A round-up of the moves in the Asia region's wealth management sector during December, 2020.

Asia-Pacific moves in December 2020
RBC Wealth Management appointed former Credit Suisse figure Ida Lew as head of strategic initiatives for Greater China. Lew works with Beijing-based Belle Hu, associate director, business development, who joined the firm earlier last year. Lew is based in Hong Kong and reports to Ignatius K K (Iggy) Chong, head of private banking, Greater China and Michael Reed, head of wealth management, Southeast Asia.

At Credit Suisse Lew worked in strategic recruitment and market prospect management roles. Prior to that, she worked at UBS as business manager, covering China and Japan markets of both HNW and UHNW segments. She was a management consultant (strategy and operations) with Deloitte in the earlier part of her career.

LaSalle Investment Management, part of US-listed Jones Lang LaSalle, announced that Mark Gabbay, formerly chief executive and chief investment officer of its Asia-Pacific arm, had become global CEO. Gabbay, who joined LaSalle in 2010, succeeded Jeff Jacobson, who is to remain as chairman until at least June. Jacobson had been CEO for 14 years. Gabbay reports to Christian Ulbrich, president and CEO of JLL.

As part of the changes, the following moves were made in LaSalle’s Asia-Pacific region: Keith Fujii, Japan CEO, stepped into the Asia-Pacific CEO role previously held by Gabbay; and Claire Tang, head of Greater China, and Kunihiko (Nick) Okumura, head of Japan acquisitions, became co-CIOs of Asia-Pacific to fill the CIO role previously held by Gabbay.

Amundi, the France-based asset management group with €1.650 trillion of assets under management, named Xiaofeng Zhong as chairman of its Greater China business. Xiaofeng Zhong joined Amundi Hong Kong Limited in November 2011 as deputy chief executive, sales and marketing, and was appointed CEO, North Asia in September 2012. Prior to joining Amundi, he worked at Groupe Crédit Agricole from 1996 in various positions in France and Greater China, mainly within the investment banking arm. His most recent role, prior to joining Amundi, was managing director of CA-CIB Beijing branch. Xiaofeng Zhong has a PhD in political studies from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, DEAs (postgraduate diploma) in political studies and international relations from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, France and an MA (French language and literature) from Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China. 

Credit Suisse appointed Alan Wang, formerly of UBS, in the newly-formed role of chief operating officer for China. Wang works with the bank’s businesses and corporate functions to ensure that Credit Suisse’s strategic plans are delivered smoothly. 

At UBS, Wang – who joined in 2020 – had been China “integration lead”. He has almost 20 years’ regulatory experience, having previously worked at People’s Bank of China, China Banking Regulatory Commission and China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, where he was most recently Shanghai Bureau deputy director of foreign bank branches supervision.

A senior figure at EFG Bank in Singapore, Kimmis Pun, joined Shenning Investments as managing director family office. Pun was senior managing director and head, Greater China at EFG from April 2019 to December last year. Prior to EFG, Pun was head of private banking of VP Bank (May 2018 to April 2019), before that she was MD, Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore for almost two-and-half years. Previously, she worked at BNP Paribas from September 2014 to December 2015.

International law firm Charles Russell Speechlys appointed four new partners for four of its offices covering Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Two of the partners are joining its international dispute resolution team.

Sara Sheffield joined the Dubai office, Pierre Bydzovsky joined the Geneva office and litigator Ray Ng joined as a registered foreign lawyer in the Hong Kong office. 

Ray Ng has more than 30 years' experience of handling onshore and offshore disputes in a legal career spanning London, the Caribbean and Asia. Ng specialises in the resolution of complex high value multi-jurisdictional commercial disputes relating to shareholder rights, directors’ duties, corporate governance, cross-border restructuring and insolvency, trusts and commercial fraud. A native English speaker, he also speaks Mandarin, Cantonese and Bahasa and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

Sun Life Financial, the Toronto-listed global group that provides wealth management among its offerings, said its president and chief executive, Dean Connor, is to retire in August 2021. Kevin Strain, executive vice-president and chief financial officer, is to be made president and a member of the Sun Life board of directors. He will assume the CEO role when Connor retires.

In a newly-created role based in Tokyo, Aberdeen Standard Investments appointed Sadayuki Takahashi as deputy head of Japan. The former Schroders executive works closely with Ken Yajima, chief executive and representative director for ASI in Japan. Takahashi spent 14 years in a variety of senior roles at Schroders Japan, most recently as COO of distribution and head of product development. Before that, he worked in client services and global custody roles in Tokyo at JP Morgan and the Bank of New York.