UK

Former chairman of UK literary publishers Faber and Faber Lord Evans was appointed chairman of EFG Private Bank, part of Switzerland’s EFG International.  He joined the bank in 2007.

John James, a well-known figure in Birmingham professional and business circles, has joined Allied Irish Bank to help boost its private banking offering. He was a partner at local law firm Edge & Ellison before it became Hammonds.

Kleinwort Benson has appointed Colin Rowe as head of Private Wealth Management Regions in the UK.  Mr Rowe joins Kleinwort Benson from HSBC, where he worked for sixteen years in a variety of positions, most recently as Regional Commercial Investment and Insurance Manager for the West Midlands and Wales.  

At Kleinwort, Mr Rowe will have responsibility for managing the firm’s growing regional network of private wealth management teams.

London-based investment manager  Fidelity International has reinforced its premium services team with the appointment of Richard Fellows as head of its investor centre and premium services. He joins from Fisher Wealth Management. Reporting to David Dalton-Brown, head of Fidelity International’s direct business, Mr Fellows will join in July 2008, based at Fidelity’s investor centre in the City. Fidelity International has also appointed Gary Shaughnessy as managing director, UK Retail.  He will report to the president of Fidelity Europe, Robert Higginbotham.

Mr Shaughnessy was previously at M&G and Prudential. He was most recently responsible for the UK Retail Life & Pensions business as managing director at Prudential. Mr Shaughnessy will be responsible for Fidelity International’s retail distribution business and strategy in the UK, including FundsNetwork.

Barclays Wealth has confirmed that it has hired Mark Embley as a private banker in Birmingham. Mr Embley, who joins from UBS, has been appointed as an associate director. Earlier in the month, Barclays Wealth appointed Graham Nicoll as regional centre head in the UK's Midlands.

Meanwhile, UK-listed stockbroker WH Ireland has appointed Richard Ford as chief executive officer and Laurie Beevers as executive deputy chairman, effective no later than 16 November 2008, subject to regulatory approval.

Mr Ford is currently partner and chief operating officer of Spencer House Capital Management LLP, the independent Asset Management partnership, a role he has had since 2006.

Douglas Ferrans, the head of Insight Investment, part of the UK banking group HBOS, is to leave the firm before the end of this year.

Thomson Reuters Markets, part of the Anglo-Canadian media and information company Thomson Reuters, has appointed Werner Maislinger to the group’s wealth management solutions arm, eXimius. He will focus on business development in Central Europe.

Mr Maislinger has worked at Thomson Reuters since 2004.

New York-listed hedge fund business GLG Partners appointed Fabrice Bay to its London office as a portfolio manager in August this year, joining from DWS/Deutsche Asset Management in Frankfurt.

Mr Bay will lead the consumer fund team and co-manage the Capital Appreciation Fund alongside Ben Funnel.

UK-based Sarasin & Partners is expanding its charities business. Ollie Bates, Dan Potter and another person were joining or have already joined Sarasin from HSBC Investments.

North-East England headquartered law firm Dickinson Dees has promoted Andrew Playle to partner in its private capital group. The move brings the total number of partners at the firm to 79.

Mr Playle joined three years ago after returning from Bermuda where he specialised in offshore trust work.

A senior executive at the UK-listed wealth management firm Rensburg Sheppards has left the company. Robert Allen was operations director of the firm, a position he has held since May 2002. He joined the company in 1987.

Lighthouse, a UK independent financial advice and wealth management group, has appointed Alex Scott-Barrett as a non-executive director.

Mr Scott-Barrett holds a number of other directorships of public and private companies and charitable organizations.

UK-based wealth manager Rathbone Investment Management has hired Alex  Turnbull as an investment director in its charity team from HSBC Investments.

He is the third investment manager to join that team from HSBC in the past six months.

Cazenove Capital has appointed Daniel Lee as its head of UK discretionary sales, who joins from OId Mutual Asset Management, where he was regional manager for London and the Channel Islands.

Meanwhile, at UBS, Juerg Zeltner, head of wealth management in north, east and central Europe at UBS, has taken over Matthew Brumsen’s responsibilities for the key clients segment in this area and also Mr Brumsen’s role as head of UK business unit, including Jersey and UK offshore clients.

Mr Zeltner’s appointment is an interim measure and that a replacement was being sought. Mr Brumsen has stepped down from his management role at UBS whilst being retained as a senior advisor. 

Also, Zoe Vucicevic, a member of UBS’ high net worth team in London has resigned.

Sand Aire, the London-based multi-family office, has made two appointments: Laura Russell-Young takes on the role of head of operations and Amanda Bateman that of company secretary. Ms Russell-Young joins Sand Aire after 14 years with Berry Asset Management,, where she was head of the client service department, dealing with all aspects of private client administration and reporting.

Ms Bateman previously worked with Berkeley (International) Group and Virgin Management.

Julie de Garis has been appointed as a director and head of risk and compliance at Investec Trust ( Jersey). Ms de Garis joined Investec Trust in 2007 as head of risk and compliance in Guernsey and has since transferred to take up the post in the Jersey office.

Baillie Gifford, the investment management firm headquartered in Edinburgh, has poached Donald Farquharson from UK investment house Schroders to be an investment manager in the Japanese equity team. Mr Farquharson had been at Schroders’ Japanese equity team for 17 years. Separately, Matthew Brett has been appointed co-manager of the Baillie Gifford Japanese Fund, a sub-fund of Baillie Gifford Overseas Growth Funds, working alongside lead manager Sarah Whitley.

Stenham, the wealth management group, has appointed Jerome Avril as client relationship manager for the Indian market. Prior to joining Stenham, Mr Avril worked for Barclays Private Bank and Credit Suisse Private Bank in Switzerland.

Absolute Capital Management, the hedge fund company based in Switzerland, has made its first two senior appointments since the resignation of co-founder and chief investment officer Florian Homm last September. Daniel Bieri has joined as head of portfolio advisory, in charge of risk management, from Swiss Life Asset Management, where he was head of equities. Athanasios Ladopoulos has joined as lead portfolio advisor on one of the London-listed firm's seven funds. He joined from UK hedge-fund manager Headstart Advisers, where he ran the Kinetic Special Situations Fund.

UK-based AXA Framlington has appointed Michael Firth as fund manager from Kaupthing-owned Singer & Friedlander Investment Management where he spent 12 years as director of investment management to beef up private client portfolio management.

Impax Group, a UK investment company focusing on environmental issues, has appointed Lee Clements as an investment manager. Mr Clements previously worked in corporate strategy for Lehman Brothers

Specialist wealth management headhunter, Henry Camilleri, has joined the wealth management practice of UK-based executive search firm Stephen Raby Associates. He joins Stephen Raby Associates from Drayton Finch.

Credo, the UK wealth management firm, has appointed Gemma Stillerman as a senior research executive who previously worked at GAM, where she was an investment analyst for emerging market hedge funds and other portfolios.

Jane Kerins has been appointed managing director of Investec Trust ( Guernsey).
Before joining Investec as a client services director at the beginning of 2007, Ms Kerins was a director at Credit Suisse, heading up the Americas team in Guernsey.

GLG Partners, the hedge fund group, has appointed Galia Velimukhametova to its  London office as a portfolio manager, working alongside the GLG Credit Fund and Market Neutral Fund portfolio manager, Steve Roth. She will focus on distressed investment situations. She joins GLG from King Street Capital.

The UK private bank Coutts has appointed Simon Groom private banker to its South Yorkshire team. Mr Gromm joins the bank following five years as a financial planning manager and private banker for Gerrard in Manchester, part of Barclays Wealth.

Europe

Eric Tazé-Bernard has been appointed head of investment of long-only multi-management at Crédit Agricole Asset Management. Mr Tazé-Bernard worked as deputy head of economic and financial research at Banque Indosuez before moving to the asset management arm of the bank in 1993.

Swiss-based private banking group Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch has appointed Alexander Kotchoubey, to be responsible for international business development for Eastern Europe. Mr Kotchoubey previously worked at Renaissance Asset Management, a Russian firm, where he was managing director at its offices in Moscow.

Société Générale Asset Management has moved Olivier Lecler up to be chief executive of SGAM Alternative Investments, with effect from 1 June 2008. Mr Lecler joined Société Générale as strategic studies manager in the finance and development division in 1996.

The asset management division of Deutsche Bank has hired Lindsey Richardson and Makoto Hoshino as directors in its DB Advisors business to work in its global consultant relations team.

ETF Securities, a UK provider of listed commodity-tracking funds, has expanded its sales team by appointing a former head of corporate broking at German bank Commerzbank to boost ETF Securities’ sales team for Germany and Austria.

The firm has hired Nigel Longley, who takes the role of sales director responsible for the German and Austrian markets.

Meanwhile, ETF Securities has also recruited Rachel Kersey-Brown to the UK and Ireland sales team as a sales associate. She previously worked in private and structured finance.

Merrill Lynch has appointed a senior UBS manager to the newly-created position of head of Products and Wealth Solutions for its EMEA Wealth Management group. Jeremy Smilg was with UBS for over 14 years in their Products and Services Division, where he held a number of roles including head of the  Active Advisory team, the Investment Consulting team, the Portfolio Services group and Risk Management. He was head of the Product Approval committee and a member of the Investment Committee and Alternative Investments Committee.

Rothschild Private Banking and Trust has appointed a new team of five senior private bankers in Spain.

The team will be led by Antonio Rizo Ordoñez, who will be the new managing director for Rothschild’s Madrid office. He joins Rothschild from Popular Banca Privada, where he was a member of the executive board.

In addition to Mr Rizo Ordoñez, Carlos Iburo Quintano, Jose Antonio Mendez Roth and Francisco Dolz Utrera will also be joining Rothschild from Popular Banca Privada, and Francisco Canga Fuentes will be joining Rothschild from BNP Paribas.

As part of these changes, Alvaro Villacieros, the current managing director of the Madrid office, has been promoted to membership of the local board of directors.

Switzerland

The international tax lawyer, Philip Marcovici, has joined the board of Rothschild Private Banking & Trust. Mr Marcovici, who is also a member of the editorial board at WealthBriefing, is currently based at the Zurich offices of Baker and McKenzie, where he is an international partner in charge of the private banking practice and will continue to work at that firm.

Sustainable Asset Management, a Swiss-headquartered investment management business that is majority owned by Dutch bank Robeco, said it has appointed Roman Binder as its new chief operating officer and executive committee member. Mr Binder previously worked as a chief credit officer for private banking in the Asia Pacific and Middle East region for Credit Suisse.

In his new role, Mr Binder, a Swiss citizen, will be responsible for legal issues, compliance, information technology, project management and risk management.

Barclays Wealth, part of UK banking group Barclays, has appointed Karine Genevey as a director in its investment and product office and will be based in Geneva. She joins from Morgan Stanley International, where she was responsible for the provision of derivative products advice and support to wealth managers throughout Spain and France.

Swiss private bank Clariden Leu which last month hired a former senior UBS manager to be head of its Latin America and Iberia region division, is bringing over more managers and their assistants from UBS. UBS said a team of seven managers and four assistants who worked at the bank are moving to Clariden Leu, although UBS could give no further details about their names or exact business titles. Markus Willi will take up the post on 1 November this year. Prior to his appointment, he had been managing director of the country team for western Latin America at UBS.

3A - Alternative Asset Advisors, the hedge fund management division of Swiss banking group Syz & Co, has hired Claire Locher, as head of Business Development. The company also beefed up its institutional sales force with the appointment of Massimiliano Del Nero as sales manager for Spain and Adam Harrison as UK institutional sales executive.

Asia-Pacific

Credit Suisse has moved one-time Bank of Japan executive director Masayuki Matsushima into the role of chairman to strengthen its business in Japan. Mr Matsushima joined Credit Suisse in February 2005 as a senior executive advisor in Japan.

In a separate move,Yuji Suzuki will step down as chairman of Credit Suisse Group Japan representative office, while remaining the statutory auditor.

The head of the wealth and tax advisory arm for Asia at HSBC Private Bank, Bill Ahern, has left the firm, Mr Ahern, based in Hong Kong, had headed the Wealth and Tax Advisory Services Asia arm of the bank, advising high net worth families on multinational tax and estate planning issues. He joined HSBC Private Bank in December 2002.

Sameer Gupta has joined Morgan Stanley’s private wealth management division in India as market director, south, according to a statement. He joins from Merrill Lynch, where he was co-head of private client lending at DSP. Based in Bangalore, he will oversee the launch and day-to-day operations of Morgan Stanley's private wealth advisory business in south India.

RBS Coutts, the international private banking arm of UK-based Royal Bank of Scotland, has appointed Mark Brider as market head for Singapore and Malaysia. Mr Brider joins the private bank after having acquired more than 25 years of experience in RBS group. Recently, Mr Brider headed RBS International, the offshore banking division of RBS, in Asia.

UBS has confirmed that its Hong Kong-based market leader for South China Wealth Management, Elina So, has left the bank. Ms So, a key executive leading a team handling clients in both Hong Kong and Greater China, is believed to have resigned early this month.

SG Private Banking, the wealth management arm of the Societe Generale group, has appointed Nipun Mehta as executive director and head of SG Private Banking for India.

Mr Mehta is based in Mumbai and will be responsible for business development and day-to-day operations of SG Private Banking in India. He reports to Singapore-based Balakrishnan Kunnambath, managing director and global market manager for the Indian subcontinent

Australian Wealth Management has appointed Michael Carter as its new head of its wealth management division, replacing Alex Hutchinson, who resigned in March to head up fund manager MMC Contrarian.

Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management has appointed Victor Chao as head of private wealth management in Taiwan, as the German bank looks to continue its expansion in regions such as Asia.

In his new role, Mr Chao - who is based in Taipei - is responsible for managing and overseeing the Private Wealth Management franchise in Taiwan.

Americas 

The Private Bank of California has appointed Kathleen Chapman and Jack McLemore as relationship managers with the rank of vice president.

National Financial Partners, a network of independent financial advisors specialising in life insurance and wealth transfer, corporate and executive benefits, and financial planning and investment advisory services, has appointed three senior managers.

Elizabeth Weber will join the firm as senior vice president, business development, a new position. Ms Weber will report to Doug Hammond, NFP's chief operating officer. James Poer has been promoted to president of NFP Securities, NFP's broker-dealer. He was most recently senior vice president, advisory and investment services for NFPSI. Stan Barton has been promoted to general counsel and executive vice president of NFP.

Wells Fargo Private Bank announced the addition of Denise Carriero as senior vice president and regional trust manager in California.

Ms Carriero, who has 25 years of experience in trust management, will be managing the trust officers in the Santa Barbara and Westlake Village offices.  She previously served as senior vice president and regional trust manager for City National Bank where she was responsible for managing client relationships in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles.

Prior to that, Ms Carriero spent 14 years with Wells Fargo where she served as a personal trust officer and vice president.

Tim Forhan, formerly a senior vice president of quality systems from AMI Semiconductor, has joined US-based Sanctuary Wealth Management as a principal based in Pocatello, Idaho.

Sanctuary Wealth Management is a specialised investment firm focused on financial planning, global asset allocation and risk management.  Sanctuary investments are predominately based on the Dimensional Fund Advisors Index fund platform.

Mr Forhan comes to Sanctuary after 20 years at IBM and six years at AMIS.

New York-based private bank Modern Bank has appointed Jeff Lane, the ex-head of asset management at Bear Stearns, as chief executive.

Mr Lane joined Bear Stearns in June 2007, when it was struggling with the failure of two prominent internal hedge funds.

He has most recently been helping the transition of Bear’s asset management arm into acquiring bank JPMorgan.

Fidelity Investments Boston-based subsidiary Pyramis Global Advisors has hired Kevin Uebelein as its president and chief executive. He joins from Prudential Financial to succeed Peter Smail, who announced his retirement from Pyramis earlier this year.

At Prudential, Mr Uebelein served as chief investment officer for all its international businesses.
Rodger Lawson, president, Fidelity Investments, said: "Our institutional investment business is a global business and will continue to grow under Kevin's leadership. As the business develops new offerings and builds out its global distribution capability, Pyramis will become an even more critical part of Fidelity's future plans."

Mr Uebelein will join Pyramis in late June and will report to Michael Wilens, who was recently named Fidelity's head of asset management.

Pyramis is an investment management firm focused on serving institutional investors including corporate and public retirement funds, endowments, foundations and other institutions as well as non-US investors.

The Canadian arm of US-based Raymond James Financial has announced that Paul Allison will join the firm on 4 August as co-president and co-chief executive officer. He will join the current president and CEO, Peter Bailey, in growing Raymond James' Equity Capital Markets and Private Client businesses in the country.

Mr Allison was most recently executive vice president and vice-chairman at Merrill Lynch Canada, as well as co-head of the firm's investment banking business from 2001.

Goldman Sachs has appointed Tim O'Neill, its senior strategy officer, and Marc Spilker, chief operating officer of its investment-management division, to take over the helm of its global asset-management business after a predecessor in the business quit to join Harvard University.

They will succeed Edward Forst who will step down this month, according to an internal memo released by the investment bank. Harvard University has said that Mr Forst was recently hired as the university's first executive vice president and will serve as its senior operating officer. He will start the position in September.

Mr O'Neill was appointed senior strategy officer at Goldman Sachs in February 2005. He joined the company in 1985 from law firm Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine. In 2003, he spearheaded the firm's acquisition of Allmerica Financial's variable annuity business.

Mr Spilker was appointed chief operating officer of the investment-management division in June 2007 and has been active in strategy, new product development, risk oversight, and other initiatives. Mr Spilker joined Goldman Sachs in 1990. Prior to joining the investment-management division, he was in the company's securities division where he was responsible for US equities trading and global equity derivatives.

Canada’s CIBC Retail Markets has appointed Jamie Golombek as managing director, tax and estate planning. He will start on 14 July and will report to Gary Whitfield, vice president, CIBC Private Wealth Management.

He joins CIBC from AIM Trimark Investments in Toronto where he was a vice president in its tax and estate planning department.

CIBC has also appointed Duncan Webster as chief investment officer and head of CIBC Global Asset Management.

Mr Webster was most recently head of portfolio strategies and capital markets, group investments at Allianz SE in Munich.

Boenning & Scattergood, a Philadelphia-based securities, asset management and investment banking firm, has hired Thom Brown and Cummins Catherwood into its private client group.

Both join as managing directors of the private client group and 1914 Advisors, the firm’s registered investment advisory division - and both most recently served as executive vice presidents at Rutherford, Brown & Catherwood, a private investment firm serving the needs of individuals, personal and retirement trusts, custodial accounts and domestic and European institutions.

The Private Bank of California has appointed Kevin LaPorte as a vice president and relationship manager.

City National Bank has appointed Lee Pullan to its Private Banking and Wealth Management Services group in southern Nevada. He will report to Robert Glaser, senior vice president and Nevada manager of Private Banking and Wealth Management Services.

Prior to joining City National, Mr Pullan worked nine years for Wells Fargo Bank in Las Vegas, where he most recently served as vice president and private client advisor in the bank's wealth management group. He also managed for several years Wells Fargo's Private Mortgage Banking Group in southern Nevada.

Alpha Fiduciary Wealth Management, a US registered investment advisor, has appointed Robert Barker as the firm’s senior vice president and financial advisor.

Mr Barker was formerly president and managing member of Florida investment advisor firm Alvyn Herrick.

Alpha Fiduciary Wealth Management is a Florida-based SEC-registered investment advisory firm serving the needs of high net worth individuals, foundations, and other charitable organisations.

The Wealth Management Institute, a financial planning and investment manager, has hired Eugene Gamble as client services manager.

Prior to joining WMI, Mr Gamble spent nine years as an investment analyst with Financial Resources Group in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

WMI is located in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management appointed George Zahringer III, a former Bear Stearns senior managing director, to the position of managing director and client advisor in the firm’s US headquarters on Wall Street in New York.

Mr Zahringer is the latest private client advisor to leave Bear Stearns following its acquisition by rival firm JP Morgan at the beginning of the year.

Deutsche Bank Alex Brown – the private client services division of Deutsche Bank Securities in the US – confirmed it had hired Mr Zahringer, who has over 30 years of financial services experience.

He will report to Haig Ariyan, a managing director and New York Regional Executive.
 
Deutsche Bank has appointed Janet Hislop chief country officer for its operations in the Cayman Islands, taking over from Jean-Claude Emard, who has relocated to Switzerland to act as chief operating officer for Deutsche Bank’s Middle East and Africa Private Wealth Management team.

Ms Hislop will manage the Cayman office providing local oversight of risk management, regulatory and corporate governance issues. She also will support marketing activities and new business initiatives and will be the principal liaison with local and other regulatory bodies. She will retain her role as head of the Financial Intermediaries team in the Cayman Islands for the Private Wealth Management division.

Ms Hislop, joined Deutsche Bank (Cayman) as head of Banking in 2000. Prior to that, she was a corporate manager in the offshore department at Barclays Bank.
 
US Bank Wealth Management Group has appointed Michael Boardman as central region president and twin cities market leader, the US bank said. Mr Boardman reports to Mark Jordahl, president of the US Bank Wealth Management Group.

The central region comprises Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa.

Previously, Mr Boardman held senior wealth management positions at US Trust Company, the stockbroker Charles Schwab and the US bank, Chase Manhattan. Most recently he was market executive and regional chief executive officer at US Trust Company in Minneapolis.

The Wealth Management Group is a division of US Bancorp.

A US investment management and advisory firm launched by a team of ex-Wachovia Securities managers in April has added 10 former colleagues just two months after it set up for business, the firm said.

Riverfront Investment said it has added five partners including portfolio managers, and relationship managers and portfolio administrators.

Tim Anderson works as chief fixed income officer. Paul Louie is director of small- and mid-cap portfolio management. Marc Cheatham is to be director of technology and operations. Bill Rynder joins as the director of quantitative strategy and Sam Turner is the director of large-cap portfolio management. All these individuals performed similar roles at Wachovia.

The team works with a client base that includes high net worth investors, families and institutions.

Riverfront was launched by Michael Jones, the former chief investment officer at Wachovia and colleagues.

City National Bank said it has appointed Dianne Merkey as a senior relationship manager at its private banking and wealth management services group.

Ms Merkey joins City National with more than 25 years of experience in the banking industry. She will be located at the bank's regional centre in Summerlin, Las Vegas, and will report to Robert Glaser, senior vice president and Nevada manager of private banking and wealth management services.

Prior to joining City National, Ms Merkey worked six years for US Bank in Las Vegas where she served as vice president and private banking relationship manager. She began working for US Bank after relocating to southern Nevada from the East Coast in 2002.

Barclays Global Investors, which operates the iShares brand for exchange traded funds, said that Jennifer Grancio, its head of sales and marketing in Europe, is to return to the US.

She has been asked to return to San Francisco and to lead a new US Distribution Strategy team based in San Francisco, iShares, the world’s largest provider of ETFs, said.

She will report directly to Mike Latham, the Head of Americas, iShares.  Her previous responsibilities have been assumed by members of the European team, primarily Andrea Morresi, head of sales, iShares Europe and Rick Andrews, head of marketing, iShares Europe. 

The US private banking unit of Credit Suisse has hired a seven-person team of retail brokers from Citi, including top-rated financial advisor Richard Zinman, according to an internal memorandum.

Mr Zinman's team, formed in 2001, managed about $6.5 billion for about 200 wealthy families, Credit Suisse said.

Also joining Credit Suisse was Anthony Dertouzos, who co-led the Citi Global Wealth Management team with Mr Zinman.

It was the second high-profile wealth management appointment for Credit Suisse in as many months. Late last month, its Los Angeles office hired a team from Goldman Sachs that managed $8.8 billion for about 100 families.

Wilmington Trust Company, a US banking, trust and depositary company, has appointed new senior executives, including a new chief fiduciary officer.

The US firm said Kemper Stickney has been promoted to chief fiduciary officer of Wilmington’s wealth advisory services business. His new responsibilities include the estate settlement group, the wealth planning group and the personal trust administration team from the recently-acquired AST Capital Trust Company. He has served as president of Wilmington Trust FSB Florida since 2002.

Meanwhile, Sandra Fleming has been promoted to Wilmington Trust FSB Florida. She joined Wilmington in 2003.

Victoria Peaper has been promoted to vice president and managing director of Wilmington Trust FSB Florida.

John Strickland has joined the private wealth management division of SunTrust Bank in Charleston as vice president and client relationship manager.

He has more than 10 years of experience in lending and investment and previously was regional private banking manager and wealth management adviser for BB&T Corp. in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

At  UBS Pactual’s management team in Brazil, Rodrigo Xavier has been named chairman and chief executive of Brazil, reporting to Jerker Johansson, chairman and chief executive of UBS Investment Bank. Mr Xavier has been with UBS Pactual and its predecessor firm Banco Pactual since 1993. He was most recently responsible for co-managing UBS Pactual’s asset management business and will continue to divide his time between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Juerg Haller has been named chairman and chief executive of UBS Latin America, spanning all business groups. He will report jointly to Mr Johansson and to Robert Wolf, chief executive of UBS Group Americas and president of UBS Investment Bank. He will additionally retain his roles as deputy chief executive and chief operating officer of UBS Pactual.

Mr Xavier succeeds Andre Esteves, who is leaving UBS with a small team to pursue a new, independent venture.

Middle East

Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management has appointed Amir Sadr as head of the Middle East Wealth Management business as it expands its footprint in the region and to support its five-year growth plan.

Mr Sadr will relocate to Dubai and will manage Merrill’s existing Middle East offices, its new office in Riyadh, as well as the ongoing expansion in the region. He will work closely with Makram Zaccour who continues in his advisory capacity as chairman of the Middle East.

Mr Sadr joined Merrill Lynch in 1995 as an Equity Sales Trader and joined GWM in 2004 as sales manager for the London Middle East Offshore office. 

In this role, he was instrumental in launching the Institutional Client Group and in early 2007, he became head of London Middle East Offshore, and the Family Office Group.

Imad El-Aawar will be relocating to Beirut as Resident Director and Jonty Crosse will continue as Resident Director for Merrill’s Bahrain office.

Fred Hilal will continue to be responsible for the Monaco and Geneva offices.

Mark Nixon, head of the family office group, will take on the additional responsibility of the London Middle East Offshore office.

All three will all report to Mr Sadr, who himself will report to Eva Castillo, head of EMEA Wealth Management.

Credit Suisse has appointed Ashraf Issa as global market leader of the Gulf region and Saudi Arabia at the bank’s Middle East and Indian Sub-Continent division of its private banking arm.

Mr Issa will be based in Geneva. Mr Issa joins from American Express Bank, where he was global head of private banking for Middle East and Turkey. He has also worked for American Express in Cairo and Geneva as well as Merrill Lynch in Bahrain and Bank of America.

International
WealthBriefing has learnt that Richard Holmes, the former chairman and chief executive officer of American Express Bank at the time of last year’s takeover by Standard Chartered, has taken on the role of co-head of the private bank along with Vis Shankar.

But WealthBriefing also understands that Peter Flavel remains in overall charge in his role of chief executive of the private bank.

Haitham Karaket, managing director Investment Services at Bear Stearns in London has joined RBC’s UK Investment Advisory business reporting to Phil Cutts, vice president and director at RBC.

Barnabus Reynolds, also from Bear Stearns, joined RBC at the end of April and also reports to Mr Cutts.

Offshore law firm Mourant du Feu & Jeune, part of Mourant, has appointed Jonathan Rigby managing partner.

Mr Rigby advises leading financial institutions, corporates and intermediaries on a wide range of capital markets, structured finance and investment fund transactions. He has been a partner and member of the firm's management board since 2003 and has served for two years as an elected member of the Mourant supervisory board.

Between 2003 and 2006, he was the head of the law firm's London office and led the team through a period of significant growth to become one of the largest offshore practices in the City.

Mr Rigby takes over from Stephen Ball who is moving back to the UK to become vice chairman of an international hedge fund group.

Mourant du Feu & Jeune has also appointed Ben Robins as head of the Funds Practice Area following the retirement of Cyman Davies.