The latest moves, appointments and personnel changes in the Asia-Pacific region.

Howden
Howden, a global insurance intermediary group, has promoted two figures to join its private wealth management team: Bryan Pee and Shirley Sy (both pictured below).

Bryan Pee

Shirley Sy 

The firm said the changes reflect its desire to invest in home-grown talent for its high net worth clients. 

Pee has been promoted to CEO for Singapore and Malaysia; while Sy has become deputy CEO for Hong Kong. Sy, who has been at the firm since 2011, has been head of operations in the private wealth business, since 2014.

“As we set our sights on growing our business, we must continue to invest in people and resources. I am excited to have Bryan and Shirley step up to support the growth of our business across regions. We are blessed to have talents with a diverse background and a shared culture that strives for excellence and does so with an ownership mindset,” Benjamin Cheng, CEO of Howden Private Wealth, said. 

Founded in 1994, Howden now operates in 55 countries.

In February this year, it appointed former Marsh Asia figure Steve Hutchinson as chief broking officer in its Hong Kong business. In December 2024, as part of a senior reshuffle, Howden named Rohan Bhappu as deputy CEO, Howden Asia. Once he has completed his existing contractual obligations to his employer, Bhappu will be taking up the role at the start of June. 

In November 2024, Howden acquired Hong Kong-based Storfield Insurance Consultants, a specialist in general insurance for small-to-medium sized enterprises and high net worth clients.

Citigroup
Citi Australia and New Zealand has appointed Ben Connolly and Philippe Perzi as co-heads of capital markets and advisory, subject to local regulatory approval.

Connolly is managing director and head of real estate for Citigroup in Australia and New Zealand. He has more than 18 years of experience across Australia, Europe and the UK advising clients on mergers and acquisitions and capital markets transactions.

Perzi joins from Goldman Sachs where he was MD and head of its financial institutions group. He has over 20 years of experience working across mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets and delivering leveraged and structured finance solutions to clients.

Both individuals will report to Jan Metzger, Citigroup’s head of investment banking for Asia-Pacific and locally to Mark Woodruff, Citi Australia CEO. Both men will be based in Sydney.

Citigroup's integrated business model, the corporate banking side, and capital markets part of the bank typically work closely with the private banking arm, given that many high net worth and ultra-HNW clients own operating companies.

Among other senior hires, in mid-February, Citi Private Bank appointed Hoo Peng Han as a director of its global family office group. He will concentrate on the Asia South market. In January, Citigroup appointed Jeff Wu as head of market sales for China, dealing with offshore and onshore clients. In this role he will relocate to Shanghai. The private banking side has also announced a change at the top. Ida Liu, head of the global private bank, has left.