A round-up of moves and appointments for senior roles for Asia-Pacific wealth management during February.

Singapore-regulated MetaComp, the digital assets platform, appointed financial services veteran John Kang as chief financial officer. Kang is responsible for leading the strategic planning, implementation, and managing all the firm's financial activities alongside executive chairman and co-founder, Dr Bo Bai. Prior to this, Kang was CFO of EMQ Inc, a global payments services firm focused on the digital economy, where he oversaw several functions, including accounting, finance, and treasury functions across multiple markets and subsidiaries. 

Standard Chartered made a number of top-level leadership changes in its consumer, private and business banking unit in Asia.

Kate Lin, who is head, CPBB Taiwan, joined the global credit cards and personal loans team as global head, credit card new customer acquisition. Reporting to Manoj Piplani, global head CCPL, she is based in Taipei and will relocate to Singapore in 2024.

Sebastian Hia, general manager, affluent coverage for onshore, Singapore, succeeded Lin as head, CPBB Taiwan. He relocated to Taipei, reporting to Samir Subberwal, and Ian Anderson, CEO, Taiwan.

Jeffrey Tan, who is head, CPBB Indonesia, returned to Singapore. He was appointed head, affluent coverage for onshore, Singapore, and reports to Jessie Li, head, CPBB Singapore.

Parag Dhingra, head of CCPL Hong Kong and regional head CC Greater China & North Asia, became head, CPBB Indonesia. He relocated to Jakarta and reports to Samir Subberwal, and Andrew Chia, cluster CEO, Indonesia and ASEAN markets (Australia, Brunei & the Philippines).

Anshul Sabherwal, who is global head, credit card new customer acquisition, was appointed head, CCPL and personal segment, Hong Kong. He relocated to Hong Kong, reporting to Stephen Man, head, CPBB Hong Kong.

Citigroup named Matt Read as Citibank Singapore's retail banking head. Read reports to Brendan Carney, CEO of Citibank Singapore, and Shyam Sambamurthy, who is international head of the Citigold and Citigold Private Client businesses. 

Read joined Citigroup in 2017 as head of sales and distribution for 17 markets across Asia-Pacific and EMEA, overseeing sales productivity across Citi Priority, Citigold and CPC segments. He was also responsible for managing the digitisation and transformation of Citi’s branch network.

Anil Wadhwani joined Prudential plc as chief executive, as part of a move of senior management to Asia. As a result, Mark FitzPatrick, chief executive since 1 April 2022, stepped down from the board. As previously confirmed, FitzPatrick remains as an advisor for a period. Wadhwani has more than 30 years of financial services' experience, predominantly in Asia. Most recently, he was CEO of Manulife's Asia region for five years. Prior to this, he spent 25 years with Citi working across Asia-Pacific, EMEA and the US in a number of consumer financial services roles.

Findex Group, the Australia-based provider of integrated financial advisory and accounting services, appointed Lianne Bolton as chief financial officer. With more than 30 years’ sector experience, Bolton previously worked as CFO at Maia Financial and Credabl. She also worked at Investec Bank and Bank of Queensland. Her career has included stints in South Africa, Australia and the UK.

Credit Suisse Group’s Singapore chief executive officer Wong Chien Chien left the bank. Wong left to pursue outside interests. She was replaced by Rehan Anwer, who took on the role in addition to his job as CEO South-east Asia.

First Sentier Investors appointed Charles Wong as director of its intermediary business. Singapore-based Wong is responsible for developing the business strategies of independently branded Stewart Investors, part of FSI’s investment teams. He joined from Aviva Investors Asia, where he was the head of wholesale, Asia. In his new role, Wong reports to Christy Goh, head of distribution, Southeast Asia, FSI and Alex Tam, head of intermediary business, North Asia, FSI.

Capital Group appointed Katharine Dryer as equity lead, Europe and Asia client group. Dryer, who has more than 25 years of industry experience, was most recently deputy investment chief at Jupiter Asset Management where she served in a number of key roles for nearly 10 years.

St James’s Place appointed one of its senior figures, Oliver Wickham, as Asia partnership director. He has been head of business for Hong Kong. In his new role, he continues his regulatory responsibilities as CEO St James’s Place (Hong Kong) Ltd in addition to taking responsibility for the SJP Partnership across Asia. Gary Harvey, CEO of St James’s Place (Singapore) Private Limited, will step down from the business later in the year, after wrapping up several projects and providing a handover, to focus on other opportunities. He led the business over the past five years. 

BlackRock appointed one of its senior figures in Asia, Tiffany Hsieh, as head of Taiwan. A citizen of the jurisdiction, she has worked for the US asset management titan for almost 14 years. Her predecessor, Amy Yen, left BlackRock in October 2022 for personal reasons. Hsieh was most recently responsible for BlackRock’s cross-border and onshore distribution business in China. She started her tenure with the firm in 2009 as head of iShares for Taiwan.

Deutsche Bank appointed Kevin King and Stella Lau as managing directors and market heads of North Asia Wealth Management. Based in Hong Kong and Singapore respectively, they report to Kanas Chan, head of IPB North Asia. 

King joined from BNP Paribas where he has been the head of the China market. Prior to that, he was the global market manager of the China team at Citi Private Bank. He has also worked for Bank Sarasin, UBS and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. Lau joined from Credit Suisse in Singapore where she was market leader for China. She began her wealth management career at Citibank and has served in China market lead roles also with JPMorgan, UBS and Standard Chartered.

Synpulse, a services provider to banks and insurers, named newly-elected partners: Inge Halim in Indonesia, Marco Fell in Switzerland, Pallav Kapur in the US, and Rahul Bansal and Yash Shah both in Singapore. The group also elected its fourth managing partner, Salomon Wettstein. Halim, who has been with the firm since 2020, is head of the Jakarta office. She has more than 30 years of experience in IT and financial services much of which was gained during a long career at IBM.

Fell started his career as a consultant with Synpulse in 2007. He rose through the ranks and has been leading the Health Insurance Practice in Switzerland since 2019 where he spearheaded many large transformation projects focusing on (health) insurance core processes and IT systems, alongside his military duties as colonel, general staff of the Swiss Armed Forces. Kapur, who joined Synpulse in 2016, is the head of the banking practice and Synpulse8 in the Americas. In 2014, Bansal joined Synpulse in Singapore straight from university. He developed his career within the company to attain partner status this year. Bansal has focused on private banking transformation projects and recently led the build of a full-blown new wave digital bank in Singapore. Wettstein, joined Konrad Niggli, Yves Roesti and Silvan StĂĽssi as a managing partner, is co-CEO of Synpulse8, as well as the regional head of North Asia. 

A former top EFG Bank figure in Singapore moved to HSBC Private Banking. Manoj Ramarao took up the post of managing director, head of global India business. Before joining HSBC, Ramarao was MD, head of global south Asia for EFG Bank in Singapore. Prior to that, he was executive director and team head, sub-continent and NRI for Southeast Asia at Bank of Singapore from June 2008 to September 2019. He started his career at ABN AMRO.

Deutsche Bank appointed Serene Wee, a former longstanding senior Credit Suisse figure, as managing director and senior client partner in Southeast Asia Wealth Management. Wee, who joined Deutsche Bank’s International Private Bank (IPB), reports to Anurag Mahesh, vice chairman IPB for Asia-Pacific and interim head for IPB for Southeast Asia. At Credit Suisse, Wee spent 19 years focusing on the UHNW client segment.

Sussex Partners, a global investment advisory firm that specialises in hedge funds and alternative investment asset classes, appointed Kanji Kikuchi as a partner to support the firm’s outreach in the Japanese market. Kikuchi joined from Credit Suisse Securities in Tokyo where he was head of fund solutions for the firm’s private banking clients. Prior to Credit Suisse, Kikuchi worked in alternative investment sales and structured solutions at Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas and, earlier, at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo.

SEBA Bank, the “crypto bank” based in Switzerland, appointed financial services figure Amy Yu as its new chief executive for the Asia-Pacific part of the business. She took over from Sam Lin who left the organisation. Yu is initially located in Singapore. With more than 15 years’ experience in financial services, including capital markets, trading and liquidity provision, she has worked for firms in the crypto industry, a global derivatives exchange and prime broker. Before this phase of her career, she supported the development of JP Morgan’s prime services in the Asia market.

GAM Investments appointed Fanwei Zeng to join its Asian equities team. She is based in Hong Kong. Prior to joining GAM, Fanwei Zeng worked for investment and asset manager Aplus Partners in Hong Kong; she was previously an investment banking analyst at China’s real estate group, Kaisa Group, in Shenzhen.

JTC appointed Dean Blackburn as group head of institutional client services. After acting as interim group head of ICS since October 2022, he took over the role permanently. Blackburn joined JTC in 2019, initially as group director in the CEO office and, from July 2020, as chief commercial officer. He was promoted to JTC’s group holdings board in 2021. He has more than 30 years’ industry experience.

Hong Kong-based ZA Bank appointed Ronald Lu as chief executive and executive director. Lu succeeded Rockson Hsu who stepped down as CEO and executive director of ZA Bank to pursue new opportunities. Lu joined ZA International, the parent company of ZA Bank, as chief strategy officer in February 2022, and later became chief risk officer of ZA Bank. He has more than two decades of experience in banking and finance, ranging from risk management, sales and marketing to developing fintech products.

Indosuez appointed two wealth management bankers, Diana Hong and Elina Yan. With over 30 years of experience in the wealth management industry, Hong joined the North Asia team co cover Greater China as executive director and team head of North Asia. She started her career in Citibank Taiwan and subsequently moved to Hong Kong, where she headed the sales and wealth management teams in both SinoPac Financial Holdings and UBS AG, covering Taiwan and China. 

Yan, who also joined as executive director of North Asia, gained nearly 20 years of experience in corporate banking and private banking in various financial institutions. During her time in Standard Chartered Bank, Yan was in the wholesale banking team where she served corporate customers across project finance and trade finance; she was also involved in clients’ company treasury solutions.

Value Partners Group Limited appointed Sean Chang and Gordon IP Chang as co-chief investment officers, fixed income. They report to Louis So, co-chairman and co-chief investment officer of the group. Gordon Chang is based in Hong Kong, whilst Sean Chang is based in Singapore.

Sean Chang joined from Ping An of China Asset Management (Hong Kong) Company Limited, where he was most recently head of fixed Income. He spent six years with Baring Asset Management (Asia) Limited as head of Asia Debt Investment, specialising in Chinese Mainland research strategies and China credit decisions, prior to joining Ping An of China Asset Management (Hong Kong) Company Limited. He also held a number of senior positions in Halbis Capital, Mirae Asset Global Investments, Hang Seng Investment Management, Invesco Asset Management Asia, HSBC Private Bank and HSBC Asset Management.

Gordon Chang started his career in 1994 and has 28 years of industry experience.

Sullivan & Cromwell moved Chris Beatty, partner, to the Asia-Pacific region to bolster its finance, special situations and private credit practice in the region. Beatty is based in the firm’s Sydney office with a secondary office in Hong Kong supporting his work across the region. Prior to his time in the Asia-Pacific region, Beatty was based in the firm’s London office from 2014 to 2022, before which he was resident in its New York and Sydney offices.

New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority appointed Sharon Thompson to join its newly-formed enterprise leadership team as executive director – transformation and operational delivery. Thompson has extensive, senior leadership experience in both the New Zealand public sector and financial services industry. She is joining the FMA from Inland Revenue, where she was deputy commissioner for the Customer and Compliance Services (Individuals) group. 

Tina Tong joined abrdn – formerly known as Standard Life Aberdeen – as head of wholesale distribution, Hong Kong. In her newly-created role, she reports to David Hanzl, head of wholesale, Asia-Pacific. Tong, whose career spans more than 20 years, was most recently the vice president for distribution at Matthews Asia.