May proved to be a busy month for moves and departures in the Asia-Pacific wealth management industry.

Manulife appointed Roy Gori as president. He replaced president and chief executive, Donald Guloien, who retired from the post.

Gori had served as a senior executive vice president and general manager of Manulife’s Asia division. Phil Witherington became  the firm’s interim CEO. Gori joined the firm in 2015 from Citi, where he served as head of consumer banking, North Asia and Australia, and regional head of retail banking APAC.

St James’s Place Wealth ManagementAsia appointed Sir Alan Collins as senior advisor to the SJP International Steering Committee. Collins has experience working in South East Asia, where he was a former British diplomat, which includes roles such as High Commissioner to Singapore, Ambassador to the Philippines, and director general of British Trade and Cultural office in Taiwan.

Hermes Investment Management, which oversees £30.8 billion ($39.5 billion) in client assets, appointed Tai Watanabe as business development assistant manager for the Asia-Pacific region. He is based in Singapore, reporting to Jakob Nilsson, head of Asia-Pacific and business development.

Kevin Wong joined HSBC Private Bank as its head of equities for Southeast Asia. Wong previously worked at Bank of Singapore and has more than 10 years of wealth management experience. Prior to BOS, he held various specialist advisory roles for both equities and derivatives at UBS and Citigroup.

Jill Carpenter was appointed as trust director for Rawlinson & Hunter in Singapore, having been head of private clients for large multi-national professional services firm in the Asia city-state. Prior to joining Rawlinson & Hunter, she gained experience in jurisdictions including Canada and Bermuda and almost seven years in Singapore. She holds a Management degree from the University of Lethbridge (Canada) as well as TEP (Trust and Estate Practitioner) and MTI (Member Trust Institute) designations.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group appointed Anna Green as the chief executive of the Philippines, reporting to David Green, chief executive for Singapore and head of Southeast Asia, India and the Middle East. Ms Green replaced Peter Chan as ANZ CEO for the Philippines. Chan became ANZ's CEO for Taiwan. Ms Green, who joined ANZ in 2004, is currently CEO for ANZ’s Laos operations and prior to that role, she held senior risk and regulatory roles with ANZ across the region. She has also practiced international banking and finance law in Sydney and London.

Indosuez Wealth Management recruited Edward Lo as a senior director in Hong Kong having previously worked at Standard Chartered Bank in Hong as a director. Lo has 15 years of experience in private and commercial banking.

Deutsche Bank Wealth Management nnounced a range of new hires to support growth in the Asia region, including four members of a new group in Hong Kong who will cover clients in Greater China. The team, led by Gloria Sun and reporting to Kanas Chan, head of wealth management coverage, North Asia, are responsible for acquiring new clients and raising assets in Greater China.  The four executives in the team joined Deutsche Bank WM from The Bank of East Asia Limited Hong Kong: Gloria Sun – managing director, group head; Winson Hung, director, investment advisor; Gary Lu – vice president, relationship manager, Nora Lai, assistant vice president, relationship manager. There are also nine new hires in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai who are responsible for client coverage, project management, IT and Know-Your-Client activities.

A former senior private banker at Credit Suisse, Jacqueline Too, joined Bank of Singapore as a senior relationship manager. At Credit Suisse, Too was an executive director for almost two years; prior to that, from September 2003 to July 2015, she was a senior director at Standard Chartered Private Bank.

Lombard Odier said its Asia head, Vincent Duhamel, was stepping down as chief executive in the region, taking up the post of Asia chairman. He had been the bank's Asia head for six years. Vincent Magnenat, CEO of the Singapore office and Asia head of private banking since early 2014, was appointed CEO for Asia, while holding his Singapore chief executive role. Magnenat continued to oversee Asia private banking from Singapore. Europe-based managing partners, Hubert Keller and Hugo Bänziger, remained members of the group’s Asia Board. Prior to joining Lombard Odier, Magnenat spent close to nine years at Société Générale, where he led regional sales and marketing activities for the private bank in Asia. He began his global private banking career at Credit Suisse in Switzerland and relocated to Singapore in 2002.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group appointed Yoshio Hishida to lead global business development of SuMi TRUST’s asset management business. A long-serving employee, Hishida joined the business in 1986 as a portfolio manager in its global equities team. He was an investment officer from 1999 to 2004 and has expertise in strategy and management, having served also as an executive officer of Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank Limited and as general manager of Fiduciary Service Business Planning Department at The Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co.

SimCorp appointed Oliver Johnson as managing director, Asia-Pacific. Johnson joined the firm in May, and is based in Singapore. He reports to Jochen  Müller, SimCorp’s executive vice president, Europe, Middle East and Africa and APAC.
In total, he has more than 12 years' experience in financial services and software, six of which involved leading customer relationships and projects at senior management level in Asia.

Swiss private banking luminary Erich Pfister, who was named head of Falcon Group's private banking arm last year, left the scandal-hit firm. The firm provided no further details about his departure. A few days before the news of his departure broke, Falcon Private Bank, which was last year kicked out of Singapore amid an alleged money laundering scandal, announced two of its directors were set to leave the firm. Murtadha M Al Hashmi and H E Khaled Balama AlTameemi “decided to leave our board of directors”, it said.

LGT, which recently bought the Asia private banking business of ABN AMRO, made senior management changes to its private banking team. Hanspeter Oes took on a newly-created role of regional chief operating officer for Asia. Karl-Heinz Klaus took on the role of head of private banking for Hong Kong, with Silvan Colani becoming head of Singapore private banking; Colani retained his existing role of chief executive of LGT Bank (Hong Kong). Dominique Joye retained his role as CEO of LGT (Singapore).

First State Investments appointed two executives in North Asia. Gladys Chan joined as director of private bank distribution for North Asia, while Bonnie Chun was named associate director of intermediary business. Chan reports to Vivian Tang, head of distribution for North Asia. Chun reports to Alex Tam, director of intermediary business.

The head of investment solutions and products for the Asia-Pacific region at Credit Suisse Private Banking left the firm. The departing manager is Rajesh Manwani, who had been at the bank for nine years.

Former National Australia Bank and JP Morgan executive, Nicholas Lipscome, was appointed to head up the New South Wales team of the Myer Family Company.

Swiss China Corporation, which has a Hong Kong-based multi-family office and a wealth and asset managment company in mainland China, hired a pair of relationship managers, with other recruits in the process of joining. Nini Wang, who was previously at Julius Baer and JP Morgan and Ingrid Huang, formerly of CTBC Private Banking (HK), joined SCC as executive directors.

Albert Liu, managing director and country team head (China) at UBS in Singapore, stepped down from the firm. Liu, a prominent figure in the Asia-Pacific wealth management space, had reported to Ruth Chung, regional market manager for wealth management China.

Indosuez Wealth Management in Hong Kong recruited Ezena Mok as senior director, effective 5 May 2017. The role is a newly-created one. She reports directly to Piera Au-Yeung, team head and deputy chief executive of the Hong Kong branch. She brings more than 20 years of experience as private banker. Before joining Indosuez Wealth Management, she was working at ANZ Private Bank Hong Kong (that business has been sold by its Australia parent to DBS, the Singapore-headquartered lender).

Malaysia-headquartered CIMB Group recruited seven people recently at its private bank in Singapore. Five of the hires already started and the remaining two will join by September. Some of the new arrivals are relationship managers who worked at ANZ, which last year sold its wealth and retail banking units in Singapore and four other markets to DBS. 

Indosuez Wealth Management in Hong Kong recruited Ezena Mok as senior director. The role is a newly-created one. Ezena Mok reports directly to Piera Au-Yeung, team head and deputy chief executive of the Hong Kong branch. She brings more than 20 years of experience as private banker. Before joining Indosuez Wealth Management, she was working at ANZ Private Bank Hong Kong.

Aviva Investors appointed Louise Kay to its executive team. The nine-strong team, led by Euan Munro, chief executive officer, is responsible for establishing and delivering the firm's global strategy. Kay joined Aviva Investors in June 2015. She continues to carry out her role as global head of client solutions, meaning she is responsible for external distribution globally. 

Singapore-headquartered asset manager EFA Group appointed two senior figures in Asia and Switzerland. Alain Vignon was appointed as executive board member of EFA Group’s wholly-owned subsidiary in Geneva, where he develops EFA’s brand and private debt products. He focuses on the European, Russian, Central Asia, African and American markets. Prior to EFA, Vignon was global head of merchant banking and executive committee member at one of the largest metal trading companies in the world, managing teams in the US, Europe and Asia.

UBS re-hired Greg Simmons as an investment advisor within the global South Asia office. Simmons will report to executive director Anuj Chhabra. He was most recently head of client solutions UK at Coutts. Prior to Coutts, he was head of structured products & research based advice, UK & Jersey at UBS.

India-based Sanctum Wealth Management appointed Satwick Tandon to its management team. He holds the role of executive director responsible for developing its international strategy. Tandon reports to Sanctum’s chief executive, Shiv Gupta. Tandon has 18 years of experience, having worked across the financial services sector in the wealth management and insurance domains and in digital consumer services.

AxiomSL, which provides regulatory reporting, data and risk management, appointed Peter Tierney as its Asia-Pacific region chief executive, based in Singapore. Tierney brings more than 25 years of experience as an enterprise software executive, including his latest role as the regional head of DTCC's OTC trade reporting initiative and CEO of the Singapore -based OTC data repository in Asia. In his new role, he reports to Alexander Tsigutkin, global CEO.

Franklin Templeton Investments, the US-headquartered business, appointed Simon Coxeter, formerly of consultants Mercer, as managing director and head of investment solutions for Asia, a new role created by the firm. Coxeter is responsible for developing and managing multi asset, multi strategy investment solutions for institutional and retail clients in Asia, excluding Japan and Australia. He is based in Singapore.

International law firm Withers hired senior tax advisor and Shingo Iizuka for its Tokyo office. He previously worked at Deloitte's Tokyo team, where he was director of the private company and the global employer practices, and prior to that was deputy director in the Tokyo bureau of Japan's National Tax Agency. Iizuka is experienced in fields of tax, advising institutional clients and family businesses on their personal and corporate tax affairs, regulatory compliance, tax aspects of restructuring and tax investigations. He worked for the National Tax Agency for more than 25 years.

Ping An Insurance, company of China, appointed Jonathan Larsen as chief innovation officer and chief executive of Ping An Global Voyager Fund. The new $1 billion fund invests in fintech and healthtech opportunities globally ex-China. Larson has nearly 30 years’ experience in the industry and spent 18 years at Citigroup, where he was most recent global head of retail banking.

Swiss fintech company Lykke appointed Seamus Donoghue as director of its Singapore office, as the blockchain company continues to grow with offices now in the UK, Switzerland, Cyprus, Vanatu, the US and Singapore. Donoghue was most recently chief executive of Allocated Bullion Solutions. He has also held various positions at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan. 
Manulife Asset Management Services Berhad appointed Jason Chong as chief executive, based in Malaysia. Chong replaced Wong Boon Choy, who stayed on as advisor and retired from the full-time CEO position. He oversees the growth and development of MAMSB’s integrated wealth and asset management business. He reports to Gianni Fiacco, Asia wealth and asset management chief operating officer and locally to Mark O’Dell, group CEO and executive director.