The start of 2018 proved to be a brisk one for appointments and moves in the Asia-Pacific region.

JP Morgan Asset Management appointed Marie-Claire Bolton and Masami Takizawa as executive directors, global real estate client portfolio Mmanagement. Both were new positions.

Bolton is based in London and reports to Pete Reilly, head of real estate Europe. Bolton joined from the JPMorgan Private Bank, where she was a senior investment advisor for the UK investment team and was responsible for business development and maintaining strategic client relationships. Takizawa is based in Tokyo and reports to Ben Aiken, head of real estate Asia-Pacific client portfolio management. Takizawa joined from UBS Asset Management, where she was co-head of real estate and private markets, Japan.

Vontobel Investment Banking appointed Long Lee as head of financial products for Asia, which the firm said is part of further planned growth of its business in Asia-Pacific. Lee previously was CEO of Leonteq Securities Hong Kong. He si responsible for Vontobel’s entire structured products business in Asia-Pacific with a focus on Hong Kong and Singapore. Lee is based in Hong Kong.

After obtaining degrees in Economics and Statistics from Berkeley and Harvard, he began his career in 2000 as Trader in Hong Kong at Bank of China International and BBVA, among other institutions. In mid-2010, Lee joined Leonteq Securities Hong Kong, where he held positions including Head of Trading Asia before being appointed CEO in 2014.

J Safra Sarasin named Vinay Gandhi as chief executive of its Singapore operation, effective immediately, as the bank adds 25 new relationship managers. Based in Singapore, Gandhi, who joined the bank in March last year, continues to report to Enid Yip, Asia CEO. The ultra-high net worth division in Asia continues to report to him.

Financial services firm Chubb appointed Edward Ler as the new country president for its general insurance business in Korea. Ler replaced Edward Kopp, who was recently appointed as the new country president for Chubb's general insurance business in Thailand. He joined Chubb in 2013 as senior vice president and regional head of personal lines, which includes oversight for motor, residential, high net worth and specialty personal lines. Ler continues to report to Paul McNamee, Chubb's regional president for Asia-Pacific. The firm appointed Soledad Mune, who succeeded Ler as the new Asia-Pacific head of personal lines.

Presently chief underwriting officer, personal insurance for Chubb overseas general, Muné is responsible for ensuring the continued profitability of the company's international auto and residential insurance portfolios. 

Zurich-based additiv, a provider of digitalisation solutions to the financial services industry, hired Adrian Weiss, regional head wealth management advisory APAC and EMEA at Citibank. Weiss leads a team of sales, channel and product managers to grow the market in the South East and North Asia, with a focus on additiv's "Digital Finance-as-a-Service" offering, including digital cloud-based wealth management solutions as robo-advisor as a service. He is based on Singapore.

Deutsche Bank Wealth Management appointed Aleksandar Pfajfer as managing director and head of lending and deposits Asia-Pacific, and Tony Tan as director and head of strategic lending Asia. Based in Hong Kong, Pfajfer reports to Balaji Prasanna, global head of lending and deposits and Lok Yim, head of APAC. He was previously head of banking and lending at Credit Suisse. He has over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry and has worked in London, Zurich, New York and Hong Kong. Tan reports to Mitch Matharu, global head of strategic lending; and head of lending Southeast Asia and South Asia. He is based in Singapore. He joined from Nomura Investment Banking, where he ran its Principal Finance Group covering Asia including Australia. Tan previously worked at Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch.

Financial services firm Ping An appointed Donald Lacey Jr. and Dr. Marco Huesch as managing Director and chief operating officer, and managing director and chief medical officer, of the Ping An Global Voyager Fund and Ping An's group innovation office, respectively. Lacey and Huesch joined the team led by Jonathan Larsen, the chief innovation officer of the group and chairman and chief executive of the fund, to identify global fintech and healthtech opportunities. Lacey joined from Citigroup's corporate and investment banking division, where he worked as a managing director in a variety of senior roles across Asia-Pacific. Prior to joining the fund, Huesch was a vice chair of research and an associate professor at Penn State Hershey Medical Center in the US.

Savills Investment Management, the real estate-focused fund manager, made a spread of appointments to its senior management team. Chairman and chief executive Justin O’Connor relocated to Hong Kong “to drive growth in the region” where he also acts as CEO of its Asia-Pacific operation. Nick Cooper, who joined in January last year as a senior advisor, was appointed deputy chairman with oversight of global investor services, focusing on client relationships.

Giuseppe Oriani, current head of Italy, became CEO of Savills IM’s European business, leading its 13 offices and 250 staff. Harry de Ferry Foster, fund manager of the firm’s charities property fund, and Jon Crossfield, head of strategic partnerships in Europe, were made co-heads for the UK. Carolina von Groddeck, who in recent years has overseen the liquidation of the firm’s German SEB mutual funds, became head of Germany and will be responsible for growing the business in this market.  

Carolina von Groddeck, who in recent years has overseen the liquidation of the firm’s German SEB mutual funds, becomes head of Germany and will be responsible for growing the business in this market.  
Deutsche Bank Wealth Management hired three new managing directors in Asia, based in Singapore and covering the Non-Resident Indian market in the Southeast Asia region. Rasik Ahuja joined the German firm from Union Bancaire Privée, where he had been desk head – NRI & South Asia since 2014. Sagar Sapra came from Standard Chartered Bank where he was principal director since 2011. And Swapnil Mishra previously worked at BSI Bank where he was deputy head of GSA Business for eight years. 

Investment firm Fidelity International appointed of Hugh Prendergast as global head of product. In this newly created role, Prendergast brings together and lead Fidelity’s product teams based around the world and will be responsible for continuing to develop its global product strategy. He reports into Bart Grenier, global head of asset management. Prendergast has over 20 years’ experience in asset management and has spent the last 16 years at Pioneer Investments. His most recent role was as head of strategic product and marketing, where he led the product development and marketing functions for Europe, Latin America, US offshore and Asia. 

Eastspring Investments appointed Colin Graham as chief investment officer for its multi-asset solutions business. Graham reports to Virginie Maisonneuve, CIO for Eastspring. He has more than 25 years of asset management experience, predominantly in global and Asian multi asset solutions. Most recently he served as CIO, multi asset solutions for BNP Paribas Investment Partners in London. 

St James’s Place Wealth Management Asia, the international business of UK-listed St James’s Place, appointed Gary Harvey as its chief executive, taking the reins from Nigel Preston, who returned to the UK having led the Singapore business since 2015.

Harvey most recently was CEO at Nexus Financial Services, a role he held from 2015. He has worked in the financial services sector for almost 30 years, including operational and strategic experience at CEO level. Harvey, a Singapore citizen, has over 20 years of experience in Asia and has been based in Singapore for the last 15 years. Previously, Harvey had an 18-year stint at AXA, including holding the position of CEO at AXA Life Singapore. He was also regional CEO at IPAC Wealth Management Asia. Harvey also worked for the Singapore Branch of Transamerica Life (Bermuda) prior to joining Nexus.

Law firm Rawlinson & Hunter Singapore appointed Katharine Haggie as a tax manager, transferring from the firm’s offices in London where she was part of the managerial team of the business tax department. Haggie has more than ten years’ experience covering private client tax, all aspects of the taxation of companies and accounting and compliance for corporates with a UK presence.  She also took over as manager of the tax team in Singapore.

Financial services firm Chubb appointed two new hires to its personal lines insurance operation in Singapore, which has just set up a new division comprising of personal risk services. It appointed Bernard Tan as division head of personal lines, and Regina Baxter as manager of PRS and regional fine arts specialist. Tan reports to Adam Clifford, country president for Chubb in Singapore. Tan has been at the firm for more than 10 years. Most recently, he was responsible for the management and expansion of Chubb's high net worth insurance.  In his new role, Tan will manage and drive the strategic growth of Chubb's personal lines portfolio across multiple distribution channels. 

Baxter reports to Tan. Baxter joined Chubb in 2011 as an underwriter, and in 2016, she was appointed as the region’s fine arts specialist. In her new role, Baxter is responsible for the management and profitability of the PRS portfolio, including all underwriting and market-facing functions.

James Hambro & Partners recruited Asia specialist Camilla Cecil in Hong Kong. She was previously deputy fund manager of the Ruffer Pacific fund. She moves from Hong Kong to London. Cecil spent six years at Ruffer, the last two of which involved working with the firm’s Head of Asia in Hong Kong. She made regular company visits across the region. Her appointment follows JH&P’s recruitment last year of the US and global equity specialist, William Francklin. 

Standard Chartered appointed Bob Fabrizio as its head of production stability and resilience for retail, private banking and wealth management in its technology services business. Fabrizio is responsible for production support services. He previously spent just under two years as Singapore-based DBS’s head of platform support for consumer banking group technology. 

Global alternative asset manager The Carlyle Group appointed Wanlin Liu to its private equity team as a managing director and will lead the team’s growth investments in China. She is based in Shanghai. Prior to joining Carlyle, Liu was a managing director of the principal investment area (PIA) of Goldman Sachs in Asia.

Credit Suisse appointed Björn Jesch to take the role of head of investment solutions and products (IS&P) investment management, taking over from José Antonio Blanco, who led the team over the past four years. Jesch reports to global chief investment officer, Michael Strobaek. Until April 1, Blanco continued to be responsible for IS&P Investment Management. 

Jesch previously worked at Union Investment, a Frankfurt-based asset manager, where he served as CIO and head of fund management. Prior to that, he spent six years at Deutsche Bank, where he served as CIO and head of portfolio management of private wealth management, and was a member of the executive board of Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management.

Schroders appointed Reginald Tan as head of multi-asset product, Southeast Asia and he is based in Singapore. Tan previously worked at Amundi Singapore, where he was director, head of multi-asset strategies for South Asia. Before this role, he held senior posts at First State Investments, Mercury Asset Management, Koeneman Capital Management and Barclays Global Investors. Tan reports to Garth Taljard, who is head of multi-asset management. 

Hermes Investment Management appointed Lin Chew to its Asia-Pacific business development team as a director. She reports to Jakob Nilsson, head of business development, APAC. Based in Singapore, Lin is responsible for managing engagement with the company’s clients and prospects across the region as it continues to grow its local footprint. Lin’s focus will include providing analysis and insight into Asian markets, helping raise third party assets and delivering on new business targets. Lin was most recently at Winton Capital Asia, where she helped manage and develop the strategic growth of the business in the region. She has also held roles at Standard Chartered Bank, Lehman Brothers, Citibank and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

BNY Mellon Investment Management appointed Phoebe Ao Ieong as head of intermediary distribution, Greater China. She is responsible for growing relationships with third party distributors and private banks in Greater China. She will focus on providing clients access to BNY Mellon’s suite of investment managers across every major asset class including equities, fixed income, private debt and private equity. She is based in Hong Kong, reporting to Nicolas Kopitsis, head of intermediary distribution, Asia-Pacific ex-Japan. Phoebe Ao Ieong has over 10 years’ experience in private banking, wealth management and asset management industries. She most recently spent two years at Asian fixed income manager Income Partners, Hong Kong as director, head of private bank and retail bank distribution.

Tata Asset Management appointed Prathit Bhobe as its new chief executive and managing director. Prior to this move, he was senior general manager at ICICI Bank and heads the retail liabilities product, wealth management and private banking business. Bhobe has been with ICICI Bank for more than 11 years. Before this, he worked at Citibank for eight years.

Executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles announced a new regional leader for Asia-Pacific, Stephen McAlinden, taking over from Steve Mullinjer, who pursues client work for the chief executive and board practice globally. McAlinden leads 14 offices across Asia-Pacific while continuing his client work as a partner focusing on corporate and investment banking. McCrindle steps into the role as partner-in-charge of the Hong Kong office while continuing to serve as partner in the Financial Services Practice. McAlinden has served as partner-in-charge of the firm's Hong Kong office and as a core member of the financial service practice, focusing on Asian corporate and investment banking and markets. He has more than 25 years' experience in leadership search. He joined Heidrick & Struggles eight years ago and has placed executives across senior management within investment banks, securities firms, asset management companies, commercial banks and other financial institutions.
 

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Avaloq set out the range of hires it has made in recent weeks. The firm brought three new members to its group executive board. Chris Beukers was named regional manager for Asia-Pacific, Tobias Unger was appointed regional manager for Switzerland and Liechtenstein, and Brian Hurdis was made chief service delivery officer. As previously stated, Peter Scott decided to leave the company, having worked at Avaloq since 2013. He was involved in setting up the Singapore service centre, creating three new regional offices in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong and forging deals with customers including Maybank, Deutsche Bank, Citic, Bank of Asia and Crestone.  He remains in Singapore.

Vontobel Asset Management appointed Andreas Faeste as senior institutional relationship manager for its business in Australia and New Zealand. Faeste focuses on distributing Vontobel’s fixed income capabilities. With more than 20 years of experience in the Australian market, particularly in fixed income, Faeste previously was engaged by firms including Voya Investment Management, Perennial Investment Partners and Deutsche Asset Management through his own marketing firm. Prior to this, he held executive management positions at both ING Investment Management and IAG Asset Management.

The vice chairman and non-executive director of the board of China Merchants Bank resigned for work reasons, leaving the bank’s board and as a member of the strategy committee. Xiaopeng confirmed that he has no disagreement with the board of directors, and there is no matter that needs to be brought to the attention of the shareholders and creditors of the company. He served as a non-executive director of CMB since November 2014 and as the vice chairman since November 2015. The firm has not stated if anyone will replace Xiaopeng on the board. 

India-based Waterfield Advisors, took on a raft of senior figures over the past three months as it builds out its family office business. Recent senior hires included those of Kartik Kini, chief operating officer (previously at Avendus, Deutsche Bank and DSP Merrill Lynch); Gautami Shah, vice president, investment solutions – listed assets (previously AXIS AMC, Crisil); Deshan Tucker, assistant vice president, private equity (previously Avendus, EValuserve, Grant Thornton); Puja Shah, VP, relationship management (previously Deutsche Bank, ICICI Prudential, HDFC Bank); Tanvi Savla, VP, relationship management (previously DSP Merrill Lynch, Kotak); Sahil Grover, VP, relationship management (previously Avendus, Citibank).

Other additions were Apali Acharya, AVP, relationship management (previously Credence, EntrustFamily Office); Irshaad Kadwani, executive director, relationship management (previously Jardine Fleming, Merrill Lynch and Julius Baer); Niharika Bakliwal, manager, relationship management (Avendus, Tresvista), Saket Kamble, manager, client services (previously BNP Paribas, Credence, Alchemy) and Pankaj Sharma, manager, client services (previously working at Tata AMC, Standard Chartered AMC).

Butler Snow, the international law firm, appointed John Shoemaker, a lawyer with a background in areas including trusts, wealth management and private client work to its business services practice group. He is based in Singapore. Shoemaker has more than 25 years of experience in legal and regulatory compliance. His background includes common law with an educational emphasis on taxation, trusts and estate planning, including extensive experience in ensuring multi-jurisdictional compliance for product offerings, the firm said.

Julius Baer hired Lionel Poh as a relationship manager in Asia. Poh was formerly an investment advisor at Standard Chartered Private Bank. Poh has worked at the Zurich-listed bank before, having been director of the bank's funds advisory team for almost five years, before joining Standard Chartered in 2015. He also worked at BNP Paribas.

 

US-headquartered Affiliated Managers Group appointed Kevin Haran as managing director of its Australia office. He took over from Gregor Rennie, who stepped down. Haran joined AMG at the start of this year as MD and head of distribution for Australia and New Zealand. He will be based in Sydney and has more than 15 years of sales and distribution experience in the local asset management industry. Most recently Haran was head of institutional sales for Australia and New Zealand at Natixis Investment Managers. Prior this, he held senior sales positions at Macquarie and Colonial First State.

Financial planning industry veterans Miles Goosemann and Martin Rimmer joined St James’s Place Wealth Management Asia, the international arm of UK-listed St James’s Place. The men focus on providing wealth management services to affluent and high net worth expatriates and Singaporeans. 

Safra Sarasin Singapore's head, Benedikt Maissen, left the firm, having been in the post since 2016. Prior to joining Bank J Safra Sarasin, Maissen worked at Societe Generale in Switzerland.

Credit Suisse appointed a pair of investment professionals in its Asia region. The appointees were Eddy Loh, named as senior investment strategist, and Julian Wee, investment strategist. Both men are based in Singapore and report to John Woods, chief investment officer, Asia-Pacific, Credit Suisse. Loh brings 14 years of investment management experience. He is responsible for developing regional discretionary and advisory investment strategies across multi-asset classes for private and institutional clients in Asia-Pacific. He joined Credit Suisse in December 2017 from Bank of Singapore where he was an executive director and a member of the investment counselling team.

Steven Seow, the head of Mercer’s head of wealth in Asia, left the consultancy firm to create his own business that converts bankers into management consultants. In his new role, Seow is executive director of Singapore Consultancy. At Mercer, he was head of wealth management Asia from October 2013 to December last year. Seow is well known to this publication and has been a judge for this news service’s wealth management awards programme in Asia. Seow is based out of Singapore.

Dr Mark Mobius, a man whose name has become identified with the world of emerging market investing, retired from Franklin Templeton Investments, ending a career of more than 30 years with that company. Dr Mobius spent more than 40 years working in emerging markets all over the world. He was hired by the late Sir John Templeton in 1987 to launch one of the first mutual funds dedicated to emerging markets. He oversaw Templeton’s emerging markets team from 1987 to 2016.

HSBC Singapore appointed veteran senior manager Cameron Senior as head of wealth and international. Senior has been at HSBC for 19 years. He has held various role at the firm, including his most recent position as head of distribution Singapore.

Fidelity International appointed Bart Grenier as global head of asset management, a newly-created role at the firm. Grenier reports to Brian Conroy, president at Fidelity International. He joined from Fidelity Investments, where he held the role of head of investment solutions and innovation. He was previously chairman, chief executive and CIO at The Boston Company Asset Management, and was also CIO and managing director of DB Advisors at Deustche Asset Management.

Knight Frank, the independent global property consultancy, appointed Victoria Garrett as the head of residential for Asia-Pacific, based in Singapore. Garrett is responsible for growing and developing Knight Frank’s residential business in APAC, which includes the marketing of overseas and local developments, sales and leasing. Prior to moving to Singapore, Garrett spent four years in Dubai, where she was head of the new homes team covering the Middle East selling investment and prime residential properties to clients. Garrett started in real estate 13 years ago in London. 

Financial services firm Mercer appointed Janet Li as Asia wealth business leader. This is a newly-created role. Li reports to Lisa Sun, zone leader, South and East Asia, and she is based in Hong Kong. In her new role, Li leads the Wealth business team including both investments and retirement in South and East Asia. She previously worked for Willis Towers Watson.

Law firm Carey Olsen appointed Chinese and common law layer Yang Yang to its dispute resolution and insolvency practice in Hong Kong. Yang has previously worked for international law firm Ince & Co in both its Shanghai and London offices. He was an associate in HFW's Melbourne office prior to joining Carey Olsen.

Global financial services firm Franklin Templeton Investments appointed Terence Bong as head of wholesale Southeast Asia, and Dora Seow as head of distribution, institutional and wholesale business Southeast Asia. The firm also appointed Woon Pin Chong as managing director of Franklin Real Asset Advisors, responsible for the Asia-Pacific region. Bong has more than a decade of industry experience and expertise in the asset management industry. Prior to joining Franklin Templeton, Bong held a similar leadership position as head of intermediary business development for Asia at Nikko Asset

Management. Before that, he spent 10 years at Schroders. His last position there was head of private banks distribution, based in Singapore and Hong Kong. Bong will report to Seow, who took on a new role as head of distribution, institutional and wholesale business Southeast Asia. Based in Singapore, Seow reports to Adam Quaife, co-chief executive of Templeton Asset Management.

Chong leads FRAA’s APAC investment team in research, analysis and transactions of private real estate investment opportunities in the region, and define market insights and investment themes. Based in Singapore, Chong has over two decades of experience and expertise in the real estate industry. Prior to joining Franklin Templeton, he was a managing director at Savant Global Capital. Chong was also Asia managing director for Australian investment manager Centuria Capital.

Generali Asia appointed Cillin O’Flynn as chief executive for its Hong Kong operation, taking the reins from Phuong Chung. He reports to Roberto Leonardi, regional officer for Asia. O’Flynn joined the firm in 2010 as chief operating officer for its pan European business, which required him to work across the global business lines with a focus on wealth management.

Canada-basedManulife Asset Management appointed Chan Hock Fai as head of equities in Singapore. Hock Fai's is responsible to lead all of the Singapore-based equity strategies and have oversight of the local team of equities investment professionals. He has over 20 years of industry experience of Singapore's asset management sector. Prior to joining Manulife Asset Management, Hock Fai was director of investment at Amundi Asset Management in Singapore, where he managed Singapore, regional (Asia Pacific ex-Japan) and global multi-asset portfolios.