A roundup of moves in senior wealth management positions from around the world.

UK
The chief executive of Malta’s principal financial regulator resigned after a possible breach of ethics after having suspended himself pending the outcome of an investigation. Joseph Cuschieri resigned from the Malta Financial Services Authority.  

Zurich-listed EFG International appointed Patrick Ramsey as new head of continental Europe and Middle East regions and member of the its global business committee. Ramsey, who took over from Adrian Kyriazi, who decided to step down, reports to Giorgio Pradelli, chief executive. Kyriazi continues to support EFG as a senior advisor in the future.

With 25 years of experience in the sector, Ramsey most recently served as head of wealth management and executive committee member at CA Indosuez (Switzerland) SA. He had worked there since 2013 until earlier in 2020. From 2010 to 2013, Ramsey was the general manager of Barclays Bank Suisse and country manager for Switzerland for Barclays Group. Prior to that, he was the general manager and CEO of Merrill Lynch Bank (Suisse) SA, where he worked from 2002 to 2010, in a variety of senior management positions. 

Kyriazi, who had headed EFG’s Continental Europe and Middle East Region since 2018, first joined EFG in 2014 as member of the executive committee and head of the Continental Europe and Switzerland region. After EFG International bought and integrated BSI, Kyriazi took up his most recent post. His tenure coincided with the firm opening new locations in Dubai and Portugal.

Brewin Dolphin, the UK-listed wealth manager, appointed Charles Ferry as executive director. Ferry joined Brewin Dolphin in 2008 as a divisional director, became co-head of private clients in 2016 and managing director of private clients in 2017. In 2020, he was appointed managing director of wealth and investment.

Brown Shipley, the UK wealth arm of Quintet Private Bank, hired Elizabeth Weir as head of London and International, reporting to incoming private banking head Calum Brewster. Weir leads the London and International client relationship teams and oversees new business development. She joined from UBS, where she was an MD in London. She also led development of the Swiss bank's resident non-domiciled offering, and created UBS Next Generation, an investment and education programme geared towards clients’ children.

Global family office Stonehage Fleming appointed Natalie Campbell and Anthony Wreford to join a new advisory team being chaired by former UK diplomat Lord Renwick. As a diplomat, Lord (Robin) Renwick was UK ambassador to the US and South Africa, and a crossbench peer in the House of Lords until 2018. He also has board experience at the Swiss luxury goods group Richemont AG, UK brewer SAB Miller, and British Airways. Lord Renwick has already served on the Stonehage Fleming Group board.

Also joining was social entrepreneur and A Very Good Company founder Natalie Campbell, who spun the venture from a social innovation consultancy she launched in 2011. Campbell is CEO of Belu Water and a board member for the London Economic Action Partnership, a local enterprise bringing councils and local business together. The third advisor Anthony Wreford was former deputy chairman of Omnicom Europe and former president of the old cricketing body the MCC, owner of the Lord’s cricket ground. Wreford is involved in a variety of non-executive roles, including Mayfair-based technology group FPE Capital and sports management consultancy Portas Consulting.

Wealth manager James Hambro & Partners promoted portfolio manager Mark Leach to partner.

Leach joined the business in 2014 and played a key role in the firm’s approach of building portfolios around a core selection of direct equities rather than funds. Leach spent six years as an equity analyst and fund manager at J O Hambro Capital Management focused on pan European funds. He also spent three years as a portfolio manager at Ruffer LLP.

Mirabaud Asset Management named Daniele Scilingo as head of Swiss equities. She replaces Paul Schibli when he retires in early 2021.The asset arm of the Mirabaud Group indicated that Schibli has hand-picked his successor to lead the franchise into the next phase of growth. Scilingo spent most of his career at Pictet Asset Management in Zurich and London largely focused on running the Swiss equity desk. 

European manager Nickel Digital Asset Management appointed Fiona King as managing director of institutional sales and James Drace-Francis as senior advisor in the firm’s London office. King previously served in senior roles at Lumyna Investments and Bank of America, helping to market their UCITS platforms. Before that, she was head of global sales for UCITS at Rothschild Asset Management; she has also spent time at Thames River Capital and Aurum Funds. Drace-Francis gained private and investment banking experience from institutions including JP Morgan, UBS, Swiss Re, and Kleinwort Benson. He qualified as a chartered accountant with Arthur Andersen and is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

BNP Paribas Asset Management hired four personnel in Paris to firm up its private debt team in Europe. Stéphanie Passet was named chief investment officer for infrastructure debt; Romain Linot became chief investment officer for real estate debt; Mohamed El Jani joined as investment manager in the structured finance team; and Irene Bárcena joined the SME lending team. All four are part of BNPP AM’s Real Assets, SME Lending and Structured Finance team headed by Laurent Gueunier.

Passet worked for 19 years at Crédit Agricole CIB, joining in New York, and spending six years in project finance before moving to securitisation. She returned to the securitisation team in Paris in 2010, before becoming an executive director in infrastructure capital markets.

Linot was latterly head of real estate finance for Continental Europe at Aviva Investors, establishing the company’s European real estate debt platform. He has also worked in property finance for RBS in Paris and Madrid.

El Jani joined BNPP AM from BNP Paribas CIB, where he was a quant analyst in the credit portfolio management solutions team within the securitised products group. Before that, he was a quant analyst in Société Générale’s model risk management department.

Bárcena also joined from BNP Paribas CIB where she was an associate in corporate coverage EMEA for clients in the telecommunications, beverages, chemicals and petroleum services sectors, responsible for risk monitoring and client relationship management.  

Avellemy, a UK asset manager, appointed Graham Bentley as non-executive director and chair to the Avellemy Board. He was the chair of the board’s investment committee from 2018. Steven Lloyd, investment director, assumed the role of the chair of the investment committee.

Bentley has extensive experience in the asset management industry, with a career spanning over 40 years. 

Jersey-listed PraxisIFM Group promoted nine senior figures and appointed four people to join its board in three jurisdictions. The firm provides global professional administration services across private client and corporate, funds and pensions.

The following people were appointed: Blane Queripel, director, PraxisIFM Trust Ltd (Guernsey), who will sit on the board in Guernsey, Josh Farrow, funds director/head of funds, Praxis Fund Services (Jersey) Ltd, Barbara McDonald, operations director, PraxisIFM Trust Ltd (Jersey) in Jersey, and Sylvanus Cofie, director, financial reporting and operations for PraxisIFM Fund Services (UK) in the UK. 

Six personnel were promoted to associate director level. In Guernsey, Praxis Fund Services Limited promoted Matt Falla to associate director, corporate secretarial, and Gavin Le Page to associate director, financial reporting. Also in Guernsey, Shona Darling was promoted to group company secretary and, Preston Wu became group associate finance director. PraxisIFM Trust (Guernsey) promoted Tom Strawbridge to associate director, client administration. In Jersey, PraxisIFM Trust promoted Jamie Rose to associate director, client accounting.  

Also receiving senior promotions were Josh Gallienne to senior corporate and trust manager, Ciara McKillop to senior company secretary in the UK, and Mandy Greenfield to group senior business development and marketing manager.

Bordier & Cie, the private bank, named Victoria Wu as Swiss head of Asia. Working alongside Josef Stauber, she develops the Asia-Pacific market from Zurich. She joined the Geneva-based firm in early September. Wu, who is fluent in Mandarin, English, German and French, has worked in corporate banking for 14 years, chiefly as head of an origination team for trade finance and structured finance at ING. In 2008, she joined Credit Suisse’s APAC team, where she helped drive APAC business growth over the past 12 years. Stauber began his private banking career with Credit Suisse ten years ago, also serving the APAC market. Stauber, who has lived in China and is fluent in Mandarin, English and French, also joined Bordier & Cie in September.

In a newly-created role Quintet Private Bank-owned Brown Shipley appointed ex-Julius Baer executive Gordon Scott as head of strategic partnerships and entrepreneurs network. Scott, who is based in Edinburgh, was executive director and head of UK Regions at Julius Baer, helping to build the Swiss bank’s UK offering for HNW and UHNW clients. He also spent time as regional director for Scotland and Northern Ireland at Barclays Wealth and Investment Management, and headed UK Regions at Kleinwort Benson.

Edinburgh-based Aubrey Capital Management appointed Camellia Huang as an investment analyst and Erin Elliot as sales and marketing support to strengthen its investment and marketing teams. Huang joined from Aberdeen Standard Investments where she worked as a graduate investment analyst in Private Markets across Corporate Finance, Diversified Assets, Infrastructure Equity and Private Equity teams. Elliot joined from SVM Asset Management, where she spent nine years as an investment marketing specialist. 

MilleniumAssociates, the Swiss and UK-based mergers and corporate finance advisory firm, appointed Bente E Engesland as an international partner and the latest member of its global advisory board. Engesland has extensive international experience across a number of industries from energy and finance to media and marketing. 

In seeking to boost its product range and distribution capabilities, Vala Capital, a venture capital company, made three appointments. The new joiners were Dylan Jones, Max Middleton and Debbie Mahanta. 

Aberdeen Standard Investments added two hires, bringing its smaller companies team to eight. Tzoulianna Leventi and Liam Patel joined as investment analysts covering a range of small-cap and mid-cap funds. Leventi joined ASI in 2018 as a graduate. Her main responsibilities are working with the team on all ESG-related research and engagement as well as stock research in Southern European small-caps and mid-caps. Patel recently joined ASI after four years as a global emerging markets analyst for the British Airways Pension Fund. His responsibilities are researching new and existing small and mid-cap ideas within Asia Pacific (ex Japan) and emerging markets. 

Gary Ashford, tax partner at Harbottle & Lewis, was appointed to serve as the new vice president for the Chartered Institute of Taxation. Ashford is a long-standing council member of the CIOT.  Prior to his role on the council, he was chairman of the CIOT management of taxes subcommittee. 

Dutch bank ABN AMRO announced that its chief financial officer and vice chairman, Clifford Abrahams, has decided to leave the bank in February 2021 to pursue opportunities outside the bank back in the UK. Abraham spent 10 years at Aviva Investors in the UK, rising to CFO, before joining Amsterdam-based financial services group Delta Lloyd as group CFO. He left Delta in September 2017 to take up the same role at ABN AMBRO for a three-year term.

BNP Paribas Wealth Management appointed Edmund Shing as chief investment officer, taking over the helm from Florent Bronès. Shing has more than 21 years of experience in financial markets in a variety of positions in a number of financial institutions in Europe. Since 2015, he was the global head of equity and derivative strategy at BNP Paribas in London. In his new role Shing is responsible for piloting the BNPP WM investment strategy.
 

---

Allfunds, the fund distribution platform that inked a strategic partnership deal with BNP Paribas, appointed Amaury Dauge as chief financial officer. Based in Madrid, Dauge is part of the firm’s executive committee and reports directly to Juan Alcaraz, chief executive. 

Prior to this, Dauge worked at Qontigo, the intelligence technology firm, where he recently served as CFO and chief operating officer; before that, he was president and CFO of Axioma, a risk analytics business. Previously, Dauge was group CFO at Euronext where he led the financial and legal carve-out of the company from NYSE Euronext and its subsequent initial public offering.

John Young, David Davies and Will MacFarlane joined Kingsley Napley LLP as partners in the corporate and commercial and family and divorce teams. Young, who joined the corporate and commercial team in October, advises on the business needs of entrepreneurs, high-growth and family businesses, cryptocurrency regulation as well as assisting with fundraising via initial coin offerings. Davies joined the same team from Bates Wells. His practice covers corporate law, advising owner-managed and venture-backed businesses, investors and management on restructuring, LLPs/partnerships and corporate governance matters, with a track record in technology sector transactions.

Raymond James opened a new branch in Manchester’s Spinningfields financial hub co-led by Doug McCance, Tom Illingworth and James Hymers as branch principals. McCance was most recently investment director at Close Brothers Asset Management. Both he and Illingworth spent time at Brown Shipley serving high net worth individuals and their families. Hymers led wealth planning services offering holistic advice focused on building long-term relationships with clients.

RBC Wealth Management named a new head of investments for its International and Asia business – Juan Aronna. Prior to this, Aronna, was head of investments and products for Asia only. Aronna reports to Maarten Jansen, who is head, investments and trading, RBC Wealth Management, according to a statement from the Canada-based firm.

Brown Shipley hired Martin Cuthbert, former head of relationship management in the region at Julius Baer, to head its Manchester office. Cuthbert leads Brown Shipley’s strategic growth plans in Manchester. 

Dr Winson Ng, until recently a member of UBS Global Wealth Management’s private markets due diligence team, joined the senior leadership team of Moonfare, a private equity investment platform, as chief investment officer.

At UBS and in senior roles at GIC, Dr Ng oversaw large allocations to growth, middle market and large cap buyout funds as well as investments in funds focused on mezzanine capital, credit, infrastructure and venture capital. A native of Hong Kong and Malaysia, Dr Ng has an MBA from INSEAD and graduated with a medical degree from the University of London. Dr Ng, based in London, partners with managing director Magnus Grufman.

Moonfare also appointed Singaporean Sweta Chattopadhyay as investment director and Ed Cotton as partnerships manager, two new London-based hires extended Moonfare’s reach in the UK and across new asset classes and client segments. Chattopadhyay has more than 10 years’ experience in private markets investing, most recently as the head of bfinance’s private equity advisory where she worked closely with institutional investors globally. Cotton previously worked at UK private markets technology firm Delio where, as head of business development, he helped grow the team sixfold. He began his career in private banking in London at Barclays and Edmond de Rothschild’s Private Merchant Bank, where he focused on placing the banks, private equity offering with family offices.

Accountancy and financial advisory firm Kreston Reeves added to its private client practice by appointing Simon Levine as legal services director. The firm, which has offices in London, Kent, and Sussex, employs around 500, including more than 50 partners. Levine led a legal team based in the London office. He was previously a partner in the London team of Hugh James having built and managed his own legal practice, Claremont Richards, for a number of years.

Smith & Williamson International, part of UK-based Tilney Smith & Williamson Group, appointed Matt Falla as director and managing director, based in Jersey. He replaced Aidan McAvinue who has become a non-executive director of SWI. Falla joined from Kleinwort Hambros where he spent nearly 15 years, latterly as head of private banking in Guernsey. He also worked at HSBC and RBSI in Jersey.

Beaufort Investment appointed Richard Warne as a fund manager. Warne manages the firm’s model portfolios and grounds alongside chief investment officer Shane Balkham and Cormac Nevin. He has specific responsibilities for equities, property and real assets manager research. Previously, Warne was head of discretionary portfolio management for London and the Channel Islands at Credit Suisse, where he worked for over 19 years. He was responsible for the flagship third-party mandates, which had a 20 years’ track record, and his role was both investment and client focused. Prior to Credit Suisse, Warne spent over three years at Citibank Global Asset Management.

Sally Plant was named new head of financial planning at the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI). Jacqueline Lockie left the role. Plant is moving from a para-planning and business development role at Robur Wealth Management, a partner practice of St James’s Place Wealth Management. 

Global investor services group IQ-EQ appointed Prodipta Bhattacharya as corporate finance director to grow its CrossDeal offering. CrossDeal – set up in July 2020 - connects wealthy individuals, funds and corporates to private deals in the alternative assets space, particularly in private equity and real estate. Bhattacharya is an investment professional with more than 20 years’ experience in banking, corporate finance and asset management. 

SEI, the US-listed investment and technology services firm, appointed Dr Alison Vincent as an independent non-executive director on the board of its UK subsidiary, SEI Investments (Europe) Limited.

Waverton Investment Management hired Andrew Denham-Davis as a business development manager in the advisor solutions team. The former Brooks MacDonald manager reports to Waverton’s director and head of intermediary sales, Mark Barrington. Denham-Davis moved from a similar role at Brooks Macdonald, where he spent 15 years, most recently leading a 35-strong sales team. Senior associate in family law Natalie Lemonides joined Royds Withy King in London. She was previously based at West End law firm Child & Child and specialises in family relationship issues, with a particular focus on resolving complex financial issues for high net worth individuals. 

HSBC Global Asset Management appointed Stuart Kirk as global head of research and insights. Kirk  reports to global chief investment officer Joanna Munro. He leads a newly-created research and insights team, whose aim is to provide the firm’s retail and institutional clients with investment content, and promote its extensive research and analysis.

BNP Paribas appointed Sofia Merlo as head of group human resources. For the last eight years she was head of its wealth management business. Merlo took over from Yves Martrenchar, who became a senior advisor leading a mission alongside the group's general management until May. Working at the banking group since 1985, Merlo has been in a range of roles. She joined the French private banking arm in 2009 and was made head of French private banking in 2010. Merlo is a member of the board of directors of BNP Paribas Fortis, the board of BMCI in Morocco, and the board of BNP Paribas Polska in Poland.

Taylor Wessing, the international law firm, added to its international private wealth sector group, appointing Damian Bloom and Simon Phelps. They joined from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP.

Barings, the investment management group, appointed a new chairman and CEO, replacing Tom Finke, who was appointed to join the board of US-listed Invesco. Mike Freno, the new Barings CEO and president, took up the role with immediate effect. Freno, who worked at Barings for more than 15 years, is a member of Barings’ senior leadership team, the board of directors and is chairman of Barings BDC.

Janus Henderson Investors appointed Paul LaCoursiere as global head of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investments to help drive ESG integration across its investment strategies. The role was a newly-created one. LaCoursiere is based in Janus Henderson’s London office and reports to global chief investment officer Enrique Chang. He joined from Aviva Investors, where he is currently the global head of ESG research. 

Liechtensteinische Landesbank announced that Georg Wohlwend had decided to resign as its chairman, due to criminal proceedings against him that are unrelated to his work at LLB Group. Wohlwend firmly denies the allegations. LLB did not elaborate on what the criminal charges related to. Vice chairwoman Gabriela Nagel-Jungo took on Wohlwend’s responsibilities. Wohlwend served as chairman of LLB since 2017.

JTC, which provides fund, corporate and private client services, appointed financial industry heavyweight Richard Ingle as its group chief risk officer. Ingle is based at the company’s headquarters in Jersey. His role involves overseeing risk management and regulatory compliance across JTC’s global network of 23 offices in 19 different jurisdictions. He took over from Bill Byrne.

Deutsche Bank Wealth Management hired Alexis Pateras as a relationship manager. Pateras moved after 13 years at UBS, where he built a book advising UK-based entrepreneurs and financial services professionals with a net worth of roughly £50 million ($64.6 million). Based in London, he reports to James Whittaker, who joined from UBS in early October to head UK coverage. 

Emma Mogford was appointed to manage Premier Miton Investors' four UK equity income funds. She joined this month from Newton Investment Management where she was lead manager of the BNY Mellon UK Income Fund as part of the Newton global income team. She works with Premier Miton’s equity team led by Gervais Williams and replaced Eric Moore in the role.

M&A specialist Cavendish Corporate Finance appointed Jamie Blewitt to head a newly formed Alternative Capital division. The unit provides family offices and other private capital funds opportunities to "back or acquire ambitious growth companies." Blewitt had been a director role at Rothschild & Co where he focused on minority M&A and co-investment opportunities for private capital investors.

Standard Chartered Private Bank appointed Grant Parkinson, former Coutts and Brewin Dolphin senior figure, as regional head, private banking, Europe, Africa and Middle East, subject to regulatory approval. Parkinson took over from Steve Atkinson, who stepped down as regional head, private banking for the West division. As chief operating officer at Coutts from 2013 to 2017, Parkinson’s responsibilities were predominantly client-focused, including developing new client propositions and opening a booking centre. Most recently as COO at Brewin Dolphin, one of the UK’s leading wealth managers, he focused predominantly on the firm’s digital solutions and developing technology solutions for client-facing colleagues. Earlier in his career, he worked at Barclays and McKinsey. He reports to Didier von Daeniken, global head, private banking. Atkinson, who stepped down after three decades with Standard Chartered, held leadership positions in Standard Chartered’s commercial, corporate and institutional banking, finance, investor relations and corporate affairs.

Wealth advisor Heronsgate Capital appointed former Saunderson House wealth manager Dan Mackenzie as an associate director. Mackenzie works with Heronsgate’s founders Tony Wellby and Chris Sexton to deliver wealth and investment advice to City professionals.
 

---

Asia-Pacific
Finantix made a number of top-level hires in Asia-Pacific. It appointed Frances Ng and Lawrence Yin as regional sales directors, and Clarisa Ele as Asia-Pacific staffing manager. Ng and Ele are based in Singapore and Yin is in Hong Kong. Before joining Finantix, Ng spent over five years overseeing regional sales at Experian and Swiss banking software provider, ERI Bancaire. She has worked in software and the technology sector covering South East Asia sales activities for more than 15 years. Yin, covering the Greater China region, has over 15 years of experience working across the banking, asset management and technology industries. He began his career with Macquarie Bank in Australia which eventually brought him to Hong Kong. Prior to joining Finantix, he led business development efforts for MioTech, a Hong Kong FinTech start-up, working with asset management and private bank clients globally. Before MioTech, Yin held a series of sales positions at Moody’s Investors Services, eVestment (a Nasdaq company) and AxiomSL.

Hired to oversee talent acquisition for Finantix in Asia-Pacific, Ele has more than 15 years of experience in the field of technology recruitment across banking, insurance, internet, e-commerce and fintech. Technology has been her domain since she began her recruitment career in 2001. 

SANNE, which provides alternative asset and corporate business services, promoted Rubina Toorawa to the role of country head, Mauritius. She had previously been the firm's chief operating officer for the jurisdiction.    

Mavis Huang was hired as a relationship manager for Vontobel Asset Management in Hong Kong to support global and regional private banks. Huang had a similar RM role at DWS, where she oversaw relationships with local and global private banks and wealth management platforms. Before that she was in business development focused on Greater China at Income Partners Asset Management. 

Bordier & Cie, the private bank, named Victoria Wu as Swiss head of Asia. Working alongside Josef Stauber, she develops the Asia-Pacific market from Zurich. She joined the Geneva-based firm in early September. Wu is fluent in Mandarin, English, German and French. She has worked in corporate banking for 14 years, chiefly as head of an origination team for trade finance and structured finance at ING. In 2008, she joined Credit Suisse’s APAC team, where she helped drive APAC business growth over the past 12 years.

Stauber, meanwhile, began his private banking career with Credit Suisse 10 years ago, also serving the APAC market. Stauber, who has lived in China and is fluent in Mandarin, English and French, also joined Bordier & Cie in September.

India-based Cervin Family Office & Advisors, a multi-family office, added Priya Ganesh as associate director and part of the senior team. Ganesh has more than 18 years’ experience in the financial services and family office space.

Indosuez Wealth Management in Asia made two new senior appointments in its Hong Kong SAR Branch. The appointees were Michael van Ommeren and Allan Dampier. Van Ommeren was appointed as chief operating officer. Reporting to Olivier Livenais, chief executive, he is responsible for enhancing the bank’s core functional and economic efficiency and driving its growth strategy in the region. Among his previous roles, he was COO and chief digital officer of ABN AMRO Bank, Hong Kong SAR and Shanghai. Dampier was named new head of anti-money laundering in the Hong Kong SAR branch. He reports to Chelsea Tong, head of compliance and central files in Hong Kong SAR. Prior to this, Dampier was with HSBC Asia Private Banking where he was head of Hong Kong Financial Crime Compliance and Asia Regional Business Governance.

Standard Chartered changed its structure, including private banking, combining that business with retail banking and wealth management. The bank also confirmed that Didier von Daeniken, who was made global head, private banking, in March 2016, is leaving. StanChart set out the structure and senior roles under its new Consumer, Private and Business Banking (CPBB) business and Asia region, as well as a major appointment in the Europe and Americas regions. The CPBB business, led by Judy Hsu, who is regional chief executive, ASEAN and South Asia (ASA), folded together retail banking, private banking and wealth management operations.

CPBB is organised around two client groups and two regions:

-- Vishu Ramachandran, leading personal and business banking; 
-- Judy Hsu, leading private and priority banking until a permanent appointment is made; 
-- Samir Subberwal, leading CPBB for the Asia region; 
-- Kariuki Ngari, leading CPBB for Africa, the Middle East and Europe, in addition to his CEO Kenya and East Africa responsibilities, until a permanent appointment could be made; and 
-- Rosalind Ng, leads client experience and strategic business enablement.

Wealth Management continues to be led by Marc Van de Walle. Vishu, Samir, Kariuki, Rosalind and Marc, are members of Judy Hsu’s CPBB Management Team.

The group’s new combined Asia region is led by Ben Hung, currently regional CEO, Greater China and North Asia. It brings together the lender’s ASEAN and South Asia (ASA), and Greater China and North Asia (GCNA) regions. 

The cluster market CEOs:
-- Jerry Zhang, Cluster CEO, China and Japan.
-- Mary Huen, Cluster CEO, Hong Kong, Taiwan & Macau.
-- Zarin Daruwala, Cluster CEO, India and South Asia Markets (Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka).
-- Andrew Chia, Cluster CEO, Indonesia and ASEAN Markets (Australia, Brunei and the Philippines).
-- Patrick Lee, Cluster CEO, Singapore and ASEAN Markets (Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Rep Offices).
-- Park Jong Bok, CEO, Korea.
-- Anthony Lin, CEO, Greater Bay Area.

Natixis Investment Managers made three appointments in Taiwan. James Chen was appointed as general manager of Natixis IM Taiwan in July. Chloe Tai and Sophia Huang were appointed as associate directors of Natixis IM Taiwan, focusing on institutional investor business. Chen joined Natixis IM Taiwan as a director in 2009 and has nearly 20 years of experience in Taiwan’s wealth and asset management sectors. Prior to his current role, James was mainly responsible for developing Taiwan’s retail business. Tai, who joined the firm in November, brings her experience in the insurance sector and legal background to her new role. Prior to joining Natixis IM, she was an investment manager at TransGlobe Life Insurance; before that, she worked as a legal manager at CDIB Capital Group, a leader in venture capital business in Taiwan. Huang, who joined Natixis in Singapore in 2004, was appointed as institutional associate director in March this year. Prior to her current role, she was a customer service manager for over a decade in Taiwan.

BNP Paribas Wealth Management appointed Edmund Shing as chief investment officer; he took over from Florent Bronès, who moved to another role at a charitable organisation. Shing has more than 21 years of experience in financial markets in a variety of positions in a number of financial institutions in Europe. Since 2015, he has been the global head of equity and derivative strategy at BNP Paribas in London. 

BlackRock appointed Celia Yan to the newly-created post of head of China for its Asian private credit team. Yan assumef the role of co-portfolio manager for private credit investments across Asia-Pacific and will help build out BlackRock’s regional private credit platform. Based in Hong Kong, she will be part of the Asian credit leadership team, reporting to Neeraj Seth, BlackRock’s Singapore-based head of Asian credit. Yan was previously head of Greater China with ADM Capital. Before joining ADM Capital in 2011, Yan worked for National Australia Bank in Melbourne, where she advised on complex investment solutions and risk analysis.

---

Allfunds, the fund distribution platform appointed Amaury Dauge as chief financial officer. Based in Madrid, Dauge is part of the firm’s executive committee and reports to Juan Alcaraz, chief executive. Prior to this, Dauge worked at Qontigo, the intelligence technology firm, where he recently served as CFO and chief operating officer; before that, he was president and CFO of Axioma, a risk analytics business. Previously, Dauge was group CFO at Euronext where he led the financial and legal carve-out of the company from NYSE Euronext and its subsequent initial public offering.

Nomura is building a team of wealth management professionals in Asia and has hired a number of senior bankers. The joiners were Brahjesh Jha, who had been Thailand desk head at BNP Paribas; Mohit Gupta, Non-Resident India desk head at the French banking group; Guarav Gupta, also a former NRI desk head in BNP Paribas, and Prashanth Nithianantham, a NRI relationship manager.

RBC Wealth Management named a new head of investments for its International and Asia business - Juan Aronna. Prior to this, Aronna, was head of investments and products for Asia only. Aronna reports to Maarten Jansen, who is head, investments and trading. Aronna leads wealth management investment teams in the UK and Asia. In the UK, he will be primarily accountable for increasing the penetration of investment products with new and existing RBC clients. As part of the change, Aronna remains in Hong Kong until he is able to relocate to the UK in about May 2021. 

Aronna has more than 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry, joining RBC six years ago, initially based in Singapore and more recently Hong Kong. As head of investment solutions and products, Asia, he is responsible for the discretionary portfolio management unit as well as all products, risk and governance, and the execution desk. Prior to his role at RBC, Aronna was head of investment management for Singapore at UBS.

Enid Yip left the board of Brazil-Switzerland’s Bank J Safra Sarasin. Yip left the private bank’s board after less than a year. She joined the bank in February 2020 and was one of the most high-profile female private bankers in a traditionally male-dominated field. In 2007, Yip first joined Bank Sarasin (as it was called at the time), having previously been head of Credit Suisse's Hong Kong branch.

Oversea Chinese Banking Corporation appointed Wilson He as managing director of its wholly-owned stockbroking subsidiary, OCBC Securities Pte Ltd. He joined during Singapore’s 'circuit breaker' period when the company was dealing with the changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. He has more than 17 years’ experience in the financial services industry, especially in the area of digitalising securities trading. 

Investment firm T Rowe Price added two people to its Australian equities investment capability and client support team. The appointees are based in Sydney. Nick Vidale joined as an investment analyst, bringing more than 20 years of investment experience across the financials, industrials and consumer sectors in Australia and Asia. He is responsible for identifying investment opportunities in the financial sector for the firm’s Australian investment team, reporting to the team’s head of research, Ryan Martyn. David de Ferranti joined as a portfolio analyst in T Rowe Price’s Investment Specialist Group, a team within the investment division dedicated to handling the flow of information between clients and portfolio managers. He reports to Nick Beecroft, Hong Kong-based head of ISG, Asia-Pacific. Most recently, Vidale was a senior equities analyst at Perpetual, covering the Australian banks, diversified financials, property developers, gaming and industrials sectors. Prior to Perpetual, Vidale was a portfolio manager at GLG Partners in Hong Kong covering Asian financials.

Dr Winson Ng, until recently a member of UBS Global Wealth Management’s private markets due diligence team, joined the senior leadership team of Moonfare, a private equity investment platform, as chief investment officer. At UBS and in senior roles at GIC, Dr Ng oversaw large allocations to growth, middle market and large cap buyout funds as well as investments in funds focused on mezzanine capital, credit, infrastructure and venture capital. Dr Ng, based in London, partners with managing director Magnus Grufman to drive the continued growth of Moonfare’s fund offering, which is expanding rapidly from private equity into new asset classes.

A former chief executive of vacuum machine business Dyson, Jim Rowan, was named as senior advisor to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts’ Asia private equity team. Rowan led Dyson as its CEO between 2017 and 2020, a period in which he accelerated the company’s e-commerce strategy and built it out as a global brand. He joined Dyson in 2012 as its chief operating officer. Prior to Dyson, he was the COO of BlackBerry and a senior executive at Flextronics.

Barings appointed a new chairman and CEO, replacing Tom Finke, who was appointed to join the board of US-listed Invesco. Mike Freno, the new Barings CEO and president, took up the role. Freno, who worked at Barings for more than 15 years, is a member of Barings’ senior leadership team, the board of directors and is chairman of Barings BDC.

BNP Paribas Securities Services launched a new agency securities lending desk in Hong Kong. The new desk focuses on Asian markets, complementing existing services offered via desks in Sydney, London and New York. The organisation, part of BNP Paribas, appointed Anthony McDonald to head up the Hong Kong Agency Securities Lending desk. In this newly-created role, McDonald concentrates on trading activities and developing services for institutional lenders and borrowers in the region. McDonald has worked in the equity finance segment for more than 20 years, starting his career in London before moving to Hong Kong where he joined from SEB. He has previously gained experience at RBS Trust Bank, Credit Suisse, Citigroup and Dresdner Kleinwort.

Credit Suisse named Marcus Slöör as market group head of the Philippines. Slöör took over from veteran private banker Christian Senn when he assumed his new responsibilities in early December. Senn returned to explore new opportunities at Credit Suisse in Switzerland following 15 years of building out its South Asia business from Singapore. His tenure included launching Thai operations in 2016 and opening the first Philippines office in 2018. 
 

---

North America
San Francisco-based Woodruff Sawyer named Judith Pearson to launch The Family Office & Trustee Liability Resource Group. Prior to this, Pearson founded and was chief executive of Nomadx Solutions, which provides risk management solutions for fiduciaries. She was also a co-founder of ARIS Title Insurance Corporation where she gained knowledge about tax, trust and estate matters related to personal property. Additionally, Pearson served as a senior executive vice president of AON’s Financial Services Group and its intellectual property division.

 

Deutsche Bank Wealth Management appointed Michael Barrett as a director and relationship manager in the New York office, reporting to Anthony Valvo. Barrett joined from Wells Fargo Advisors with 25 years of investment management focused in institutional fixed income and broader wealth advisory experience. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Michael held various positions across global banks, including Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank.

Blackstone appointed the former co-chief executive of Germany’s enterprise software group SAP as its global head of portfolio transformation and talent. In the newly-established leadership role, Jennifer Morgan is responsible for a team within Blackstone’s portfolio operations group helping the firm’s 200 plus portfolio companies drive growth through digital transformation.

Morgan was the first female CEO of a Germany-listed business. She also served in various, additional leadership roles at SAP over 16 years – including serving on its executive board between 2017 and 2020. Morgan holds a BA in business administration from James Madison University and is currently a board member of Bank of New York Mellon and of the National Academy Foundation. She is also on the Board of Advisors at James Madison University’s College of Business. 

A new wealth management business based in Tucson, Arizona launched in November, affiliating with LPL Strategic Wealth Services. The new organization is called Adara Wealth Management, formed by financial advisors George Chardukian, Adam Goldstein and Maria Peralta.

Professional Wealth Advisors named two new partners and members of its wealth management team. Wealth advisor Stewart Burchfield brought with him more than 20 years of financial services experience. Wealth advisor Lou Auriemma joined PWA with “many years of experience in the financial services industry.”

Meraki Global Advisors, the Utah-based firm, appointed David C Laub Jr as a senior trader in the New York office. Meraki’s client base has expanded among the tri-state multi-asset hedge fund community since the establishment of its New York outpost in April 2020, led by the firm’s head of business development, Michael Ashby.

Laub has worked in the hedge fund sector for 20 years. Prior to joining Meraki, he was the head of trading at Sanoor Capital where he focused on equities, FX, and derivatives. Previously, Laub was a sector trader at Millennium Limited Partners and head of trading at Hunter Global Investors.

State Street appointed Richard F Lacaille to the newly-created role of senior investment advisor and has promoted Lori Heinel to global chief investment officer for State Street Global Advisors. Lacaille provides enterprise-wide leadership of the company’s environmental, social and governance solutions, services and thought leadership across all of State Street’s businesses. Lacaille reports to Ronald O’Hanley, chairman and chief executive officer of State Street Corporation.

PNC Financial Services named two C-suite figures who joined its executive committee. The group elevated Deborah Guild, chief security officer, and Ganesh Krishnam, who is corporate and institutional bank and staff service technology chief information officer. They report to William S Demchak, chairman, president and chief executive officer of PNC.

Guild leads enterprise technology while remaining executive vice president and chief security officer. Krishnan, also an executive vice president, serves as enterprise chief information officer, with responsibility for leading technology strategy and innovations, initiatives and programs for all of PNC's lines of business. They took over from Steve Van Wyk, PNC's head of technology and innovation. Van Wyk left PNC at the end of 2020, taking on a new role in Europe with an international financial services firm.

Guild joined PNC in 2013 as chief technology officer and assumed her position as chief security officer in February 2017. Prior to PNC, Guild spent 21 years at Bank of America. Krishnan joined PNC in 2008 as a manager in the bank's technology infrastructure services team. Since then, he has held a variety of technology leadership posts; he was promoted to CIO for C&IB and Staff Service Technology in January 2017, and executive vice president in March 2018.

Alexia Gottschalch was named managing director and head of client strategy for global real assets at Aegon Asset Management in a newly-created role. Based in New York, Gottschalch leads a team of eight supporting the sales process for real assets strategies. She led teams in London, The Hague, New York, Copenhagen and Munich. Gottschalch reports directly to Aegon AM’s chief investment officer for Real Assets, Scott Coté.

Gottschalch joined from Invesco, where she was most recently managing director and head of outsourced CIO. She also led client and business development strategy at JP Morgan, managing the capital strategy for its $70 billion global real estate business, and before that was global head of capital markets at Grosvenor.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management named Adam Innerst as market president in Houston, Texas to lead the region's wealth management practice, with responsibility for client strategists, wealth managers and support staff. Innerst reports to regional president Todd Carlton.

BNP Paribas Asset Management named Johanna Lasker and Amanda Raynor as chief executive of BNPP AM USA and deputy CEO of BNPP AM USA respectively.

Lasker is responsible for strategy, leadership, governance and regulatory matters. She assumed this role alongside her current responsibilities as the head of the Official Institutions Group. Raynor continues to report to Sandro Pierri, head of BNPP AM’s Global Client Group, and reports locally to José Placido, CEO of CIB Americas. She replaced Daniel Klein, who returned to Europe after five years as CEO and four years as deputy CEO of BNPP AM USA. Raynor supports Lasker with direct local oversight of legal, finance and control functions.

Prior to BNP Paribas, Lasker joined the New York office of Fischer Francis Trees & Watts, a predecessor of BNP Paribas Asset Management, in 1997. From 2004 she focused on the official institutions business (central banks, supranationals and sovereign wealth funds), eventually being appointed head of the official institutions team globally. 

Raynor joined Harbor Capital Management in Boston in 1997, moving to Fortis Investments in 2002 when Harbor was acquired by Fortis. She was appointed chief operating officer of Fortis in 2008 and subsequently became COO of BNPP AM when Fortis was acquired by BNPP AM. Her responsibilities include managing operations and information technology, supporting the strategic development of the franchise, facilitating communication with the global locations and representing the firm with industry organizations, regulators and clients.

Jay Clayton, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission said he was retiring at the end of 2020, having served for more than three and a half years during the period coinciding with the Donald Trump administration. The SEC said that Clayon was one of the longest-serving chairs at the organization. His tenure saw changes such as the Regulation Best Interest, widening the Accredited Investor regime, and broadening its “whistleblower” system. 

Sage Mountain Advisors, a boutique independent wealth manager, appointed Ned Douthat as an advisor. Douthat's responsibilities include risk management, investment research, asset allocation, and helping clients develop and implement trust and estate, tax, and philanthropic plans.

Prior to this, Douthat worked at Goldman Sachs as a private wealth advisor for five years. He is a graduate of the University of Texas with a degree in business economics and history. He earned an MBA from Emory University's Goizueta Business School.

CAPTRUST Financial Advisors, which is based Raleigh, North Carolina, brought a Colorado firm into its embrace - Shine Wealth Partners. The firm, located in Denver, is led by founder and chief executive Judy Shine. Shine Wealth Partners was founded in 1995 and advises on more than $785 million from individuals and families. In addition to Shine, the team is led by president and senior wealth advisor Karen Salvatore, SWAs and principals Beth Cornell and Elisabeth Jacobson, and SWA Peter Vander Ploeg. They brought four additional team members along with them.

Venture Visionary Partners, an RIA based in Toledo, Ohio, added 12 former UBS wealth professionals to its ranks, who collectively managed $1.8 billion in assets under management.

Following the move, Venture Visionary Partners had a total of 28 people overseeing $3.7 billion in AuM.

The joiners were:

-- Robert S Loeb, partner. Previously, he was a senior vice president, wealth management at UBS;
-- James J Porea, partner. Prior to joining VVP, Porea was an SVP, UBS WM;
-- John D Spengler, partner. Previously, he was an SVP, UBS WM;
-- Bradford G Dolgin, partner. He was SVP, senior portfolio manager UBS;
-- Craig A Warnimont, chief investment officer, partner. Previously, he was a first VP, UBS WM; 
-- Sarah Wodarski, relationship manager;
-- Amy J Amos, RM;
-- Alexa M Laberdee, RM;
-- Diana S Gibson RM;
-- Karyn Keilholz, RM;
-- Kelly Arndt, RM; and 
-- Travis N Maas, financial analyst.

Envestnet, the New York-listed wealth management systems firm, appointed Robert Coppola as the new chief technology officer, taking the helm from Scott Grinis, who was slated to retire in 2021, having held the position for two decades. 

Coppola reports to Stuart DePina, Envestnet president. Most recently, Coppola was chief information officer of Cision. Before that, he was in the same role, as well as being CTO, at S&P Capital IQ and S&P Dow Jones Indices at S&P Global (formerly McGraw Hill Financial).

---

Prescott Group, a real estate investment, debt resolution and asset management firm, appointed Megan Sandler to join its investor relations and capital formation team. Sandler was most recently at Quilvest Capital Partners, where she led US fundraising initiatives. Prior to Quilvest, Sandler worked for Schechter Wealth, where she focused on building their private capital platform for family offices and high net worth individuals. She holds a bachelor of arts in both visual arts and history from Rice University.

Forum Equity Partners, a private alternative investment and development firm, appointed Rajeev Viswanathan as partner and chief financial officer. Viswanathan was the CFO of Dream Global REIT, a Western European, $6 billion office and industrial platform that was acquired in 2019 by Blackstone. Previous to his appointment at Dream Global, he was CFO for Dream Office REIT. Before Dream, Viswanathan spent almost a decade at Brookfield in various senior finance roles, including corporate treasury and helping to establish Brookfield's Private Funds group. 

Envestnet | Yodlee, the US-based data aggregation and data analytics platform, appointed Jason O'Shaughnessy as the head of international sales. O'Shaughnessy is responsible for driving revenue growth in all international markets for the firm in Europe, Asia-Pacific and Australia/New Zealand. He also continues to widen the firm’s open banking coverage across Europe and other markets. 

The appointment was a return to the business for O'Shaughnessy, who worked at Envestnet | Yodlee from 2003 to 2017, as senior vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Australia. O'Shaughnessy rejoined the firm after working in a start-up capacity where he helped a number of fintechs with their go-to-market and open banking strategies across aggregation, personal financial management and lending.

Dynasty Financial Partners named John Sullivan as head of network development. Sullivan joined Dynasty eight years ago as senior vice president, registered investment advisor and transition services. Sullivan reports to Dynasty Financial Partners’ president and chief executive CEO Shirl Penney. Before joining Dynasty in 2012, Sullivan spent more than 20 years at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney/Citigroup, serving in high net worth wealth management roles.

Advisor360°, a US-based provider of an integrated software suite for advisors, clients, broker-dealers and rollup-RIAs, appointed Cassie Warrington to join the firm’s newly-created business development team. Prior to this role, Warrington spent 17 years at Fidelity Investments, working her way up from a client management role to VP of Fidelity Stock Plan Services, where she led a worldwide sales and product support team. Earlier in her career, Warrington worked in client relationship management at UBS Financial Services. 

BMO Financial Group made a number of C-suite appointments. Tom Flynn moved from his role as chief financial officer to become a vice chair. Since joining BMO in 1992, Flynn led the financial institutions group in the investment and corporate bank, and served as treasurer before his appointment as chief risk officer in March 2008 and as CFO in 2011. Tayfun Tuzun joined BMO as deputy CFO, before becoming chief financial officer, January 1, 2021, following a transition period. Tuzun had served as CFO of Fifth Third Bank since 2013. Simon Fish moved from his post as general counsel and become special advisor to the CEO.  Sharon Haward-Laird was appointed general counsel, reporting to the CEO. Before this, she was head of North American treasury and payment solutions.
 
Walker & Dunlop said that Walker & Dunlop Investment Partners, its wholly-owned alternative investment manager focused on middle-market commercial real estate investments, hired Michael Link as director on WDIP's capital formation team. Link is based in the firm's Denver, Colorado headquarters and is responsible for marketing and fundraising efforts as WDIP continues to build a diversified suite of private equity and debt strategies. Prior to joining WDIP, Link served as assistant vice president of investor relations at Massachusetts-based Brookwood Financial Partners, a private equity firm investing in real estate. His experience also includes stints at Ned Davis Research Group in Boston and at a series of technology start-ups such as Virtual Computer, RouteMatch Software, and Preparis.

Invesco added three senior wealth management figures to its board of directors: Nelson Peltz and Ed Garden of Trian Fund Management, and Thomas M Finke of Barings.

Peltz is chief executive and a founding partner of Trian Partners, and Garden is Trian's chief investment officer and a founding partner. Trian is a beneficial owner of about 9.9 per cent of Invesco's outstanding common stock. Finke, chairman and CEO of Barings, retired from Barings on November 30.  Barings is a wholly owned subsidiary of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company.

Peltz is also non-executive chairman of The Wendy's Company, and serves on the boards of The Procter & Gamble Company, Sysco Corporation and The Madison Square Garden Company. Previously, he served as a director of Legg Mason, H J Heinz Company, Mondel?z International, Inc., Ingersoll-Rand plc and MSG Networks Inc. Garden serves as a director of the General Electric Company and previously served as a director of Legg Mason, The Bank of New York Mellon, The Wendy's Company, Family Dollar Stores, Inc. and Pentair plc. Separately, Barings named Mike Freno as chairman and CEO, effective immediately, taking over from Finke. Freno was previously president, a role he assumed in February. He is a member of Barings' senior leadership team, Barings board of directors and chairman of Barings BDC.

CalPrivate Bank, part of Private Bancorp of America, appointed Kevin Campbell as executive vice president and chief banking officer for Los Angeles and Orange Counties, and Vincent Vanacore as senior vice president and market manager for the South Bay Los Angeles region. Campbell joined with more than 30 years of financial services industry experience. Most recently he served as senior vice president, market leader at a regional bank, building loan, deposit, mortgage, and wealth opportunities across Southern California. Prior to this role, he was an executive vice president at Bank of Manhattan which then merged with Plaza Bank.

Cresset Diversified Real Estate named Dominic DeRose as director of investments. In his role, DeRose concentrates on the firm’s vast real estate portfolio with an emphasis on their qualified opportunity zone efforts, as well as a series of smaller real estate funds focused on various strategies, including industrial development and distressed investments. Prior to joining Cresset Diversified, DeRose was a senior associate in Colliers International’s industrial advisory group. 

---

Vontobel Asset Management appointed Craig Lombardi as a relationship manager in the US, joining the Swiss firm from ICMA-RC, a $30 billion firm. Prior to ICMA, he held senior posts in sales and relationship management for defined contribution, sub-advisory and insurance at Alliance Bernstein and Fidelity Investments.

Raymond James welcomed financial advisor Lance Lechtenberg to its independent advisor channel in El Dorado, Kansas. Lechtenberg joined the firm from Edward Jones, where he previously managed approximately $220 million in client assets for a variety of clients, including business owners, families and charitable organizations. The team, which includes branch professionals Rhonda Olbrey and Darlene Potter, operates as L J Lechtenberg Strategic Financial Partners. Lechtenberg has been in the financial services industry since 2002. Prior to Raymond James, he worked at Edward Jones for 18 years. He earned a bachelor of agriculture science degree from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

The firm welcomed advisors Jim Grymala, Julianne Grymala and Benjamin Kneeland to its employee advisor channel, in Duluth, Minnesota. The advisors came from Morgan Stanley, where they previously managed about $170 million in client assets. They joined RJA’s Duluth office, which is managed by Wendy Homstad and is part of the Minnesota Complex led by Peter King. The team operates as Grymala & Kneeland Wealth Management of Raymond James.

Raymond James brought in financial advisors Jeffrey M Garell, Robert Emmer and Michael Campbell, along with their Silversage Advisors® team to Raymond James Financial Services. RJFS is Raymond James’ independent advisor channel. The men, based in Irvine, California, joined from Geneos Wealth Management, where they oversaw about $417 million of client money. Joining them were other team members:  Matthew Mendoza, service advisor; Karin Mason Garell, CFO of Silversage Advisors and RJFS office manager; Lynn LaTendresse, client services manager; Kristin Evans, investment portfolio associate; Peggy Pinkerton, client relationship manager; and client service associates Cynthia Terrazas, Christopher Deo, Dominic Bastone and Thorne Saunders. 

The firm brought in financial advisors Brian Derrick and Lori Derrick to Raymond James Financial Services, its independent advisor channel. The advisors are based in Glendale, Arizona. Brian and Lori Derrick joined Raymond James and the RJFS-affiliated practice Mainspring Wealth Advisors from Edward Jones, where they previously managed approximately $120 million in client assets. Together, they operate as Derrick Family Financial.