Here is a summary of moves in the global wealth management industry in May.

UK

Allianz Global Investors appointed Mark Guirey as director of UK institutional business development. He previously spent 13 years at BlackRock where he was a sales director.

Invesco PowerShares, the exchange traded funds business appointed Caroline Baron as head of Invesco PowerShares ETF Distribution UK. Baron is responsible for driving Invesco PowerShares’ distribution strategy in the UK.

Luke Savage joined Standard Life is CFO and an executive director, starting on 18 August this year. Savage replaced Jackie Hunt.

Brooks Macdonald Funds appointed David Scammell to the newly-created role of international business development manager, as the team further develops its international offering. He is based in Mayfair, London.

Brewin Dolphin appointed Caroline Taylor non-executive director. Taylor spent seven years as a director of Goldman Sachs Asset Management International from 2005 to 2012.

GLG Partners promoted Jack Barrat to co-manager of the GLG Undervalued Assets Fund. He manages it alongside portfolio manager Henry Dixon.

Schroders appointed Peter Harrison, currently to the board. Harrison was appointed head of investment in May 2014 having previously been global head of equities.

Duncan Lawrie appointed Byron Coombs chief executive officer. He took over from managing director Matthew Parden who left after 17 years.

Aviva Investors appointed Ian Pizer senior fund manager for multi-assets. He's based in London and reports to Peter Fitzgerald, head of multi-assets.

SG Wealth Management appointed Andy Wood as chairman to guide the Norwich-based financial firm to its next stage of development. He is chief executive of UK brewery Adnams, which he joined in 1994.

Smith & Williamson Investment Management appointed Ed Rosengarten as head of funds for its pooled funds business. Rosengarten becomes a member of the company’s investment management and banking board.

Heartwood Investment Management, a division of UK wealth manager Heartwood, appointed Matt Hollier to the newly created role of head of investment product. He is responsible for overseeing product development and management, marketing and investment support. He joined Heartwood from Old Mutual Global Investors, where he spent 13 years working in a variety of product, strategy and marketing roles, most recently as director of product management.

River and Mercantile Group appointed former Cazenove fund manager Robin Minter-Kemp as non-executive director, following the group's merger with investment consultancy and solution provider P-Solve in February. Minter-Kemp has more than 25 years of experience in the fund management industry and held senior positions with Henderson Investors and HSBC Asset Management before joining Cazenove Fund Management in 2001.

Filling a position left vacant last August as the firm has worked through a rebranding exercise, Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management appointed Sasha Dabliz as head of marketing and communications. She reports to chief executive David Esfandi, who himself was appointed to the post in March this year, coming across from Ashcourt Rowan, another wealth manager. Dabliz’s took on a similar role to that left vacant last August by Oliver Tregonning, who now heads up the marketing business at JM Finn & Co.

Baring Asset Management appointed Jean-Louis Scandella as head of equities.
Scandella replaced Tim Scholefield, who had been with the company since 2006. Based in London, Scandella reports to chief investment officer Marino Valensise.
He leads Barings’ equity teams in London and Hong Kong. Scandella joined from French boutique Comgest, where he was part of their leadership team.

Schroders made a raft appointments in London, ranging from equities to fixed income credit research. Peter Harrison took on the newly-created position of head of investment. He left behind his position of global head of equities at the firm.

Nicky Richards took on Harrison’s old role; he previously worked at Schroders from 1987 to 2003. She left her post as chief executive and CIO at MLC Investment Management in Australia to join Schroders. Schroders also made a double appointment in its UK & European equity team; both Henrik Nyblom and Roger Doig joined as senior research analysts. The roles were newly created.

Robert Kendrick joined the firm’s fixed income credit research team. A analyst by trade, he moved from Legal and General Investment Management where he served as a senior credit analyst covering global banks and insurance companies.

Arbuthnot Latham hired Simon Reynolds as a senior chartered financial planner.
Reynolds joined from Sanlam Private Investment and has twenty years industry experience.

Law firm Boodle Hatfield strengthened its contentious trusts and estates team with the appointment of Andrea Zavos as partner. Zavos joined from Speechly Bircham. Boodle Hatfield has also promoted property solicitor Olivia Tassell to the partnership.  

Private bank Brown Shipley appointed David Thompson, a former head of Coutts’ sports and entertainment client segment, as private client director in the London office.

Distribution Technology, a UK-based provider of financial planning and practice management technology, appointed Kevin Bull as director of asset management clients. Bull joined from SEI where he was a director responsible for working with key accounts in relation to SEI Goals Based Investment Solutions.

London and Dublin-listed IFG Group appointed Paul McNamara as group chief executive and as an executive director. Group finance director John Cotter continued in the role of interim CEO until McNamara assumed the role on 28 July. McNamara was managing director of investments and insurance at Barclays and has previously held senior roles at Standard Life Group, HBOS (now Lloyds Banking Group), AXA UK, McKinsey & Company and Bank of Ireland Group.

Square Mile Investment Consulting & Research appointed Victoria Hasler and Andrew Johnston as senior investment research analyst and investment research analyst, respectively. Hasler leads fixed income research at Square Mile, working together with investment research analyst Marianne Weller, while Andrew Johnston will focus on equities fund analysis. Hasler joined from Brewin Dolphin where she led the fixed income team. Johnston also worked for Brewin Dolphin as a fund analyst, responsible for open and closed-ended coverage of the UK, European, Asian and Japanese regions.

RBC Wealth Management appointed Hermann Leiningen to the newly-created position of managing director of family office and institutional investments. Based in London, he reports to Mark Fell, head of global ultra high net worth services.
Leiningen has over 25 years of experience and has held various roles within Royal Bank of Canada, having worked for both the RBC Global Asset Management and RBC Capital Markets as an investment strategist for the private client division in Toronto, vice president of institutional sales in Lausanne, and also head of the investment committee for RBC Suisse in Geneva.

Three fund managers at Invesco Perpetual left to join former colleague Neil Woodford's new venture. Fund manager Stephen Lamacraft, along with analysts Saku Saha and Paul Lamacraft, joined Woodford Investment Management.
All three managers were previously part of the Woodford's UK equities team, now headed by Mark Barnett.

Investec Asset Management made three hires at its multi-asset team. Edmund Ng joined as a portfolio manager responsible for leading equity research and the development of equity strategies, while Atul Shinh was appointed as an investment specialist with responsibility for product and process management. Michael Streatfield joined the team to focus on portfolio construction and quantitative analysis.

Ng previously managed long-only EAFE and long/short European equity strategies at TT International, following a role at Morgan Stanley as a sell-side equity strategist.
Before joining Investec, Streatfield previously held roles at Towers Watson and Old Mutual Asset Management as a research actuary, and was head of quantitative research at Fleming Martin Asset Management. Shinh previously worked at Mercer where he led manager research coverage for diversified growth strategies globally.

Switzerland
NBAD Private Bank (Suisse), the wholly-owned Swiss subsidiary of the |National Bank of Abu Dhabi, appointed Tony Zeiger as head of its investment group.
His experience in global investments comes from several financial institutions covering Europe, Middle East and Africa. He joined NBAD Private Banking (Suisse) after serving as director and head of wealth investment advisory for the Middle East and Africa team at Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management.

Vontobel appointed Philippe Bonvin as head of outcome driven investments to help expand the firm's multi-asset-class boutique.

Bonvin has over 20 years of experience managing institutional multi-asset class portfolios and was most recently the head of the asymmetric portfolio solutions team at UBS Global Asset Management. Before this, he held various portfolio management positions at UBS and Swiss Bank Corporation.

London-headquartered exchange traded product provider Source appointed Marco Mautone as managing director to its Switzerland and Liechtenstein coverage team. Mautone joined from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he was head of European and US equity sales trading in Switzerland, and reports to Stefan Garcia, co-head of EMEA.

Europe
Carmignac made two appoitments and a promotion to its German team. Serving wholesale and retail clients, they report to Michael Schütt, the newly-appointed country head for Germany and Austria. The moves followed the recent decision of Kai Volkmann to leave Carmignac.

Schütt begins his role on 1 September. Prior to this appointment, Schütt was head of the Germany wholesale business at Bank of New York Mellon, head of sales for German banks at Invesco Asset Management and other different roles at Citibank AG, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch International Bank and Deutsche Bank.

Carmignac appointed Roland Schmidt as head of wholesale business development for Germany & Austria. Schmidt has 15 years of experience in asset management. Before joining Carmignac, he was head of sales at M&G International. The firm also promoted Frank Rüttenauer to become head of retail business development. He has worked at Carmignac for seven years.

Jersey-based Ogier Fiduciary Services promoted Charles Le Cornu to director and appointed new directors Simon King and Jon Barratt to the funds and real estate teams, respectively. Le Cornu joined Ogier in 2006 from KMPG. King joined the funds team from State Street, where he most recently held the position of head of client services (EMEA). Barratt joined as a director to lead the real estate team and to act as a director for a number of client companies.

Invesco Powershares, the exchange traded funds business, appointed Bryon Lake as head of Invesco PowerShares ETFs for the Europe, Middle East and Africa market. This is a newly created position, the firm later told this publication when asked about the matter.

Lake has held a number of roles at PowerShares in the US since he joined the business in 2002.  Previously, he headed up global business development which focused on raising awareness of the PowerShares ETF proposition globally, most recently across Asia and Europe.

Generali, the Italian insurance group that is the parent of Swiss bank BSI, appointed Andrea Favaloro, formerly of BNP Paribas, as its head of sales and marketing at Generali Investments Europe, the asset manager. This is a more global role than was previously established at the firm. He previously worked at BNP Paribas Investment Partners as global head of external distribution, taking up that post in 2011. Before that, he held senior management positions in Milan and London.

Separately, Generali Investments Europe appointed Antonio Cavarero as head of fixed income for Italy, running a team overseeing around €160 billion ($220 billion) of assets. This is a newly-created role. Most recently, he held the position as senior inflation trader at Deutsche Bank in London. 

Middle East and North Africa
AES International, a financial planning company, appointed Carlton Crabbe as a partner to serve its ultra high net worth and high net worth clients across the Middle East. Crabbe has a 15-year track record in private wealth management and before moving to Dubai, he worked at Barclays private bank in London.

North America

Irvine, CA-headquartered First Foundation, which cancelled its proposed initial public offering of common stock, made a round of hires across Imperial Valley, Los Angeles and San Diego, CA.

In Imperial Valley, the firm hired Robert Valenzuela as a private banker and vice president of First Foundation Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of First Foundation.

Fluent in Spanish, Valenzuela has over 10 years of experience in the financial and client services industries, having previously worked at Wells Fargo Financial and Union Bank.

Meanwhile, James Fenton joined as a private banker at the firm’s West Los Angeles office and will serve as vice president at First Foundation Bank.

Prior to joining First Foundation, Fenton worked at Charles Schwab and Ameriprise Financial as a regional banking manager and regional director, respectively.

Lastly, First Foundation added two private bankers in San Diego: Joubin Rahimi and Neel Pujara.

Rahimi’s clients will include individuals, families, businesses and non-profits in the region. He was previously a private banker at First Republic and Comerica Bank in San Diego.

Pujara is a former entrepreneur and wealth management advisor, as well as banker; before joining First Foundation, he co-founded a stock brokerage firm that helped investors in India gain access to the US markets. Previously, he was a relationship manager at Bank of America and wealth management advisor at Merrill Lynch.

Formerly part of the professional banking team at Nevada State Bank, Rita Vaswani joined The Private Bank by Nevada State Bank team as vice president and private banking relationship manager, focused on high net worth clients.

Vaswani has more than two decades of banking experience and also a strong background in healthcare and gaming.

Raymond James & Associates, the traditional employee broker-dealer of Raymond James Financial, added to its Richmond, VA, office with the appointments of advisors Robert Wood, Robert Wood, Jr, and Carlton Brown.

The team, known as Wood Asset Management of Raymond James, joined from Wells Fargo Advisors, where they had annual fees and commissions of approximately $2 million.

Ninety per cent of the team’s business is in investment advisory discretionary business.

Robert Wood, senior vice president, investments, has more than 30 years of industry experience, having held high-level positions at firms such as Prudential Securities and Wells Fargo prior to joining Raymond James. He, along with his son, formed their team in 1998 while affiliated with Prudential Securities.

Robert Wood, Jr, also senior vice president, investments, has served as general partner for the team and in his current role handles equity and fixed income investments, client relations and marketing initiatives.

Brown, vice president of investments, is a 30-year industry veteran and former estate planning attorney. Prior to joining the team and affiliating with Raymond James, he worked as an attorney and held management-level positions at several firms.

Lola Wright, senior client service associate, whose responsibilities include opening client accounts, moving funds and assisting with client services, also joined the team.

Chicago, IL-based Evanston Capital Management, an alternative investment manager, appointed Carl Gargula as vice president of business development – a new role at the firm.

Gargula will be responsible for marketing in the RIA, family office, bank, broker-dealer and financial intermediary channels.

He joined from William Blair & Company, where he was latterly senior regional director for the Eastern US and previously manager of the firm's wealth management services and strategic planning areas.

Perella Weinberg Partners, the global advisory and asset management firm, brought in Robert Steel as chief executive.

Joseph Perella, who founded Perella Weinberg Partners and was CEO, will continue as chairman, while co-founders Terry Meguid and Peter Weinberg remain as co-head of asset management and head of advisory, respectively.

Steel’s career spanning almost 40 years in financial services includes public and private sector experience. Most recently, he was New York City’s Deputy Mayor for Economic Development under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

As CEO of Wachovia Corporation in 2008, he oversaw the sale of the bank to Wells Fargo & Co and served on the Wells Fargo board of directors until 2010. From 2006 to 2008, he was the Under Secretary for Domestic Finance at the US Department of the Treasury. Prior to entering government service, he spent nearly 30 years at Goldman Sachs, rising to become head of global equities.

US Bank named Jason Stamm as central region president for its high net worth Private Client Reserve, succeeding Mike Ott, who was promoted to president of the PCR last October.

Prior to his promotion, Ott served as central region president and Twin Cities market leader for the PCR.

Based in Minneapolis, MN, Stamm will oversee a team of over 350 investment, trust, private banking, and financial planning professionals serving HNW individuals and families. He will work with other PCR market leaders across Chicago, IL, Kansas City, MO, Madison, WI, Milwaukee, WI, Minneapolis, MN, St Paul, MN, and St Louis, MO.

Stamm has worked in the financial services industry for 21 years, having been with BMO Private Bank and its predecessors since 1996. In his most recent role as regional president there, he led the business operations and talent integration for the private bank of BMO, Harris Bank and M&I in the north-central region.

Rochester, NY-based Focus Financial Partners firm, LVW Advisors, recruited Joseph Zappia from Wells Fargo Advisors to launch LVW Family Wealth, a platform designed to provide wealth management and financial planning services to affluent families and family offices.

In his former role at Wells Fargo, Zappia was managing director and senior portfolio manager of The Zappia Investment Group, managing around $400 million in private client assets.

Ted Garofola joined him at LVW so that the pair can continue providing financial planning, investment advisory, trust and estate planning, tax planning and insurance solutions to private clients. Zappia and Garofola have nearly 50 years of combined experience serving private clients.

The Sacramento, CA-based Ezzell Group became the fourth team to join the HighTower Network, which launched last year and helps breakaway advisors transition to independence.

Members of the network can manage their own staff and maintain control of the “day-to-day details” of their business, while accessing the firm’s broker-dealer platform and being affiliated with the HighTower brand.

Jason Ezzell, managing director and dounder, and Alec Fisher, senior manager, joined from Merrill Lynch and oversee nearly $300 million in client assets.

Canada-based Aston Hill Asset Management hired portfolio manager John Kim within its investment team as well as making two senior sales hires.

Kim joined Aston Hill most recently from Sentry Investments and has 20 years' experience in the investment industry, managing Canadian equities. A new Canadian total return fund for which he will be the portfolio manager is currently in development.

Meanwhile, Karl Palmen was appointed as vice president of sales in Vancouver, while Marco Manocchio, also vice president of sales, will be based in Montreal, Quebec (Quebec was previously covered from the Toronto office).

Palmen joined Aston Hill from NexGen Financial, where he spent eight years as vice president of sales. Prior to NexGen, he spent 12 years at CI Investments, most recently as a vice president of sales.

Manocchio spent the last six years at BMO Global Asset Management as vice president of regional sales, prior to which he held sales roles at Montreal-based fund companies including OpenSky Capital and TAL Fund Management.

Birmingham, AL-based Sterne Agee, the US privately-owned financial services firm which also provides trust and private client services, announced a new executive management team.

Eric Needleman became chairman of Sterne Agee Group and chief executive of Sterne Agee & Leach, while Linda Daniel, an employee for 33 years and board member, was named vice chairwoman.

Henry Lynn, one of the firm's longest-serving employees, board member and former chairman will continue as chairman emeritus. The holding company board also appointed Sal Nunziata as CEO and president of Sterne Agee Group. He replaced John Holbrook.

Bios

Needleman joined Sterne Agee in January 2009 as head of the fixed income credit division and then in 2012 became head of fixed income. He has over 18 years’ experience in the credit markets.

Prior to joining, he was co-head of US market making and head of high yield sales, trading and research at KBC Financial Products. He started his career at Lehman Brothers and subsequently worked at Granchester Securities (the high yield division of Wasserstein Perella). In addition to his current role at Sterne Agee, Needleman also covers institutional accounts for high yield sales.

Nunziata is currently CEO and president of Sterne Agee and chairman and co-CEO of FBC Mortgage, a Sterne Agee Group company. Prior to co-founding FBC Mortgage, Nunziata was senior vice president and district manager at First Horizon Home Loans. Earlier, he was vice president at American Heritage Mortgage Corp from June 1989 until October 2003. American Heritage was acquired by First Horizon Home Loans in October 2003.
Manchester Capital Management hired Daniel Goldstein as a senior managing director in Montecito, CA, tasked with advising clients on wealth management and family office services.

The firm said Goldstein’s experience running a single family office will allow the firm to offer a broader range of related services.

Founded in 1993, MCM is a boutique wealth management firm with a 33-strong team advising wealthy families across the US. The firm has offices in Manchester, VT, Montecito, CA, Charlottesville, VA, and New York, NY.

For 20 years prior to joining, Goldstein advised ultra high net worth families across Europe and in the US on their liquid investments, businesses, structuring, direct real estate investments, family dynamics, yachts, concierge services and philanthropy.

For 15 years, he was a director of a global single family office principally located in Europe, with activities spanning Europe, the US, Africa and India. Previously, he was the investment analyst on a two-person team managing a $1.25 billion portfolio for a US family foundation. 

UBS Wealth Management Americas appointed financial advisor Stephen Davis in Westlake Village, CA, from Merrill Lynch.

At Merrill – where he spent the last 21 years - Davis managed around $500 million assets and had a T-12 production of $2.6 million.

At UBS, he reports to Louis Skertich and operates as The Davis Group.

AIG Advisor Group, a network of independent US broker-dealers, welcomed back Allison Couch and appointed her to the newly-created role of executive vice president of national sales.

Based in New York, Couch will report to Erica McGinnis, president and chief executive of AIG Advisor Group.

She will be responsible for the development and implementation of sales and distribution strategies across the network. She will also work closely with business development across the network’s four broker-dealers: FSC, Royal Alliance, SagePoint Financial and Woodbury Financial.

Couch began her career as a financial advisor and managing executive at Royal Alliance, where she spent ten years. She then became vice president of business development, and later senior vice president and head of business development, at FSC Securities.

Couch most recently served as managing director of wealth management at Cetera Financial Group, where she was responsible for overseeing advisory sales and growing product sales. Before that, she spent time at LPL Financial as senior vice president, leading the business consulting team.

Focus Financial Partners, the US partnership of independent wealth management firms, welcomed Quadrant Private Wealth, a Pennsylvania-based independent registered investment advisor.

Quadrant was launched by former Merrill Lynch advisors Herman Rij, Jason Cort, Kori Lannon and Brian Cort - who managed more than $750 million in client assets - through Focus Connections, a program that helps wirehouse teams transition their business and launch their own independent wealth management firms.

Prior to forming Quadrant, the founding partners worked as a team at the Rij, Cort, Lannon & Associates Group at Merrill Lynch. Their new firm will serve high net worth individuals and families, as well as businesses and other organizations.

Rij was with Merrill Lynch for over four decades and is a founding partner and a private wealth advisor at Quadrant. Jason Cort joined the Rij Group at Merrill in 1997 and has strong knowledge in the areas of wealth structuring/estate planning, liability management and equity strategies. He is also a founding partner and private wealth advisor at Quadrant.

Meanwhile, Lannon joined the Rij Group in 2007 after 13 years in commercial banking. She focuses on portfolio structure with an emphasis on risk management, tax-exempt income and structured/alternative investments. Brian Cort joined Merrill Lynch in 2002 and the Rij Group in 2008. He guides corporate retirement plans, retirement planning and portfolio design.

US Bank’s high net worth Private Client Reserve unit appointed Brad Sawyer as a wealth management advisor in Salt Lake City, UT.

With over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, Sawyer has strong knowledge in the areas of portfolio and risk management, retirement strategies and team development.

Prior to joining the PCR, Sawyer served as capacity coach with Team Performance Group in Ogden, UT, where he developed financial services teams to better service clients through results and relationship management.

Wells Fargo made a number of advisor hires from Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and UBS Financial Services.

Salem, OR-based Summit Wealth Management, led by financial advisor Richard Lee, along with Brandon Blair, Mike Costa and Barbara Hacke Resch, joined Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, Wells Fargo’s independent financial advisory division for advisors who own their practice.

The advisors are latterly of Morgan Stanley, where they managed over $311 million in client assets and produced more than $1.5 million in annual revenue.

Meanwhile, financial advisor Milton Schwartz joined Wells Fargo Advisors in Sumter, SC, reporting to branch manager Roy Creech and South Carolina complex manager Scott Spang.

Most recently, Schwartz served as branch manager for Merrill Lynch’s Sumter branch, where he managed more than $135 million in client assets and produced more than $1.1 million in annual revenue.  

Lastly, financial advisor David Spell joined Wells Fargo Advisors in Charleston, SC, reporting to branch manager Rod Connell and South Carolina complex manager Scott Spang. He made the move from UBS Financial Services, where he managed more than $86 million in client assets and produced more than $1 million in annual revenue. 

New York-listed City National Bank, the private and business bank, made five hires focused on serving private clients in California's Central Coast region.

Serving clients in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties are senior vice president and regional manager Leo Hamill; private bankers Annamarie Cole and Roy Martinez; Amber Ortiz, a private client advisor; and Susan Rogers, a trust advisor.

The firm said it plans to add office space in the Santa Barbara/Montecito area later this year. For now, the appointees are based in Oxnard, Southern California.

The US wealth management firm Aspiriant appointed John Allen as chief investment officer, replacing  Jason Thomas, who left to start his own firm.

Allen is primarily responsible for leading Aspiriant's overall investment strategy and research group, which is comprised of 12 investment professionals and covers asset allocation, portfolio construction, manager selection and risk management.

Allen, who is based in Los Angeles, CA, has an “extensive background” in private asset management and business development, Aspiriant said. He spent the past five years at Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co in San Francisco, CA.

Cetera Financial Group named Erinn Ford as president of Cetera Advisors, reporting to Brett Harrison, formerly president and CEO of the unit.

Harrison will continue as CEO of Cetera Advisors while assuming an expanded executive role at Cetera Financial Group, reporting to Larry Roth, the newly-appointed CEO of Cetera Financial Group who succeeds Valerie Brown.

Ford has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry and joined Cetera Financial Group in 2012 as senior vice president of advisor relations for Cetera Advisors.

Vestmark, a provider of advisory solutions and wealth management technology, appointed Mark Saunders as vice president and director of operations of Vestmark Business Process Outsourcing – a new role at the firm.

Saunders will be responsible for supporting the expansion of Vestmark's Jersey City-based BPO unit and sparking initiatives to enhance the services provided to BPO clients.

He has over 15 years of experience in the industry, having previously served as vice president of wrap operations at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. In that role, he was responsible for daily reconciliation, account opening and servicing, composite performance maintenance and account guidelines monitoring.

William Woodson joined Citi Private Bank from Credit Suisse as managing director and head of the firm’s North America family office group, based in West Palm Beach, FL.

Woodson was previously head of the ultra high net worth and family office business for Credit Suisse’s private bank in North America.

In his new role at Citi, Woodson replaced Stephen Campbell, who was named as chairman for the North America family office group – a role in which he will advise the firm’s biggest family office and foundation clients in North America and globally.

Woodson reports to Peter Charrington, chief executive of Citi Private Bank, North America, and Catherine Weir, global head of the family office group.

Campbell joined Citi Private Bank in 2011 to build out the firm's North America family office platform, with around 25 years of financial industry experience. Prior to joining, he led investment management and technology organizations for Fidelity Investments in the US, Europe and Asia. He also founded and invested in early-stage venture companies, and was chief investment officer at a family office.

Earlier in his career, Woodson spent a decade in public accounting at Coopers & Lybrand and Arthur Andersen before leaving to run the family office for one of his largest clients. He was also a founding member and managing director of myCFO and worked as a private banker with the Merrill Lynch Private Banking and Investment Group before joining Credit Suisse in 2007 to lead the firm’s multi-family office practice and wealth planning group.

Kai Sotorp is leaving his post as chief executive of the Asia-Pacific region at UBS Global Asset Management to take on top-level roles at Manulife Asset Management in Toronto.

Sotorp has been appointed as president and CEO of Manulife Asset Management, as well as executive vice president and global head of wealth and asset management. He will be based in Toronto, subject to immigration approvals.

This is a new role at the firm that Sotorp will officially take up on July 1. He has 25 years of international financial services and asset management experience, including extensive experience in Asia.

Most recently and since September of 2012, Sotorp worked at UBS Global Asset Management as CEO for the Asia-Pacific region. He was also UBS group managing director and a member of UBS Global Asset Management’s executive committee. Based in Hong Kong, he oversaw $120 billion in assets under management and 495 employees.

Previously, he spent 11 years with UBS Global Asset Management in numerous roles, including: group managing director in Chicago, IL; CEO, Americas, and member of UBS’ group managing board; regional head of Asia-Pacific; and president of UBS Global Asset Management (Japan).

In his new role at Manulife, Sotorp will be a member of the firm’s executive committee and management committee, reporting to Warren Thomson, senior executive vice president and chairman of Manulife Asset Management.

As president and CEO of Manulife Asset Management – a role previously held by Thomson on an interim basis - Sotorp will oversee Manulife Asset Management while partnering in product development and distribution with the firm’s wealth businesses - providing mutual funds, group pensions and investment-linked insurance globally.

Tiffany Boskovich was named as portfolio manager for the Private Client Reserve of US Bank in Denver, CO.

Boskovich will provide investment services, offering allocation strategies and making related recommendations to clients.

She has over 14 years of financial services experience working in the high net worth investment management and trust sectors in Colorado and Wyoming.

Boskovich was latterly vice president and investment manger at ANB Bank in Denver, where she managed the investment department within the trust division.

Raymond James & Associates, the traditional employee broker-dealer of RJ, recruited senior vice presidents of investments Jeffery Tomaszewski and Gary Rigby at its Ocala, FL, office.

The team is latterly of Merrill Lynch, where they managed more than $280 million in client assets and had annual fees and commissions of approximately $1.6 million. Liz Malkin also joined as a registered assistant.

Tomaszewski and Rigby spent around 30 years at Merrill Lynch, beginning their careers there in 1985 and 1986, respectively.
US Bank Wealth Management hired Thomas Vercauteren as a personal trust relationship manager within its Private Client Reserve arm in Madison, WI.
Vercauteren will administer trusts for high net worth clients, coordinating financial, tax, investment and legal services.
Before joining US Bank, Vercauteren worked as a relationship manager for Trust Point and also has previous experience with a law firm.
Paul Hatch joined UBS Wealth Management Americas as group managing director and head of WMA advice and solutions, reporting to chief executive Robert McCann.

In an internal memo seen by Family Wealth Report, McCann said UBS WMA is consolidating all of its investment solutions “into one place.”

Hatch has 30 years of industry experience and previously spent around ten years leading the client offerings for Smith Barney, Citigroup Global Wealth Management and, most recently, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. He began his career at EF Hutton, where he was a financial advisor for around six years.

In related developments, John Brown, head of middle markets; David McWilliams, head of wealth management transformation; Mike Ryan, chief investment strategist for WMA and regional CIO; and Tom Troy, head of capital markets, will all report to Hatch.

Meanwhile, Bob Mulholland, who leads the wealth management Americas client advisory group, will be “realigning the field leadership structure to create greater accountability and enhanced client focus,” McCann said.

Jason Chandler will take on responsibility for WMAG East, which includes the New England, Metropolitan, Mid Atlantic and Southeast regions. Chandler will also expand his leadership to include WMA international and the wealth management business of UBS Canada, which is led by Ricardo Gonzalez.

Bill Carroll – who ran the solutions group - will lead WMAG West, which covers the South Central, Midwest, Southwest and Northwest regions. Additionally, Carroll will take on responsibility for national sales, with Paul Santucci reporting directly to him. John Mathews will continue leading the private wealth management business, reporting to Mulholland.

Rosemary Berkery, head of the WMA banking group, will expand her responsibilities to include the UBS Trust Company led by Craig Walling, and the US private bank, led by Steven Schroko.

Kathleen Lynch continues as WMA and Americas chief operating officer while Mike Perry, who is taking a brief leave of absence as he recovers from a foot injury, will join Lynch’s team when he returns in July.

Michael Crowl, as previously announced, will join WMA in July as general counsel.

Dan Cochran, John Dalby, Brian Hull, John McDermott and Paula Polito will continue leading their current areas of responsibility.

Morgan Stanley appointed Eric Benedict to lead the brokerage business which serves the firm’s ultra high net worth clients.

The private wealth management group reportedly includes some 350 advisors serving clients with $20 million or more in investable assets.

Benedict - who took over from Doug Ketterer - will oversee the US private wealth management unit. He will report to Ketterer and Shelley O’Connor, head of field management.

Ketterer was appointed to head strategy and client management earlier this year. Meanwhile, Vince Lumia replaces Benedict as head of capital markets.

BMO Private Bank named Steve Johnson as regional president, North Central states, replacing Jason Stamm, who left the firm.

Johnson will be responsible for the strategic development and delivery of wealth management services for high net worth individuals, family-owned businesses, endowments and foundations in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, Kansas and Missouri.

He has held a variety of retail, commercial and wealth management leadership positions at BMO Harris Bank.

In his most recent role – which he retains until a successor is named - he was regional president of retail and business banking in Arizona.

Johnson has “extensive experience” in Milwaukee, BMO said, where he will be re-locating.

Huntington Bancshares named John Augustine as chief investment officer within its Private Client Group.

Augustine will be responsible for the investment strategies and activities for the bank’s fiduciary businesses, reporting to Steve Short, director of The Huntington Trust.

Augustine has nearly 30 years of experience in banking, portfolio management and market strategy. During the last 13 years, he served as chief economic and market strategist at Fifth Third Asset Management, alongside other key roles.

Raymond James appointed financial advisor Stephen Besse as senior vice president at the Walnut Creek, CA, office of Raymond James & Associates, the firm's traditional employee broker-dealer.

Besse will work with service associate Vanessa Jimenez. He and Jimenez are both latterly of Morgan Stanley, where they managed over $360 million in client assets and had annual fees and commissions of $1.35 million.

Besse started at Smith Barney as a financial advisor in 1994 and remained at the firm after it was acquired by Morgan Stanley, until joining Raymond James.

Jimenez, who joined Besse at Smith Barney in 2006, handles all operations and administrative duties for the new team at Raymond James.

US Bancorp Investments, part of US Bank, appointed financial advisors Alina Brindescu in Beverly Hills, CA, Gus Marzavas in Rock River, OH, Keith Hendricks in Manitowoc, WI, and Robert Norman in Murfreesboro, TN.

Brindusescu is latterly of HSBC, where she was a financial advisor; Marzavas joined from PNC Investments, where he was a financial advisor; Hendricks previously worked at Bed Bath & Beyond, where he was a merchandise buyer; lastly Norman joined from Raymond James Financial Services, where he was a branch manager.

They report to region managers David Terrell, Michael Martin, Michael Heyroth and Gina Stalzer respectively.

The Woodbury branch of Wells Fargo Advisors added The Lev Sher Group from Morgan Stanley, comprised of managing directors of investment Norman Lev and Glen Sher, and vice president and investment officer Michael Jeshiva.

Combined, Lev, Sher and Jeshiva manage over $236 million in assets and have around 110 years of industry experience.

The Lev Sher Group is focused on helping clients invest wisely and set financial goals. Two client associates, Roberta Lev and Helen Cardona, complete the team.

Webster Private Bank recruited Jennifer Charlebois from First Republic Trust Company as senior vice president and senior fiduciary services officer, based in Stamford, CT.

Prior to joining Webster, Charlebois was managing director and senior trust officer at First Republic Trust Company in New York.

Samuel Gottesman left JP Morgan Private Bank to become managing director and market executive for the greater Washington, DC, market at Bank of America's US Trust.

Gottesman will be responsible for the overall performance and client outreach, including in the markets of Montgomery County, DC, and Northern Virginia.

He will oversee investment management, trust and estate planning services, credit and lending, and philanthropy. Additionally, he will be in charge of hiring new talent in the market.

In his former role at JP Morgan, Gottesman was managing director and market manager in Washington, DC. Before that, he served as chief investment officer at Mizuho Alternative Investments and was also a member of the management and investment committees.

Earlier still, he was named chief operating officer at Blaylock and Company, a minority-owned investment bank in the US, where he directed front- and back-office functions.

Throughout his 30-year career, he has also held senior roles in management and trading at Commerzbank, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch and Drexel Burnham Lambert, having started out at Goldman Sachs.

First Republic Bank, a private bank and wealth management firm, brought in Hafize Gaye Erkan as senior vice president, chief investment officer and co-chief risk officer.

Erkan will oversee the firm’s investment portfolio and direct the enterprise risk management function, initially as co-chief risk officer. She has extensive expertise in quantitative risk modeling, stress testing and balance sheet optimization for financial services companies.

Erkan has worked at Goldman Sachs since 2005, where she was managing director and held a senior role in the investment banking division.

In her new role – effective in June - at First Republic, she will report to chairman and chief executive Jim Herbert and will be based in New York.

Michael Crowl is to join UBS as general counsel for the Americas region and Wealth Management Americas, on July 1, 2014.

Crowl will become a member of the Legal Executive Committee as well as the Americas Executive Committee and the Wealth Management Americas Executive Committee. He will join as a group managing director.

Crowl has worked in various roles at Barclays since 2007, including general counsel of the Americas region and, prior to that, as global general counsel of Barclays Global Investors.

Before his stint at Barclays, he spent over ten years at Goldman Sachs in New York, London and Hong Kong. There, he served as general counsel for Goldman Sachs (Asia) and global general counsel of the investment banking division.

Brent Taylor is currently serving as interim general counsel for the Americas and Wealth Management Americas. He will continue in his role as head of legal for wealth management and investment solutions, reporting to Crowl. 

Fieldpoint Private appointed Andrew Heitner as a managing director and senior advisor.

Heitner joined from Neuberger Berman, where he was a vice president of the firm's private wealth management group, based in Chicago.

He joined Neuberger Berman in 2004, and before this he was with JP Morgan, working in Hong Kong, New York and Geneva. He began his career with The Heitner Corporation, a family firm based in St Louis, MO.

Jan Golaszewski joined Carey Olsen's Cayman Islands office as counsel in the dispute resolution and litigation department.

The appointment followed the launch of Carey Olsen's Cayman Islands litigation offering in September 2013 with the appointment of partner Michael Makridakis and the subsequent appointment of associate Sophia Harrison in November of the same year.

Previously, Golaszewski worked at Maples & Calder in the Cayman Islands for five years and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London and Hong Kong for eight years. 

Golaszewski advises clients in contentious, semi-contentious and advisory matters related to offshore and investment funds. His practice has an emphasis on multi-jurisdictional commercial litigation and arbitration, fraud and asset tracing, regulatory issues and judicial review proceedings. Many of his previous cases have involved interim protection for creditors and shareholders.

Bank Leumi USA appointed industry veteran Mason Salit as head of US private banking.

Salit has more than 25 years of experience in the global financial services industry, having previously served as the wealth market leader at TD Wealth.

He was also the head of international private banking at HSBC Private Bank in New York and spent 17 years with Citigroup in various wealth management roles.

Investment advisor Washington Wealth Management (WWM) snapped up former Merrill Lynch broker Matthew Griffith.

Griffith will run his own business - 1626 Wealth Management - out of WWM’s San Diego offices and brought with him $75 million in client assets.

San Diego, CA-based WWM is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the independent broker-dealer NFP Advisor Services. It was established by wirehouse veterans and enables advisors with a wirehouse background to achieve independence and build equity in their own businesses.

Fund processing solutions provider Milestone Group appointed a new managing director and head of North America in Boston, MA, continuing its efforts to expand its North American business.

A spokesperson for Milestone Group told this publication that Caporale’s position is not newly-created, however he is not directly taking over from anybody.

He left JP Morgan after 12 years’ service to join the firm, where he previously held a number of senior leadership positions in strategy, business management and sales within the investor services business line.

Before JP Morgan, Caporale held senior positions at IBM, Deutsche Bank and Fiserv.

HighTower added the Gryphon Financial Partners team to the HighTower Network, which launched last year and enables breakaway advisors to become independent.

HighTower Network provides advisors leaving wirehouses with the opportunity to become independent without the overheads associated with starting and running a practice.

Members of the network can manage their own staff and maintain control of the “day-to-day details” of the business, while accessing the firm’s broker/dealer platform and being affiliated with the HighTower brand.

Gryphon Financial Partners oversees $600 million in assets for approximately 100 households and transitioned to HighTower from the Guth Group at Morgan Stanley.

Principal Joel Guth has extensive experience working with business owners, specializing in pre-liquidity planning, deal execution, and post-deal wealth management. Joining him at Gryphon Financial Partners are co-principal Cathy Cory and team members Angelo Manzo, Judy Roseberry, Maria Kardassilaris, Jean Sturges and Kathy Payne.

Tiger 21, the peer-to-peer learning network for high net worth investors, appointed Jennifer Fuhr as lead chair of its Calgary group, replacing Hal Walker who stepped down to become a member of the network.

Tiger 21 formed the Calgary group in 2011 with Hal Walker as chair, while Fuhr joined as co-chair in March 2012.

Fuhr is a family advisor who counts HNW families, entrepreneurs and family businesses as her clients, having founded Family Wealth Consultants in 2011.

Walker is a business and community leader who has had a career as a real estate, oil and gas, and stock market entrepreneur and investor. He is also a past chair of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

Raymond James expanded its Private Client Group education and practice management team with the promotion of Shannon Reid to vice president.

Reid will oversee and direct practice management initiatives, including financial advisor coaching, education and conferences. Most recently, Reid served as the firm’s director of retirement solutions.

Reid joined Raymond James from Goldman Sachs in 2007 to serve as the firm’s director of lending and cash management. She later led the PCG planning team and was responsible for strategic development, marketing and management of PCG initiatives and projects. In 2012, she was promoted to director of retirement solutions, where she led the firm’s efforts to develop and provide effective tools, resources and education to help clients nearing retirement.

Three teams from UBS Financial Services, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley joined Wells Fargo Advisors with a T-12 of more than $1 million.

The Sivertson-Hughes Team - comprised of advisors Mitch Sivertson and Debbie Hughes, and assistant Frankie Jo Ceja - joined WFA in Scottsdale-Gainey, AZ.

The team reports to branch manager Robert Burghart and are latterly of UBS Financial Services, where they managed more than $152 million in client assets.

Meanwhile, Stephanie Bass and partner Darin Mock, along with client associate Cindy Ward, joined in Raleigh, NC. They report to Stephen McKenzie, regional brokerage manager for Triangle East in eastern North Carolina. They joined from Merrill Lynch, where they managed more than $93 million in client assets.

Lastly, Brian Vallow joined in Orland Park, IL, reporting to John Yagla, senior vice president and complex manager for Greater Illiana. Most recently, Vallow served as a financial advisor at Morgan Stanley, where he managed more than $93 million in client assets.

Meanwhile, Merrill Lynch’s Private Banking & Investment Group announced that Howard Rowen and Halsey Smith have joined the Los Angeles office with $3 billion of assets under management.

Rowen joined from UBS while Smith joined from Deutsche Bank Securities. They will work as a team, based in Los Angeles, CA.

RBC Wealth Management’s Leawood, KS, office recruited six new staff from Wells Fargo.

Three financial advisors moved to RBC: Seymour Krinsky, Ken Eidson and Kyle Doege, making up the eponymous Krinsky, Eidson and Doege Team.

Krinsky and Eidson both took the positions of senior vice president, financial advisor while Doege became associate vice president, financial advisor.

Bringing with them $350 million in assets under management and $1.8 million in production, the new team will help the wealth accumulation and investing goals of high net worth clients.

The other three recruits having joined RBC Wealth Management from Wells Fargo were senior financial associate Beckie Holst; registered client associate Cheri Beard; and senior client associate Patricia Vitale.

Citi Private Bank hired Olive Goh as a director and ultra high net worth private banker in Seattle.

Goh joined Citi from HSBC Private Bank in New York, where she was relationship manager for the US domestic private bank since 2010, managing a client base of entrepreneurs, executives, real estate managers and family offices.

Goh started working at HSBC in London in 2006, going on to assume numerous roles at the private bank’s training program in the areas of credit control, investment strategy and lending.

Before moving into wealth management, she worked in the Singapore Government on aviation policy and multilateral air service negotiations.

Perella Weinberg Partners, the US-headquartered global financial advisory firm, added Paul Weisenfeld as a partner within in its asset management business.

Based in New York, Weisenfeld will oversee an expansion of the firm’s retail channel efforts, working with the marketing group and the portfolio management teams on product development, with a focus on the private client market segment.

He reports to Sandra Haas, deputy head of asset management.

Weisenfeld is latterly of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, where he was managing director of investment products and director of mutual funds and ETFs. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Weisenfeld was a managing director and the chief operating officer for Citigroup Global Wealth Management’s investments unit.

Raymond James appointed financial advisors David Neunuebel and Lisa Barrantes to open a new Santa Barbara, CA, office of Raymond James & Associates, the traditional employee broker/dealer of Raymond James Financial.

The team, known as Neunuebel Barrantes Wealth Management Group of Raymond James, was formerly at Wells Fargo, where they managed more than $80 million in client assets and had annual fees and commissions of approximately $950,000.

Neunuebel is senior vice president, investments, and Barrantes is financial advisor. The team also includes registered client associate Lynne Ming.

Neunuebel began his financial services career with Prudential Insurance in 1977 and was then affiliated with Dean Witter, which became Morgan Stanley. In 2002, he joined Prudential Securities, which morphed into Wachovia and then Wells Fargo.

Barrantes began her financial services career as a wire operator for Thomson McKinnon Securities in 1987, and later joined AG Edwards. In 2001, she moved to UBS in Santa Barbara and then joined Neunuebel at Wachovia in 2003.

Ming has worked with the Neunuebel Barrantes Wealth Management Group since 2012.

BNY Mellon appointed Rebecca Ryan as head of the private bank’s life insurance lending group – a newly-created role in which she will report to Elizabeth Engel, head of lending for BNY Mellon Wealth Management Private Bank.

Ryan joined BNY Mellon Wealth Management in Chicago, IL, as part of the firm’s strategic expansion which has seen the addition of over a dozen new private bankers, lenders and mortgage officers across the US.

Ryan previously worked at Northern Trust for 14 years - most recently as national director of premium finance and senior relationship manager. Before that, she was a private and commercial banker at Citibank.   

Australia

Australia and New Zealand Bank named David Gonski to replace outgoing group chairman John Morschel with effect from 1 May 2014. Morschel steps down after serving as ANZ director since 2004 and four years as chairman. Gonski was previously the chairman of the Future Fund and will be replaced by Peter Costello as acting chairman until a replacement is named.

JP Morgan Asset Management appointed Mark Carlile as head of Australia strategic relationships for the funds business. Based in Melbourne, he reports to David Halifax, head of Australia funds. He was previously a national manager for key accounts research and platform at Vanguard Investments, and also worked for Goldman Sachs JBWere and ANZ. Also appointed was Katie Babatsikos as business manager for the division. Babatsikos previously held a similar role with Perpetual Investments.

The Financial Planning Association, the Australian association for the financial planning profession, named former NAB Wealth executive Tom Reddacliff to the newly-created role of general manager for member growth and marketing. He joined the group in 2 June 2014. By this appointment, the role of national sales manager has been abolished and Paul Barsby will be leading the FPA.

Asteron Life, the advisory and insurance arm of Suncorp Group, named Daniel Waller as national key accounts and group risk manager, reporting to Mark Vilo, the executive manager, with effect from 1 July 2014. This is a newly-created role. Prior to the appointment, Waller held various sales leadership roles within AXA, ING, ING Bank and OnePath.

Bennelong Funds Management announced that it is looking for a new chief executive following the departure of Jarrod Brown, whose reasons for leaving were not specified. Since 23 May, his duties had been jointly handled by Jeff Phillips, the chief financial officer, and Andrew Aitken, head of distribution, and will remain so until a replacement is named. Brown's leaving comes at the same time as the retirement of Bruce Loveday, the compay's executive chairman. Loveday has been replaced by Mike Pratt, a member of the board who will also become a non-executive chairman as a result of this change. Loveday will stay until late in 2014 and will assist Philips and Aitken in their interim CEO duties.

Franklin Templeton Investments added two new senior bond managers, Chris Siniakov and Andrew Canobi, as managing director of fixed income and director of fixed income, respectively. Siniakov was previously the head of fixed income, Asia-Pacific at Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management, while Canobi also joins from the same company , where he was a director and senior portfolio manager for global fixed income.

Equity Trustees appointed Catherine Elversson to the Sydney office to focus on providing legal advice to high net worth individuals and their families on personal and corporate succession. She previously worked as an associate solicitor for estate planning at Matthews Folbigg Lawyers in Sydney. Meanwhile, Andrew Woods joined the Melbourne branch to assume a similar position as Elversson. Woods was previously a lawyer for Minter Ellison and McKean Park. Both will report Anna Hacker, the national manager for estate planning.

Earlier in May, Equity Trustees named Lance Pupelis to the role of head of cash and fixed income. Pupelis was previously the head of fixed income at ANZ Trustees and, prior to that, was the head of fixed income at Aviva Investors Australia.

MetLife Australia named former senior manager at BT Financial Group Deanne Stewart to be its new chief executive with effect from mid-July 2014. Stewart takes over from Damien Green, the head of employee benefits in Asia who has been serving as interim CEO since February after Marc Lieberman left. She reports to Dr Nirmala Menon, the senior vice president and head of designated markets and health in Asia.

Swiss banking giant UBS named promoted Gary head, its Australi co-head of equities, to global head of cash equities in London. Head relocates from Sydney for this new role, in addition to being a member of the global equities management committee. Succeeding him in Australia are Chris Williams and Steve Boxall, who have been named co-heads of Australasian equities. Other new appointments in the country include Robbie Vanderzall for the new role of chairman of capital markets for Australasia, reporting to Mike Hanning, who is also the new head of corporate client solutions for Asia-Pacific. Hanning replaces Matthew Grounds, who has been named chief executive for Australasia.

Hong Kong

International law firm Withers expanded its Hong Kong family practice with two hires. Ruben Sinha and Charmaine Leung join the company as a registered foreign lawyer and associate, respectively. Sinha joined from the family law firm Vardags in London, where he was a senior associate and advised high and ultra high net worth clients. Leung steps in from Hong Kong-based law firm Haldanes, where she was an assistant solicitor for the matrimonial practice and worked on high profile family cases.

Legal & General Investment Management appointed Paul So in the newly-created role of head of index funds, Asia Pacific. Based in Hong Kong, So will build a team of index portfolio managers and traders in the region, reporting to Ali Toutounchi, global head of index funds, and Alan Flynn, head of LGIM Asia Pacific. So joined LGIM from Enhanced Investment Products, where he was head of beta products for four years.

ANZ named Farhan Faruqui as chief executive for international banking, based in Hong Kong, effective August 2014. This is a new role that was created in 2013. In this post, he will be responsible for supporting the bank's "super regional" strategy by helping improve the links between ANZ's 33 markets with a diverse set of customers. Faruqui was previously the head of corporate and investment banking for Asia-Pacific at Citigroup. The heads of international banking in both Australia and New Zealand, as well as country CEOs in Asia, the Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and America, will report to Faruqui. He, in turn, reports to Andrew Geczy, CEO for international and institutional banking.

Coutts appointed former JP Morgan wealth management senior executive Shun-Tak Pang as managing director and head of the Hong Kong market. Pang took over from Ignatius (Iggy) Chong, who has been Coutts' market head for Hong Kong over the past eight years. Chong turns his focus to his role as Chairman of the Coutts Institute, Asia, a spokesperson told this publication.

US-based investment manager Capital Group hired Andrew Economos to take up the newly-created role of senior vice president for strategic solutions. In this post, he becomes responsible for institutional, private wealth and retail distribution for the firm's Asia arm. Economos joined Capital Group from JP Morgan Asset Management, where, for the past four years, he served as managing director of asset management and head of sovereign and institutional strategy for Asia.

UK banking giant Barclays named two executives to the newly split role of head of equities for Asia-Pacific. Vikesh Kotecha continues in his previous role as head of equities trading, but now also co-leads the entire regional equities business. In this Hong Kong-based role, he oversees the risk management and financial resource management arm and reports to Conor Brown, head of markets for Asia-Pacific. The other appointment involves John Chang as head of equities distribution for Asia-Pacific and will move in the summer to Hong Kong from Seoul. He was previously the Korea country manager. He reports to Mike di Iorio, the head of equities distribution who is based in London. Kotecha and Chang replace Nick Wright, who retired in March 2014.

The Private Wealth Management Association named former Deutsche Bank executive Joanne Leung to be its managing director, succeeding James Hong. Leung was previously the chief operating officer for private wealth management, North Asia at Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management. It is not yet known why Hong had vacated the post, as he had only been appointed to it in April this year from Credit Suisse to replace Nancy Cheung.

Neuberger Berman Asia bolstered its marketing and sales team with six appointments. The hires include Marco Tang, to join the Hong Kong office from Baring Asset Management as head of retail distribution for Mainland China and Hong Kong, Katherine Low as head of retail distribution in Singapore, from BlackRock, Elina Choy as head of Asia-Pacific product and marketing in Hong Kong, from First State, Kay So as marketing director in Hong Kong, from AllianceBernstein, Anny Wang as channel sales executive in Taipei, from Baring AM, and David Huang as channel sales executive in Taipei, from Allianz Global Investors.

BOC Hong Kong named Zhu Shumin and Yue Yi as non-executive directors to its board effective 22 May 2014. Both become members of each of the strategy and budget committee and risk committee of the company and its principal, Bank of China. With these appointments, the board now has 12 members, led by Tian Guoli as chairman.

BNP Paribas appointed Sean Chen in Hong Kong as a managing director. Chen reports to Alfred Tsai, head of the China market. He previously worked at Standard Chartered.

Hang Seng Bank, added a new director to its board with effect from 26 May 2014. Dr Henry K S Cheng, chairman and executive director of New World Development Company and Chow Tai Fong Jewellery Group, joined the board as an independent non-executive director. His tenure will cease at the end of the 2015 Annual General Meeting, upon which time and subject to shareholder elections, he will serve for another three years. This will then expire at the end of the AGM in 2018.

Earlier in May, Hang Seng also named Irene YL Lee as a non-executive director and a member of the risk committee. According to the firm's articles of association, she will stay on this post until the conclusion of the 2015 Annual General Meeting, upon which time and subject to shareholder election, she will stay as INED for the three years, to expire at the end of the AGM in 2018.

Eastspring Investments announced that Andy Yang will assume the newly-created role of head of insurance relationship effective June 2014. In this post, he will be working closely with the CEOs and leadership teams of the firm's insurance businesses in the region. He reports to Michele Bang, deputy chief executive of Eastspring Investments. Prior to this post, Yang was the group head of investments and asset liability management at FWD Group.

HSBC Global Asset Management named Pedro Bastos as its new chief executive for Hong Kong and regional head of Asia-Pacific. Bastos relocates to Hong Kong, from the Latin America bureau. He is currently the CEO for HSBC Global AM in Brazil and regional head for Latin America. It is not yet known who will replace him in his old role. He succeeds Joanna Munro, who has been appointed global head of fiduciary governance at HSBC Global AM, following the completion of her secondment to Hong Kong and subject to regulatory approval. Bastos will report to Sridhar Chandrasekharan, the global CEO for HSBC Global AM, and locally to Kevin Martin, the regional head of retail banking and wealth management for Asia-Pacific.

Singapore

Bank of Singapore announced the appointment of veteran banker Low Wei Ling to become executive director, senior relationship manager effective 5 May 2014. Low Wei Ling joined as Bank of Singapore OCBC group executive director, with the remit to hire bankers and grow the business in Singapore and international markets for private banking. She reports to Jeffrey Tan, managing director and Singapore market head.

ABN AMRO, the Dutch bank, named Jacqueline Chang to the newly-created position of regional head of commodities Asia, as part of an expansion of the bank's global commodities activities with the energy, commodities and transportation business. Chang was previously the head of commodities in Singapore and in this new post will report to Jan-Maarten Mulder, the global head of commodities, and regionally to Maureen DeRooij, chief executive for Asia large corporates and merchant banking. In this capacity, she will also oversee the bank's Hong Kong commodities desk led by Ben Cheung, as well as the recently established regional structured inventory product desk in Singapore led by Julien Moreau-Pernet.

Rhone, a Swiss-headquartered wealth management firm that partners with Pictet, announced that Mark Jackman is joining its Singapore office in 4 August as the head of business development in Asia. Jackman, former head of global trusts and fiduciary at Standard Chartered, will be based in Singapore but will spend a significant amount of time in Hong Kong to support the business development needs for Rhone in Northeast Asia.

US investment management firm T Rowe Price named Scott Keller as head of global investment services, Asia-Pacific, based in Singapore. Keller joined from UBS, where he was head of Pan Asia, accountable for building the institutional and intermediary business. He replaced Flemming Madsen, who has been head of GIS, Asia-Pacific for the last eight years. Madsen will transition to a new role as head of global financial intermediaries for GIS, based in the US.
 
Bank J Safra Sarasin named Hena Hoda as managing director, client advisory for Southeast Asia. She took over from Geraldine Low who, according to her LinkedIn profile, is now the founding partner of Berioza Associates, a provider of corporate advisory services in Singapore. Hoda was previously a managing director and market head of the India subcontinent desk and Southeast Asia at Bank of Singapore.

OCBC Bank, the Singapore bank that also owns Bank of Singapore, appointed Vincent Choo Nyen Fui as executive vice president and chief risk officer with effect from 1 August 2014. he took over from Gilbert Kohnke who has helmed the group risk management division since September 2005. Kohnke will remain with the bank until 30 September to ensure a smooth transition.

The International Integrated Reporting Council appointed Chng Sok Hui, the chief financial officer of DBS, as its first South East Asia council member. Hui's appointment is significant because she is the first member from a South East Asia corporate and one of the first from a listed company to get in.

Boston-based Natixis Global Asset Management announced three appointments in Singapore for its regional wholesale business. Brenda Leow joined as associate director for wholesale and retail sales, reporting to Madeline Ho, managing director and head of wholesale fund distribution for Asia-Pacific. Shae Kuek, who joined in January 2014 from Fidelity as senior sales manager for wholesale and retail sales, also reports to Ho. The third hire is Jean Tan, who joined in April 2014 also from Fidelity as regional head of marketing for Singapore and Hong Kong, also reporting to Ho.

Societe Generale Private Banking appointed Alan Mudie as its head of investment strategy, replacing Antoine Blouin, who will focus on his role as head of wealth management solutions, Switzerland. Based in Geneva, Mudie is also chief investment officer of Societe Generale Private Banking (Suisse) and will be the entity’s spokesman on investment strategy issues. He joined from UBP in Switzerland, where he was CIO of private banking.

Manulife Singapore named Naveed Irshad as president and chief executive, with effect from 26 May 2014. He took over from Annette King, who has been named vice president for client centricity, brand and communications in Asia. Irshad previously served as senior vice president for global accounts for the Reinsurance Group of America in Canada. In his new post, he covers three key business segments: life insurance, wealth management and retirement solutions.