April was one of the busiest months of the year so far in international wealth management.

Europe

SKAGEN, the Scandinavian-based fund management house, appointed Erik Bergöö as a new portfolio manager, taking effect from 1 September this year. Bergöö joined from Danske Bank Markets in Copenhagen, Bergöö was a senior analyst covering transportation and industrials. Previously, Bergöö was a senior analyst at DNB Markets and covered Nordic industrials, global container and shipping companies.

Deutsche Bank made a series of senior appointments in the Channel Islands to strengthen its risk and compliance teams. Andrew Trachy joined as head of risk management for Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management in the Channel Islands and Cayman Islands. Christine Jervier and Pippa Davidson were appointed to senior compliance advisors for the bank’s compliance team.

Trachy previously worked at HSBC Private Bank, where he was deputy chief operating officer in the Channel Islands.  Jervier has worked for over 16 years in compliance in London and Jersey as a director with money laundering and compliance roles for Oppenheimer Europe Limited. Davidson joined the German bank's compliance team from Fairway Fund Services.

The family office trustee business of Jersey-headquartered Crestbridge made two hires. Chloë Sorda, newly-appointed family office manager, brought over 13 years’ experience to the business. Victoria Hibbs joined the family office team in an assistant manager role. A chartered secretary, she has also looked after a number of trust structures in the offshore and philanthropic areas working directly with both international and local charities.

ING Bank appointed Roel Louwhoff as chief operations officer and member of its management board. Louwhoff has global responsibility for operations & IT, change management and procurement within the bank. Louwhoff has more than 20 years of experience in consultancy, operations and IT with various international organisations. Lastly he was chief executive of BT Operate, responsible for running the networks, platforms and data centres of the UK telecoms group. He joined BT as CEO of customer service and network operations and in 2007 became responsible for the operations of BT.

Allfunds Bank, the funds servicing specialist, appointed Chris Edge to head its business in Luxembourg to help drive the firm’s international expansion. Edge previously spent 20 years at JP Morgan, covering a wide variety of senior roles for the bank across the UK, South Africa and Luxembourg during two stints, in between which he built a financial service distribution business in the UK and a mobile transactions business in East Africa.

Julius Baer appointed Marco Bless as head of its Mannheim branch in Germany. The Swiss private bank opened the branch in the south-western German city last October as part of plans to grow its presence in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region. The bank now has eight branches in Germany - the other locations being Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Kiel, Munich, Stuttgart and Würzburg.

Standard Bank's Isle of Man distribution team, part of South Africa's Standard Bank Group, appointed two new business development managers, both reporting to John Hall, head of IFA distribution. John Kilgour was appointed business development manager for Europe, replacing Sheena Maddrell, who will now concentrate on IFAs introducing seafarer accounts. Hall took on the role of business development manager for the Middle East and India, replacing Simon Buckerfield, who left the bank in December 2013. Kilgour was previously at Royal Skandia, where he worked for eight years, most recently as sales consultant for Europe. Patterson joined from Lloyds Bank International, where he was a business relationship manager looking after a portfolio of premier banking clients.

Offshore law firm Collas Crill, with offices in locations including London and Singapore, appointed Elena Moran as a group partner in its Jersey commercial dispute resolution team. Moran’s move was a return to Collas Crill, where she had previously worked in Jersey, to which she moved in 2002. Kathryn Purkis returned to the UK for family reasons at the end of June, the firm also announced.

International
Schroders appointed Alex Tedder as head of global equities; he was due to start in June, joining from American Century Investments where he was senior vice president and co-head of global and non-US large cap strategies - managing a 15 strong team and $21 billion of assets. He took over from Peter Harrison.

Oracle Capital Group, the multi-family office and wealth consultancy, appointed Vincent Mercer, a lawyer, to its advisory board. Mercer began his career at the London Clearing House in 1983 where he worked on the then-emerging UK regulatory structure contributing to both the Financial Services Act 1986 and the market default procedures in the Companies Act 1989.

UK
Oliver Gregson, former top-ranking manager at Barclays’ wealth and investment arm, joined HSBC to be head of its private bank investment group for the UK and Channel Islands. Oliver Gregson was formerly at Barclays Wealth and Investment Management (formerly known as Barclays Wealth). At that firm he was most recently head of discretionary portfolio management covering the UK, EMEA region, and Asia. Before that, he worked at UBS and Citi Private Bank. Gregson took over the post from Dan Ellis, who had left the role to work at RBC Wealth Management last summer.

International law firm Walkers Global appointed senior counsel John O’Driscoll to its London office. Previously, O’Driscoll spent 18 months in the firm's offices in the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands as member of the global insolvency and corporate recovery group.  

Skandia, part of Old Mutual Wealth, appointed Tom Hawkins as the newly-created role of head of UK proposition marketing. He is responsible for the development and marketing of Skandia’s customer proposition in the UK, covering platform, pensions and investment solutions. Skandia said the role has been created to enable to it to focus on its UK and international customer propositions. Previously, Phil Oxenham headed up both the UK and international marketing teams and now focuses solely on the development and marketing of Skandia’s international proposition.

Hawkins has been at Skandia for 15 years and previously led the strategy and research team. Prior to that, he had roles within the sales team and marketing development.
Before joining Walkers, he spent six years at a "big five" law firm in Dublin, followed by five years at international law firms Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe and Proskauer in London.

Sheffield Howarth, the executive search firm, said Tim Sheffield, CEO and founder of of the firm, moved to become executive chairman. Mike Hammond, who joined the business last June as group managing director, took over as chief executive. Patrick Morrissey, co-founder and group managing director, became deputy chairman and chairman of asset management. The announcement came after the firm said that the founder and chairman of its India business was relocating to the US as part of a drive to link business opportunities between the countries. Deepak Verma, also vice chairman, Americas, now works with Sheffield Haworth’s multinational clients across retail financial services and insurance.

Swiss asset manager SYZ Asset Management appointed Derek Borthwick as business development director for Scotland, the North of England and Northern Ireland. He  oversees business in the North, including the SYZ AM and OYSTER funds. Borthwick joined from JP Morgan Asset Management where he was responsible for leading fund distribution to clients in the northern region of the UK. Borthwick reports into Ian Penrose, UK distribution director.

Asset manager BNP Paribas Investment Partners made David Kiddie chief executive of its institutional business line, set to be based in London. He was due to take over the role on 30 June from Philippe Marchessaux, chief executive at Paribas Investment Partners. Before joining BNP Paribas, Kiddie spent more than four years as chief investment officer and member of the leadership team at AMP Capital Investors in Australia.

Rathbone Investment Management, part of UK-listed Rathbone Brothers, appointed David Till and Martin Vanstone as investment directors, based in Cambridge and Chichester respectively. Till was joined by Danny Hannan as an investment manager and Vanstone by Steven Haines as an assistant investment manager. All four joined from Investec Wealth and Investment’s Guildford office.

London headquartered asset manager Heptagon Capital hired industry veteran Rajaa Mekouar as a director. She was brought in to work on the company’s family office clients and ultra-high net worth individuals across Europe and selected international markets. Mekouar has over 15 years of international professional experience, including six years as a principal at Lazard European Private Equity Partners and Change Capital Partners.

GLG Partners - the investment manager part of London-based hedge fund giant Man Group - made Andy Li a portfolio manager in its fixed income division. Working alongside portfolio managers Jon Mawby and Steve Roth, Li co-manages the £540 million ($910 million) GLG Strategic Bond Fund and £126 million GLG Global Corporate Bond Fund. He will also co-manage the funds’ Dublin-domiciled equivalents, the GLG Flexible Bond Fund and GLG Global Investment Grade Bond Fund. Li joined from ECM, where he was lead portfolio manager of the ECM Diversified Financials Europe Fund and co-manager of the ECM Absolute Return Credit Fund.

Mirae Asset Global Investments, the Korean-based Asian emerging market equity specialist, appointed Nicolas Jones as head of UK sales. Jones is responsible for leading the distribution pipeline into the UK institutional and wholesale markets via a range of 12 Luxembourg-domiciled SICAV funds. With over 25 years of experience in the financial sector, Jones previously worked at Aon Hewitt.

Octopus Investments, the UK fund management focusing on the smaller company sector, appointed Alex Miller as its chief operating officer. Miller was previously director of strategy and operational Performance at Lloyds Banking Group. Vicki Harris previously held the role of COO. Miller joined Lloyds Banking Group in 2011 and was responsible for leading the strategy, design and delivery of the bank’s operational programme.

Speechly Bircham's made a round of promotions: the law firm has promoted six of its lawyers to the status of partner, in areas including private wealth and financial services. The new partners are all located in the London office. The private client partner is Alice Neilan. She is an international private client lawyer, advising foreign domiciled individuals on their UK tax matters and personal estate planning.  She also advises non-UK private banks and investment managers on how to structure bank accounts and tailor their investment offering from a UK tax perspective to attract UK resident, non-UK domiciled clients. The five other new partners at Speechly Bircham are Adam Crossley (private equity); Fiona Edmond (construction); David Hicks (corporate); Sarah Morley (real estate); and Louise Ward (real estate).

The Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England appointed Antony Townsend as complaints commissioner. Townsend replaced Sir Anthony Holland, whose term of office comes to an end 30 April. Townsend was previously the first chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

London-based Kames Capital appointed two new asset managers to its property management team following the launch of its property income fund. Iain Corker joined from DTZ’s retail asset management team, where he was a senior surveyor. He works with Phil Bach and Helen Batten on the Active Value strategies. Chris Munday is to join on 9 June from Valad Europe, where he was a portfolio manager. He will work with Sarah Cockburn on the AUK fund.

Lloyds Banking Group appointed Nick Prettejohn as non-executive director and chairman of Scottish Widows, its investment arm. As part of his responsibilities at Scottish Widows, Prettejohn serves as a member of the audit and risk committees at Lloyds, the UK-listed bank, which is partly owned by the UK government.

Formerly, Prettejohn was chief executive for Prudential UK and Europe from 2006 to 2008.  Until recently he was a non-executive director of the Prudential Regulation Authority, the regulatory body supervising the banking sector.

Canada Life announced the retirement of Ian Gilmour from the position of executive vice president and general manager of Canada Life, UK Division. He has held leadership roles at the firm for 17 years. At the end of May he was to step down and be succeeded by Douglas Brown, current chief operating officer at the firm's UK division. Gilmour retained some non-executive roles. His tenure has seen the firm's UK arm become an important player in the annuity market and provider in areas such as offshore investment bonds, as well as other fields. Brown joined Canada Life in 2012.

Salamanca Group created the new position of head of property services in its London office. Taking up the inaugural role was Craig Hallam, responsible for the operational delivery and relationship management of property-related services. These include acquisitions, sales, individual property or portfolio management, and survey and valuation reports. Hallam also works with the recently-acquired Trust & Fiduciary business unit, previously of Investec Bank, and Salamanca Group’s family office services team. He moved from LSL Property Services, where he served as business development director.

Carey Olsen, the offshore law firm, stepped up its operations in the British Virgin Islands with the hire of three lawyers. Philipp Neumann and Elizabeth Killeen joined as senior associates, while Sharon Mungall was appointed as a legal associate.

The Financial Conduct Authority appointed David Saunders and Gunner Burkhart as senior advisors. These are new roles. Saunders works for the competition department within the FCA, as well as supporting the forthcoming Payment Services Regulator to promote competition.  Previously, Saunders was chief executive of the Competition Commission. Burkhart will advise the FCA on wholesale and market issues.  He has over 30 years of experience in investment banking and asset management. Previously Burkhart was responsible for senior relationship management and prime services at Nomura International, where he was the managing director.    

Legal & General Investment Management announced the departure of Richard Hodges, ending a seven-year period at the UK-based asset manager during which he has run a suite of funds. His departure was described as a “real blow” by one independent financial advisor. Hodges’ planned departure date from the company is October 2014. He has been with the company since 2007.

JP Morgan Private Bank appointed Olivier Lemaigre as an investment strategist for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Based in London, Lemaigre reports to Cesar Perez, chief investment strategist for EMEA. Lemaigre previously was a global strategist for emerging market equities at Legg Mason for seven years. Prior to this, he was an emerging markets debt strategist and an economist focusing on Latin America at Citigroup.  

Ashcourt Rowan Financial Planning appointed John Spink as area director. He reports to financial planning managing director, Steven Midgley. Spink has over 20 years’ experience in the financial planning industry and joined from Royal Bank of Scotland Group.

Henderson Global Investors appointed Steve Drew as head of emerging market credit.
Drew works with Stephen Thariyan, global head of credit, and Phil Apel, head of fixed income. Most recently, Drew was partner and head of global and emerging credit at Thames River Capital, and, in a careers spanning over 20 years, he has also worked at JP Morgan Chase and Tudor Capital.

Towry's chief executive Andrew Fisher left the firm after eight years with the company. Fisher stepped down with immediate effect and was replaced by former Prudential chief executive Rob Devey.

London-based  River and Mercantile Group  appointed Paul Bradshaw as chairman to help oversee its growth strategy. Bradshaw is founder, managing director and chairman of Skandia Life. His 40-year career has spanned roles as chief executive of Abbey Insurance (now Santander) and Sanlam non-executive director both in the UK and South Africa. A qualified actuary, he is also chairman of Nucleus Financial Group.   

The asset management division of Swiss banking group  Edmond de Rothschild Group appointed Greg Clerkson as head of global consultant relations to its London office. Clerkson is responsible for overseeing relations with consultants throughout the UK and reports to head of asset management Charles Goodman, and head of  European institutional sales and sovereign funds Florence Dard. He joined from Bluecrest Capital Management, where he was head of global consultant relations.

Towry appointed former Northern Rock chairman Ron  Sandler, effective June 2014.
Sandler replaces Gerald  Corbett, who stepped down 8 May. Corbett will continue to serve as chairman until the end of May to ensure an orderly succession.

The firm also appointed Geoff Unwin as non-executive director of Towry. Unwin is chairman of XChanging and was previously chairman of United Business Media and Halma.

Rathbone Investment Management, part of UK-listed Rathbone Brothers, appointed Andrew Pitt as head of charities, based in London.  Pitt will be part of Rathbones’ 13-strong team which manages assets in excess of £2.6 billion ($4.3 billion) on behalf of over 960 charities. He joins on 11 June and will report to Ivo Clifton, head of specialist and charity business.  

Waverton Investment Management  hired Ian Enslin to work in its charities team.
He reports to James Pike, head of charities, and is responsible for managing segregated, multi-asset mandates for charity clients. He joined from Newton Investment Management, where he managed similar strategies for charities and institutional investors.  

Berenberg, a European investment and private bank, appointed Vanessa Skoura as head of its international key clients team. She joined from HSBC Private Bank and previously held roles with ABN Amro Bank and Credit Suisse in the UK.

Charles Stanley, the London-listed wealth management and brokerage firm, appointed Anthony Scott as head of investment management. Scott has worked in the asset management department since he joined Charles Stanley in 1999 and prior to the appointment managed a team of six, looking after charities, private clients and the inheritance tax portfolio service.

Kleinwort Benson's chief executive officer  Sally Tennant  stepped down to take on a new role with the bank as senior advisor. She was succeeded by Martha Boeckenfeld, who was chief financial officer at the bank's parent company RHJ International. Boeckenfeld is responsible for overseeing the integration of the group’s recent acquisition, BHF-Bank and assumes the role in addition to her existing position as CFO of RHJI.

Wealth manager  Fleming Family & Partners  appointed Richard Clarke-Jervoise as investment manager of private equity investments, replacing Simon Jamieson. In his new role, Clarke-Jervoise is responsible for the development and enhancement of the firm's private equity proposition, working alongside investment manager Caroline Jones-Davies on a range of illiquid investments. He joined from Paris-based funds of funds team Quartilium, where he was managing director.

Private investment office  Stanhope Capital  appointed David Nolan and Jonathan Overland to assist the firm in the further development of its business in the Channel Islands. Both are already directors of Stanhope Capital’s holding company and expand their roles for the firm. Nolan and Overland are the principal partners of Ivey Cox Consulting, which was established in Jersey in 2007.

International law firm  Stephenson Harwood  appointed James Quarmby as a partner to spearhead the expansion of the firm's private wealth team, based in London. Quarmby joined from Thomas Eggar, where he was head of the international and business taxation team which he created and built up over ten years. Vivienne Wild was appointed to the private wealth team as a senior associate. She joined from Schofield Sweeney's private client team, where she specialised in estate planning, trust and inheritance tax planning.

Close Brothers Asset Management  appointed Amy Lazenby to its investment team as investor director and lead portfolio manager for the tailored portfolio service.  Lazenby, as a chartered FCSI and chartered wealth manager, previously co-founded the private client discretionary firm Wilson King Investment Management.    

The UK wealth management arm of Swiss private bank UBS hired three client advisors to strengthen its high net worth team in London. Joe Knight joined from Deutsche Bank Asset & Wealth Management, where he was director and investment manager. Jon Gough was previously at Barclays Wealth and Investment Management, where he was a private banker and director for 15 years. Paul Anderson also joined from Barclays Wealth and Investment Management, where he was a director for seven years and responsible for growing and maintaining the high net worth client base in the UK.

Neuberger Berman, the UK-listed private investment manager, appointed Andrew Wilmont as European high yield portfolio manager, based in London. Wilmont most recently served as head of European high yield investments at Alcentra and reports to Ann Benjamin, Neuberger Berman’s chief investment officer for non-investment grade strategies. Before joining Alcentra, Wilmont was head of European high yield strategies at AXA Investment Managers.

Barclays appointed city heavyweight Crawford Gillies to the remuneration committee to replace Sir John Sunderland. Gillies has over three decades of business and management experience, initially with international management consultants Bain & Company, where he was managing director for Europe from 2001 to 2005. Since 2007, he has been on the board of Standard Life, where he has chaired the remuneration committee. From 2006 to 2009, he was chairman of the law firm Hammonds, now Squire Sanders, and he has chaired Control Risks Group Holdings since 2007.

Switzerland
Swisscanto, the Zurich-based asset manager, appointed Raphael Lüscher as a portfolio manager to its sustainable investments team. Lüscher is responsible for the Swisscanto EF Green Invest Emerging Markets fund, the firm said in a statement.
He joined after 11 years at UBS Global Asset Management, where he was most recently a senior portfolio manager for sustainable equity funds.

EY - formerly Ernst & Young - hired Philip Robinson as its chairman in Switzerland. Thomas Stenz stepped down; Robinson was due to take over at the beginning of July.
Robinson began working for the consultancy firm in 1994 and joined the EY Switzerland management committee in 2005 as country managing partner, tax and law. In 2009 he assumed the role of global indirect tax leader at EY. The company is now looking for a replacement for this role.

UBS Global Asset Management hired Gregor Hirt as chief investment officer in its global investment solution department. He will be responsible for managing global balanced strategies and contributing to asset allocation strategy in Switzerland and Europe. He joined from Schroders where he was head of multi-asset Europe for seven years. He previously worked at Credit Suisse for nine years in portfolio management and research roles. Based in Zurich he reports to Andreas Koester, head of asset allocation & currency.

Pioneer Investments hired former Julius Baer employee Isabelle Spitz as senior sales manager in Switzerland. Based in Zurich - and reporting to country head Rainer Lenzin – Spitz focuses on banks, independent asset managers and family offices. The firm says it intends to add more to the team. Prior to Julius Baer, she held positions as sales manager for Credit Suisse Asset Management and product manager for PAX Swiss Life Insurance Company.

A director on the board of UBS did not stand for re-election. Rainer-Marc Frey was initially elected to the board of directors in October 2008 as a member of the risk committee, and the human resources and compensation committee.

Middle East
Coutts appointed four new members to its Middle East advisory board as part of its ongoing expansion plans in the region. The appointees were  Saleh Ali Al Turki, Sohail Al Mazrui, Rami El Nimer and Bader Al Kharafi.

Saleh Ali Al Turki is chairman and president of Nesma Holding Company and chairs several companies outside the Nesma Group. He has also served as chairman of Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Saudi Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Albir Society in Jeddah for over a decade. Sohail Al Mazrui is the partner and chairman of Abu Dhabi Business Hub, Senaat, Emirates Conversion Industry Abu Dhabi and chairman of Dubai Investments Company PJSC.

Rami El Nimer is chief executive of the First National Bank group of companies, chairman and general manager of Capital Finance Company, chairman and general manager of Middle East Capital Group and general manager of Beirut Building Society. Bader Al Kharafi is chairman, vice president and board member of a number of businesses including Zain Mobile Telecommunications, Gulf Bank, Gulf Cables and Electrical Industries and the British-Kuwait Friendship Society. He is also an executive director of the Al Kharafi conglomerate.

Hossam Alsaady, head of the Middle East and North Africa at HSBC Private Bank, left the bank. Alsaady joined HSBC in December, 2010. At that time, he was named as head of its London-based Saudi Arabia team. He had previously worked at NCB Capital, a Saudi bank.

North America

Sheffield Howarth, the global executive search firm, announced that Tim Sheffield, CEO and founder of the firm, has become executive chairman. Mike Hammond, who joined the business last June as group managing director, took over the helm as chief executive.

Patrick Morrissey, co-founder and group managing director, has become deputy chairman and chairman of asset management.

Hugh McGee, chief executive of Barclays Americas, stepped down from his role and from the Barclays group executive committee, as the bank prepares for a “significant transition” involving the establishment of an intermediate holding company in the US.

As a result of Section 165 of the Dodd-Frank Act - which aims to impose the same regulations on foreign banks’ US divisions as those faced by domestic lenders - Barclays will be required to incorporate all of its US subsidiaries by 1 July, 2016.

Joe Gold, currently global head of client capital management, was appointed to a restructured role as CEO of the Americas, reporting to co-CEOs of the corporate and investment bank: Tom King and Eric Bommensath.
Gold will become a member of the corporate and investment bank executive committee, and as well as leading the transition to an intermediate holding company, will also lead the governance of all of Barclays’ American businesses, and oversee the implementation of Barclays’ Group strategy in the region.

A trio of advisors were recruited at Kelly Wealth Management’s Baltimore, MD, branch, leaving Wells Fargo Advisors to join the firm.

John Morgan, Brian Sabo and Jason Edelson brought with them $384 million in assets, increasing the total assets under advisement at the HighTower subsidiary by a third to $1.3 billion.

Based in Hunt Valley, the three men were hired as directors and partners at Kelly Wealth Management to strengthen the boutique firm’s Baltimore presence.

In their previous roles at Wells Fargo, Morgan served as senior financial advisor and managing director, investments; Sabo was financial advisor and vice president, investments; and Edelson was senior vice president, senior private banker.

US Bank Wealth Management boosted its high net worth unit by hiring Brandon Saliba as senior vice president and wealth management advisor in Las Vegas, NV, and Rocky Irinaga as senior portfolio manager in Portland, OR.

Saliba – latterly of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management - has over 18 years of industry experience and will provide wealth planning, investment management, private banking, and trust and estate services to wealthy clients.

As a former private banker at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, Saliba partnered with financial advisors to profile their client base, analyze business opportunities and develop financial solutions. He also spent 15 years at Bank of America in various sales and management positions.

Meanwhile, Irinaga has over 39 years of experience in the financial services sphere and in his new role will establish an “integrated investment approach” while offering asset allocation strategies and recommendations to individual clients and businesses.

Prior to joining US Bank’s Private Client Reserve - the firm's HNW arm - Irinaga was a senior vice president and senior portfolio manager at US Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management Private Advisory Services.

According to moves tracked by Family Wealth Report, the PCR has made at least 20 hires this year across the US including in the markets of Portland, OR; Las Vegas, NV; Chicago, IL; San Diego, CA; Twin Cities; Kansas City, MO; Bellevue, WA; Wisconsin; Los Angeles, CA; Florida; Denver, CO; Seattle, WA; and Vancouver.

Webster Private Bank promoted Paul McAfee to senior vice president and senior fiduciary services officer, based in Hartford, CT, and covering the Northern Connecticut and Western Massachusetts markets.

McAfee has over 30 years of banking and fiduciary experience; prior to joining Webster in 2010 as trust officer, he held senior vice president posts at UBS Financial Advisor and US Trust.

2014 has so far been a busy year for Webster Private Bank, having made a number of promotions and hires. In January, the firm named Peter Gabriel as senior vice president and director of relationship management, based in Stamford, CT. Earlier this month it appointed a new senior vice president and director of private bank lending - also in Stamford - while also promoting Eamonn Bransfield, who joined the firm in 2010, to vice president and portfolio manager.

In September 2013, Webster Private Bank’s chief investment strategist, Yves Cochez, said that the firm is putting plans into action for a revamp of Webster’s investment offering, as well as its global presence. Cochez said he wants to bring more than “an international perspective on things” and is revamping Webster’s investment offering by assessing the bank’s product platform to make sure clients have access to the best talent in each asset class.

London-headquartered global asset manager Schroders appointed Alex Tedder head of global equities.
He officially starts in June, joining from American Century Investments, where he was senior vice president and co-head of global and non-US large cap strategies - managing a 15-strong team and $21 billion of assets.
Tedder will take over from current equities head Peter Harrison and be responsible for business management and strategic planning.

Simon Webber, lead portfolio manager of global equities, retained his investment focus. There will be no change to the team’s investment style or the main elements of the investment process.
Tedder is seen as the official replacement for former equities head Virginie Maisonneuve, who left Schroders to join US fund giant Pimco at the end of last year.

The Cypress Group, formally of Morgan Stanley in Palm Desert, CA, joined Integrated Wealth Management.
The Cypress Group consists of Mark Thatcher, Shad Lamm, Chris Risenmay, Ross Biesinger, David Thatcher, Clark Penney and Marc Koven. They also have four client service associates. The team has $740 million in assets and boosts IWM’s presence in Coachella Valley, CA.

Schroder Investment Management North America named Denis Parisien as a portfolio manager and member of the emerging market debt team, reporting to James Barrineau, co-head of emerging market debt relative.
Parisien will focus on emerging market corporates, supporting several portfolios under Barrineau's leadership.

He joined from Deutsche Bank Securities in New York, where he was head of emerging market corporate debt research and strategy for nearly four years.

Before his stint at Deutsche, Parisien worked at Santander Investment Securities in New York, spending two years as executive director and head of Latin American fixed income research, and two years as head of Latin American credit research.

Earlier still, he was a senior vice president and head of research for the Americas at Standard New York Securities in Miami, FL, for five years.

Ohio's Ultimus Fund Solutions, a provider of mutual fund services to the financial industry, appointed Todd Heim to the newly-created role of client implementation manager.

Heim and his team will guide clients through the onboarding process, making recommendations to enhance operational quality and efficiency while helping funds "get to market sooner.

The firm pointed to the growth of retail alternatives which has increased competition and created more ways for managers to introduce their strategies to the market.

Heim spent more than ten years of his career in operations and client service roles at JP Morgan Chase, and formerly Integrated Investment Services. In the latter role, he led a global team that focused on transfer agency, fund accounting, financial administration, regulatory services and custody.

Previously, he held various roles for Vantiv, Westminster Financial, Bisys Fund Services and Safeco Mutual Funds.

Bryn Mawr Bank Corporation, the Pennsylvania-based firm, named Francis Leto as president and chief operating officer of the corporation and bank.

Then on January 1, 2015, Leto will succeed Ted Peters as chief executive, following his retirement on December 31, 2014.

Leto currently manages the wealth management division of the bank and serves as general counsel of the corporation and bank. It is unclear who will succeed him in these roles, or indeed if he will retain them.
Meanwhile, the board also announced its decision to establish a non-executive chairman position, effective as of when Peters retires.

Toronoto- and New York-listed CIBC president and chief executive Gerry McCaughey has retired.
“The board has a succession process underway and is committed to ensuring a seamless transition to new leadership while continuing to deliver value to all of our stakeholders,” said Charles Sirois, CIBC's chairman of the board.

According to The StarPhoenix, CIBC is “eyeing big-ticket acquisitions” in the US as the firm seeks to boost earnings from wealth management to about 15 per cent of overall adjusted profits.

UBS Wealth Management Americas hired Andrew Duren – latterly of Graystone Consulting - as head of institutional consulting, and retirement program administration and operations.

Duren will oversee the business operations and administration of the firm's institutional consulting and retirement programs including defined contribution plans, defined benefit plans, endowments, foundations, Taft-Hartley plans, hospitals, municipalities and other institutional clients.

He will report to Jim Hausmann, head of corporate solutions and retirement services.

Duren, a 25-year veteran of the industry, has a solid background in operations and extensive experience working with institutional clients across institutional, corporate and wealth management platforms.

AssetMark, the US provider of investment and consulting solutions to financial advisors, appointed Cathy Clauson to the newly-created position of director of sales strategy, operations and administration.
Reporting to Dan O’Toole, senior vice president and national director of sales and consulting, Clauson will oversee AssetMark’s 40-strong internal sales and consulting team.

Clauson was latterly a vice president of advisory sales, and relationship and channel management, at Advent Software/Black Diamond. Prior to Advent, she held senior-level roles at Charles Schwab in the advisor and retail business lines, leading areas such as business integration, client experience and product management.

After four years at Wilmington Trust, Larry Gore became president of the firm’s Northeast region.
He will oversee all relationship management and business development functions for personal trust, investment management and private banking in the New York Metro, Northern New Jersey and Boston markets.

Gore joined Wilmington Trust in 2010 as president of its New York wealth advisory division, which will continue to be his primary office. Prior to that, he worked at UBS for 18 years, as well as a stint at JP Morgan. He also founded a financial advisory firm providing advisory and investment banking services to private investors and related entities.

He specializes in advising clients with issues such as trust and estate planning, investment management, risk management, business succession, retirement planning and deferred compensation.

Montecito Bank & Trust hired Drew Brahos as vice president and senior portfolio manager, reporting to Peter Madlem, senior vice president and chief investment officer. Brahos has 20 years of experience working in the wealth management and investment sectors. He has previously worked at firms including Bank of the West, Santa Barbara Bank & Trust and Bank of America.

Sheffield Haworth, the executive search firm operating in wealth management, announced that the founder and chairman of its India business is relocating to the US as part of a drive to link business opportunities between the countries.

Deepak Verma, who is also vice chairman, Americas, will work with Sheffield Haworth’s multinational clients across retail financial services and insurance. He is moving to New York.

Verma will help US financial institutions develop their outsourcing and offshore initiatives in India, and work with Indian firms setting up or strengthening operations in the US.  He will work with Mark Esposito, EVP, Americas, Tom Putrim, managing director (Chicago) and James Isaacs, managing director (London).

He will also continue his role as board member of Sheffield Haworth India, supporting the India leadership team.  

The Presidio Group promoted eight to equity partners, bringing the total number of employee-partners to 15.
The new employee-partners are: Bruce Brugler; Colin Carter; Antonio Casal; Jerry Deren; Tom Emig; Pablo Ferreri; Kelly Lawson; and, Barry Rudolph.

Existing Presidio employee-partners include: Brodie Cobb; Will Evers; Mark Guinney; Bill Lamm; Karl Schade; Ken Wallace; and Jeff Zlot. The Presidio Group also formed a new, five-member board comprised of Schade, chief executive; Cobb, founder, executive chairman and head of the firm’s auto and truck investment banking group; and Carter, managing director; as well as independent directors Glenn Darden and William Price.

New York-headquartered investment management firm Advent Capital Management appointed Kris Haber as chief operating officer, succeeding Osbert Hood.

Hood is the former chairman and CEO of MacKay Shields, who came out of retirement mid-2012 to assist Advent in strengthening its institutional infrastructure. He will continue to work with Advent through May in a consultative capacity.

In his new role, Haber will oversee the firm’s business development, investor relations and risk management departments, as well as firm strategy and execution.

He will also serve as a member of the management committee, reporting to Tracy Maitland, Advent’s president and chief investment officer. Haber was most recently CEO of Presidio Capital Group, a firm he co-founded to implement infrastructure and facilitate growth for small fund managers.

His background combines traditional separately-managed account and alternative investment strategies, headlined by his experience at Threadneedle Investments, where he was global head of absolute return strategies and president of Threadneedle Investments North America. Previously, he spent about 14 years at Lazard Asset Management, rising to managing director and head of alternative investments, responsible for business development, strategy and distribution.

Carey Olsen, the offshore law firm, stepped up its operations in the British Virgin Islands with the addition of three lawyers. Philipp Neumann and Elizabeth Killeen joined as senior associates, while Sharon Mungall was appointed as a legal associate. “These recent appointments represent a doubling in size of the BVI office and are evidence of increasing client demand for BVI advice in corporate, finance and investment funds matters,” said Clinton Hempel, managing partner of Carey Olsen BVI. “This expansion means that we can continue to offer the breadth of experience and service Carey Olsen is renowned for. The appointment of Phillip, Elizabeth and Sharon demonstrates Carey Olsen’s commitment to developing its BVI service offering,” he added.

Merrill Lynch hired two financial advisors from Morgan Stanley in New York, NY, and White Plains, NY.
Combined, they have around $300 million in assets under management and $2.6 million in production.  In New York Brian Saroken joined with $192,750,000 AuM and $1,500,000 in production. In White Plains, Gerald Saroken joined with $116,168,000 AuM and $1,128,300 in production.

Cantor Fitzgerald Wealth Partners hired Lowell Serhus as chief investment officer to guide the firm's financial advisors on portfolio and risk management. Most recently, Serhus served as founder and CIO of Serhus Capital Management, having previously been director of research and head portfolio manager at Attalus Capital, and CIO of Alternatives at Julius Baer.

He also held senior positions at Alpha Investment Management and at JP Morgan, where he began his investment career in risk management.

As previously reported by this publication, CFWP is looking to “aggressively” expand its platform through acquisitions of wealth management companies, registered investment advisors and financial advisors.
Lisa Carnoy, head of global capital markets at Bank of America, is moving to the firm’s US Trust unit as division executive for the Northeast and Metro New York areas.

Described as one of “Wall Street’s highest-ranking women” by Bloomberg, Carnoy started as a Merrill Lynch associate and rose during two decades to run businesses that underwrite stock and bond sales, a job she held since 2012. In her new role, she will report to US Trust president Keith Banks and join BoA’s operating committee, as well as becoming a member of the Global Wealth & Investment Management leadership team.

“We have a tremendous opportunity to continue to drive growth in the Northeast and Metro New York areas and to enhance collaboration across the GWIM and GBAM businesses,” Banks said in a memo. As part of the move, the Northeast division - led by Ann Limberg - and the Metro New York division - led by Tom Boehlke - will report to Carnoy. Carnoy will also be responsible for connecting global banking and markets employees as clients to the GWIM platform; Jennifer Povlitz, senior client relationship executive, will report to her in this capacity. Assuming Carnoy’s former role as head of global capital markets is Jim Probert, a 20-year veteran of the firm who has been head of Americas investment-grade debt capital markets since 2010.

Earlier, Probert was head of the investment-grade capital markets syndicate desk in New York, having joined Bank of America in 1994 as a principal and head of European investment-grade syndicate in London. He returned to the US in 1996. In related moves, Brendan Hanley and Andrew Karp were named co-heads of Americas investment-grade capital markets. Hanley has been with the firm since 2005, responsible for coverage of the consumer products and retail sectors within investment-grade capital markets. Karp joined the firm nearly ten years ago and has led Americas investment-grade syndicate since 2010. He has been responsible for underwriting, marketing and distributing investment-grade corporate bonds and emerging market debt, as well as preferred and hybrid securities in the Americas.

Investment and advisory firm BlackRock hired Pablo Goldberg from HSBC to work in its emerging market fixed income business. Goldberg joined as a managing director, portfolio manager and senior strategist within the division and will report to Sergio Trigo Paz - head of BlackRock's emerging markets fixed income group.

Based in New York, Goldberg is tasked with focusing on the company’s US-based clients and growing BlackRock’s emerging market fixed income business. His responsibilities include generating research and developing investment strategies, as well as being a voting member on the company’s investment committee.

At HSBC he was managing director and global head of emerging markets research. Prior to joining HSBC he headed up the emerging market debt strategy division at Merrill Lynch & Co, where he was also chief economist for Latin America.

Two directors were appointed within the client services team at the Trust Company of Illinois.
Michael McMorris joined the independent wealth management firm and corporate fiduciary to direct its retirement plan services team.

He is latterly of Benetech, where he was a regional pension consultant and national sales manager. He has spent over 17 years in qualified plan administration, design, consulting and sales, making billion-dollar pension plans.

Meanwhile, Deborah Shoemaker was named as director of financial planning and the fiduciary services team at TCI’s office in Downers Grove, IL.

Previously of ING National Trust, Shoemaker served as senior vice president of business development, delivering financial, estate and planning strategies for high net worth clients.
New York-headquartered asset manager The Dreyfus Corporation, a subsidiary of BNY Mellon Investment Management, appointed Ryland Pruett to the newly-created position of national sales manager.

Pruett will lead the sales effort through broker-dealers, reporting to Andrew Provencher, BNY Mellon executive vice president and head of US retail sales.

Pruett has over 22 years of sales and leadership experience and joins from Neuberger Berman, where he was national sales manager for the wirehouse channel.

While at Neuberger, he played a key role in building the sales force through two major expansions as well as raising and diversifying revenues within broker-dealer distribution. Before this, he held sales and leadership roles at INVESCO.

BMO Private Bank promoted Matt Miller to Western region president, succeeding Steve Matteucci, who took on a national role, Family Wealth Report can confirm.

Matteucci is now a corporate senior advisor to Terry Jenkins, president and chief executive at BMO Private Bank. He will focus on boosting the profile of wealth management in select markets around the US by spearheading a number of projects. 

Meanwhile, Miller now oversees 75 employees in Arizona, Utah and Washington, serving high net worth individuals, family-owned businesses, endowments and foundations.

He was previously managing director for BMO’s private client group in Arizona, a role he has had since 2009. Earlier, he was a senior wealth advisor at JP Morgan Chase and managing director at Bank of America. 

Webster Private Bank promoted Eamonn Bransfield - who joined the firm in 2010 - to vice president and portfolio manager.

Bransfield manages portfolios for high net worth clients and started his career as a broker at Constitution Corporate FCU in 2006.

Danielle Fischer was appointed as a trust relationship manager for The Private Client Reserve of US Bank in Portland, OR.

Fischer will provide trust and estate administration for individuals, families, corporations and non-profit organizations.

She has over 17 years of financial services experience working in trust administration and wealth management in the high net worth space.

Prior to joining The PCR, which serves clients with at least $1 million in investable assets, Fischer was vice president and trust administrator at Neuberger Berman Trust Company and an associate attorney at Kevin Matz & Associates, both in New York.

Martin Prego was appointed as senior vice president and group chief compliance officer at Espírito Santo Bank and its subsidiaries.

Prego is responsible for managing all aspects of regulatory compliance for Espírito Santo Bank and its subsidiaries, ES Financial Services and ES Investment Advisor.

Before re-joining Espírito Santo Bank, Prego was senior vice president compliance manager of Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust (in Coral Gables, FL) from 2012 to 2013.

Between 2010 and 2012, Prego was senior vice president and head of Premier360 at Espírito Santo Bank, managing a team of bankers and private banking portfolios while also developing business in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and the domestic retail segment. He served as senior vice president and head of compliance from 2006 to 2011, and was vice president and BSA/AML/OFAC compliance officer from 2004 to 2006.

He began his career in 1997 at Merrill Lynch Bank & Trust in Miami, FL, becoming assistant vice president of risk management and compliance before leaving in 2004.
BNY Mellon Wealth Management hired Matthew Obert as director for business development in Denver, CO, serving the greater Rocky Mountain region.

He will report to regional president, Tracy McCarthy.
Obert joined from Schwab Private Client Investment Advisory in Denver, where he was a manager portfolio consultant responsible for client acquisition, retention, asset allocation and relationship management in the high net worth sector.

He was previously an investment representative for Charles Schwab & Co, also in Denver.

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management rounded off a week of hires with two further appointments, both joining the firm from Barclays Wealth (now Barclays Wealth & Investment Management).

The hires were made as the firm looks to expand its business in the New York region, it said.
Chris Guttilla has been appointed as a managing director and client advisor. He will report to managing director and regional executive for the New York private client services office, Brett Kellam.
Specializing in the ultra high net worth and family office space, Guttilla has spent over 25 years in the wealth management industry. He joins DeAWM from Barclays Wealth (formerly Lehman Brothers), where he spent the last 15 years of his career. Prior to that, he held client advisor positions at Everen Securities, PaineWebber and Oppenheimer & Co. 

Meanwhile, Erica Mongello was appointed as a vice president and client analyst. At Barclays Wealth, she worked on Guttilla's team as an investment representative.

RBC Wealth Management brought in Marcus Schalkwijk - latterly of Merrill Lynch - as an investment advisor in St Michael, Barbados, serving high net worth and ultra high net worth clients. 

Schalkwijk will work with individuals, families and private investment companies, with a focus on Dutch Caribbean and European clients. He will report to John D’Amato, investments sales manager for the Caribbean at RBC Wealth Management.

Before moving to Barbados, Schalkwijk spent five years as an investment advisor at Merrill Lynch in London, having previously worked for eight years at Citi Smith Barney, splitting his time between London and Amsterdam.

Metro-Detroit, MI-based financial planning and advisory firm, Executive Wealth Management, appointed Susan Busch as a senior wealth advisor.
Based in Brighton, Busch will serve clients primarily centered in Oakland County communities such as Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Rochester, Clarkston and Franklin.

EWM has offices in Rochester and Northville that Busch will also use to meet clients.

Busch has over 24 years of experience in the investment and banking industry and joins from Fidelity Investments, where she was a senior account executive. Before this, she was a senior vice president at Wachovia Securities and she has also worked at Fifth Third Bank and Charles Schwab.

Walnut Creek, CA-based Mechanics Bank appointed Terry Chiu as senior investment manager.
Chiu was previously senior vice president and portfolio manager in the wealth management division of the bank, where he managed investment portfolios for high net worth individuals, families, trusts and foundations.

In his new role, Chiu will direct the portfolio management team’s research and investment selection processes.
Before joining Mechanics Bank, he held analytical, research and institutional sales positions at RCM Capital Management, Japan Capital Markets and Sanyo Securities in Hong Kong and Tokyo.

CapWealth Advisors hired former Goldman Sachs man John Lueken as its chief investment strategist.
Lueken was previously vice president at Goldman Sachs's securities division in New York. At the bank, he focused on economic developments and their impact on the equity and fixed income marketplaces.
Lueken has also worked for First St Louis Securities and the London Metal Exchange.

Dynasty Financial Partners appointed Paul Metzger to the newly-created role of chief technology officer, reporting to Dynasty co-founder and chief operating officer, Ed Swenson.

Based in New York, Metzger will launch Dynasty Desktop, aimed at independent RIAs. The offering will provide “functionality and integration” across RIA practice areas including client and relationship management, planning, workflow, reporting, portfolio management, business analytics, research and practice management.
Metzger has over 25 years of experience working in the financial services technology space. Most recently, he was chief administrative officer of global technology and operations from 2011 to 2013 at Neuberger Berman, having started working at the firm in 2008.

Between 2003 and 2008, he was chief operating officer of investment management and investment banking technology at Lehman Brothers.

Oppenheimer & Co appointed Brian Kutsmeda – formerly of JP Morgan - as managing director of investments and area manager, based in Boca Raton, FL.
Kutsmeda will report to Robert Okin, executive vice president at the private client division.

In his new role, he will assist the firm and the financial advisors with whom he works to bring in new clients and assets. His experience as a trainer and mentor will help boost the competencies of advisors and managers.

Global alternative asset manager The Carlyle Group hired Jeffrey Holland in New York as managing director and head of the private client group – a new role at the firm.

Holland previously worked at Cole Real Estate Investments, where he was president and chief operating officer, overseeing the private capital and real estate groups.

He will oversee the group responsible for the development of Carlyle’s relationships with individual investors and intermediaries serving these investors. The group will focus on arrangements with bank feeder funds and other financial advisors through which high net worth and other qualified individuals may gain access to Carlyle alternative asset products.

He will also develop and market additional registered and non-registered products that may become more broadly available such as hedge funds, credit-oriented funds and other trading strategies offered through Carlyle’s global market strategies and solutions business segments.

Prior to his stint at Cole Real Estate Investments, Holland was a managing director and COO for US retail at BlackRock. Earlier still, he was a vice president of consulting services at Raymond James & Associates and held positions with Capital Resource Advisors and McKinsey & Company.
BNY Mellon Wealth Management appointed Clay Harris as a senior director for business development and

Thomas Cademartori as a director for business development in Washington, DC, and Dallas, TX, respectively. 

Harris will report to regional president Susan Traver and Garrett Alton, regional sales manager for the Mid-Atlantic.

He has 25 years of industry experience, having most recently been a senior relationship manager and wealth advisor at PNC Wealth Management. Prior to that, he was a senior private banking officer at TD Bank Wealth Management.

Cademartori, who will report to regional president Todd Carlton, latterly served as vice president at JP Morgan Asset Management, vice president at Alliance Bernstein and chief financial officer at Placemark Investments.

The hires were part of BNY Mellon's ongoing effort to expand its sales and wealth management teams in key US wealth markets.

A new managing director and head of exchange-traded product strategy in the Americas was appointed at Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, leaving BlackRock to join the firm.

Dodd Kittsley left his post as global head of ETP research at Blackrock to take up the newly-created role at DeAWM in New York. He joined the firm after an expansive year; the platform’s distribution team doubled in size during 2013.

He will head DeAWM’s ETP research offering in the Americas, as well as leading efforts to generate new national account business, and providing solutions for institutional and retail clients.
Kittsley will report to Fiona Bassett, head of the passive business in the Americas, and Mick McLaughlin, head of passive distribution in the Americas.

Before joining BlackRock, Kittsley worked at State Street Global Advisors and Morgan Stanley in research and due diligence positions, as well as serving as head of due diligence for iShares.

New York-listed First Republic Bank, a private bank and wealth management firm, brought in Bill Ward as executive vice president, chief of BSA/AML and security officer.

Ward has 14 years of experience in senior executive roles overseeing fraud prevention, anti-money laundering and matters relating to the Bank Secrecy Act.

The aim of the BSA (1970) is to prevent financial institutions from being used by criminals to hide or launder ill-gotten gains. It requires banks and other financial institution to document transactions that involve substantial sums of money ($10,000 or more) and appear to be suspicious (although the BSA has a list of documentation exceptions.)

Prior to joining First Republic, Ward spent seven years as executive vice president, chief BSA/AML and security officer at Union Bank in San Francisco, CA, having previously worked in law enforcement for 17 years.

Las Vegas, NV-based Nevada State Bank appointed Randy Boesch as executive vice president and director of private banking.

He will serve as a member of the executive management committee and oversee The Private Bank by Nevada State Bank and the professional banking team.

Boesch most recently managed the private client services group at City National Bank for the past five years. Before this, he was president and CEO of Red Rock Community Bank following 10 years as a private banking manager for Wells Fargo Bank.

Global law firm Proskauer recruited Robert Leonard and Michael Mavrides as partners within its hedge fund group in New York.

Leonard has 25 years of industry experience, representing and structuring domestic and international hedge funds, funds-of-funds and other private investment funds and fund managers. He also has detailed experience in regulatory compliance.

Mavrides represents domestic and offshore hedge funds, funds-of-funds and other private investment funds. He also has significant experience representing institutional and entrepreneurial clients in structuring their management companies and advising on transactions such as joint ventures, derivative and structured products, and credit arrangements.

The pair joined Proskauer from Bingham, where they were partners in the New York office.

Independent broker-dealer and RIA custodian LPL Financial added a managing director in San Diego, CA.
William Morrissey, who has been with the firm for the past ten years, will head LPL Financial’s Independent Advisor Services business unit, reporting to president Robert Moore.

Leading the IAS unit, Morrissey will provide solutions to LPL’s independent advisors.
The IAS is a client satisfaction-focused unit, providing support services such as business consulting and succession planning.

He will also continue to oversee the business development of IAS, reflecting the role he held at the firm prior to this promotion.

Morrissey previously held the role of executive vice president of business development, responsible for recruiting new advisors and their practices. He helped expand the firm’s presence by augmenting the number of advisors at the IAS from 6,350 to 11,400.

He initially joined LPL as senior vice president of advisory consulting in 2004, building the sales, marketing and development of the firm's advisory platforms.

Before joining LPL Financial, Morrissey worked at Fidelity Investments for 17 years in a number of senior positions, as well as a spell at Merrill Lynch.

Webster Private Bank appointed a new senior vice president and director of private bank lending at its Stamford, CT, office.

Peter Russell will lead a team of lending professionals in identifying and meeting the credit needs of the bank's high net worth clientele.

He will report to executive vice president and head of Webster Private Bank, Dan Fitzpatrick.

Russell left his post as chief credit officer at Bankwell Financial Group in neighboring town New Canaan, CT, to join Webster Private Bank. No stranger to senior positions in the private banking sphere, he has previously served at HSBC Bank USA and the Bank of New York. He has also served as a relationship manager at Wachovia, Chase Manhattan Private Bank, Fleet Private Bank and Citigroup.

Stifel Financial Corp added Robert Hagstrom to its investment advisory subsidiary, EquityCompass Strategies, as a senior portfolio manager in Baltimore, MD.

Hagstrom has around 28 years of investment experience, most recently as chief investment strategist of Legg Mason Investment Counsel.

Previously, he was a senior vice president and portfolio manager of the growth equity strategy at Legg Mason Capital Management. Before that, he was president and chief investment officer at Legg Mason Focus Capital, general partner of Focus Capital Advisory and a principal at Lloyd, Leith and Sawin.

Earlier still, from 1989 to 1989 Hagstrom was a financial advisor at Legg Mason Wood Walker and between 1989 and 1991 was a portfolio manager at First Fidelity Bank.

Stephen Sherline was named Los Angeles market leader at US Bank’s Private Client Reserve, which serves clients with at least $1 million in investable assets.

With over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, Sherline will lead a wealth management team spanning Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Newport Beach, CA, serving high net worth individuals and institutions in the areas of investment management, private banking, trusts and estate.
Sherline was latterly a senior vice president and regional managing director at Union Bank in Los Angeles.

Before that, he was a senior vice president and director of the investment advisors division at Fifth Third Bank in Ohio.

In his new role at US Bank, he will report to Mary Martuscelli, western region president at the PCR.
Chevy Chase, MD-based investment firm FORT Management launched a New York office and added two new managing directors as part of an expansion drive.

The New York office is headed by the founder of the company, Yves Balcer. He was joined by managing directors Alan Marantz and Douglas McKeige, who will direct business development and assist in firm management. 

Before joining FORT, Marantz and McKeige worked at a discretionary macro hedge fund in New York, where they jointly directed business development efforts.

Marantz spent 26 years at Lehman Brothers, where he served as global head of private investment management and held other leadership roles. McKeige is an attorney who was formerly a managing partner at Bernstein Litowitz.

Atlantic Trust, the US private wealth management division of CIBC, expanded in New York, Houston and Atlanta, with the addition of three new relationship managers.
Kishore Setty, Daniel Carter and Giovanni Boccia joined in New York, Houston, TX, and Atlanta, GA, respectively.

Both Setty and Carter were appointed as senior vice presidents and senior relationship managers, providing wealth management solutions for high net worth individuals, families, foundations and endowments.

Boccia, meanwhile, is a vice president and associate relationship manager. He will assist the senior team with portfolio management, asset allocation, financial planning and estate planning strategies.

Setty was latterly a portfolio manager at US Trust, where he managed over $600 million in client assets. Before that, he spent time at Old Mutual Asset Management and Prudential.

Carter previously worked at RNS Capital in the areas of capital development and investor relations. Earlier, he worked at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette; Morgan Stanley and UBS.

Boccia was formerly part of the private wealth management group at SunTrust Bank as well as a member of the portfolio construction group.

New York-listed Signature Bank added two private client banking teams, increasing the total number of teams in its network to 94.

Both teams will be based in Forest Hills, Queens, NY, when the office opens its doors later this year.
Tamara Gavrielof, group director and senior vice president, will head a five-strong team previously of HSBC. Gavrielof spent the past seven years as cluster branch manager-vice president and before joining HSBC was a senior branch manager at Commerce Bank in Forest Hills.

Claudia Giraldo, associate group director and vice president, has worked with Gavrielof for the past ten years. Most recently, she was a business relationship manager and vice president in Glen Oaks, Queens. Before her stint at HSBC, she too worked at Commerce Bank as an assistant branch manager in Forest Hills.

Also joining Gavrielof’s team was Diego Pinzon, associate group director and vice president. Pinzon was formerly a senior international business relationship manager at the same location as Giraldo for ten years.
Before that, he was an assistant vice president and small business relationship manager at Chase Bank.

Additionally, Lily Karim and Kamla Indarjit were brought in as senior client associates.
Meanwhile, Ilya Weisbord, group director and senior vice president, will lead a three-person team who join from JP Morgan Chase. Weisbord was latterly a relationship manager in Kew Gardens, Queens, working with commercial clients.  

Yan Tsukerman, associate group director and vice president, spent the last eight years as a relationship manager and vice president at Chase Bank.

Rosamaria Ferreira, senior client associate, was latterly a vice president and assistant branch manager in Great Neck.
Gavrielof and her team are temporarily working at Signature Bank’s office in Jamaica, Queens, while Weisbord and his team are in Long Island City, Queens.

Philadelphia, PA-headquartered Janney Montgomery Scott appointed Steven Guggenheimer as executive vice president of wealth management and George Zaki as vice president of wealth management in New York.
Both began their careers at Neuberger and then worked at Merrill Lynch. They joined Janney having been most recently at Barclays.
San Diego, CA-based Washington Wealth Management added former wirehouse advisors Morrie Symson and David Mizrahi - with a combined $150 million in assets under management - to its platform in Woodland Hills, CA.

Washington Wealth Management was acquired last month by the independent broker-dealer NFP Advisor Services.

Symson, who was most recently with UBS, joined WWM's Pacific Point Asset Management affiliate while Mizrahi - formerly of Wells Fargo Advisors - opened an independent practice under the name of First Point Financial Management.

Meanwhile, Mary Abundo, who was previously a practice management consultant at Cetera Financial Group, joined Mizrahi's practice.

Both Symson and Mizrahi are experienced portfolio managers who work with high net worth individuals and families. While their primary focus is on fee-based business, they also incorporate commissioned-based work into their practices.

Foundation Source named senior managing director Katherine Holbrook as head of business development covering New York and New England.

Holbrook has worked at Foundation Source for eight years and recently moved back to Boston, MA, from San Francisco, CA.

She is an expert in private foundation administration and compliance. As a senior managing director, she will work with individual, family and corporate donors that either run or are establishing private foundations. She also works directly with advisors that serve high net worth donors.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management made Lee Woolley president of its mid-Atlantic region, spanning greater Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and the Washington metro area.

David Kutch, former Mid-Atlantic president, was promoted to chairman for the mid-Atlantic region and will continue to report to Timothy Tully, president of US eastern markets at the firm.

BNY Mellon said it has logged a 70 per cent hike in assets under management in Philadelphia and the Washington, DC, metro area - two of the largest US wealth markets - since 2011.

In light of the moves, the following individuals now report to Woolley, who in turn will report to Tully: Garrett Alton, mid-Atlantic regional sales manager; Washington metro president, Susan Traver; Art Grugan, mid-Atlantic regional director for private banking; and Mark Haslam, mid-Atlantic director for portfolio management.

Prior to joining BNY Mellon in 2012, Woolley worked at Northern Trust for around 20 years.
Financial advisors Michael Cohen and Benjamin Cohen - and their team – were hired in the downtown Chicago, IL, office of Raymond James & Associates, the traditional employee broker-dealer of Raymond James Financial.

The team operates as Cohen Financial Management and is latterly of JP Morgan Securities, where they managed around $670 million in client assets and had annual production in excess of $4.2 million.

As well as the Cohens - both of whom are managing directors and senior vice presidents of investments - the team includes senior registered sales associates Patricia Litavec Carpenter, Camille Johnson and Kerry Bolinder.

Michael Cohen began his financial services career in 1971 with H Hentz & Co in Chicago, but spent most of his career at Bear Stearns, which was acquired by JP Morgan Securities in 2008.
Benjamin Cohen started his financial services career at Bear Stearns in 2006, where he was one of the youngest managing directors at the firm.

Carpenter, Johnson and Bolinder all worked for the Cohens at JP Morgan and have a combined 52 years of financial industry experience. Cohen Financial Management’s focus is on affluent clients and their families.
Chicago, IL-headquartered Northern Trust named Susan Levy as executive vice president and its new general counsel.

Levy will report to chairman and chief executive, Frederick Waddell, and will serve on Northern Trust's management and operating groups.

She succeeded Kelly Welsh, who stepped down from his position on April 4 after his confirmation by the US Senate to serve as general counsel of the US Department of Commerce.

Levy has served as the managing partner of Jenner & Block since July 2008, advising clients on complex business litigation and serving as lead trial counsel in state and federal matters, as well as international arbitrations.

New York City-headquartered Snowden Capital Advisors, the independent, advisor-owned wealth advisory firm, added Subha Barry and Craig Pfeiffer to its advisory board.

Barry is an industry consultant and former senior vice president, managing director and head of diversity and inclusion at Freddie Mac and Merrill Lynch. She is also a former Merrill Lynch financial advisor and branch manager.

Pfeiffer is founder and CEO of Advisors Ahead, a company that helps prepare college students for careers as financial advisors. He is a former vice chairman of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, where he served in a number of senior executive management roles.

On the advisory board, the pair joined Bob Doll, chief equity strategist and senior portfolio manager of Nuveen Asset Management; Charles Widger, executive chairman at Brinker Capital; Bob Caruso, founder and chairman of Impact Republic; and Reynold Mooney, senior partner and head of global life sciences and healthcare at Deloitte.

The newly-appointed chief executive at JP Morgan’s corporate and investment bank – Daniel Pinto - streamlined the CIB leadership structure.

Pinto was named as the sole CEO of CIB following the resignation last month of co-CEO, Michael Cavanagh, who is joining The Carlyle Group.
All the individuals mentioned below will report to Pinto, unless stated otherwise.

Carlos Hernandez has become co-head of global banking, alongside Jeff Urwin – both will manage corporate banking, treasury services and investment banking globally.

Since joining JP Morgan, Hernandez has led numerous areas within investment banking, including M&A and capital markets. 

Don McCree will pursue opportunities outside JP Morgan after “a long and distinguished career” at the firm. As a result, he will transition his responsibilities to Urwin and Hernandez over the next few months.

Meanwhile, Jeff Bosland has become head of treasury services, reporting to Urwin and Hernandez, while continuing to serve on the CIB management committee. Bosland was recently co-head of Americas sales and marketing for markets and investor services, and previously ran public finance.

Within the markets and investor services segment, John Horner has become head of investor services, succeeding Hernandez. Horner will maintain his responsibilities related to JP Morgan’s liquidity and funding initiatives within CIB.

Guy America and Matt Cherwin have become co-heads of global credit (including emerging markets credit), securitized products and public finance, while James Kenny and Troy Rohrbaugh become co-heads of global rates, foreign exchange, commodities and emerging markets.

Blythe Masters decided to leave the firm but will continue to assist JP Morgan over the next few months to ensure a smooth transition of the bank's physical commodities business to her successor.

Tim Throsby will remain head of global equities and also become chair of the CIB Technology Strategy Council.

In other moves, Marc Badrichani was named as the sole head of sales and marketing for the Americas, representing the US, Latin America and Canada.

Meanwhile, Alessandro Barnaba and Sikander Ilyas take on additional roles as co-heads of international sales and marketing. Previously, they co-led sales and marketing for EMEA.

Filippo Gori became head of sales and marketing for Asia-Pacific, reporting to Barnaba and Ilyas.
Gori recently relocated to Hong Kong after Damian Roche announced his desire to “move on to a new role.” Roche will continue to transition his regional sales and marketing responsibilities to Gori.

Additionally, Joyce Chang will serve as global head of research, succeeding Tom Schmidt who is pursuing new challenges after running the firm’s research franchise over the past several years.

Lastly, Takis Georgakopoulos - head of multi-national corporate banking coverage - has become chief of staff, managing the CIB strategy team. At JP Morgan, Georgakopoulos has served as head of corporate strategy and chief financial officer of global corporate banking. 

Baird, the wealth management, capital markets, private equity and asset management firm, took on Joseph McAuley as a senior vice president and branch manager in Charleston, SC.
McAuley will also work as a financial advisor for high net worth families and institutional equity clients. Charles Knowlton, the former branch manager, will continue as a Baird financial advisor in Charleston.

McAuley began his career in the financial industry in 1997 with the former A G Edwards & Sons. He stayed there through mergers with Wachovia Securities and Wells Fargo. He joins from the latter, where he was most recently a senior vice president of investments. He was a branch manager at Wachovia and A G Edwards.

Nashville, TN-based Wealth Access, the wealth management technology firm, hired Gene Reese as chief product officer, while appointing Chris Haley to its advisory board.

Reese was previously CPO at Interactive Advisory Software, having started his career at Investment Scorecard, which provides third-party performance reports and was acquired by Informa in April 2007. In the latter role, he analyzed investment data while working in project management and systems analysis.
Meanhile, Haley - a principal at Harbor View Advisors - was previously chief financial officer and general counsel of Black Diamond Performance Reporting, where he helped grow the firm from $1.5 million in revenue to more than $12 million in four years, Wealth Access said. Black Diamond was acquired by Advent Software in June 2011.

Evercore Wealth Management launched an office in Tampa - serving wealthy clients in Florida and the Southeast - while also naming three new partners from GenSpring Family Offices and its SunTrust Bank affiliate.

Julio Castro, a wealth advisor, led new business development in Florida at GenSpring and was a member of the firm's national leadership committee. He has practiced as an attorney and an accountant, specializing in estate and tax planning, with 25 years of experience overall in wealth management.

Michael Cozene, also a wealth advisor, is a member of the Evercore Wealth Management Strategic Planning Committee. At GenSpring, he too led business development and also spearheaded wealth planning and family office services for the firm’s ultra high net worth clients in Florida. He has 25 years of experience in wealth management.

Lastly, Arthur Noderer, a portfolio manager with 34 years of experience managing investment strategies for high net worth individuals, families and related institutions, previously worked for 18 years as an investment strategist.

Cammie Sorensen was appointed as senior vice president of strategy and operations at Madison, WI-headquartered Legacy Advisor Network. Sorensen has been at Legacy for nine years and therefore has extensive knowledge of the firm's operations.  She oversees Legacy's staff team, which the firm noted has grown by 200 per cent over the past four years. California-based Robertson Stephens Advisors, the independent, privately-owned firm, made four senior hires from Wells Fargo Private Bank.

Michael Zaninovich was named as managing director and chief investment officer, while Mary Sycamore joined as managing director and director of fixed income.

Zaninovich has over 20 years of experience in the investment management industry, having previously been a senior vice president and senior investment strategist at Wells Fargo Private Bank. In that role, he managed and structured multi-asset class portfolios for ultra high net worth clients. In his new role, he also will lead the Robertson Stephens Investment Committee.

Sycamore also has over 20 years of experience in the investment industry and specializes in managing fixed income portfolios for high net worth and institutional clients. She too will be a member of the Robertson Stephens Investment Committee and is also latterly of Wells Fargo Private Bank.
In other news, Robert Stephens brought in Jeanette Garretty and Daniel Rozansky as managing director and chief economist, and managing director and director of financial planning, respectively.

Garretty and Rozansky will advise HNW individuals and their families, while also sitting on the firm’s management and investment committees. Garretty, who has over 25 years of experience in wealth management, was previously a wealth advisor at Wells Fargo Private Bank, having formerly been chief domestic economist at Bank of America. 

Rozansky has been working with high net worth individuals and their families for more than 20 years as a practicing trust and estate attorney, and as a wealth Advisor at Wells Fargo Private Bank, Arthur Andersen and myCFO. He and Garretty previously worked together at Wells Fargo, working with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs

Jeffrey Fratarcangeli, formerly of Merrill Lynch, established an independent practice affiliated with Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, the independent brokerage arm of Wells Fargo Advisors.
Fratarcangeli has over 20 years of industry experience and is based in Birmingham, MI, with offices in New York and Florida. His practice handles over $424 million in client assets.

Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network has 1,221 owners and advisors across 591 practices. It has over $76 billion in assets under management.

Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corporation and Peapack-Gladstone Bank announced the addition of Peter Wallburg as a senior managing director of wealth management.

Wallburg has 27 years of experience in the financial services industry, having most recently been a senior director of wealth management at BNY Mellon, where he managed two wealth advisory teams in New Jersey and New York City.

In related news, this January Craig Spengeman, president and chief investment officer of Peapack-Gladstone Bank Trust & Investments, retired from the firm.

Spengeman, who was also executive vice president of Peapack-Gladstone Bank, left after nearly 29 years at the firm and its wealth management division. At the time, the bank said he was instrumental in introducing its newest subsidiary, PGB Trust & Investments of Delaware - established in 2012 - and was therefore looking to replace him. 

Focus Financial Partners, the US partnership of independent wealth management firms, took on board Summit Financial, an independent RIA based in Lafayette, LA. Summit was previously affiliated with Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network for nearly eight years. The firm has some $600 million in client assets and provides investment and wealth management services to clients in Louisiana and the surrounding areas.

Summit Financial was founded in 2003 by Fred Werner and David Daniel - both former Legg Mason advisors who have worked together for more than 15 years. In addition to Werner and Daniel, Todd Lambert and Michael Pharr are partners at the firm.

Summit has eight employees and four advisors representing over 180 years of combined investment and wealth management experience.

Neuberger Berman appointed Erik Knutzen as multi-asset class chief investment officer - a newly-created position at the firm.

Based in New York City, Knutzen will drive the asset allocation process firm-wide and create related client content for strategic partnerships and multi-asset class solutions, while joining portfolio management on a number of mandates.

Knutzen is latterly of NEPC, where he has served as CIO since 2008. In that role, he oversaw some 45 investment professionals, including research teams focused on alternative investments, traditional strategies and asset allocation.

He has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, including nine years at Putnam Investments. During his time there, he was a member of the global asset allocation group; led the institutional portfolio management team with 15 portfolio managers; and served as a senior leader of the firm's international business.

RBC Wealth Management hired Ileana Platt within its US international advisor group. She will be based in Miami, FL, and work with global high net worth clients who have financial interests in the US.
Platt previously worked at Barclay’s, focused on Peru, Panama and Mexico. Earlier, she spent time at Credit Suisse.

Since 2010, international wealth has been the fastest-growing business within RBC Wealth Management-US. The international advisory group now includes 29 financial advisors.

In November 2013, the firm opened a new office in downtown San Diego, CA, as a joint venture between US wealth management and international wealth management to serve domestic and international investors.
Ricardo Morean, director of international advisory for RBC Wealth Management-US, oversees that Southern California location, as well as offices in Miami and New York.

Prudential Fixed Income made two hires within its corporate bond team and global macroeconomic research team in New Jersey. As a principal and senior portfolio manager, Filippo Arcieri will focus on global corporate portfolios in the corporate bond team, reporting to principal Rajat Shah. He brings global experience in sector and industry allocation to his new team.

He is latterly of Hartford Investment Management Company, where he served as co-head of investment-grade credit. There, he managed over $25 billion for external clients and the firm’s insurance company general account. He previously held posts at AIG Asset Management as a portfolio manager, and as an analyst at Intesa-Sanpaolo Bank.

Meanwhile, Francisco Campos-Ortiz took up the role of Latin America economist in the global macroeconomic research team, where he will report to chief economist Jürgen Odenius. He left his post as a research economist with the Mexican Central Bank. In a previous role at Soluciones Estratégicas Consulting, he researched subjects such as Mexico’s private pension plans. Prudential Fixed Income will use his research capabilities to enhance its understanding of policy-making and its impact on local markets and sovereign ratings across Latin America.

Convergent Wealth Advisors appointed Maurice Curran as director in the wealth management firm’s Manhattan office.

He joined from Gerson Lehrman Group and will focus on building Convergent's wealth management business in the greater New York metro area by adding to the firm's high net worth client base.

"New York is a highly competitive market, and to have someone as driven as Mo on the team aims to ensure Convergent's leadership in this area of wealth management,” said Dave Zier, chief executive. “We believe he will thrive in the firm's entrepreneurial culture and contribute significantly to our growth potential.”

KBS Realty Advisors and KBS Capital Advisors promoted Stephen Close as a senior vice president and market leader for the Mid-Atlantic region.
As a market leader, Close will manage a portfolio totaling more than 2.3 million square feet as well as helping to identify new acquisition opportunities in the Mid-Atlantic area.
KBS Realty Advisors is a private equity real estate company and SEC-registered investment advisor founded in 1992. Close has been with the firm since 2005 and previously served as a senior investment analyst, covering KBS-owned Northeastern US assets totaling more than 4.5 million square feet.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management hired two business development directors: Michael Quinlan in Atlanta, GA, and Benjamin Rodgers in Washington. Quinlan, a senior business development director, will report to managing director Helen Nugent, while Rodgers reports to regional president Susan Traver, and Garrett Alton, Mid-Atlantic regional sales manager.

Quinlan joined BNY Mellon Wealth Management as part of a two-year effort to expand the firm’s sales and wealth management teams in key wealth markets across the US. He was latterly a principal with Henssler Financial in Kennesaw, GA, responsible for directing business development, marketing and sales strategy.
A retired US Naval officer, Quinlan held training and operations management positions at several Naval Air Force bases earlier in his career. Prior to joining Henssler in 2006, he was director of the office of strategic management at the Commander Naval Air Force Reserve in San Diego, CA.
“Over the past 18 months we have hired eight new people in our office and we have experienced double digit growth in revenue over the past three years,” said Atlanta regional president Chris Hohlstein.
Prior to his appointment, Rodgers was a financial advisor with Bernstein Global Wealth Management. Before that, he was a senior associate at the law firm of Burglass & Tankersley in New Orleans. From 1996 through 2001, Rodgers served as a US Army Officer.   

People's United Bank added a team of five from Webster Private Bank to its wealth management group in Hartford, serving clients in central and eastern Connecticut. The team is led by David Dixon, senior vice president of wealth management at People's United. He was latterly director of Webster Private Bank and wealth management for Webster Financial Corporation.

Dixon's responsibilities include overseeing investment management, trust and financial planning functions, with over 20 years of experience in investment management and banking. Prior to joining Webster, Dixon worked at Harbor Capital Management in Boston, MA.

Charles Olson, director of sales, wealth management, and a senior vice president, has around 25 years of experience in the financial services industry - most recently as director of business development for the wealth management arm of Webster Bank. Prior to joining, he was a senior vice president at Bank of America's Private Bank, as well as chief executive of Phoenix National Trust Company. Other work experience includes senior vice president of national sales for Phoenix Investment Partners, CIGNA and US Trust Company in New York.

Stephen Bright, senior portfolio manager and senior vice president, also has around 25 years of experience in the financial services industry and joins People's United from Webster Private Bank, where he was a portfolio manager. He spent the last 13 years managing portfolios for high net worth individuals and non-profit organizations at Webster, Trust Company of Connecticut and NewAlliance Bank.

Christopher Childs, senior portfolio manager and senior vice president, also has around 25 years of experience in the financial services industry - most recently as a portfolio manager at Webster Private Bank.

Lastly, Robert Maglio, senior portfolio manager and senior vice president, has around 12 years of experience in managing investments for high net worth individuals, families and non-profit institutions. Most recently, he was responsible for the research and coordination of fixed income trading at Webster Private Bank.

Citi Private Bank appointed Boris Espinoza in Miami, FL, as a director and ultra high net worth private banker, as the firm continues to expand in South Florida.

Espinoza is latterly of JP Morgan, where he was a director and private banker. Prior to joining JP Morgan in 2010, Espinoza spent 12 years at ABN AMRO working in Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Miami and New York. There, he held various roles in the investment banking division, most recently as a director in the New York-based debt capital markets group. In his new role at Citi, Espinoza will report to Luke Palacio, Southeast regional market manager.

Asia-Pacific

Australia
MLC Community Foundation, the philanthropy unit of National Australia Bank wealth management arm MLC, named Lara Bourguignon as its new chairperson, after serving as general manager of MLC Group Insurance and managing director of Plum Financial Services. She joined the company in 1999. She took over from Andrew Howard, who has held the position since May 2008. Howard continues on his role as general manager for distribution and client management at NAB Asset Management.  

John Macfarlane is set to join the ANZ board on 22 May 2014, following a decision by Peter Hay to retire. Macfarlane most recently served as chairman and chief executive of Deutsche Bank Australia and New Zealand. He will stand for election as a director at the firm's annual general meeting on December 2014.

National Australia Bank announced the retirement of group chief executive and managing director Cameron Clyne in August 2014. Clyne has been in this position since January 2009 and said he is stepping down to focus on his family. He will be replaced by Andrew Thorburn effective 1 August, who will also be invited to join the NAB board. This appointment is still subject to regulatory approvals.

Global asset management firm Legg Mason named Colin Mason as director for sales for the Melbourne office. Taylor was previously the vice president for institutional business at JP Morgan. Prior to that, he worked for 11 years at UBS in London.

ANZ announced the departure of chief information officer Anne Weatherston after four years in the role, without citing specific reasons. Her post has been assumed in the interim by Alistair Currie, the group chief operating officer, until a replacement is identified.

Wilson HTM Investment Group named Sandy Grant as its new managing director to replace Andrew Coppin, who resigned in 2013. Grant has been acting chief executive officer since 2 July 2013 and will retain her role as director of Pinnacle Investment Management, a wholly-owned subsidiary of WIG. His appointment is for a fixed term until 30 June 2015.

UK investment manager Winton Capital appointed Andrew Grimes from Platinum Asset Management in Australia to lead its newly-opened office in Sydney. Before Winton, Grimes was a consultant at Watson Wyatt, now Towers Watson, also worked at Schroders Investment Management and McKinsey & Co in the UK.

Australian financial services group Perpetual Investments named Michael O'Dea as head of diversified strategies, with effect at the end of May 2014. In this role, he is responsible for leading the team's wholesale balanced, diversified and conservative growth strategies, with a focus on client centric products and funds growth. He joined from JANA, where he worked for 13 years.

China
Westpac announced the appointment of Simon Israel as non-executive member to its Asia advisory board. Israel is the Asia business leader and current chairman of SingTel. He is the second non-executive member to the board and joins Hwee Hua Lim who was appointed in November 2013.

Dr Jun Ma, the chief economist for Greater China at Deutsche Bank, left the company after thirteen years in service. Ma leaves his post to join the People's Bank of China as chief economist in its research bureau. This is a newly created post.

Wang Yongli, a vice-president and executive director of Hong Kong-listed Bank of China, resigned from the bank. The VP had had worked at the bank for 25 years and been a vice-president for more than seven years. Reports said he resigned after he was investigated and subsequently cleared of suspicion of corruption by the Communist Party's top disciplinary body.

KKR Capstone, the executive team that works in partnership with US investment firm KKR, announced the appointment of Matthew Chang as managing director in China, after serving as global senior partner for the Asian operations and restructuring practises of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in Shanghai. In his new role, Chang will lead the group's engagement with KKR's portfolio companies in the country.

Hong Kong
Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management named Ken Tam to the newly-created role of head of global client group, institutional, for Asia-Pacific ex-Japan. He joined from JP Morgan Asset Management ad now reports regionally to Ravi Raju, head of DeAWM Asia-Pacific, and functionally to Dario Schiraldi, head of GCG. Also appointed was Rajan Raju as head of GCG, intermediaries, for Asia-Pacific ex-Japan. He joined Deutsche Bank Group in 2010 from DBS Bank and is based in Singapore, reporting regionally to Ravi Raju and functionally to Dario Schiraldi.

Mizuho Securities Asia announced the appointments of Kentaro Akashi as chairman of the firm and Seiichiro Miyaoka as president and chief executive. Akashi has been with the company for 30 years and has held various senior positions within the Mizuho Group in Japan and the US. Miyaoka joined Mizuho in February 2013 and in May of the same year relocated to Hong Kong and was named deputy president of Mizuho Securities Asia. Both are based in Hong Kong. Also newly appointed is Paul Andersson as regional head of equities for Asia ex-Japan in Hong Kong.

Private Wealth Management Association, the Hong Kong-based voluntary association of private wealth management firms, announced James Hong as its new head, to succeed Nancy Cheung. Hong has held a number of senior management positions, most recently as head of private banking Hong Kong at Credit Suisse.

International law firm Withers named Samantha Gershon as a consultant at its Hong Kong office, after serving as a partner at Robertsons, where she specialised in complex commercial litigation, public and administrative law.

Philip Witherington joined Manulife Financial as senior vice president and chief financial officer for the Asia division. He most recently served as head of finance for the retail banking and wealth management global business in Asia-Pacific of HSBC. In his new post, he reports dually to Steve Roder, senior EVP and chief financial officer for Manulife Financial, and Robert Cook, senior EVP and general manager for Asia.

BlackRock announcd that effective 1 June, Ryan Stork will transfer to Hong Kong from New York to assume his new post. He has served a variety of leadership roles at the firm in the past 13 years. At the end of 2014, Stork is also due to assume the chairman role. Also appointed was Mark McCombe as global head of institutional client business and chairman of BlackRock Alternative Investors in New York. He is currently the Asia-Pacific chairman and will continue to be so until Stork takes over, to facilitate a smooth transition.

Royal Bank of Scotland appointed Pierre Ferland as head of corporate and institutional banking for Asia-Pacific, with effect from 1 May 2014. He was previously the co-head of markets and international banking for Asia-Pacific. In his new role, He will join the C&I leadership team, which is led by Donald Workman, executive chairman for C&I, who was formerly the executive chairman for RBS Asia-Pacific.

Stockholm-based investment firm East Capital named Sebastien Gandon to the Hong Kong team as a senior account manager. He moved from the company's European operation, where he managed, out of the Paris office, relationships with private banks, multimanagers, institutions and family offices in a number of countries.

Grant Ko, who has held the role of cluster head for Taiwan at UBS’ wealth management division, has left the Swiss bank. Ko’s future plans are unknown.

Old Mutual Global Investors named Iris Tsui as senior sales manager. Tsui joined from E Fund Management where she was responsible for business development through intermediaries and institutional clients. Tsui reports to Kylie Chan, who joined the firm in December 2013 as head of sales for Asia, from BNP Paribas Investment Partners in Hong Kong.

UBS Wealth Management appointed Amy Lo as chief executive of wealth management for Hong Kong, taking over from Allen Lo, who has retired from the post. She continues to report to Kathryn Shih, CEO of UBS Wealth Management, Asia Pacific. Allen Lo retires after a 37-year career in wealth management, including 17 years at UBS. In the coming months he will continue to support the business as an advisor.

Kinetic Partners made two promotions in its Hong Kong team. AnnMarie Croswell has been promoted to member and Katrina Banh to associate director within Kinetic Partners regulatory compliance team in the jurisdiction.

BNY Mellon Investment Management named veteran financial journalist Simon Cox, from The Economist, as its investment strategist for Asia-Pacific. While with the publication, he reported from over 20 countries and covered the IMF and World Bank from London, before moving to Delhi to write about South Asia and the Gulf. He has spent the past four years in Hong Kong concentrating on China's economy. He reports to Jack Malvey, chief global market strategist for investment management in New York.

The head of the Hong Kong business at Societe Generale’s private bank, Alex Fung, left the French banking group, citing "personal rasons." Fung has held the position since 2006. The company is still looking for his replacement. Meanwhile, Olivier Gougeon, Regional CEO of Societe Generale Private Banking, Asia Pacific has taken over.

Bermuda-headquartered financial services group Clarien Group rebranded its banking arm to cater to more high net worth clients in Asia and named Zoran Flotak and Ian Truran, co-chief executives who are both founders of Clarien Group, to take the lead. Fotak has held senior positions within Credit Suisse Securities, Merill Lynch, the Royal Bank of Canada and St George Asset Management. Truran is a Bermudian national with extensive experience in the local and international banking industry and formerly worked at Butterfield Bank.

First State Investments created new senior positions for its Asian offices. Vivian Tang was named director for the institutional business in North Asia based in Hong Kong, while Lauren Prendiville joined as director for the institutional business in South East Asia based in Singapore. Tang was previously a director for distribution at Credit Suisse Asset Management. Prendiville ran a Singapore-based consulting firm Investment Marketing Solutions, which she co-founded. Both report to Alexis Ng, managing director for South East Asia and head of distribution for Asia.

UK investment management firm TT International announced two appointments to its senior investment team in Asia. Marco Li joined as senior investment analyst and head of Australian equities, with responsibility over Australia, New Zealand and Greater China, while Duncan Robertson stepped in as senior investment analyst and portfolio manager for the Asia research platform in Hong Kong, covering Korea and ASEAN markets. Li has been part of the company since November 2013. Robertson was previously a senior portfolio manager for Asia at the University Superannuation Scheme in the UK.

India
India Infoline Asset Management named Prashasta Seth as chief executive, to replace Gopinath Natarajan, who has been appointed as the head of equity advisory services at the parent firm. Seth has been with the company for the past six years, managing and advising pooled assets and client portfolios, particularly on investment strategies, generating stock ideas and creating research reports.

Sheffield Haworth, the executive search firm operating in wealth management, announced that the founder and chairman of its India business, Deepak Verma, is relocating to the US as part of a drive to link business opportunities between the countries. Verma, who is also vice chairman, Americas, will work with Sheffield Haworth’s multinational clients across retail financial services & insurance. He is moving to New York.

Japan
Mizuho Financial Group announced changes to its board of directors lineup. These include Yukio Machida and Eiji Ogawa joining as directors of Mizuho Bank and Mizuho Trust respectively, and the retirement of Tatsuo Kainaka effective late June 2014. Several other appointments and departures were also revealed in time for the April 25 AGM.

Singapore
Temenos, the technology solutions provider that caters to the financial services industry, named Martin Frick as head for its Asia-Pacific operations. He has served as senior executive of Raiffeisen Bank in Switzerland, as well as executive director and head of custody processing service at UBS. More recently, he has been working in banking technology and was previously managing director of Asia-Pacific at Avaloq.

Sumit Puri, a former executive director at Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management, was appointed to the global Indian team of Citi Private Bank in Singapore. His move to Citigroup represents a return to the US-headquartered business. He worked at Goldman from March 2011; at Citi, he had worked there from 2008 for three years, according to his Linkedin profile.

Standard Chartered Bank appointed Singaporean Lim Cheng Teck as chief executive for its ASEAN markets. Lim was previously CEO and executive vice chairman of Standard Chartered Bank (China); prior to this, he was CEO of the bank in Singapore. He reports to the UK-listed bank’s CEO for Asia, Jaspal Bindra.

Australia and New Zealand Bank named Sameer Sawhney, currently the managing director of global transaction banking, as the head of global banking, international and institutional banking. In the interim, Sawhney's previous role is assumed by Alan Huse, head of transaction banking sales for Australia and New Zealand, until a permanent replacement is named.

Singapore-headquartered DBS Bank appointed Neal Cross as managing director and chief innovation officer, technology and operations. Cross joined from MasterCard, where he was responsible for driving innovation as vice president of MasterCard Labs in the company’s Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa regions. A spokesperson for DBS told this publication that Steve Monaghan had been the previous chief innovation officer at the firm but gave few other details about Monaghan's plans.

Morrison & Foerster expanded its Asian private equity practice with the appointment of Shirin Tang as corporate partner based in Singapore. Tang stepped in from Shearman & Sterling, where she led a range of cross-border transactions and worked in the firm's New York office for almost six years.

Morrison & Foerster, the international law firm that caters to financial services firms, appointed Shirin Tang as a corporate partner in Singapore. Tang stepped in from Shearman & Sterling, where she led a range of cross-border transactions and worked in the firm's New York office for almost six years.

Mercer named Dion Groeneweg as partner, HR transformation and workforce planning leader for Asia, Middle East, African and Latin America. This role was expanded recently to include Africa and Latin America. Groeneweg previously led his own company, The Cape Group, in Singapore. He reports to Susan Haberman, talent business leader for growth markets.