium lending, and Joseph Schwall as a senior private banker.

Kosmak spent the last 13 years as a senior portfolio manager and team leader at Northern Trust, while Sandee was previously a private wealth advisor at BMO Private Bank and, before that, a wealth strategist at Northern Trust. Demers, meanwhile, was formerly a private client mortgage banker at JP Morgan; Abbatacola was a senior underwriter at Northern Trust (and earlier worked at Cornerstone National Bank and Trust Company); and Schwall also joined from Northern Trust, where he has spent the last 27 years.

Peter Andersen took over as chief investment officer at Fiduciary Trust Company, succeeding Michael Mullaney, who became chief investment strategist – a new role at the firm. Andersen was previously CIO at Congress Wealth Management since 2003. He was also a portfolio manager at Congress Asset Management, an affiliated firm. Earlier, he held senior roles at Delaware Investments/Conseco Capital Management and Colonial Management. In his role as CIO at Fiduciary Trust, Andersen will direct the development and refinement of the firm’s investment strategies, asset allocation, third-party manager selection and client portfolio construction. Mullaney, meanwhile, is now responsible for providing perspectives and insights on the global economy and investment markets.

Snowden Lane Partners, the wealth advisory firm, brought in Sam DeGennaro - formerly a first vice president at Merrill Lynch – as a partner and managing director in New Haven, CT. DeGennaro is merging his $180 million practice with the now $1 billion Guth/Fordyce Group, working alongside a team of nine led by partners and managing directors Kevin Guth and Steve Fordyce.  Snowden Lane's footprint now includes seven offices nationally, with offices in Pasadena and San Diego, CA (an international office), as well as New York, New Haven, CT, Pittsburgh, PA,  Baltimore and Bethesda, MD.

Philadelphia, PA-based Janney Montgomery Scott recruited three financial advisors with combined client assets under management of over $250 million. Two account executives and one private client assistant have also joined the firm. Ann Brancato, a first vice president of wealth management, stepped into the Red Bank, NJ, office, joining from RBC Wealth Management. Meanwhile, Christopher Goles, also a first vice president of wealth management, joined in Baltimore, MD, along with the Courtyard Financial Partners team. They were previously affiliated with Wells Fargo Advisors. Lastly, Kenneth Sarpu, a senior vice president of investments, joined Janney in Glastonbury, CT, with the Sarpu Cardinal Wealth Management Group team. They too were previously affiliated with Wells Fargo Advisors.

Deutsche Bank Wealth Management expanded its presence in the US western region, carving out a new role in the Golden State and recruiting from Morgan Stanley. Russell Daulton was appointed to the newly-created position of San Francisco, CA, market manager, responsible for extending the private bank’s reach in the region’s thriving technology space, while Susan Rounds joins as a director and wealth planner in Los Angeles, CA.

Daulton has worked at Deutsche Bank for over a decade and was latterly a senior private banker in San Francisco. Earlier, he held relationship management roles at JP Morgan Private Bank, and spent 12 years at Wells Fargo Private Bank. Rounds was previously an executive director of UHNW resources and regional advanced planning director at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. Before that, she spent nearly a decade at Wells Fargo Wealth Management as senior director of planning. Daulton and Rounds will report to Lee Hutter, head of Deutsche Bank WM for the US western region, and Sam Petrucci, head of wealth planning in the Americas, respectively.
BNY Mellon Wealth Management made another hire this week, in the shape of Frieda Rakhman as a wealth director in Atlanta, GA. Rakhman previously worked at Bessemer Trust, and earlier at UBS Financial Services. In her new role at BNY Mellon she reports to managing director Helen Nugent.

Randy Martin joined Raleigh, NC-based First Citizens Bank as director of private banking. Martin moved over from Capital One Bank in McLean, VA, where he headed up private banking national underwriting and commercial credit services. Earlier, he worked at Chevy Chase Bank and Wachovia Bank in various private banking and credit roles across Virginia and North Carolina.

RBC Wealth Management welcomed two new teams in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The Haring Group, a father/son financial advisor team, joined from Morgan Stanley. Comprised of William Haring, first vice president and financial advisor, and Bradley Haring, financial advisor, the team has $124 million in assets under management. Additionally, Scott Ramo, senior vice president and financial advisor, moved from Raymond James/Morgan Keegan.

His wife, Valerie Ramo, joined him as a senior financial associate. Ramo will be joining the CKM Wealth Management Group, already in existence at RBC, which will have combined assets of $300 million. Both teams will report to Fort Lauderdale branch director Jim Jahnsen.

Turner Investments, which has recently merged with the investment advisory firm Veracen, bolstered its management team with three additions. Robert Baird was appointed as chief operating and accounting officer, Jena Dietrich was named director of marketing, and Erik Hagar was hired as a portfolio specialist. Baird spent the past two years at Veracen, having previously worked at Kingsguard Advisors and Ellington Management Group.

Dietrich rejoined Turner, having served eight years previously in the same capacity for the firm and its affiliates. She has 21 years of investment marketing experience, and was latterly managing director at Custom Institutional Fund Solutions. Before her initial tenure at Turner, she was director of marketing at Philadelphia International Advisors and vice president of marketing at The Glenmede Trust Company. Hagar joined as a senior portfolio specialist, bringing 30 years of investment industry experience to the new role. He spent the past nine years nine years at Vanguard as a senior investment analyst and as head of consultant relations within the institutional sales division. Earlier, he was an active equity portfolio manager at The Glenmede Trust Company.

---

Houston Trust Company appointed F Allen Lyons as vice president of investments. Lyons previously was a vice president of wealth strategies and business development officer at Atlantic Trust, and, earlier, an associate at the accounting firm of Stevens and Matthews.

Schechter Wealth reinforced its East Coast presence with the addition of Stefan Thielen as a wealth advisor in Boston, MA. Thielen was previously a vice president and relationship manager at Eaton Vance Managed Investments in Boston, where he partnered with bank and independent advisor firms.  He has 20 years of industry experience. Meanwhile, Schechter also brought in Megan Sandler as a wealth advisor. Sandler was previously director of marketing and senior vice president at Swiss Select Advisors in New York.

Matthew Wesley became a director at Merrill Lynch's Center for Family Wealth Dynamics and Governance, based in Seattle, WA. This is a newly-created position, Family Wealth Report can confirm. Wesley will report to Stacy Allred, managing director of the group, which works with the firm’s 14,400 financial advisors to provide wealth structuring and guidance to high net worth clients. He was previously founder of The Wesley Group, with a 29-year career as an estate planning attorney, family advisor and consultant behind him.

BNY Mellon appointed Esteban Colon to the new role of wealth director within its New York and northern New Jersey team. Esteban was previously a senior relationship manager at PNC Private Bank in Ridgewood, NJ. Before that, he was a global international financial advisor in New York for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, having previously served as business financer officer and head of financial planning and analysis for Latin America. In his new role at BNY Mellon Wealth Management, Esteban will report to managing director Katia Friend.

Intellectus Partners expanded its investment team with two senior hires. Ben Emons joined as chief economist, head of credit and portfolio manager, while Brian Zeck was appointed as vice president of new products and services. They will be based in the firm’s Los Angeles, CA, office - opening soon - and in San Francisco, CA, respectively. Both will report to the company’s chief executive, David La Placa.

Emons has spent around 22 years as an analyst, trader, portfolio manager and economist. Of note, he spent time working with renowned fixed income expert Bill Gross at PIMCO. Other roles he has held were at ABN Amro (derivative trading), IndyMac (portfolio manager) and Nuveen (portfolio manager). Zeck was previously managing director of the fixed income mutual fund, Leader Capital, where he ran business development. At Intellectus, he will be focused on ultra high net worth and family office clients.  

The wealth manager Creative Planning appointed a director of financial education in the shape of former Wall Street Journal columnist Jonathan Clements. Clements, who spent nearly 20 years at the WSJ as a personal finance writer, will speak at the firm’s events and develop newsletter content for clients.

Arthur Bell, a CPA and advisory firm with wealthy individuals among its client base, made two senior management changes. Arthur Bell, the company’s namesake, has assumed the newly-created role of chairman while Corey McLaughlin has been elevated to the leadership position of managing member. In his new role, Bell will continue to work on client matters and to be involved in business development initiatives. He has spent most of his career in the commodities and hedge fund sectors as a regulatory, tax, audit and business advisor. McLaughlin, meanwhile, is now responsible for the management of the company, which he joined in 1998. He has a strong background in providing accounting, auditing and consulting services to entities including commodity pools, hedge funds, CTAs, investment advisors, broker-dealers and others.

Todd Resnick, Michael Mawby, Stuart Gertman and Bruce Greenwald – who together managed around $600 million of assets for 500 clients as financial advisors at Morgan Stanley – teamed up with MGO Investment Advisors to launch One Seven. The team had been at Morgan Stanley since November 2008, having previously worked at Merrill Lynch. They will head up One Seven alongside MGO principals Ronald Gross, Richard Gross and Paul Orchosky. The firm has its headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio, where MGO is based, with an additional office in Park City, Utah.

Fieldpoint Private appointed Clay Skurdal as managing director and senior advisor, expanding its footprint beyond Greenwich, Connecticut and New York City. Based in Eugene, Oregon, Skurdal previously worked at Great Northern Advisors, an independent affiliate of Lebenthal Wealth Advisors. Before that, he spent almost 30 years with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and its predecessor firms, including Smith Barney, Shearson Lehman and E.F. Hutton. He brings a clientèle of ultra-high net worth families and entrepreneurs from California, Washington state and North Dakota.

Newly-launched YorkBridge Wealth Partners joined Dynasty Financial Partners' network of advisory firms. The firm, which is based in New York City and Bridgehampton, New York, was set up by managing partners Carrie Gallaway and Andrew Stern, who both previously worked at Lebenthal Wealth Advisors. As part of the network, YorkBridge will have access to Dynasty's open-architecture wealth management solutions and technology platform for investment advisors. The firm also partnered with providers including Schwab Advisor Services and Fidelity Institutional Services for analytics and operational support.
Kroll appointed J. Andrew Valentine as an associate managing director within its cybersecurity and investigations practice. Valentine has managed numerous high-profile criminal forensic and data breach investigations in the US and internationally, where his work proved instrumental in the arrests and successful prosecutions of notorious hackers and criminals. During his 14-year career, he has worked at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s computer crime center and at Verizon/Cybertrust. He has regularly collaborated with government and state/provincial law enforcement agencies worldwide, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Secret Service, and Department of Homeland Security.

Ankura Consulting Group appointed Mark McGrath and Christopher Harvey as senior managing directors, Brian McDowell as managing director and Bradley Lohmeyer as senior director. The firm also opened an office in Chicago to support the growth of its team. McGrath, Harvey and Lohmeyer will be based in the new Chicago office, while McDowell will be based in Atlanta. All four joined from FTI Consulting.

Wagner Law Group appointed Stephen Wilkes as partner. Wilkes has been with Wagner Law Group since 2012. Based in San Francisco, California, he has advised clients including wealth management firms, banks, trust companies, investment professionals, plan sponsors and registered investment advisors. His areas of expertise include tax law and ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) Title I fiduciary law, as well as the related federal and state securities and banking laws governing the distribution of investment products and services, such as the Investment Advisers Act, FINRA rules, and OCC regulations.

---

Citisoft appointed Paul Migliore and Thomas Secaur as global chief executive and global chief operating officer respectively. Migliore has served as CEO of Citisoft’s US practice since 2007. Before Citisoft, he was a partner at IBM Global Business Services and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Secaur has been COO of US-based Citisoft, Inc since 2002, when the firm merged with The Rowan Group. Previously, he worked at Thomson Financial (now SS&C Technologies) as director of implementations for its PORTIA division. The pair will continue to be based in Boston while Citisoft managing partner, Steve Young, will continue to be responsible for Citisoft PLC, the firm’s London-based consultancy. Young will work with Migliore and Secaur to oversee the global firm’s European and Asia-Pacific businesses.

Fieldpoint Private, headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, appointed Christopher DeLaura as managing director and senior advisor. DeLaura joined the firm's New York office from Westport Resources, where he advised on around $200 million in client assets on behalf of more than 20 families, and held various management roles including chief operating officer. Previously, he spent 11 years with UBS Financial Services in roles including financial advisor and director of the firm's emerging affluent program.

DeLaura advises families across all aspects of wealth management, including cashflow, asset allocation, multi-generation family governance, insurance, credit, charitable planning and business planning. He will also serve as Fieldpoint Private's chief administrative officer, wealth advisory, with operations responsibility for the firm's broker-dealer and registered investment advisor units.

American National Bank and Trust Company appointed Ramsey Hamadi as executive vice president. Hamadi was most recently CFO at NewBridge Bank and previously for Pulaski Bank. His expertise ranges from cost management, business development and accretive acquisitions to financial modeling and capital planning. Based in Danville, Virginia, Hamadi will lead the bank's major strategic initiatives.

Banc of California appointed Cynthia Abercrombie to its board of directors. Abercrombie, who retired from the bank in March 2016, most recently served as its deputy chief risk officer. Previously, she held various senior leadership roles at Deloitte, Touche Banking Services Group and several community banks. In addition, she has worked for the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Office of the Comptroller of Currency and the Justice Department leading forensic analysis teams.

City National Bank brought in Nichole Walker as a senior wealth planner, based in San Francisco and serving clients in the Bay Area. Walker was previously a financial advisor at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, where she also served as a team member for the firm’s institutional consulting division, Graystone Consulting. Previously, she practiced law for 15 years, serving as general counsel for technology and media companies, and as special advisor for a hedge fund.

Diversified Trust named Jeff Howard as chief operating officer at its Atlanta, GA, office, following the recent promotion of Mark Bell to managing principal of the branch. Before joining Diversified Trust, Bell was chief investment officer at BlueArc Capital Management, an alternative asset manager focused on family offices, where he remains a director. He started his career at McKinsey & Co and subsequently was director of strategy at D E Shaw & Co, where he helped develop the organization's private equity investment strategy and launched the firm's reinsurance business.

Atlanta, GA-based GV Financial Advisors, which describes itself as a behavioral wealth management firm, welcomed Jason Eagle as a financial advisor. Eagle joined the firm from Mercer Advisors, where he spent seven years working with high net worth clients.

The investment research house Altegris appointed Martin Beaulieu as executive chairman, responsible for the day-to-day management of the company. Jack Rivkin will continue to serve as chief executive and chief investment strategist, but with a stronger focus on the markets, product development and identifying investment themes. Beaulieu joined Altegris as a member of the board in March 2016. His prior roles have included vice chairman of MFS Investment Management, CEO of MFS/McLean Budden, and, most recently, head of retail iShares US at BlackRock.

Matthew King joined Wilmington Trust team as a private banker in North Palm Beach, serving the Florida and Atlanta markets. King will provide lending, cash management and deposit services to wealthy clients through M&T Bank, Wilmington's parent company. He joined from Northern Trust, where he was a private banker. Before that, he was a private banking relationship manager at Wachovia Wealth Management.

Janney Montgomery Scott promoted Anne Lurton to senior vice president and complex manager of the firm’s Washington, DC, complex, which also includes an office in Alexandria, VA. Lurton replaced Jeff Smith who was recently promoted, as reported here, to head of recruiting and business development for Janney’s private client group at its headquarters in Philadelphia, PA. Lurton was previously assistant complex manager for the Washington, DC, complex, which is home to 22 financial advisors, overseeing $1.9 billion in client assets.

Former Morgan Stanley Wealth Management MD Jason Moore joined Brinker Capital as chief administrative officer – a new role at the firm. Moore will work with the investment team and the sales and distribution teams, reporting jointly to Noreen Beaman and Chuck Widger, chief executive, and founder and executive chairman, respectively.

Four attorneys and additional staff from the Los Angeles, CA-based family law firm, Phillips Lerner,  joined Blank Rome. The team will become part of the law firm's matrimonial and family law group, taking its US practice to nearly 30 attorneys. Stacy Phillips and Kevin Martin will join as partners, while Marc Lerner and Pauline Martin join as of counsel.

HighTower merged with J M Egan Wealth Advisors, an RIA with offices in Sea Girt and Madison, NJ, and New York City. The team manages around $300 million under the leadership of John Egan, managing director. Moving forward, the team will be known as The Egan Group at HighTower, and will move its New York City office into HighTower's New York headquarters. The Madison and Sea Girt offices will continue to operate in their current locations. The Egan Group at HighTower also includes Nicholas Minton, client service associate; Jennifer Glogolich, client service manager; and Melinda Glogolich, assistant. The team provides tax, estate and legacy planning, and other financial services, with a speciality in medical, legal and telecommunications clients, as well as closely-held family businesses.

California-headquartered Corient Capital Partners took on Robby Saggu as a managing director from Goldman Sachs, where he was a private wealth advisor in San Francisco and Los Angeles. In his new role at Corient Capital, Saggu will serve high net worth entrepreneurs, private investors, families and foundations.Atlanta, GA-based Triad Advisors, which supports hybrid advisors, has appointed Hugh Tarbutton as a senior vice president of business development, focused initially on recruiting.

Farmington, CT-based Connecticut Wealth Management welcomed Martha Hardison as a financial planner. Hardison was previously a financial center manager at Bank of America in West Hartford, CT, and held a management role at TD Bank in Plantsville, CT.

Switzerland

---

Switzerland
Akina, an advisor to European private equity vehicles, promoted four of its team to the status of partner. These new partners are Natalia Sigrist, Dr Christian Böhler, Francesco Aldorisio and Viktor Speckinger.

Sigrist joined the firm in 2006. She is in charge of Akina’s Euro Choice programmes, in particular, the primary fund investment activity. Additionally, she is responsible for fund investments in the Central and Eastern European region (CEE) and the Nordics as well as the UK and Ireland.

Dr Böhler joined the firm in 2005. He is in charge of Akina’s secondary programmes. In addition, he is responsible for fund investments in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Aldorisio joined the firm in 2007. He is in charge of Akina’s co-investment programmes. Moreover, he is responsible for fund investments in Italy.

Speckinger joined the firm in 2005. His is responsible for sourcing and executing direct investments in Europe. Moreover, he is in charge of fund investments on the Iberian Peninsula and France.

Tobias Unger, the chief operating officer and deputy chief executive of Falcon Private Bank, joined Avaloq as CEO of Avaloq Sourcing in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Unger has been COO and deputy CEO at Zurich-based Falcon Private Bank. There, he oversaw outsourcing of core banking IT and back office to Avaloq. Previously, he was an investment banker at UBS and Merrill Lynch. In his new role, Unger succeeded Markus Gröninger, who has led Avaloq's largest BPO centre in Switzerland since 2010 and joined the group executive board.

The Swiss Bankers Association elected the chairman of Zurich-listed Vontobel, Herbert Scheidt, as the chairman of its board of directors. He took the reins from Patrick Odier.

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, the cantonal Swiss bank, appointed Christian Meixenberger to its executive board as head of the business support division. Meixenberger has expertise in banking technology and back-office operations and has been a member of the board and head of the services division of Banque Cantonale de Fribourg. He replaced Aimé Achard, who has held the position since 2006,  was retiring at the end of the year.

Julius Baer expanded in the Swiss capital of Berne and added a new head and team of 10 specialists. Jean-Claude Mariéthod and the team joined Julius Baer from Valiant Bank. For the past seven years, Mariéthod has served in various executive functions, such as deputy chief executive and a member of the executive board of Valiant's private bank. He became head of private banking and investment at Valiant Bank in 2012, and head of wealth advisory clients in 2015.

He took the helm from Patrick Héritier (starting January 2017) and additionally assumed the function of market head, “Swiss locations”, encompassing the smaller Swiss locations, as of April next year. Héritier took on a new challenge within the bank, in a senior management function.

Julius Baer also appointed Yassine Ben Hamida as market head of Geneva. He took over from Gabriele Odone, who remained at the bank in a senior management function. Hamida has worked for Credit Suisse for the past seven years, most recently in the role of head of coverage in emerging markets for financial institutions and transaction banking. Odone has worked for Julius Baer since 2010, holding various executive positions in the region.

The Lucerne location, meanwhile, acquired new leadership: Gieri Giger became head of Lucerne. Giger has led the Zug branch of Bank Julius Baer for the past nine years.

EFG International unveiled its new executive committee and management structure: members are Joachim H. Straehle, CEO; Giorgio Pradelli, deputy CEO & chief financial officer; Mark Bagnall, head of IT & operations; Albert Chiu, head of Asia region; Renato Cohn, head of investment solutions;  Anthony Cooke-Yarborough, head of UK region; Peter Fischer, head of strategy;  Reto Kunz, chief risk officer; Adrian Kyriazi, head of Romandie & Continental Europe Region; Maurizio Moranzoni, head of global markets; Gérald Robert, head of Latin America; Renato Santi, head of Central Switzerland, Ticino & Italy Region; Sixto Campano, head of Americas region.