Although a vacation month for some, a number of senior moves and appointments were made in August.

Allianz Global Investors appointed Khalil Soubra as its chief operating officer, Asia-Pacific. Soubra, who is based in Hong Kong, reports to Alexandra Auer, global COO. Since joining Allianz GI in 2003, Soubra has held various positions across different functions within the organisation. He has extensive experience in operational management and leading regional and global teams. Prior to his current role, Soubra had been global head of trade and position in the life cycle team since 2018.

Findex Group, the Australian financial services firm, made a number of top-line wealth management appointments. Findex co-founder, Spiro Paule appointed co-chief executives in company veterans Tony Roussos, chief operations officer, and chief financial officer, Matt Games.

Paule's focus is on his role of managing director, which involves continuing to lead the overall strategic direction as well as overseeing the group’s expansion plans. 

Bordier & Cie appointed Carolyn Leng in Singapore as a managing director. Leng is responsible for expanding the business in the region, focusing on business development and partnerships. She has more than 20 years of private banking experience in the Malaysian market in particular. Previously, she worked at Maybank as its head of private wealth management from 2019. Prior to that, she worked at CIMB for nearly 18 years, most recently as its head of private banking in Malaysia.

UBS Global Wealth Management appointed Ming Geng as head of philanthropy services for Hong Kong and Greater China. Based in Hong Kong, Geng reports to Tom Hall, managing director and head of social impact and philanthropy services, with local supervision by Christina Tung, head of A&S client services.

Geng has over 25 years of professional experience in global health, global development, government affairs and philanthropy. Before joining UBS, Geng was the head of corporate affairs at Viatris Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, Greater China. She provided consulting for Gates Ventures and United National Development Programs as senior advisor. Previously, she was the deputy director at the China office of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from 2007 to 2019. 

Citi appointed Aveline San as chief executive officer for Hong Kong and Macau. San is also the chief executive of Citibank N.A. in the Hong Kong branch. She reports to Tim Monger, head of the North and East Asia cluster. With 25 years of experience in banking, San joined Citi in April 2019 as regional chief compliance officer for Asia-Pacific. Prior to that, she was with UBS where she spent 14 years in various senior management positions, including APAC group regional head of compliance and operational risk control and general counsel of wealth management for North Asia.

Investment consultancy Mercer appointed two research leaders from within its own ranks. Simon Coxeter was named in the newly-created role of head of Asia-Pacific manager research and Jean de Kock became the strategic research director for Asia, Middle East and Africa.

LGT Bank (Singapore) appointed Neo Gim Huay, member of the managing board and head of the Centre for Nature and Climate at the World Economic Forum, and En Lee, managing director, head of Sustainable and Impact Investments Asia at LGT, to join its board of directors.

At the World Economic Forum, Gim Huay oversees climate and nature-related programmes and partnerships, including accelerating climate action and scaling nature-based solutions as well as regenerating food, water and ocean systems and resource circularity, the firm added. Prior to joining the WEF, Gim Huay served in a variety of managing director roles at Temasek International, namely climate change strategy, sustainability as well as enterprise development.

Having joined LGT in 2013, Lee leads and manages the regional impact investment portfolio in Southeast Asia and China. He is a founding partner and a senior advisor of Lightrock, LGT's global impact investing platform, an investment committee member of LGT Venture Philanthropy, and has served on LGT's Global Sustainability Board. Before LGT, Lee was an executive director with Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, advising on investment funds.

Singapore-based financial services company Singlife with Aviva added a number of senior figures to the Navigator Investment Services team. The additions to the team follow Navigator naming Akhil Doegar as chief executive last November.

The new appointments included: Wei Lin Chin, head of strategy and business management. She has two decades of banking, compliance and legal experience. She was previously executive director, group strategy and planning at DBS, where she was involved in strategic projects such as Digital Exchange and Evolution X.

Farooq Lone, head of product and business development, worked in product management and sales at DBS, where he was digital product and business head for Indonesia. Ee Ghim Chua, brand marketing lead, advised and worked with various financial and technology brands across Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai, helping to elevate brand profiles across digital and offline channels.

Indosuez Wealth Management made hires in Singapore and Hong Kong. It appointed Sandra Nilsson and Vikram Narayanan as investment advisors in Singapore, as well as Horace So as head of compliance in Hong Kong.

Nilsson joined Indosuez’s Singapore branch as an investment advisor. With close to 20 years in the banking and financial services industry, she is experienced in portfolio management, credit structuring, cross-border financing and wealth planning. Prior to Indosuez, she was an investment director at Bordier & Cie (Singapore) where she focused on thematic investments and discretionary mandates for key clients.

Narayanan also joined Indosuez’s Singapore branch as an investment advisor, managing mainly non-resident Indian clients and family office clients. Having worked at Standard Chartered Bank, ICICI Bank and Julius Baer, he has gained sales and advisory experience in private banking over the past 12 years, covering multi-asset class solutions for clients from Singapore, Indonesia, India, and the Middle East.

Horace So assumed the role of head of compliance at Indosuez’s Hong Kong Branch. Reporting to Olivier Livenais, chief executive officer of Indosuez’s Hong Kong Branch, So is overseeing the compliance function of the branch, such as the management and control of regulatory risks inherent in banking activities.

So, who is a veteran in compliance, has 20 years of experience in the field along with experience in private, investment, corporate and retail banking. He has worked in compliance at major financial institutions, such as Standard Chartered Bank, Barclays Capital Asia and Barclays Bank in Hong Kong. Prior to Indosuez, he was head of compliance at East West Bank, Hong Kong.
 

Franklin Templeton appointed former Nomura top figure Yu Qing to the newly-formed role of China head, holding the title of managing director. Yu Qing reports to Dr Ben Meng, Asia-Pacific chairman of the California-based group. Based initially in Beijing, she will also work from the firm’s Shanghai office.With more than three decades’ experience in the financial services and government sectors, Yu Qing was previously chairman of the board at Nomura Orient International Securities and managing director at Nomura Securities in China. 

Sun Life, the US/Canada/Philippines-listed financial services group covering sectors including wealth management, appointed Chris Wei in the newly-created role of chief client and innovation officer. 

The chief sustainability officer, chief marketing officer, and head of corporate communications all report to Wei. The group said that Wei, originally from Toronto, “has experience working with several well-known and well-respected brands in the financial services industry in London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada.”

HSBC appointed one of its longstanding senior figures, Shayan Hazir, as chief digital officer, ASEAN. In this newly-created role, Hazir is responsible for setting the digital strategy, operating model and performance standards for digital and innovation at HSBC Singapore and, more broadly, across HSBC’s ASEAN franchise. Based in Singapore, Hazir reports to Kee Joo Wong, CEO of HSBC Singapore. Hazir brings 18 years of leadership experience from working in HSBC’s markets including Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates.

Indosuez Wealth Management appointed four new relationship managers in its Singapore and Hong Kong SAR branches. Jeremy Pek joined Indosuez’s Singapore branch as North Asia relationship manager. He brought over 15 years of experience in the banking and financial industry at global and regional banks, including Standard Chartered Bank, United Overseas Bank and Citibank. He was a relationship manager at OCBC Premier Banking, United Overseas Bank and Standard Chartered Bank. He was also director at Bordier & CIE (Singapore), where he managed the wealth of HNW and UHNW clients in Asia.

Chia Yuan Fui joined as a relationship manager at Indosuez’s Singapore branch. She has more than two decades of expertise in the wealth management industry, having worked at global and regional financial institutions, such as Maybank Private Wealth, ANZ Bank and Credit Suisse. 

Louise Chan, who joined as a relationship manager at Indosuez’s Hong Kong SAR branch, is a veteran banker with over 30 years of experience, most of it in wealth management. Most recently, she worked at DBS Bank in Hong Kong and before that, at Hang Seng Bank.

Paul Ng joined the firm’s Hong Kong SAR branch as a relationship manager. With more than 10 years’ experience in the banking and financial industry, he gained expertise as a relationship manager at the Bank of China and Credit Suisse. 

Value Partners, the Hong Kong-based investment house, appointed Alice Leung as managing director, head of digital. Based in Hong Kong, Leung reports to the group’s chief executive, June Wong. Most recently, she was head of digital, Asia-Pacific at Mattel. She led the company’s regional team and developed its e-commerce and digital marketing strategy for 12 markets in Asia-Pacific and 10 brands. Prior to that, Leung served as the digital branding lead at Accenture Interactive, where she managed digital strategies for institutions and brands, including Livi Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and AIA.

DBS appointed Lim Chu Chong, its chief operating officer in the institutional banking group, as the new president director of PT Bank DBS Indonesia (DBS Indonesia). He took the helm from Paulus Sutisna, subject to regulatory approval. His predecessor had been PD of DBS Indonesia in 2015, building out the Indonesia franchise and making it a substantial digital banking player. He oversaw the integration of ANZ Indonesia’s consumer and wealth business with DBS in 2018, and the launch of digibank Indonesia in 2017. Lim is a career DBS banker and has more than 25 years’ experience in institutional, small- and medium-sized enterprises, and consumer banking. Between 2016 and 2019, he was head of DBS IBG China. Prior to that, he was regional head of SME banking at the Singapore-based group.

JTC, the global provider of fund, corporate and private client services, appointed former Bank of America Merrill Lynch figure Charles-Henry Courtois as regional head – AMEA within its Private Client Services division. Based in London, Courtois sits on JTC’s PCS executive committee and provides oversight for PCS’ client service and business development activities across the AMEA region. He is also responsible for its development and performance.