UK
Kaupthing, the Icelandic bank, appointed Russell Bussey to head its intermediary sales team for wealth management. Mr Bussey previously held similar positions at both Credit Suisse and UBS and most recently worked as an investment advisor at Alliance Bernstein.

Mr Bussey assumes responsibility for the repositioning of Kaupthing's broader wealth management offer amongst the UK intermediary community. He reports to Michael Morley, head of wealth management at Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander.

Lehman Brothers, the US investment bank, appointed Perry Hoffmeister as head of investment management for Europe and the Middle East. Mr Hoffmeister joined Lehman Brothers in 1988 in the media investment banking group in New York and was promoted to managing director in 1998.

GLG Partners, the hedge fund business, suffered three departures from its senior asset management team, adding to the news that its high-profile emerging markets fund manager Greg Coffey had left. Michael O'Connor, who trades in Asian debt, equity and convertible bonds, is working out his notice period, while asset manager Udo Herschel left the firm this year.

Skandia UK's business unit chief executive, Brett Williams, left his current role to head up the firm's new wealth management division, which is set to launch on 1 August. Mr Williams says the new unit will operate in the UK and across Europe. His current position is being taken over by Skandia UK and offshore division chief executive Nick Poyntz-Wright.

Brown Shipley opened an office in Birmingham after hiring a team of five wealth management professionals from Deutsche Tilney. The team is led by David Craig, who has been appointed private client director. He reports to John Williams, Brown Shipley’s private client divisional director. Brown Shipley also acquired boutique UK investment firm Bollin Asset Management for an undisclosed sum.

As part of the acquisition, Brown Shipley appointed Peter Botham, a co-founder of BAM, as its new chief investment officer. Mr Botham set up BAM in January 2006 with his business partner Keith Penfold. BAM is based in Altrincham, near Manchester.

UK fund manager Standard Life Investments appointed Guy Stern as head of multi-asset management. He was previously chief investment officer of multi-asset class solutions at Credit Suisse Asset Management for its UK and US divisions.

Two bankers left UBS to join private equity firms. JER Partners, a US property buyout fund, hired Mark Chamieh, the head of global business development at UBS Global Asset Management. He moves to JER’s London office this month. CVC Capital, meanwhile, appointed Lorne Somerville, the joint global head of telecoms and head of European communications group at UBS, as its head of telecoms. He starts in June.

The UK's financial regulator, the Financial Services Authority, hired respected City player Naguib Kheraj as senior advisor to its supervisory enhancement programme, reporting directly to chief executive Hector Sants.

The SEP was created to implement the recommendations identified by the internal audit review of the FSA's handling of the Northern Rock debacle and Mr Kheraj will advise on its design and execution.

Mr Kheraj has held numerous senior roles in the financial services industry. He was group finance director of Barclays from January 2004 to March 2007. He worked on Barclays’ proposed merger with ABN Amro and on significant investments in Barclays made by Temasek and China Development Bank. He joined Barclays from Robert Fleming and was previously a managing director at Salomon Brothers.

Northern Trust, meanwhile, appointed Aïda Molineux as head of its Europe, Middle East and Africa wealth management group, which operates out of London. Ms Molineux overseed services for ultra-high net worth individuals and families as well as growing the wealth management group’s presence in the EMEA region. She replaces Nick Ring, who has decided to leave Northern Trust.

Investec Asset Management, London-based subsidiary of the South Africa and UK-listed group, boosted its institutional client service team with the appointment of David Veal, who is responsible for client servicing for fixed income and multi-asset strategy clients.

Prior to joining Investec, he was a director in both the institutional business development and client service teams at Insight Investment.

Tri Investments, the specialist London-based investment boutique and property fund manager, appointed Nick Melluish to support its sales team. He joined from BlackRock Merrill Lynch Investment Managers.

Baring Asset Management, the international investment management firm, appointed two senior managers to its Guernsey office. Lynne Pellegrini joined as director of business development and Graham Glass joined as senior investment manager. Ms Pellegrini previously worked at Legg Mason in Boston where she was head of US private banking sales and responsible for the development of Legg’s institutional private bank distribution efforts. Mr Glass previously worked at UBS Asset Management where he was responsible for leading the global indexed credit team.

Halbis, an investment arm of HSBC, appointed Shameema Yousuf as a fund manager on the Halbis Commodities Alpha fund. Ms Yousuf now works alongside lead manager Per Tingberg in managing the discretionary futures fund, launched in September 2006.

Barclays Wealth hired Mark Flynn to develop its banking proposition in the Aberdeen region in advance of a new office opening later this year. He previously worked at Royal Bank of Scotland subsidiary private bank Adam and Company. Meanwhile, Barclays Wealth also said seven client-facing staff at its Gerrard operation resigned from its Birmingham office. The managers – who were not named - are thought to be joining Smith & Williamson.

The chief executive of Man Investments, the fund management subsidiary of UK-listed hedge fund company Man Group, is to retire later this year. The Australian-born Mr Morrison was appointed chief executive at Man Investments just under three years ago, taking over from Chris Chambers. A lawyer by training, Mr Morrison is due to retire from the post in June. Mr Morrison’s position will not be replaced.

SG Hambros Bank, part of SG Private Banking, made two hires to strengthen its Russian team in London. Marianna Nezhivaya joins from Citi Private Bank in London as a senior private banker. She was most recently business development consultant for Russia in their emerging Europe team. Alexandra Ugne Stackeviciute also joins from Citi Private Bank, as a private banker. She spent two years as relationship banking officer for the Russian market.

Merrill Lynch’s global wealth management group hired Simon Skerratt and David Philips into its UK advisory team. Both will report to Nick Tucker, GWM’s market leader for the UK and Ireland.

Neptune Investment Management appointed Richard Green, a managing director at Barclays Wealth, as corporate development director. Mr Green continues as a member of Barclays Wealth’s UK Private Bank Advisory Board.

BNY Mellon Asset Management appointed Paul Feeney as head of Distribution. He is based in London and reports to Alan Mearns, chief executive officer of BNY Mellon Asset Management International. Mr Feeney previously worked at UK investment firm Gartmore, where he was head of distribution and responsible for all sales, marketing, product development and multi-manager divisions of Gartmore globally.

The UK asset management firm JO Hambro Capital Management appointed Chris Lees, a highly-rated fund manager from Baring Asset Management.

Pictet Funds, the investment fund distribution arm of Swiss private bank Pictet & Cie, appointed Wendy Appleton at its UK development team. She previously headed up third party distribution at Henderson Global Investors.

Meanwhile, Cheryl Stubbs joined the UK sales team with responsibility for supporting the teams across UK and global accounts. She joins from Fidelity International.

Carne Global Financial Services Group, which advises European investment managers, opened two new technology divisions for alternative investments and wealth management. Carne Global, headquartered in Ireland, also appointed Sunil Chadda to the post of head of alternative investments, joining from the London-based financial consultancy Citisoft. Phil Kitto also joined from Citisoft to head up Carne’s global wealth management and private client division.

New Star Asset Management, recently hit by weak markets and client money outflows, has hired three fund managers including Charles Deptford, formerly of Baring Asset Management, and Trevor Green of RCM, which is part of Germany's Allianz financial services group.

Mr Deptford has been appointed as a UK equity fund manager, as has Mr Green. A third hire is David Cornell, an emerging markets fund manager. Mr Cornell previously worked at BDT Investment Management.

Asset manager Brooks Macdonald has hired Robert Salter as an investment manager in its Manchester office. Mr Salter most recently worked for Blackpool-based stockbroker James Brearly & Sons as a private client investment manager.

Northern Trust has confirmed Wayne Bowers as chief executive officer of Northern Trust Global Investments, the London-based subsidiary and multi-asset class investment management business of the Chicago bank.

In his new role, Mr Bowers will be responsible for the continued growth and development of Northern Trust’s investment management business in the EMEA and APAC regions. His appointment follows that of Steve Potter, who was recently named president of Northern Trust Global Investments. Mr Bowers will report to Mr Potter.

Mr Bowers joined Northern Trust in 1999 as director of global fixed income, responsible for the London-based fixed income portfolio management team. He was appointed chief investment officer for NTGI in 2007 and has been acting chief executive of NTGI since December 2007. Previous roles were with ABN Amro

Finally, for the UK financial jobs market as a whole, the latest report from London-based specialist recruiters Morgan McKinley suggests that employers are taking a guarded approach to hiring in London’s financial services industry with the number of new job opportunities in March 2008 down 2 per cent on February 2008 figures and 23 per cent on March the previous year.

Switzerland
Marcus Ospel, current chairman did not stand for re-election at UBS's annual general meeting during the month. Peter Kurer, UBS general counsel has been appointed in his place.

Julius Baer has appointed Patrick Depruis as head of key clients for the Turkish market.

Mr Depruis will join the Zurich-based Swiss private bank on 1 October 2008. He was previously in a similar role at UBS in Geneva. He will bring a team of four Turkey specialists with him from UBS.

The current head of Turkish clients at Julius Baer, Firouz Morteza, will continue to concentrate on the Aegean market.

Zurich-based private bank Maerki Baumann & Co has appointed former chief executive of Lugano-based Banca del Gottardo, Rolf Aeberli, as its new chief executive.

Mr Aeberli will replace Arthur Bolliger on 1 October. Mr Bolliger has been chief executive at Maerki Baumann for 20 years. Last year Andreas Buri, ex-chief executive of Basel-based CIAL Bank, was appointed as chief executive but only lasted two months due to “operational differences”. Mr Bolliger was brought back to his former role whilst a new successor was found.

Maerki Baumann was founded in 1932 and is owned by the Syz family, one of the most powerful Swiss banking families.

Mr Aeberli left Banca del Gottardo after its former owners, Swiss Life, agreed to sell it to BSI, the Lugano-based Swiss private banking unit of Italian financial services group Generali.
A former president of UBS has repeated his criticism of the Swiss bank’s proposal to appoint an in-house lawyer to the post of chairman.

Citi Private Bank has appointed Samir Raslan as the new general manager for Citibank (Switzerland), to replace Michael Demirel, who is leaving to become head of Commercial Operations at Barclays Wealth international private banking.

Based in Geneva, Mr Raslan will assume this role in addition to his current responsibilities as Region Head for Global Wealth Management for Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa.

In his regional role, he reports to Catherine Weir, chief executive officer of Citi's Global Wealth Management business in EMEA. As General Manager, he reports locally to the Board of Directors of Citibank (Switzerland). He will also work closely with Per Etholm, Citi’s Country Officer for Switzerland.

Mr Raslan joined Citi Private Bank in 1998. He worked in Geneva previously as Global Market Manager for the Gulf region in 2003 and returned from Singapore last October to take up his current position.

Mr Demirel will join Barclays Wealth later in the year and will be based in London. He will report to the firm’s head of International Private Banking, Gerard Aquilina.

The head of private banking Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa for Clariden Leu,, Roland Knecht, has resigned from the post for personal reasons.

Mr Knecht has been with Clariden for 23 years, joining in 1985 when he set up the bank's representative office in Singapore. Previously, he worked in Switzerland and abroad in various private banking positions at Merrill Lynch, Chase Manhattan, UBS and Citibank.

He was appointed as member of the executive board of management at Clariden in 2000 with responsibility for the markets Asia, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa. He was also responsible for Clariden Bank's offices in London and Monaco.

After more than thirty years with the Secretariat of the Swiss Federal Banking Commission, deputy director, Romain Marti, has decided to leave at the end of September 2008.

From the beginning of October, Mr Marti will begin a new professional activity as a consultant with Swiss Private Bank, Pictet & Cie based in Geneva.

Americas
Credit Suisse has hired Norman Mineta, ex-US Secretary of Transportation and current vice chairman of lobbyists Hill & Knowlton, to consult with Credit Suisse and its clients on infrastructure and transportation projects and transactions.

Credit Suisse has also hired a team of relationship managers from Goldman Sachs for the Los Angeles office of Private Banking USA.

The team is led by managing directors J David Tracy and Charles Tharnstrom and directors Christopher Chapin and Leonard Kortekaas. It will report to Jeff Kiley, head of the Los Angeles office. The group manages assets for more than 100 families.

Mr Tracy joined Goldman Sachs in 1998 and has been advising private wealth management clients for more than 14 years.

Mr Tharnstrom joined Goldman Sachs in 2001. Prior to his position there, he led Morgan Stanley's wealth management business in Europe. He also ran their private wealth management division in the Southwest before that. He had spent 10 years as an investment banker working primarily on Public Infrastructure Financings with William R Hough & Co and then Morgan Stanley.

Mr Chapin was with Goldman Sachs since 1997 and has been advising Private Wealth clients for over six years. Before joining Private Wealth Management, he worked in the firm-wide Funding and Treasury group. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Mr Chapin worked at Price Waterhouse in New York.

Mr Kortekaas joined Goldman Sachs in 1994, spending his first five years in the Institutional Equities Group in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Credit Suisse has moved Rob Shafir up to be chief executive of its asset management division. He takes over from David Blumer, who is moving to Swiss Re.

Mr Shafir assumes his new responsibilities immediately but will also continue in his current roles as chief executive of the Americas region and as a member of the executive board of Credit Suisse. He reports to Brady Dougan, chief executive of Credit Suisse.

Mr Shafir joined Credit Suisse in 2007 from Lehman Brothers, where he worked for 17 years in a number of senior roles. Most recently, he was head of equities and a member of Lehman's executive committee. Prior to that, he worked at Morgan Stanley.

Convergent Wealth Advisors has appointed Dan Rice as a managing director at its New York office. Mr Rice joins from US Trust Company.

Morgan Stanley has recruited four financial advisors to work in US offices of its global wealth management business.

Alan Blender moves into the Philadelphia office from UBS and will report to Daniel Thompson, the complex manager; Craig Pastolove joins from Citi's Smith Barney into the New York Times Square office where Daniel Gallagher is complex manager; and Tony Javarone and Jeanne Matullo, also from Smith Barney, join at West Palm Beach, where Dan Price is branch manager

Chicago-based Steve Nakovich and Art Pancoe, with their colleagues Steve Goodwin and Jaideep Vishnubhakat, have joined Morgan Stanley from Bear Stearns.

The team has $1.2 billion in assets and $4.8 million in combined revenue, according to Morgan Stanley.

Mr Nakovich started out with Bear Stearns in 1976; Mr Pancoe has been at the firm since 1982.
In New Orleans, Morgan Stanley has hired Mike Hess, who joins from Citigroup’s Smith Barney business. He reports to local manager Marcus Wheeler.

Peter Wilhoit leaves Merrill Lynch to work at the St Paul, Minnesota, branch, reporting to manager John Malknecht.

Christine Ferring, Julie Vogt and William McGuane have all joined the Des Moines, Iowa, office from Wachovia. The team reports to Scott Frost

US Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management, has hired a dozen professionals in New York City to work directly with clients.

US Trust said it hired Ada Clapp, Michael Josephs, and Nancy Kistner to be wealth strategies advisors and Jaclyn Kim to be an associate wealth strategist.

Ms Clapp joins US Trust from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, where she was a partner and co-head of the New York private-client services group. Mr Josephs was a director in the private company services group at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Ms Kistner was head of financial planning in Citigroup's private bank. Ms Kim was a lawyer at Duane Morris in New York.

The company also hired David Polansky as city executive for New York. He was an independent consultant and, previously, an executive in JPMorgan private bank.

Charles Walker was hired to be a wealth consultant. He was a private client relationship manager at HSBC Bank USA in New York.

John Dawson and Noah Kupferman were hired as private client managers and Stephanie Young as a private client advisor.

Mr Dawson was a vice president of institutional equity sales at Wall Street Access, a New York wealth management company.

Mr Kupferman was a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch in New York and Ms Young was a managing director at Muirfield Capital Management, also in New York.

Peter Burkly and John Lori were hired to be portfolio managers. Mr Burkly was a senior portfolio manager at Northern Trust and Mr Lori was a managing member at JDL Partners.

Donna McGoey was hired as a specialty asset manager. She was a real estate project manager at Cushman & Wakefield.

First Republic Bank has announced that Rajesh Nakadi has been appointed managing director of First Republic Wealth Advisors.

Mr Nakadi will work with a wide range of clients, including individuals, families, foundations and non-profit organisations at the bank's office in New York, the bank said in a statement.

Prior to joining First Republic, Mr Nakadi was managing director and head of advisory services at Quinlan Private, a European private equity real estate firm in New York.

Canadian-listed wealth manager Jovian Capital Corporation has appointed Laurie Pare to its board.

Mr Pare, a chartered accountant, is a recently retired partner of Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP and a trustee or director of a number of private and public trusts and companies.

Timothy Leach has been named chief investment officer of the US Bank Wealth Management Group. He reports directly to Mark Jordahl, president of the WMG.

Patrick Farmer, former chief investment officer with Canadian-based AIM Funds Management, has teamed up with two departed high-profile managers at a investment firm designed to rival their old employer.

Mr Farmer has joined Tye Bousada and Geoff MacDonald, and Robert Krembil, co-founder of former Trimark, as partners in Cymbria Capital, which is a holding company for new investment manager Edgepoint Capital Partners.

Mr Farmer is now chairman and chief operating officer of Cymbira, and will be the go-between with financial advisors, while Mr MacDonald and Mr Bousada will focus on managing money.

Mr Farmer, who resigned from AIM Funds last summer, said he chose to join Cymbria even though he was courted by other Canadian fund managers.

Boston-based Eaton Vance, the investment management firm, has appointed Muriel Nichols to its subsidiary, Eaton Vance Investment Counsel, in the role of vice president of tax and estate planning.

Ms Nichols joined Eaton Vance from US Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management, where she served as senior wealth strategist. Previously, she served as vice president at The Boston Company.
Fairfield Greenwich, a global alternative asset management firm with $16.4 billion in assets under management, has announced the appointment of David Horn as a partner, chief global strategist and a member of the board of directors.

Mr Horn is an executive in the institutional and private wealth management industry as co-founder and chief executive of Graystone Partners, a US firm acquired by Morgan Stanley in 1999.

US banking group Harleysville National has appointed Joseph Blair to lead its Millennium Wealth Management division. Mr Blair will serve as president of Millennium and executive vice president of Harleysville National, which is based in Pennsylvania.

Mr Blair joins Harleysville from Neuberger Berman, the asset management division of Lehman Brothers. Before that, he was president of Wilmington Advisors.

David Hanson has been promoted to chairman of US-based Fulton Financial Advisors. He has served as chief executive officer and president of Fulton Financial Advisors, the Fulton Corporation's wealth management, brokerage and trust services subsidiary, since May 2007. His promotion to chairman fills the position vacated when Richard Ashby retired on 31 March 2008.

Bank of America has hired Claire Huang as head of marketing for its global wealth and investment management division. Ms Huang will be responsible for developing and executing marketing strategy for the company's businesses serving affluent, wealthy, ultra wealthy and institutional clients nationwide. She will report to Bank of America chief marketing officer Anne Finucane.

Ms Huang joins from Fidelity Investments, where she was executive vice president, marketing and segment management.

GenSpring Family Offices, the US wealth management firm for ultra high net worth families, has appointed John Morris as executive vice president, responsible for business development in the Tennessee region.

Mr Morris previously served as executive vice president and Nashville Wealth and Investment Management line of business manager at SunTrust Banks.

Citadel Investment Group will hire senior executive Nick Taylor away from Credit Suisse.

Mr Taylor, who ran Modal Capital Partners, one of Credit Suisse's in-house hedge funds, will be the latest in a string of executives who have left big banks to join the Chicago-based fund firm.

Butterfield Bank (Cayman) has appointed Christopher Duggan as head of the company’s Private Banking.

The new division of the Cayman operation will be aligned with the offices in London, Guernsey, Switzerland, Bahamas and Bermuda.

Mr Duggan has held high level management positions with Butterfield Bank since 2003.

Choate, Hall & Stewart, the Boston law firm, has named Todd Millay as the new managing director of its wealth management group. He will oversee the investment strategy and day-to-day operations of Choate Investment Advisors, working closely with Choate’s wealth management team of lawyers, tax preparers, and trusts and estates administrators.

Mr Millay joins from the Wharton Global Family Alliance, a research centre created by the Wharton School for family business, wealth and philanthropy, where he was founding executive director, and from a partnership in CCC Alliance, a private Boston-based network of over 90 single family offices, each with over $100 million in net worth.

Previously, he was a consultant with McKinsey & Co.

The Albany, New York, office of US wealth manager Wachovia Securities is welcoming five new staff who had all been with Merrill Lynch in the New York state capital.

They had been working as two teams, one comprising Karl Seitz and Jeff Lashway, the other Vince Meleco, Anthony Dinallo and C W Kelleher.

First Republic Bank, a US private banking and wealth management firm, has announced that Gary Farro has been appointed as senior relationship manager, having previously worked at Wachovia Bank and Wachovia Securities.

Mr Farro will work with high net worth individuals and families, providing private banking, private business banking, investment management and trust services, and real estate lending at the bank's office in in New York.

ING Investment Managers Americas has hired Chet Ragavan as chief risk officer, reporting to chairman and chief executive Robert Leary.

From 1993 to 2000 Mr Ragavan served as managing director, head of risk management for Merrill Lynch Asset Management where he was responsible for managing market, credit and counter-party risk exposures for the company's fixed income and money market investments.

Bank of America has named Laurie Krupa as Premier Banking and Investments northeast division executive within the company's larger Global Wealth and Investment Management division. Based in New York, Ms Krupa replaces - and will now report to - Dean Athanasia, recently named PBI president following the retirement of Pat Phillips, who had led this business line since 2005.

Ms Krupa most recently served as Global Product Solutions client service executive within Bank of America Global Corporate and Investment Banking.

JPMorgan Private Client Services has announced that Elizabeth Lilley has joined its Bloomfield Hills office as a vice president and private banker.

Ms Lilley joined National Bank of Detroit, predecessor bank of JPMorgan Chase, in 1989 as a credit analyst trainee.

Scott Powers has been named president and chief executive officer of State Street Global Advisors, the company’s investment management arm. He joins SSgA from Old Mutual US, the US operating unit of Old Mutual, where he has served as chief executive officer and one of six senior executives overseeing its worldwide operations.

Mr Powers will report to Ronald Logue, chairman and chief executive officer of State Street, and will join the company’s Operating Group, its senior-most strategy and policy-making team. He will succeed James Phalen, who has been interim president and chief executive of SSgA since January 2008. Mr Phalen will return to his position as head of international operations for State Street’s investment servicing and investment research and trading businesses.

Greenwich-based Stone Point Capital, the manager of the Trident Funds has appointed Donald Herrema as a senior advisor.

He will work closely with the investment team at Stone Point Capital on identifying and pursuing investment opportunities primarily in the asset management and private client services sectors, said the company in a statement.

Mr Herrema was previously chief executive oficer of Bessemer Trust, chairman and chief executive Officer of Loring Ward, chief executive officer of Atlantic Trust (a subsidiary of Invesco), and head of Private Wealth Management at Morgan Stanley.

Wachovia Wealth Management has added Teri Diekroeger, senior vice president and senior relationship manager; Dirk Ledford, assistant vice president and relationship manager; Nathan Thorp, client management associate and Christie Balmert, client management associate, to its Atlanta, Georgia, legal speciality group serving the financial needs of law firms and attorneys.

US-based Titanium Asset Management said it has appointed Nigel Wightman, currently executive director, as chairman. He succeeds John Kuzan, who has stepped down as chairman to focus upon developing the company's businesses.

Bermuda-based offshore law firm Appleby has promoted seven lawyers to partnership, including three active in the funds practice.

The new partners include Sally Cox, local practice group head of property in the British Virgin Islands, Valerie Georges-Thomas, who practises corporate and commercial law in the BVI, and Sabrina Leacock, who practises in both the corporate and commercial and trust practice groups in the Cayman Islands.

Asia Pacific
Standard Chartered Private Bank has set up a team to target ultra high net worth clients under the leadership of Agnes Choi, previously head of the private bank in Singapore and South Asia.

The initiative will target clients world-wide and not just in Asia, said Standard Chartered Private Bank.

Standard Chartered Private Bank has also appointed Rajesh Malkani as regional head, South East Asia.

Previously, Mr Malkani was global head of sales and business development, private banking. He has been based in Asia for more than 15 years, holding senior roles in the banking industry.

Sarasin Rabo Investment Management, a Hong Kong-based subsidiary of Swiss private bank Sarasin, has assembled a Philippines team consisting of managing director Gerard Bichon, executive director Dimitri Lamarlere and two assistant relationship managers.

Gerald Bichon will lead the team as managing director. Both he and executive director Dimitri Lamarlere join from Credit Suisse, which they both joined in 2006 after working for BNP Paribas Private Bank. Mr Bichon will report to Enid Yip, managing director and vice-chairman for Asia at Sarasin Rabo.

Mr Lamarlere was most recently a relationship manager at Credit Suisse. At BNP Paribas, which he joined in 1999, he went to Hong Kong in 2001 as a senior investment advisor focusing on cash and derivative recommendations and then joined BNP Paribas Private Bank’s Philippines team in 2005.

Australian independent Austock Securities has appointed Scott Young as its new head of private client business.

Mr Young joined Austock four months ago as director of product, marketing and distribution but will now manage both the group’s PMD function as well as head its private clients, meaning both businesses will be working more closely together.

Kenneth Sit has left his position as chief executive officer of Bank Sarasin-Rabo (Asia).

Mr Sit was previously chief executive of HSBC Private Bank (Swiss) in Singapore. He replaced Marc Tomchek at Sarasin in December 2006. Mr Tomchek is now heading up head hunter firm Mckenna James in Singapore.

Alex Ng, the head of UBS's South China Wealth Management team in Hong Kong, has left to join Credit Suisse in a similar role, reporting to Annuj Khana.

Mr Ng had been with UBS for three years and was previously at Citi.

Mr NG replaces Alfred Tsai who has left Credit Suisse to join a yet unnamed US bank.

Merrill Lynch in Singapore has hired a team of private bankers focusing on the Indonesian market from Citi.

The team is headed up by Chan Kwee Him and is believed to comprise two directors, Stanley Puah and Wandy Syarhir, as well as vice-president Wennie Ngoh.

The team, understood to manage over $2 billion, is joining the Private Investment Business Group at Merrill headed by Wayne Yang.

Mr Chan had been at Citi for five years and had previously been with Coutts and UBS.

BNP Paribas Private Bank has hired Julie Teo to lead its wealth planning services in Asia. She joins from Bank Sarasin-Rabo, where she was a managing director.

From her base in Singapore, Ms Teo will manage a regional team of 16 people offering cross-border wealth structuring capabilities.

Deutsche Bank has hired Chua Hak Bin, an economist at Citigroup in Singapore, as Asian investment strategist for its private banking unit.

Chua Hak Bin is to move to Deutsche Bank's private wealth management unit as chief Asian strategist.
David Hewett has been named as the new general manager of St George's Private Bank in Australia.

Mr Hewett was previously the state director for ANZ's New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory private bank businesses.

The wealth management arm of the Société Générale group has opened an office in Osaka, from which it will deliver wealth management services to high net worth individuals in western Japan. The new office will be headed by Masao Yasuhara, marketing head for that office. He reports to Alain Simon, president and chief executive of SG Private Banking (Japan).

Mr Yasuhara has worked for Japanese as well as foreign organisations such as BNP Paribas and Merrill Lynch. In 2002, he was made executive director of SG Private Banking (Japan), with responsibility for the Kansai area.

Morgan Stanley, the US investment bank, has promoted Leslie Menkes as its head of onshore private wealth management for Asia.

The move comes after WealthBriefing disclosed that Tan Su Shan had rejoined the bank after leaving her role as head of the Citi Private Bank wealth management business in Singapore. She will take up Mr Menke’s old role as head of private wealth management for Southeast Asia and Australia.

Mr Menkes will oversee the strategic expansion of Morgan Stanley’s private management operations across the Asian region. He has been at the US bank for 20 years and will continue to be based in Singapore.

Credit Suisse has promoted Fan Cheuk Wan to be head of private banking research for the Asia Pacific region. In her new role, she will be responsible for research across all asset classes in the region, including Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

She will report to Giles Keating, global head of research for private banking and asset management.

Tan Su Shan has rejoined Morgan Stanley in Asia after leaving her role as head of Citi Private Bank’s wealth management business in Singapore.

In her place, Citi has confirmed that Akbar Shah, head of Citi Private Bank's Mega Wealth division in the Asia-Pacific region, has been given responsibility for the private bank's wealth management business in Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei.

Prior to his return to Asia in August last year, Mr Shah was chief executive officer of Citi Global Wealth Management’s Middle East business from 2005 to 2007.

At asset management joint venture Bank of Communications Schroder Fund Management, Peng Chun has moved up to chairman, David Lui from chief executive to vice chairman and Mo Tai Shang to chief executive.

Mr Chun, who replaces Xie Hongbing as chairman, is Bank of Communications’ executive director and executive vice-president. The firm would not comment on the former chairman, nor say where he has moved to.

Mr Lui has been the chief executive of Bocom Schroders since the firm’s creation in 2005; Mr Mo was his deputy.

Mr Lui was executive director and vice-chairman of Schroders Hong Kong.

Mr Mo previously held various positions within the Investment Fund Supervision Department at the CSRC before joining Bocom Schroders.

Middle East and Africa
Laurence Black, the head of private client offshore services for Standard Bank in Dubai, has resigned.

Mr Black, who has worked as head of private client offshore services since joining the bank’s Dubai office in April 2006, left the bank at the end of March.

Before he joined Standard Bank, Mr Black worked within the Royal Bank of Canada both in the Channel Islands and the Middle East. Previously, he worked in Guernsey with Schroders, the UK-listed financial services group.

Mr Black is also a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners and is the current chairman of STEP Arabia.

South African bank Absa has named Hlengani Mathebula as the head of its private banking arm, Absa Private Bank.