WeathBriefing looks at last month's wealth management moves and hires around the world.

UK UK-listed Arbuthnot Banking Group, parent of the private bank Arbuthnot Latham, has appointed Ruth Lea as economic advisor. She has been a non-executive director of the group since 2005 and will continue in this role. Ms Lea is also currently director of Global Vision and a governor of the London School of Economics. London-based law firm Wilsons has appointed Karin Parfitt as an associate solicitor in its growing litigation team. The firm has one of the largest private client practices in the UK and aims to continue to develop its services for wealthy individuals nationally and internationally. Ms Parfitt joins from Clarkson, Wright & Jakes in Kent with a commercial litigation background and is experienced in all types of property claims, partnership disputes and professional negligence. The particular focus of her practice at Wilsons will be on probate and trust disputes, Inheritance Act claims and Court of Protection advice. She joins a team of eight litigation solicitors, four of whom are partners. Carte Blanche Communications, a global marketing and communications advisory firm focused on high net worth financial brand development, has appointed Jacqueline Baer O’Mahony, from Royal Bank of Scotland structured asset finance, to be a partner in its London offices. Investec Asset Management has promoted Richard Garland to managing director of International Distribution with immediate effect. He was previously managing director for Mutual Funds (Americas). Mr Garland joined Investec Asset Management in September last year. His new role will continue to include responsibility for offshore mutual fund sales in North and South America, but he will add responsibility for cross border sales, to both institutional and mutual fund clients. He will also assume overall responsibility for key global distribution networks, including direct responsibility for sales into Continental Europe and Japan. UK fund manager Morley has strengthened its product specialist team, now headed by Paul Moody after his recent promotion, with five new members. Andrew Whitaker and Aran Gordon have been made senior product specialists on the equity and fixed income side, responsible for generating ideas for new equity and fixed income products and services, as well as developing relationships with key clients, strategic partners and intermediaries. Francesca Battisti-Davies, Christy McKee and Nicholas Whitelocke have been made product specialists covering fixed income, SRI and European equities, and alternative investments respectively. The five product specialists report to Mr Moody and bring the team to a total of seven product specialists. He reports to David Norman, head of marketing and products. Cazenove Capital has tapped Jupiter Asset Management to hire Tom Hanafin as UK Key Account Manager. Mr Hanafin will work alongside Chris Gillam to promote Cazenove’s funds through strategic partners and IFAs, and will report to Robert Thorpe, head of UK Advisory Sales. Henderson Global Investors has appointed Sebastian Beloe as the new head of research for its Sustainable and Responsible Investment business. Mr Beloe will be responsible for the identification and analysis of critical sustainability and responsibility issues with investment relevance for the SRI funds. He will be part of a seven-strong team reporting to George Latham, head of SRI funds. He joins Henderson from SustainAbility UK where he was vice president, research and advocacy with responsibility for the overall direction and content of research and advocacy activities. Fleming Family and Partners has appointed Toby Joll as investment director. He will join the London-based multi-family office in January. Mr Joll joins FF&P from Schroders Private Bank where he was head of portfolio management. London & Capital has boosted its in-house investment and research capabilities by appointing Rodney Fernandes as deputy chief investment offiicer and Roger Nightingale as an advisor to the investment team. Mr Fernandes previously worked at Société Générale Asset Management Alternative Investments as head of European Index Fund Sales. Prior to that he was with Northern Trust, where he headed the European Quantitative Portfolio Management Team. At London & Capital he will work alongside Ashok Shah, the chief investment officer. Mr Nightingale will serve as an advisor to the investment team and will be directly involved in evolving business strategy. Before joining, he was responsible for medium-term economics analysis at Millennium Global Investments and previously ran an economics consultancy serving investment clients across five continents. Rensburg Fund Management, part of the UK-listed private client investment manager Rensburg Sheppards, is to appoint Kevin Mordrick as its regional sales director, effective from 26 November. Mr Mordrick, a former associate director of sales at Invesco Perpetual, will focus on servicing advisors and discretionary managers in London and the South East. Jersey-based financial services group Horizon has appointed David Ibbotson to the new role of group legal director. He joins from Barclays-owned fiduciary services firm Walbrook where he headed the in-house legal team responsible for advising on all client and group matters. Credit Suisse in London has hired Dennis Geelan as a director in the private banking division's UK investment solutions group. His role will be to deliver the bank's investment solutions to UK and international private clients, working with product specialists across all asset classes and services but concentrating on managed assets, hedge funds, structured products and private equity. Mr Geelan joins from Merrill Lynch, where he was a regional sales manager, responsible for the sales and marketing strategy of sales advisors to institutional and private clients in the Middle East and Africa. Deborah Shaw has been promoted to be head of human resources at UK private bank Brown Shipley, based at its Manchester offices. She joined in September 2003 after five years as HR business partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers tax and legal services practice, also in Manchester. UK fund manager New Star has appointed Dan Ford as director of product development and management for retail business, effective from January 2008. Mr Ford was previously responsible for the authorisation of collective investment schemes at the Financial Services Authority, the UK's financial regulator. In his new role, he will report to Stewart Cazier, New Star's managing director of retail business development. Manchester law firm Halliwells has added to its private client team with the appointment of Irwin Mitchell partner Paul Hirst. He will work closely with Carol Mason, head of private client, as the firm continues to build its market share. Halliwells claims to be the fastest growing commercial law firm in the UK, with offices in Manchester, Liverpool, London and Sheffield. Bristol UK-based Lifetime SIPP Company has recruited pension specialist Sylvie Desmond as non-executive director. Ms Desmond has previously been a director for Abbey National and developed a self-invested personal pension proposition for professional advisors at Cater Allen Private Bank and formerly designed and brought Butterfield Private Bank’s pension services to the market. Scottish Widows has tapped HSBC Investments to appoint Dean Buckley as the new chief executive of Scottish Widows Investment Partnership fund management arm. Mr Buckley is expected to join in early January and will divide his time between SWIP's operations in Edinburgh and London. He replaces Chris Phillips who resigned in the early part of this year before losing his life in a walking accident. Mr Buckley had served as chief executive of HSBC Investments UK & Middle East since 2001. Prior to that, he had been the bank's chief investment officer equities, Europe for six years. Baring Asset Management has appointed Andrew Lamb as senior US equity analyst and Paul Morgan as investment analyst. Mr Lamb will join in January 2008 from Insight Investment Management, where he was an investment analyst responsible for sectors including pharmaceuticals, support services and household products. At Baring he will focus on industrial companies. Mr Morgan joins from Brown Shipley where he was a fund manager and equity analyst, responsible for the management of a bottom-up special situations UK OEIC. Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, the Edinburgh-based asset manager, has tapped Winterthur Life UK to appoint Bernard Henshall as its new multi-manager sales director. Based in SWIP's London office, Mr Henshall will report to head of distribution Simon Wombwell, and will be responsible for building sales and developing SWIP's fund of funds business. He joins SWIP after seven years at Winterthur's UK operation as head of investment distribution where he was responsible for fund of fund sales. The announcement follows the appointments in September of Mark Harries, Simon Wood, Lyndon Gill, Natalie Burnand and Andrew Perham who are joining SWIP to establish and manage a range of fund of funds for the UK retail market. HBOS has promoted John Van Der Wielen to director of distribution for its insurance and investment division in the UK. He was formerly chief executive of St Andrew's Australia, the insurance and wealth management arm of HBOS Australia through its BankWest subsidiary. Paul O Donnell, head of private banking at EFG Private Bank, the London-based private banking arm of EFG International, has left the company according to a statement. EFG Private Bank’s chief executive John Williamson, along with Philip Amphlett, who was head of private banking from 1997 to 2006 and remains at EFG, is reviewing whether Mr O’Donnell will be replaced. Mr O'Donnell, who joined EFG last year from UBS Wealth Management where he was a managing director with sales management responsibilities for the UK and Northern and Eastern European markets, is currently taking time out to review his options. Mayfair law firm Forsters has hired private client law firm Withers partner Charles Pike and senior associate Patrick Harney in a bid to increase its UK private client business by a factor of two. The asset management arm of London AIM listed wealth management group Brooks Macdonald has taken on Charles Williams from Ashcourt Asset Management to work in its discretionary management division. Mr Williams will slot in alongside the current London team. UK-based recruitment company Longbridge, has been hit by the resignation of a wealth management team headed by Stephen Heal. Mr Heal, a partner at Longbridge, had been with the company four and half years. In total four people are understood to have resigned and are believed to be setting up their own firm headed by Mr Heal. The new company will be focusing on wealth management in Europe, Middle East, ASIA and Latin America, according to sources. Stenham, the alternative investment wealth manager, has appointed John Long as institutional business development manager. He will be responsible for growing its institutional client base in the UK working with family offices, private asset managers and advisors, as well as institutions on a direct basis or via consultants. Mr Long was previously in charge of Investec Asset Management's relationships with fund of hedge fund managers in the UK and Europe. Maggie Lowe has been promoted to head of the Guildford office of professional and financial services firm Smith & Williamson. She joined in 2000 and has been head of financial services for the Guildford office. Barclays Wealth has hired Jonathan Burt as a senior wealth advisor, to join the business in January 2008, from major international law firm Baker & McKenzie. There he was a partner working for the past seven years in their private banking department in London. He will report to Jeremy Arnold, head of the wealth advisory business and a former partner in private client specialist law firm Withers. Switzerland Marcel Schmid has resigned as chief executive of Hyposwiss Private Bank after its parent, St Galler Kantonalbank, decided to split the division which he headed. Hyposwiss is to be made independent under a separate chief executive. Mr Schmid was a member of the management board of St Galler and also headed the private banking business for the St. Galler group. Mr Schmid joined in August 2005 from UBS, where he was a senior manager within the wealth management division based in Zurich. His predecessor, Urs Bolzern, left because of disagreements over strategy. St Galler said a search for a new chief executive was underway and, in the interim, the position would be covered by Roland Ledergerber at St Galler and Theodor Horat at HypoSwiss. Zug-based alternative asset manager Swiss Hawk has appointed Joseph Wipfli as president and chief executive. Mr Wipfli held senior positions at UBS, Bank Sarasin, Roderick Sutherland, LGT (Lichtenstein) and TKB (Weinfelden) , before establishing his own consultancy firm in 2000. Swiss Hawk has further strengthened its board with the appointment of two new directors, Elisabeth Schönenberger and Chris Phillips. F. Bernard Stalder, chief executive of Clariden Leu, is retiring for personal reasons and handing over to his deputy Hans Nützi with effect from 15 November 2007. Mr Nützi is currently head of Investment Products and Wealth Management Services at the Zurich-based Swiss private bank. Stefan Kräuchi, who was recently appointed head of Investment Funds and Alternative Investment Products at Clariden Leu, has been appointed interim successor to Mr Nützi. Mr Kräuchi was previously chief executive officer of AIG Fund Management (Switzerland) and as member of the executive board of AIG Private Bank. Europe Italy's UniCredit Private Banking, controlled by Italian banking group UniCredit, has named Dario Prunottoas chief executive. UniCredit Private Banking also named Dario Frigerio vice president and accepted the resignation of Paolo Fiorentino from the board of directors. The vice president of the company, Giuseppe De Sisto, was appointed co-director general. Baring Asset Management has appointed three new managers to its London-based investment team – Christophe Pella from Axa-Winterthur, Dagmar Dvorak from Barclays Wealth and Will Nef from F&C Investments. A senior fixed income portfolio manager at AXA-Winterthur in Zurich, Mr Pella will work with Angelina Cheuh, fixed income and currency manager, focusing on fixed income targeted return mandates at Barings. Ms Dvorak was a high grade debt analyst at Barclays Wealth. She will work alongside Colin Harte, manager of the Baring Directional Global Bond Trust and Global Bond Fund and Toby Nangle, director of fixed income on global accounts. Mr Nef will focus on emerging market debt and high yield mandates, reporting to Ece Urgurtas, manager of the Baring Emerging Markets Income fund and Baring High-Yield bond fund. He was previously an assistant fund manager of Emerging Market Debt Securities at F&C Investments. Natixis Global Associates has made two senior level promotions within its international investment distribution organisation. Mark Doyle has been named executive vice president of international marketing and operations and Fabrice Chemouny has been named executive vice president of strategic marketing and sales administration. Both will report to Herve Guinamant, Natixis Global Associates president and chief executive officer of its international investment distribution organisation. Crédit Foncier de Monaco has promoted Gilles Martinengo to chief executive in place of Hervé Catala, who has been appointed chief executive at Banque de Gestion Privée Indosuez, Crédit Agricole’s French specialist private banking arm. Mr Martinengo has been part of Marketing and Investments since 1999 and is a member of the executive committee of Crédit Agricole Suisse. Paris-based BGPI has also appointed Bruno Calmettes, central manager for marketing and wealth management, as Mr Catala's deputy. German major Commerzbank's chief executive Klaus-Peter Mueller is to remain the president of the German private banking association for a further year until spring 2009; his current three-year tenure as president of the association ends in April 2008. He is stepping down from his post as Commerzbank chief executive in May 2008, when his protege Martin Blessing will take over. WestLB, the German landesbank, has appointed Harald Christ with immediate effect to the previously vacant position of head of its Private Banking business unit. He assumes this position in addition to his function as executive manager of its Berlin private banking subsidiary Weberbank, which he has held since 1 October. Markus Stadlmann, chief investment officer of VP Bank is leaving the bank. According to a statement, from the Vaduz-based bank, Mr Stadlmann will leave at the end of February 2008 to take up a position in the senior management of a large European family office. London-headquartered property investment manager Cordea Savills has made three new appointments in its Milan office. Alessandro Castiglione, director of investment, will have overall responsiblility for asset management of the firm’s Italian portfolios. Before joining Cordea Savills, he worked for BNL Fondi Immobiliari, Deutsche Bank Real Estate and Unieuro, where he was in charge of asset and property management. Pierfilippo Barattolo, another director of investment, takes responsibility for pan-European investment on behalf of Italian clients. He was investment director at DTZ and has also worked in the property sector with BNL Fondi Immobiliari and Nextra Investment Management, where he worked on Italy’s first ever pan-European fund. Giuseppina La Mantia, asset manager, will be responsible for asset management undertaken by Cordea Savills’ opportunistic funds. Before joining, she worked in the valuation team at Archon Group Italia (Goldman Sachs) and at BNL Fondi Immobiliari, where she was involved in buying and selling the assets for the company’s property funds. Asia Pacific Mumbai-based Anuratna Chadha has been appointed as Citi Global Wealth Management’s head of Onshore India with effect from 1 January 2008. He will report to Sanjay Nayar, chief executive officer for Citi India and Ajay Sondhi, region head - Global India, Citi Global Wealth Management. Mr Chadha will also have additional supervisory responsibility for the Citi Smith Barney business. He was previously Citi’s head of Asia Pacific Corporate Banking for the Indian Sub-Continent Cluster where he oversaw significant growth in the business, according to the bank. Goldman Sachs has promoted David Ryan to the newly-created position of chairman of Southeast Asia which is to be based in Singapore. The move, which will be effective from next year, is designed to boost Goldman Sachs' presence in the region and is likely to be seen as promoting the bank's wealth management operation. Mr Ryan, who will relocate from Hong Kong, will oversee the bank’s capital markets operations as well as asset management, private banking, wealth management and commodities business. Mr Ryan, a managing director, was previously head of the financing group in Asia ex-Japan since 2005. This role will be assumed by Dan Dees, a managing director who had been the head of the financing group in Japan since 2004. He will relocate from Tokyo to Hong Kong. John Loebenstein , former St George chief investment officer, has accepted an advisory role on the board wealth management services firm Bravura Solutions. Mr Loebenstien was CIO at Australia's St George Bank for 12 years until announcing his retirement in June this year. He will commence his role on 29 November 2007. Meanwhile St George's current CIO Peter Clare , who replaced Mr Loebenstein in June after leading the bank's group strategy portfolio since February 2002, has resigned part-way through a major restructure of the company's IT and operations which began in May this year. Mr Clare, regarded as a potential chief executive of the bank, left a week after the appointment of new CEO Paul Fegan. Piera Au-Yeung ex-head of Fortis Private Bank in Hong Kong has left the Benelux financial services group and moved to Credit Agricole (Suisse) in Hong Kong, according to sources. She takes with her a team of around nine Fortis staff, six of the relationship managers. The relationship managers who have joined CA include Eugenia Woo , Polly Wong , Ajay Singh , Eddy Wong and Grace Li. Earlier this month Fortis launched a private banking unit in London to serve high November 23, 2007 . Australia and New Zealand Banking Group has promoted Fred Bertram to chief operating officer ING Australia, ANZ’s wealth management joint venture with ING Group. National Australia Bank has poached a leading private client executive from PricewaterhouseCoopers to a senior executive position in Melbourne. Andrew Hagger , who founded PwC's private client services business, will joint the NAB as executive general manager working in the office of the bank's Australian chief executive Ahmed Fahour. Mr Hagger, who was a managing partner in PwC's Melbourne office and on the firm's leadership team, will strengthen the NAB's focus on private banking and wealth management, already identified as a growth area for the bank. National Australia Bank has confirmed that Joseph Healy is to replace George Frazis as head of Business and Private Banking. Mr Healey took on the role on an interim basis last month after Mr Frazis was promoted to head of Manager Development and New Business, as part of a management reshuffle that took place in preparation for the eventual departure of chief executive John Stewart. Mr Stewart, who became chief executive in 2004, announced in May that he would stay on until a successor is found. He is likely to step aside in two years. Credit Suisse has appointed a team of six private banking relationship managers for the Saudi Arabian market, all to be based in Dubai. The team will be led by Ashraf Bajsair who joins from BNP Paribas Private Bank where he was head of Private Banking in Jeddah. Previously, he worked as a private banker for Banque Saudi Fransi in Jeddah. The team consists of Jihan Amiry who joins the team from BNP Paribas in Dubai, Mazen Takhah who joins from Banque Saudi Fransi in Jeddah and Karl Abdelnourjoins from Banque Saudi Fransi in Al Khobar. Zohaer Eitani joins from American Express and Khalid Bin Mahfooz from BNP Paribas in Riyadh. Australian stockbroker Goldman Sachs JB, were left with just three investment advisers in its Perth office after 16 staff defected to rival Citi Smith Barney last month, has begun rebuilding its Perth office by announcing four appointments. Jason Farrow, who worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers and Macquarie Bank before helping to establish investment advisory firm Tait Farrow Azure, joined Goldman Sachs earlier this month as a senior advisor. Dwight Clark has been recruited from Capital Partners Consulting as a financial planner. He joined on 15 November. Amanda Telling has transferred from Goldman Sachs' Sydney office as an advisor, while Michelle Loke has joined the firm as an analyst. Goldman's managing director and head of private wealth management Paul Heath said his firm was committed to the Perth market and was aiming to rebuild its presence here. It has attempted to cover the losses from its Perth team by flying in up to eight staff from its interstate offices. ABN Amro has hired eight private bankers, six of them from HSBC, to service clients in both Taiwan and in mainland China. The new hires will report to Gloria Sun who has been promoted to market manager, Taiwan and China. All eight hires are at assistant vice president level and currently based in Taiwan. The two non-HSBC hires came from Taishin and BlackRock. ABN Amro will relocate them all to Hong Kong. ING Insurance Asia/Pacific has promoted Paul Bedbrook, currently ING Australia chief executive, to ING Asia/Pacific chief executive with responsibility for Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Malaysia. The Dutch bank and insurer has the second largest footprint in the Asia Pacific region and the move has signalled an assault on regional market leader AIG. Mr Bedbrook, who will move to Hong Kong on 1 May 2008 after four years at the helm of ING Australia, is one of three chief executives appointed to drive a portfolio of countries. Ron van Oijen has responsibility for India, Korea and Thailand. A third chief executive, who is yet to be appointed, will have responsibility for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Mr Bedbrook will also have overall responsibility for ING's 51 per cent interest in ING Australia, the wealth management joint venture formed in 2002 between ING Group and ANZ. He also has regional responsibility for bancassurance. St George Bank of Australia has confirmed Paul Fegan as chief executive officer after an international search considered internal and external candidates. Mr Fegan has been the acting CEO since Gail Kelly announced her resignation in August 2007. His most recent role before that was running both the retail and wealth divisions of the group, which account for nearly 60 per cent of total revenue. Rami Hayek has been appointed co-head of Distribution for Credit Suisse's Asia Pacific Asset Management business, alongside Omar Cordes. Mr Hayek will be based in Hong Kong, and start in late November 2007. His role will be to expand the Swiss bank’s coverage of key clients in both retail and institutional space. He joins Credit Suisse from Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management where he was global head of Fixed Income and Equity Investment. He joined Deutsche in 2004 and was previously with Barclays Private Clients for six years where he was global head of Product Development. Prior to Barclays, Mr Hayek was at Bankers Trust. Singapore-based Fullerton Fund Management has appointed Choy Peng Wah as deputy chief executive officer, effective 1 December 2007. Mr Choy will report to Gerard Lee, chief executive officer and will be responsible for leading the business development team. Mr Choy was previously regional head of sales and distribution of Prudential Asset Management, with business across the Asian region. Australian fund manager Perpetual has promoted chief financial officer John Nesbitt to be group executive of its private wealth division, formed in September as part of its new organisation structure. It comprises the company’s direct-to-customer businesses including private clients, direct-to-consumer funds management and its marketing capabilities. Mr Nesbitt joined Perpetual in early 2004 from Lend Lease where he was chief financial officer for the Asia Pacific Region. Perpetual will be recruiting a chief financial officer to replace Mr Nesbitt in his current role. Citi has named Wilson So as global market manager for Hong Kong. He takes over from Sam Tse, who is now chief operating officer for Citi Global Wealth Management Asia Pacific. Mr So will report to Kaven Leung, chief executive officer of Citi Global Wealth Management Asia Pacific, managing more than 100 private banking professionals serving Hong Kong, the single largest market for Citi Private Bank outside the US. Chicago-based Northern Trust has appointed Sue Baines as head of global fund services sales for EMEA and John Grundy as GFS hedge funds sales manager. Ms Baines will lead a team of sales managers responsible for developing new business opportunities with investment managers across the spectrum of asset classes and across the EMEA region. She continues to report to Anne-Lise Winge, head of asset servicing sales for EMEA and Asia-Pacific at Northern Trust. Mr Grundy comes to Northern Trust with responsibility for marketing to traditional and hedge fund managers, and reports to Ms Baines. He joins from Thomson Financial where he was a senior sales executive focusing on investment management and hedge funds. Morgan Stanley Funds appointed UK-based Ursula Schliessler to the board of directors. Ms Schliessler, who joined the US bank in January, is head of International Product Management & Development for Morgan Stanley Investment Management and director of European Product Strategy for Private Wealth Management. Previously she worked for Legg Mason Investments from December 2005 to December 2006 as head of International Product Development. Barclays Wealth is currently recruiting for up to 800 new back office positions as it continues to invest in infrastructure in support of business growth and expansion into new markets. The new jobs will add to the 1,700 people that have been recruited to the firm internationally since the start of 2006. The majority will be located in the Barclays Wealth Global Service Support hubs in Glasgow, London, Geneva and Singapore. The roles include programme & project managers, investment operation specialists, and experienced professionals in areas such as risk management, compliance, marketing, finance and human resources. UK law firm Linklaters has appointed Yash Rupal, a partner since 1996, as its global head of tax. He replaces Guy Brannan who is standing down after two terms in the role. Mr Rupal will lead a firm-wide team of 170 lawyers focused on tax issues including M&A, corporate finance, restructuring and contentious matters across multi-jurisdictions. International Merrill Lynch confirmed that NYSE Euronext head John Thain would take over from the departing Stan O Neal as chairman and chief executive officer. Mr Thain joined the NYSE in 2004. Prior to joining the NYSE, he served as president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs Group since July 2003 and was previously president and co-chief operating officer from May 1999 through June 2003. HSBC has appointed David Delaney to head global brand management of its private banking business. Mr Delaney joins HSBC from Barclays, where he oversaw its brand management operation. He will be based at HSBC’s St James’s Street offices in London, with a global brand management brief. Fidelity International has appointed Andrew Wells to the new position of chief investment officer – fixed income, based in London and reporting to Michael Gordon, global head of fixed income and property. Mr Wells joined Fidelity over 10 years ago and has held a number of positions in the fixed income investment team. He is presently CIO of Asian fixed income, based in Hong Kong. International professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has appointed Pars Purewal as the new head of its alternative investments practice. Based in PwC's London office, he will be responsible for coordinating services for hedge funds, private equity firms and real estate companies. Mr Purewal has been with the accounting firm since 1995 and is currently investment management and real estate leader. He will retain that position while taking on the additional role of head of alternatives. Earlier this year Bruce Weatherill, head of the firm's private banking practice, announced that he would be seeking a fresh challenge in the new year Middle East UBS has appointed Boaz Barack as chairman of UBS Wealth Management Israel. Dr Barack joins UBS from Credit Suisse where he served as a senior manager for 12 years, the Swiss bank said, adding that Barack will be responsible for advancing UBS's private banking services in Israel. Bank Hapoalim has seen the retirement of senior executive vice president and head of global private banking Jacob Rosen. US James Gorman has been promoted to the position of co-president of Morgan Stanley after the retirement of Zoe Cruz. He will oversee the Wealth Management and Asset Management division of the Wall Street bank. New co-president Walid Chammah takes over responsibility for the Institutional Securities business of the firm. The pair will report to chairman and chief executive officer John Mack. Citigroup's Smith Barney unit has hired advisors Todd Sherman and Jason Sobin from UBS to work in its New Jersey office. Mr Sherman and Mr Sobin had combined fees and commissions over the past year of about $2.4 million and assets under management of about $250 million. They will report to the branch manager Frank LaRosa. Both spent about five years at UBS, and join the Smith Barney office comprising 54 financial advisors with $3.6 billion in assets under management. San Francisco-headquartered wealth manager and private bank First Republic has appointed Darren Huston as a senior relationship manager. Mr Huston will provide high net worth individuals and families with private banking, private business banking, investment management, trust and real estate lending services at the bank's head office. Before joining First Republic, Mr Huston was branch manager of Countrywide Home Loans in Oakland, California. Boutique global investment bank Jefferies & Company has poached two former Credit Suisse directors to build its Atlanta private client services business. The firm announced Jack Carvalho and Whit Yates as managing directors in charge of building the firm’s regional Atlanta client base. Morgan Stanley in the US has hired financial advisors from Wachovia Citigroup's Smith Barney, and UBS to work in its global wealth management group. Jonathan Gottlieb is now at Morgan Stanley's Fairfield, Connecticut office after leaving Wachovia. He had combined fees and commissions of $1.36 million over the past year and prior assets under management of $143 million. Larry and Kevin Miller, William Murphy, Charles McAlpin and Laurence Diamond have joined Morgan Stanley from Smith Barney and will work in the Chesterfield, Mo office. Their combined fees and commissions over the past year were about $2.68 million and their prior assets were $311 million. John Isenburg, Steven Gobel Sr, Michael Keating and Anthony Tassone have joined Morgan Stanley's Springfield, Mass office, having previously worked at UBS. Their combined fees and commissions over the past 12 months was $2.7 million and their prior assets under management were $537 million. Morgan Stanley has recruited a team from Citigroup's Smith Barney unit to work in its newly opened global wealth management office in Coral Springs, Florida. Husband and wife Ralph and Michelle Vartanian are to join Morgan Stanley, along with Dawn Daugherty. The three had combined fees and assets over the past 12 months of $1.55 million and prior assets of about $200 million. They will report to the branch manager, Blake Hallock. Northern Trust has promoted a new managing executive and hired three new senior level banking executives for the company’s Miami operations. Dawn Palavecino has been named managing executive for the Private Client Services division and oversees a team of 15 wealth management professionals, including private bankers, investment managers and estate and trust planning advisors. She reports to Alexander Adams, senior vice president and managing director for PCS in Miami. Ms Palavecino was most recently a vice president of Private Banking for the company, responsible for cultivating and developing banking relationships with high net worth clients. Northern Trust has also hired Gary Curry as vice president and private banking relationship manager, and Sharon Fine and Chi Ly as vice presidents and portfolio managers. Bank of America reorganised its wholly owned asset management business, Columbia Management, giving its previous head of alternative investments purview across all the firm’s asset classes. Colin Moore, chief investment officer and head of alternative investments for Columbia, will now oversee the firm’s equity, fixed-income and cash investment platforms. He will report to current president of Columbia, Michael Jones. The company also announced Stephen Peacher, previously responsible for the fixed income investment platform, would be the new head of fixed income investments and liquidity strategies area, reporting to Mr Moore. Michael Pelzar joined Columbia as head of Product Management focused on expanding the firm’s individual and institutional client base. Mr Pelzar previously led business development for Bank of America's Global Wealth & Investment Management division, according to the firm. He too will report to Mr Moore. Bank of America has promoted John Moskos as president for Orlando and Central Florida and regional head of US Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management. He succeeds Ed Timberlake, who has retired after serving in the president role for the past seven years. As president, Mr Moskos will be the senior executive for local business, civic and philanthropic leadership for Bank of America in Orlando and Central Florida. He is also Central Florida Market Executive for US Trust Bank of America Private Wealth Management. In this role, he will be responsible for the teams providing investment, trust and banking services to high net worth individuals and their families. The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation has appointed Bill Sappington as heading of national banking for BNY Mellon Wealth Management. He will be based in New York City and report to David Lamere, chief executive officer. In this newly created role, Mr Sappington will lead the expansion and implementation and delivery of banking services to private clients. City National Bank has appointed Michael Pagano executive vice president of its private banking services in California. He also becomes a member of the bank's executive committee. Mr Pagano will oversee private banking strategy, business development and client service in California. He will help to coordinate the delivery of credit and depository services as well as trust, investment management, brokerage and advisory capabilities to high net worth clients. Jeff Wilson has joined Morgan Stanley's Wealth Management Group office for El Paso and Las Cruces as a vice president-financial advisor. Mr Wilson was formerly with Merrill Lynch for 22 years and New York Life Insurance for five years. Deutsche Bank’s US Private Client Services business in the US poached a Morgan Stanley wealth management executive to head the firm’s Southern region. Cynthia Norville joined the firm’s private client services business, Deutsche Bank Alex Brown, as a managing director, replacing Don Milich, who returned to the role of client advisor after holding the regional executive position for the past nine-years. She will report to Michael Burke, managing director and head of US Private Client Services, and will be based in Atlanta. New York based wealth manager Rockefeller & Co has appointed Michael Collins as chief marketing officer and Daniel Berg as chief technology officer in its Integrated Wealth Services business. Both are new positions based in New York reporting directly to Roy King, president and chief executive officer of IWS and a managing director of Rockefeller. Christine Nigro has been promoted to president of AXA Advisors, the retail distribution channel of AXA Equitable Life Insurance. Based in New York, Ms Nigro will report to Nick Lane, head of Retail Distribution Business Platforms. Ms Nigro is responsible for overseeing AXA Advisors' 6,000 financial professionals in respect of business development and operations, supervision and suitability, sales and marketing support, and commission processing. Ms Nigro joined AXA Advisors in May last year as chief operating officer. Credit Suisse has appointed Phil Swatzell as managing director and Head of the Dallas office of Private Banking USA. Mr Swatzell will be responsible for continuing to grow Credit Suisse's domestic wealth management business in the Dallas market. He will be based in Dallas and will report to Peter Skoglund, managing director and head of the Central Region of Private Banking USA. Mr Swatzell joins Credit Suisse from US Trust Company, where he was a managing director responsible for new business development in the Southwest region, based in Dallas. Bank of America/US Trust continued its expansion with the announcement of 10 new private client appointments in South Carolina, Georgia, Connecticut, Florida and Missouri, tapping rivals including Wachovia, Raymond James, Morgan Stanley, and The PrivateBank. Paul Trip was hired from within the firm to be named market investment executive for South Carolina; while former Abacus Planning Group advisor John Cullum, and former Wachovia Bank relationship manager Athena Leventis have been appointed private client consultants in Columbia in the same state. Allan Hamer was hired from within to be relationship manager in Georgia; while former Raymond James Financial institutional equity sales VP, John Marshall, and former SunTrust Bank senior portfolio manager Susan Concannon, were appointed portfolio managers also based in Georgia. Former relationship manager for People's United Bank Margery Petterson was appointed private client manager, and former Banc of America Investment Services financial advisor, Justin Walsh, were both appointed private client advisors in New Haven, Connecticut. In Palm Beach the firm appointed Mark Maller from within as city executive, and John Domenico, former Morgan Stanley advisor, was appointed wealth management head of operations in the region. Also in St Louis, former managing partner of The PrivateBank of St Louis, a subsidiary of PrivateBancorp, Richard Sartori, was appointed private client consultant. California-headquartered City National Bank has hired Leanne Fenton and William Burgess to manage its private banking and wealth management operations in northern Nevada. They will work out of the bank's new private banking and wealth management offices in Reno. Ms Fenton joins as senior vice president and private client advisor and Mr Burgess as vice president and investment planning officer. Before joining City National, both worked for 1st National Bank of Nevada, Ms Fenton as a senior vice president and director of the bank's wealth management group, Mr Burgess as an investment officer and wealth planning strategist. Both will report to Robert Glaser, senior vice president and Nevada manager of private banking services for City National. US Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management has appointed Gary Gore as market executive for Virginia, based in Richmond. He will report to southeast division executive Doug DiVirgilio. Mr Gore joins from Bank of America's Global Commercial Bank where he served as market executive for Virginia and North Carolina and was responsible for driving growth in that market. Deutsche Bank Alex Brown, the US private client services division of Deutsche Bank Securities and Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management, has hired Bill Svoboda into its San Francisco office as a managing director and regional executive for PCS. He reports to Michael Burke, managing director and head of US PCS. He joins from Morgan Stanley, where he was most recently a district manager for the central California district in the Bay area. In that role, he oversaw more than 320 financial advisors in 18 offices. Michael Jones has been appointed president of Columbia Management, Bank of America's investment management business. He will report to Keith Banks, president of global wealth and investment management for the company. Mr Jones most recently served as head of distribution for Columbia, responsible for all sales channels. He joined Bank of America in 2006 having previously served as co-president and senior managing director at Robeco Investment Management. US Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management, has appointed Mary Jo Herseth as market executive for Illinois and Michigan, reporting to US Trust central division executive Tim Maloney. She will be responsible for the delivery of comprehensive wealth management solutions in these markets. Ms Herseth most recently served as executive vice president for LaSalle where she was responsible for the management and growth of its wealth management business; she is one of a number of senior staff from LaSalle who have assumed roles within Bank of America since the completion of the purchase of LaSalle and its subsidiaries on 1 October 2007, adding 17,000 commercial banking clients and 1.4 million retail customers. Northern Trust has promoted Rebecca Zung-Clough to wealth strategist for the company’s operations in the Naples region of southwest Florida. She will be responsible for providing personal financial solutions, including investment management, private banking and trust and estate planning services, to high net worth clients. Previously Ms Zung-Clough was a vice president and personal trust relationship manager at the firm, responsible for managing the trust and estate planning accounts of affluent clients. Prior to Northern Trust, she spent eight years as an attorney specialising in family and marital law for high net worth clients. North Carolina-based BB&T Corporation has named Mike Woody as sales and service leader for its Private Financial Services group, a unit of its Wealth Management Division. Mr Woody, who joins from Bank of America, will manage 27 regional Private Financial Services teams across BB&T's 11-state territory. Based in Charlotte, he will report to David Fisher, director of BB&T Wealth Management. Merrill Lynch-owned wealth manager First Republic Bank has appointed private banker Norma Arujo as managing director in its Century City Office in Los Angeles. Ms Arujo will work with high net worth individuals and families, providing private banking, private business banking, investment management and trust services, and real estate lending. Prior to joining First Republic, Ms Arujo worked for City National Bank in Los Angeles as senior vice president - team leader. Prior to that, she worked for The Mortgage Capital Group in Beverly Hills as a senior vice president. Latin America Gilberto Poso, currently Brazil head of the Investment Advisory Group of HSBC Private Bank, is to take over the role of regional head of Private Banking in charge of Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Salvador and Brasilia. Andrea Moufarrege will take over the role of head of IAG. She is currently a senior banker in the bank’s high net worth segment. Christiano Marchesini will take over the role of chief operating officer of HSBC Private Bank in Mexico. In the last three years he worked as a COO of the Private Bank in Brazil. Prior to HSBC, he worked at Citibank. Goldman Sachs has tapped HSBC Private Bank to hire Beatriz Sanchez as regional manager for its private wealth management business in Latin America. Based in Miami and Geneva, Ms Sanchez will join Goldmans in the spring of next year, although she will not relocate from Switzerland. She was previously the head of Private Banking for Latin America at Geneva-based HSBC Private Bank. The regional manager position in Latin America for Goldman Sachs is a new role, according to a spokesperson. The appointment of Ms Sanchez will mark the beginning of a “new focus” on the region, spokesperson for the firm, Andrea Raphael, told WealthBriefing. More new appointments by Goldman to build out the Latin America private wealth team are expected soon. Ms Sanchez was confirmed as HSBC Private Bank's sole head of Private Banking for Latin America in June this year. It was formerly a joint role that she held with Joao Luiz de Medeiros. Ms Sanchez was also a member of the executive committee of the Private Bank. Houston-based wealth manager Stanford Group has appointed Franco Moccia as managing director of Stanford Financial Group Latin America. Based in Miami, Mr Moccia will be responsible for all of Stanford's operations throughout Latin America, including its offices in Mexico, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Stanford has plans to continue to grow its private wealth management services in the region. Mr Moccia was previously president for Citibank in Colombia, serving as Country Corporate Officer. Before that he held a number of managerial positions for Citibank in Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.