April was a lively month for appointments in the Asian wealth management industry, producing high-level changes at firms such as HSBC, Standard Chartered and BSI.

Citigroup appointed long-serving senior manager Christine Lam as country officer for China. She reports to Francisco Aristeguieta, chief executive of Citi Asia-Pacific. In the role, Lam succeeded Andrew Au, who retired from Citigroup. Lam is a 33-year Citigroup veteran, whose previous role was head of operations and technology for Asia-Pacific. Citigroup has located many global operations and technology functions to the region including O&T centres of excellence in China, India, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore.

Vontobel Wealth Management appointed Joannes Ho as executive director and senior relationship manager in Hong Kong. Ho has over 30 years of experience in the private banking industry. Ho was previously a director at CTBC Bank, serving high net worth clients in Greater China. Before that, he spent more than a decade at EFG Bank as managing director, covering Greater China, Japan and Singapore.

In the newly-created role, Ho will report to Alex Fung, Vontobel Wealth Management's Asia-Pacific chief executive.

Nick Pollard, a former top bank executive at Coutts in Asia, took up the role of managing director, Asia-Pacific at the CFA Institute, the global association of investment professionals.

Based in Hong Kong, Pollard supports the CFA Institute across the Asia-Pacific region. Paul Smith held the role previously, keeping the position on an interim basis after he was appointed as president and chief executive of the CFA Institute globally in January 2015. Pollard previously served as CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland’s Coutts Asia division, and most recently was head of international learning and professional development for Coutts International. (Last year, that business was acquired from RBS by Geneva-headquartered Union Bancaire Privée.) Pollard’s career spans more than 30 years across banking, wealth management and talent development.

A senior figure in Asia left Pictet. James Hughes, who was based in Hong Kong at the bank, catering to the market for UK expatriates, left the Swiss bank. Before joining Pictet, he worked at HSBC Private Bank.

M&G Investments appointed former PIMCO senior figure Taro Shiroyama to the newly-created role of managing director for institutional business development in Japan. Based in Tokyo, he reports to Marcel de Bruijckere, director of institutional business, Asia-Pacific. The latter is based at M&G’s Singapore office. Shiroyama has more than 18 years of experience in the Japanese market. Prior to joining M&G, he was head of the Tokyo product and solutions team at PIMCO Japan, covering client and consultant relationship management and providing portfolio analysis to institutional investors. He started his career with Goldman Sachs Asset Management Japan.

BSI, the Switzerland-headquartered private bank, named Renato Cohn, a board member, as acting chief executive for BSI Singapore. Cohn took the helm from Raj Sriram, the current acting CEO. He decided to leave the bank and spend more time with his family, BSI said in a statement yesterday. Sriram has been with BSI since 2009.

Lim Cheng Teck, vice chairman of ASEAN at Standard Chartered, retired. He was not replaced.

Standard Chartered Bank's former Asia-Pacific chief executive, Jaspal Bindra, joined Centrum Group as executive chairman. Bindra, who has over 30 years of industry experience, spent the last 17 years at Standard Chartered. He previously held leadership positions at UBS and Bank of America.

Centaur Holdings, a global investment company which recently opened offices in Hong Kong, made two senior hires. Peter Wane joined as group chief financial officer. Previously, he served as finance director for the MENA region at Deutsche Bank. Wane brings over 30 years of finance experience in global markets. Sebastian Sachse, meanwhile, joined as group finance director. Sachse previously worked at a private investment organisation in the Dubai International Financial Centre. His experience also includes auditing large asset managers and hedge funds from his time at Ernst and Young. Wane took over from Nicolas Angio while Sachse's position was newly created.

The head of a Hong Kong team at Citi Private Bank, Raymond Cheung, left the US bank. Cheung, who had been at the bank for more than 12 years, was a senior banker at the firm.

Union Bancaire Privée hired a former BNP Paribas senior banker, Ricardo Choi, in Hong Kong. He has the post of managing director and team head for the Philippines market. 

Clifford Chance appointed Geraint Hughes as the next regional managing partner for its nine-office Asia-Pacific practice, spanning Greater China, North and South East Asia and Australia. He was due to take up the role in September 2016, taking over from Peter Charlton. Charlton returned to the UK having completed his term, spending eight years in the role.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group secured the regulatory green light to appoint Vishnu Shahaney, who has experience in sectors including private banking, as president director, PT Bank ANZ Indonesia (CEO ANZ Indonesia). He reports to the group executive, international, Farhan Faruqui. Shahaney has been CEO, ANZ Singapore since 2010, leading the Singapore business into its status as a qualified full bank and one of ANZ’s two regional business hubs in Asia. Shahaney has held a number of senior management positions across corporate, institutional, transaction banking and risk in Australia, Singapore and India, at ANZ. 

His previous roles include managing director, corporate banking, Australia; head of risk for corporate and private banking, Australia; head of transaction banking and specialised lending, Asia-Pacific, Europe and America; acting CEO for Asia and managing director for Greater Mekong. He took over from Joseph Abraham, who left after more than seven years in the role.

Pan-Asian insurer FWD Group appointed Michael Gordon as chairman of its investment committee. Previously, Gordon was part of Perpetual’s executive leadership team, where he was responsible for the investment business, with a team managing a portfolio of $22 billion for institutional and retail clients. He replaced group chief executive Huynh Thanh Phong in the role. Based in Sydney, he reports to the group board.

AMP Capital hired Geoff Wells as senior portfolio manager and Peter Harris as senior resources analyst. Wells joined from Macquarie Investment Management and previously served as head of Australian equities at GMO Australia. At AMP, he will be in charge of managing lower tracking error portfolios with exposure to momentum and value styles as well as the firm's fundamentals at risk analysis. Harris’s previous roles included those of chief economist at Shell Australia, head of resources research at JCP Investment Partners and resources analyst at CBA. Based in Sydney, Wells and Harris report to senior portfolio manager Michael Price.

NAB Asset Management, part of National Australia Bank, appointed Ross Kent as head of global institutional distribution, joining from Australia & New Zealand Banking Group. He took over from Rob Sullivan. At ANZ, he was institutional regional director at Dimensional Fund Advisors. He has also held the roles of CEO for Australia and New Zealand and executive director at AllianceBernstein.

IRESS appointed Dearne Price as head of human resources for the Asia-Pacific region. Price joined from wireless distributor Brightstar where she was regional HR director for Asia-Pacific, based in Melbourne. Based in Melbourne, Price reports to Julia McNeill, IRESS group executive for HR. She replaced Amanda Parish in the role.

Bank J Safra Sarasin appointed Benedikt Maissen as chief executive of its Singapore branch. He reports to Enid Yip, CEO for Asia and took over the role previously held by Eric Morin, who last year joined another Switzerland-based private bank, Union Bancaire Privee, to head up its Asian operations. A Swiss national, Maissen has more than 30 years of private banking experience, with 26 spent in Asia. Maissen joins from Societe Generale Private Banking (Suisse), where he has been head of the Zurich branch since January 2014.

Julius Baer appointed Eleanor Yuen as head of wealth and tax planning advisory in Asia with immediate effect. She is based in Hong Kong. Yuen reports to Luigi Vignola, head of markets and investment solutions group, Asia-Pacific, and functionally to Roger Stutz, global head wealth and tax planning. Yuen has 20 years of experience in the industry. Previously, she worked at Credit Suisse Trust for 11 years and was latterly global head of wealth planners. Before that, she held senior roles in trust administration and marketing at Citibank, Schroder Investment Management and HSBC International Trustee. 

HSBC Private Bank appointed Sandeep Sharma as head of global private banking, Southeast Asia, moving from the co-head role in that position. Sharma's post was newly created. Previously, Sharma shared responsibilities with former co-head Rob Ioannou, who has left the bank to pursue other opportunities. Based in Singapore, Sharma reports to HSBC Singapore’s chief executive, Guy Harvey-Samuel, and to the regional head of global private banking, Asia-Pacific, Bernard Rennell. Sharma held his previous role of co-head of global private banking, Southeast Asia, since his appointment in 2014.

The market manager for the North Asia high net worth business at JP Morgan left the firm. Edward Lim, who held the post, had joined in June 2011. He previously worked as head of private banking, North Asia, for DBS, the Singapore-headquartered bank. 

A senior private banker at HSBC with responsibility for Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, left the bank. The departing manager was Michael Hua, head of Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines. He was at the bank for around 12 years. Chris Harwood, who has been at the bank for 16 years, took on his responsibilities. It is understood that Hua has also taken with him Eng Luke, Malaysia team head.

Divya Menon joined Credit Suisse’s Asia-Pacific team in Hong Kong, starting from the beginning of April, holding the post of vice president and relationship manager covering non-resident Indian clients. Prior to this, she was an RM with DBS Private Bank in Hong Kong, covering NRI clients. She has been a private banker for more than 10 years and is a CFA charter holder. Tan Yee Kim, who was a desk head under David Shick at Credit Suisse, resigned. 

Blackstone unveiled a new Asia-Pacific leadership structure, involving a number of promotions.
The promotions include:  
- Chris Heady, the head of real estate Asia, was named Blackstone’s chairman of Asia-Pacific; 
- Jan Nielsen, leading the firm’s private equity investing in Southeast Asia, Japan and Korea and chief operating officer for Blackstone Capital Partners in the region, works with Heady as chief operating officer for all Blackstone businesses and administrative functions in Asia-Pacific; 
- Carol Kim, the ranking investor relations professional in Asia-Pacific, was named firm-wide COO of investor relations across the region;  
- Daisuke Kitta, head of the real estate group in Japan, was named head of Japan for all business and administrative functions along with his existing regulatory responsibility for the office; and 
- Susannah Lindenfield, head of international compliance, was named general counsel for Asia-Pacific and will continue to oversee compliance in the region.  

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group appointed Tessa Price, a former chief of staff to the bank’s chief executive, as regional executive in charge of the Pacific Islands. Price is the first woman to lead ANZ’s Pacific businesses. She reports to David Hisco, ANZ group executive and ANZ New Zealand CEO. Until the end of last year she was chief of staff to Mike Smith, based in Melbourne. (Smith stepped down late last year and was succeeded by Shayne Elliott.) Prior to this, Price was CEO of ANZ Bank's New Zealand subsidiary, UDC Finance, based in Auckland, for more than three years. Each of the Pacific country heads will report to Price.

Julius Baer hired David Shick from Credit Suisse as its new head of private banking in Greater China. Shick spent eight years at Credit Suisse, most recently as market leader for China and Taiwan within its private banking unit. He has over 25 years of industry experience, having previously served as a director at UBS's private banking division, where he helped to develop the South China business.

Based in Hong Kong, Shick reports to Jimmy Lee, head of Asia-Pacific at Julius Baer. He succeeded Kaven Leung who will be retiring. Leung, currently chief executive, North Asia and deputy head, Asia-Pacific, joined Julius Baer in 2012. He played a key role in the integration of the Merrill Lynch International Wealth Management business in Hong Kong. 

HSBC Private Bank appointed Fan Cheuk Wan as managing director, head of investment strategy and Lionel Kwok as managing director, head of sales management for Asia-Pacific. Cheuk Wan is responsible for developing regional investment strategies and themes across all asset classes. In this expanded regional role, she oversees the advisory framework and the sales management process. Prior to joining HSBC, Cheuk Wan was managing director and chief investment officer at Credit Suisse Private Banking in Asia-Pacific. 

AXA Investment Managers, part of the AXA group of financial businesses, appointed Pierre-Emmanuel Juillard as managing director of a new investment team. Most recently, Juillard served as a partner and the head of the structuring and securities division in Asia for Goldman Sachs. He also previously served as the head of structured finance at AXA IM. Juillard returning to the company to establish a new investment team focused on liquid absolute return strategies.

BSI Asia, part of the Swiss private bank BSI, appointed a new chief operating officer as the predecessor returned to Europe. The new COO for BSI Asia is Damiano Baj. He took over the helm from Gary Tucker, who has decided to leave BSI Group after six years as BSI Asia COO. 

Baj has been head of operations and IT at BSI in Singapore, working with Tucker since 2011. Baj has worked in IT, change management and operations since joining BSI Group in 2001.

Northern Trust appointed John McCareins to lead its asset management business across Asia-Pacific, taking over from Bo Kratz, who left the bank late last year. Based in the Hong Kong office, McCareins is responsible for overseeing Northern Trust’s asset management activities across Asia, Australia and New Zealand. McCareins reports functionally to Wayne Bowers, head of Northern Trust Asset Management, EMEA and APAC, and locally to William Mak, head of Northern Trust in APAC. 

With more than 18 years of investment experience, McCareins most recently was head of the retirement practice outsourced chief investment officer business within Northern Trust’s multi-manager solutions group.

The National University of Singapore and the Monetary Authority of Singapore jointly appointed a senior US-based academic for a month-long role in the Asian city-state. The organisations appointed Professor Steven Joseph Davis, who is the William H Abbott professor of international business and economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, as the MAS term professor in economics and finance.

The Asia-Pacific president of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, Vishnu Mohan, retired after 40 years in the banking industry. Mohan's career has seen him work in 11 countries across the Middle East, North America, Africa, Southeast Asia and most recently the Pacific. He had been at ANZ for more than seven years, having started his career with Standard Chartered Bank in 1977.  

The head of commercial in the Pacific, Saud Abdul Minam, became acting country head for Fiji.

UBS appointed Tracey Woon as vice chairman for UBS Wealth Management in Asia, a role based in Singapore. Woon reports to Joe Stadler, head of global UHNW, and Edmund Koh, head of wealth management, Asia-Pacific. Woon has more than 30 years of experience in the industry. She has worked on a wide range of corporate finance transactions from equity fund raising to debt offerings and advisory work, including take-overs of public companies in Singapore and Malaysia. Most recently, she was vice chairman of ASEAN corporate and investment banking at Citigroup. Before joining Citigroup in 2004, she was managing director and head of investment banking for Singapore and Malaysia at Merrill Lynch. 

Citi appointed a new chief economist for Asia, recruiting Li-Gang Liu, who was formerly chief economist, Greater China, at ANZ. He replaced Minggao Shen, who left to join a think tank in China. 

Prior to ANZ, Li-Gang held various research roles at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo, and the World Bank and Peterson Institute for International Economics, both in Washington DC. Li-Gang was named economist of the year by China Business News in 2012 and 2014. He was also awarded as one of the most accurate macro forecasters by China Securities Weekly in 2013.

National Australia Bank appointed Ciquiang Lu as new general manager of Greater China. He is based in Hong Kong and started his role at the beginning of March. Lu has more than 20 years of banking experience, most recently serving as senior country manager at Natixis. In this role, he was responsible for the bank’s China and Taiwan operations. He has also held senior roles with Société Générale, where he served most recently as chief operations officer, China.