The latest roundup of moves for the industry in the Asia-Pacific region.

Deutsche Bank made a raft of senior appointments in Asia and the Middle East. 

Sub-regional coverage continued under the existing structure but Africa coverage was consolidated to become “Global South Asia & Africa (GSA&A).” This married the bank’s Non-Resident Indians East Africa coverage with Paul Sayers’ team covering South and West Africa.

Esther Wong was named head of institutional wealth management and family offices. She is market head within Southeast Asia, based in Singapore and leads the institutional wealth management initiative. Elsewhere, Rajesh Madahevan remained head of global South Asia and Africa (GSA&A) (based in Dubai). Johanes Oeni stayed as head of wealth management for Southeast Asia (based in Singapore); Kanas Chan remained as head of wealth management – North Asia (based in Hong Kong); and Amit Bhatia stayed on as head of wealth management – India Onshore (based in Dubai).

Julius Baer appointed four senior bankers, based in Switzerland, to serve clients linked to Asia-Pacific region:

Fernando Kresna Baay, team head, APAC Switzerland. Baay reports to Christian Cappelli, head of APAC Switzerland. He joined from Credit Suisse where he was mostly recently a senior relationship manager covering Singapore, Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia. He was previously at Citi Private Bank where he spent 17 years as a RM. Abraham Ara and Jacqlyn Mak, who joined the team, both came from Credit Suisse. Christophe Amadieu, senior RM, joined the team and reports to Gideon Dessauer, team head of APAC Switzerland. Amadieu was previously at UBS where he spent 14 years as a RM.

Bank of Singapore appointed Harjeet Singh and Mohan Subramaniam as market heads to the support growth of its non-resident India business in Southeast Asia. They report to Rodney Sin, who oversees the NRI segment in the region, on top of his responsibilities as global market head of Greater China and North Asia, including Japan.

Brookfield Oaktree Wealth Solutions, an alternative investments house, appointed client relationship managers for its Asia-Pacific team. The North America-listed business hired Mandy Lee and Nobuhiro Sato, based in Singapore and Tokyo respectively. Lee, who oversees Southeast Asia distribution, joined with more than 18 years of experience and links with wealth, asset management, and global markets. She most recently served as co-head of Asia private bank distribution at Blackrock. Sato joined from Schroders Investment Management (Japan) Limited, where he was a senior RM covering Japanese distributor groups. 

BNY Mellon appointed Nelius De Groot as head of markets and execution services for Asia Pacific. Based in Singapore, De Groot leads the growth strategy and direction of the markets and execution services business for the region. He has more than 30 years’ experience in capital markets and transaction banking, previously serving in senior leaderships roles with Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank and other major global institutions in London, New York and Singapore. 

Charles Russell Speechlys appointed Stephen Chan as a partner in its litigation and dispute resolution department. Chan joined the firm’s Hong Kong office from Ince & Co in Hong Kong.

TMF Group appointed Tim Houghton as global head of private wealth and family office services. Houghton, who reports to Daniel Max, TMF Group’s head of global solutions, also works with Aynsley Vaughan, who continued as the global leader for the group’s GEM services. Houghton joined the provider of compliance and administrative services, TMF Group, in March 2019. James Coughlan became the sole market head for the British Isles and Ireland (BII) market, reporting to Frank Welman, TMF Group’s Head of EMEA.

Stewart Investors appointed Elizabeth Trinh as head of institutional distribution, Asia-Pacific. Trinh joined from American Century Investments, where she spent nearly 14 years in a number of leadership roles across Asia-Pacific. Most recently, Trinh was head of American Century Investment Management (Asia-Pacific).

Harneys Fiduciary appointed Joe Cheung as the managing director of its Hong Kong office. Prior to this, he managed the Hong Kong office of Equiom, a global private client trust company. He also worked at Vistra and the Sovereign Group.

BNP Paribas Wealth Management appointed Kate Lin as head of wealth management for Taiwan from October, replacing Tina Hsieh who retired. Lin, who has more than 25 years of experience in the banking industry, leads the wealth management Taiwan onshore teams. She served as Taiwan head of consumer, private and business banking at Standard Chartered Bank Taiwan for seven years. Prior to that, she was Taiwan sales and distribution director at Citibank, where she began her career. Lin reports to Arnaud Tellier, and functionally to Manon Breuvart. She succeeded Tina Hsieh, who retired in October.

T Rowe Price appointed Nicholas Tong as the head of Southeast Asia intermediary distribution. Tong is based in Singapore. Most recently he worked at Wellington Management where he was a vice president responsible for developing business with strategic private and retail banking clients in Singapore. Previously, he served in distribution roles at UBS Asset Management, PIMCO, and M&G Investments.

Manulife Investment Management named Kenny Lam as chief investment officer and head of transactions, Asia-Pacific real estate. Lam first joined Manulife Investment Management in 2017 as head of Asia real estate investments, after which he took on the role of chief investment officer (strategic investment) at Link REIT in 2022.

Bank of America named Gautam Puntambekar as the country head for Malaysia. He previously led the firm’s Corporate Banking Subsidiaries (CBK-S) regional banking team in Singapore. He joined the bank in India in 2005, and moved to Singapore in 2012. Puntambekar reports to Jin Su, Asia-Pacific president.

DWS, the asset manager, appointed Koichiro Obu as head of real estate, Japan in addition to his role as head of real estate research, Asia-Pacific. Obu reports to Singapore-based Christopher Kimm, head of real estate, Asia-Pacific. He has retained his existing reporting line to London-based Simon Wallace, global co-head of real estate research, EMEA and APAC. Obu joined DWS in 2007.

Matthews Asia appointed Sean Taylor as chief investment officer. Taylor, who has over 25 years of global experience within the investment management industry, joined from DWS Group where he was most recently chief investment officer APAC and head of emerging markets. Taylor’s appointment followed Robert Horrocks, PhD, chief investment officer and portfolio manager’s decision to step back from his current leadership responsibilities. 

Raffles Family Office appointed former Deutsche Bank senior figure Kevin King as managing director, head of greater China. King, who has almost 20 years’ experience working with Chinese business founders, was market head for China at Deutsche Bank International Private Bank. Previously, he was head of wealth management, China Market at BNP Paribas. He also spent 10 years with Citi Private Bank before joining BNP. Based in Hong Kong, he reports to Chi-man Kwan, group CEO and RFO’s founder.

Nomura appointed former senior Deutsche Bank figure Anurag Mahesh to join its international wealth management arm. Based in Singapore, Mahesh is responsible for the business’s client relationship management teams for Southeast Asia, global South Asia and the Middle East. The role is a newly-created post.

Capital Group named two fixed income investment directors as part of its Asia-Pacific team. Manusha Samaraweera is fixed income investment director for APAC ex-Japan, and based in Singapore. He has about 15 years of experience, most recently as fixed income and ESG strategist at PIMCO, where he represented its global fixed income and ESG investment solutions to Asian clients.

Haran Karunakaran, who was a director in Capital Group’s investment product services team in Singapore, was appointed fixed income investment director for APAC with a focus on Australia; he relocated to Sydney. Karunakaran has 18 years of industry experience and has been with Capital Group for two years, joining from PIMCO where he was senior vice president and fixed income strategist.

OCBC – parent of Bank of Singapore – made high-level leadership changes affecting ASEAN-Greater China coverage. Wang Ke, chief executive of OCBC Wing Hang China, became head of Greater China, succeeding Tan Wing Ming, who returned to Singapore as an advisor to the Group CEO. Ang Eng Siong, deputy president and head of corporate banking at OCBC Wing Hang China, became the acting CEO of that operation. 

Wang joined the OCBC Group in 2012 as the head of IT in China; his responsibilities were expanded to include operations in 2014. He was appointed the head of Pearl River Delta region in 2017, then became CEO of OCBC Wing Hang China in 2019. Ang has been with OCBC since 2009. He spent six years in Singapore in various roles across risk management, finance and business development. As part of OCBC’s talent development programme, Ang moved from Singapore to China in 2015. He was appointed China’s chief risk officer in 2018 and head of corporate banking in 2022. 

M&G Investments appointed Amy Cho as Asia-Pacific head and CEO of M&G Investments Singapore, subject to regulatory approval. Cho was most recently CEO of Hong Kong, and deputy head of Asia-Pacific at Schroders. She succeeded Loretta Ng who decided to leave M&G to pursue personal aspirations. Before joining Schroders in 2018, Cho held senior positions at Pictet Asset Management, First State Investments, HSBC Asset Management and Citibank.

UBS appointed new business sector heads for its wealth business in Thailand and the Philippines: Boriboon Niyomsathien serves as BSH for global wealth management Thailand and Robert Rohner is BSH for the Philippines. Niyomsathien has been at the Swiss bank for almost 18 years.

Benno Klingenberg-Timm, a former senior UBS figure, was appointed by California-headquartered Capital Group as head of its institutional Europe and Asia client group. He is based in Singapore. Prior to Capital Group, he worked at UBS for a total of 21 years in various roles, most recently (since June 2023), as head of the institutional and global sovereign markets group for Asia-Pacific, and held the post of managing director.

Deutsche Bank appointed Ted Lim as managing director and cluster head for Southeast Asia. The firm also named Jean Koh as a vice president, also reporting to Eleanor Lam, one of the market heads of SEA. They are based in Singapore.

JP Morgan appointed one of its own, Harshika Patel, to be the new chief executive of its Asia private bank. Patel took the slot vacated by KIam Shing Kwang, who became north Asia chair at the US group. Kwang was CEO of the Asia private bank for more than six years. Patel reports to Martin Marron, CEO of the international private bank and Filippo Gori, CEO of JP Morgan in Asia-Pacific, regionally. Before taking on this post, Patel worked at the JP Morgan corporate and investment banking business in Asia. She retained her existing role as CEO of JP Morgan Hong Kong. Patel, who is also head of strategy, Asia at the bank, joined JP Morgan in 2013. Kwang reports to Gori. She has been with the firm for 25 years, and has held a variety of senior positions between Hong Kong and Singapore.

Citigroup named Johanna Chua as its new head of emerging markets economic research. She remains in Hong Kong and took over from London-based David Lubin. Chua joined the US banking group in 2000 and has been head of its economics team across the pan-Asia region since 2009, including China, India, and Korea.