The traditional August lull did not appear to make much of a dent in the level of moves activity in the Asia Pacific region, a sign of continuing vitality.

Asia Pacific

AMP Capital Investors hired Sonia Baillie to head its fixed income team after its head Andrew Lally was appointed to lead the Australian equities division. Baillie joined from Nomura, where she was the head of credit desk analysts, prior to which she held key roles at UBS Global Asset Management, Colonial First State Investments and Westpac.

AMP also expanded the fixed income unit by appointing Joyce Yu, a graduate of the AMP Capital Graduate Program, and Tim Jarvis, a member of the company's Asian real estate securities unit, as analysts at the credit research and analysis team, while Steven Hur and Veronica Raic became credit analysts. Hur joined from Schroders, while Raic was previously a market analysis manager at Westpac.

BlackRock Australia appointed three senior executives to its team. Pru Bennett became head of corporate governance, Henry Capra was named new chief operating officer and Orla Fisk became senior compliance officer. Capra previously served as chief financial officer for AMP Captial and had also worked for wealth manager Colonial First State as CFO and COO. Bennett formerly worked for Regnan Governance Research and Engagement in compliance and investor relations, prior to which he was at CGI Glass Lewis and Qantas Airways. Fisk joined from positions at Challenger Financial Services, Zurich Capital Markets Asia and most recently Genesys Wealth Advisers.

At CNInsure, vice president Chengbin Li resigned from his role as head of the life insurance arm to become vice president for human resources management and strategic planning. Feng Jin, previously chief operating officer and chief information officer at the institution, assumed the additional role of head of the life insurance unit.

Northern Trust appointed Pamela Yuen as sales director for its corporate and institutional services unit in the region. She was previously the head of relationship management for Asia Pacific at HSBC. In her new role, she reports to Rohan Singh, the head of asset servicing sales in Asia Pacific.

Nikko Asset Management hired Blair Pickerell as head of Asia and global chief marketing officer. He was most recently chief executive in Asia for Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

UBS appointed Jaya Jayaram as executive director and India desk head to be based in Hong Kong. She was previously in charge of the North Asia/Hong Kong desk for Indian clients at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management Hong Kong, prior to which she worked at Société Générale and the Bank of America. She reports to Vinay Gandhi.

EFG Bank recruited Adeline Chien to focus on the Greater China Region as a managing director and senior client relationship officer. Most recently, Chien was a managing director and cluster head, UHNW team, at UBS Wealth Management in Hong Kong, prior to which she was an executive director and client advisor at Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management.

New York law firm Kobre & Kim hired William McGovern as head of a new Hong Kong office that focuses on Asian clients with disputes against US regulators or international banks. McGovern was previously the executive director of the transaction management group at Morgan Stanley.

DBS Group Holdings appointed Sebastian Paredes as the new chief executive officer of DBS Hong Kong. Paredes has been in the banking industry for 25 years and most recently served as president and director at PT Bank Daramaon in Indonesia. Prior to that, he spent 20 years at Citi, with stints in South America, Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Europe.

DBS also created a new Singapore country manager role, to which it appointed Sim S Lim, previously president and chief executive officer of Citigroup Global Markets Japan.

ING Investment Management named Grant Bailey as its new chief executive for Asia. Bailey has been with ING Groep for the past nine years and most recently served as its general manager for Asia.

Baring Asset Management named Wayne Shum as Asia head of institutional business. Shum stepped in from HSBC Global Asset Management, where he held a similar role. He now reports to Gerry Ng, the head of sales, client service and business development for Asia ex-Japan.

Lugano-based BSI appointed Esther Heer and Ciro Ahmad as the firm’s new deputy chief executive of BSI Asia and chief operating officer of BSI Investment Advisors, Hong Kong, who, between them, have 40 years of experience in wealth management.

Reliance Capital named Madhusudhan Kela as chief investment strategist. Kela was previously the head of equities at Reliance Mutual Fund. His old position was taken by Sunil Singhania, previously the deputy head of equities at the company.

Pravi Capital appointed Tapan Gandhi as principal for investments. Ghandi established his own company, Forward Thinking, after leaving Lehman Brothers, where he was head of corporate development and strategy.

HSBC appointed Naina Lal Kidwai to its board. Kidwai has been with the firm since 2002 and most recently served as head of the firm's India operations.

The Murugappa Group named Vellayan Subbiah as the new managing director of its asset financing arm Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company and MBN Rao as the new chairman of the non-banking financial company. Subbiah, was previously the managing director of Laserworlds, the firm's publishing BPO unit. Rao is the former chairman and MD of Indian Bank and Canara Bank.

Investec Asset Management appointed Makoto Sakaguchi, formerly of Citibank, to lead its funds franchise.

Threadneedle named Sandra Cheng to the newly-created position of head of institutions for Southeast Asia. Cheng joined the company from Deutsche Asset Management, where she was responsible for business development in the region. She has worked for HSBC Global Asset Management, Wellington International Management and UBS Global Asset Management.

Clariden Leu appointed three executives to its Singapore team: Vincent Wang joined the company as head of treasury and execution for Asia, Liew Chin Choy stepped in as head of mid-office, Charles Yeoh was named senior portfolio manager. Wang was previously an investment representative at Morgan Stanley in Asia. In his new role, he reports to Britta Haeberling and Andrea Carl. Choy was formerly Asia-Pacific business management head at Merrill Lynch. In his new role he reports to Markus Buck. Yeoh joined from the private wealth management arm of Deutsche Bank, where he was senior portfolio manager. In his new role, he reports to Chew Soon Gek.

The Singaporean arm of the Swiss banking giant UBS appointed Reto Marx, currently managing director, as its new head of financial intermediaries for the Asia Pacific region. Prior to joining UBS Marx held various managerial responsibilities with Credit Suisse as market head for Australasia as well as head of international wealth management.

At Citi Private Bank, Manav Abrol, moved from the role of head of investment advisory and sales in Geneva, to head up the investment advisory and sales team in Singapore. Abrol has been working at Citi Private Bank for six years, responsible for the investment advisory and sales business in Switzerland, covering UK offshore, Central and Eastern Europe, Greece, Africa and Turkey. In his new role he reports to Debashish Duttagupta.

Bank of Singapore brought in veteran banker Larry Leong to lead a team of senior relationship managers targeting high net worth clients in Indonesia. Leong, who has 36 years of experience under his belt, joined from DBS Private Bank, prior to which, he had worked for Republic Bank of New York, NZI and Bank of America. Bank of Singapore also hired Johann Kevin Chia and Stanley Chew, formerly DBS Private Bank relationship managers, for this Indonesia team. All three report to Robin Heng, Indonesia market head.

ABN AMRO Private Banking appointed Jimmy Kee as market manager for Singapore and Malaysia. Kee has over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry and was most recently the head of marketing for Indonesia at Standard Chartered Private Bank. Prior to that, he was the deputy head of Fortis Private Bank. Kee reports to Lee Change Tze, head of ABN AMRO Private Banking for Southeast Asia.

The Singapore Exchange appointed Tng Kwee Lian as head of fixed income. Lian joined from United Overseas Bank's asset management unit, where she was head of Asian fixed income.

Bank of Singapore appointed Jan Lee as chief economist. Lee joined from the Australian Government where he served as policy advisor and economist, before which, he worked at several global investment banks and wealth management institutions, such as UBS and Goldman Sachs. He reports to Hou Wey Fook, chief investment officer for Bank of Singapore.

OCBC also added Alistair Marsh as head of trading advisory and product development. Prior to joining Bank of Singapore, Marsh worked at Citibank, Indosuez, American Express, and more recently headed up the product and advisory group at ING Private Bank, Switzerland.