A series of high-profile comings and goings in the Asia-Pacific wealth management industry capped a busy September for moves in the region. There were, for example, senior changes at Standard Chartered, ABN AMRO, Bank of Singapore, Julius Baer, HSBC and PIMCO.

The former chief executive of Pictet’s private banking operation in Singapore became head of private banking at ABN AMRO in the Asian city-state. Anuj Khanna, whose new role is head of private banking at ABN AMRO Singapore, left his previous role at Pictet in Singapore in October last year. Before joining Pictet in 2012, Khanna had been in Hong Kong for five years working for Credit Suisse’s private bank, holding roles such as head of private banking, North Asia, and chief operating officer for the Asia-Pacific region. The move meant that Khanna takes over from Chang Tze Lee, who left the bank.

Stephen Richards-Evans, global head, UHNW at Standard Chartered’s private bank, and market head, Indonesia, left the post. He was based in Singapore. The move was part of a series of changes put in place at Standard Chartered in the wake of the appointment in July of former senior Barclays manager Srinivas (Srini) Siripurapu as regional head, private banking, ASEAN and South Asia, and as global head, non-resident Indian clients. Siripurapu took over the regional leadership from Peter Kok, whose role was then combined within the former’s expanded remit.

Andrew Ho was also made managing director and market head, Indonesia, and Vishal Jain appointed as MD and market head, Global South Asia Community (GSAC) Asia. Both report to Siripurapu.
Richards-Evans, who was appointed to his head of global UHNW role in October 2014, will be succeeded by Andrew Ho, who for 10 years was at UBS Wealth Management as country head for Indonesia, this publication understands. Prior to that, he worked at Citigroup's private bank. 

Andy Cohen, who has been chief executive of JP Morgan's Asian private bank since 2010, took on the post of CEO for the international private bank (the global business but excluding the US). The adjustment meant that Pablo Garnica, who continues as EMEA private bank CEO, reports to Cohen; Chris Harvey, the Latin America private bank CEO, also reports to Cohen. From 2005 to 2010, Cohen was MD, regional head of Southern California at the bank, working in Los Angeles; from 2002 to 2004 he worked at JP Morgan (Suisse) in Geneva, as MD, global head of Turkey and Israel.

Credit Suisse hired former UBS head of its ultra high net worth business in Japan to replace Masahide Ohashi as managing director and head of private banking for Japan. Tsuneaki Hirao is based in Tokyo and reports to Alex Wade, head of developed and emerging Asia private banking for Asia-Pacific, as well as Martin Keeble, chief executive officer, Japan. Hirao has 25 years of senior level private banking experience, of which ten were spent spearheading UBS’s wealth management office in Osaka, Japan. Prior to his UBS stint, Hirao was managing director, market head of Citi Private Bank in Tokyo.

A former private wealth manager at Goldman Sachs joined Lombard Odier in Singapore, focusing on the Southeast Asia market. Sandy Lim joined Sandy Lim joins Lombard Odier Singapore as a senior relationship manager. Lim holds the title of executive director at Lombard Odier, Singapore and he will report to Vincent Magnenat, chief executive for Singapore and head of private banking, Asia.

HSBC Global Asset Management appointed Grace Tam as senior market specialist, based in Hong Kong. Tam reports to Alison Brown, director and head of sales, wholesale business. Tam focuses on supporting the retail distribution of HSBC funds in Hong Kong and China. Prior to this role, Tam worked at Credit Suisse Private Banking; she has also worked at JP Morgan Asset Management for over 10 years with her last position as executive director, global market strategist. She has more than 15 years of experience in the industry.

Japan-based Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group appointed Yukihiro Murota as managing director of Sumitomo Mitsui Trust International Limited in London, taking over from Hisaya Kambayashi who returned to SuMi TRUST’s head office in Tokyo. Murota has responsibility for managing all aspects of SuMi TRUST’s global asset management business and driving growth in the EMEA region. He has been with SMTIL since April this year. Previously, he was associate general manager of the fiduciary business planning department at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, the parent company of SMTIL.  

Between 2005 and 2009, Murota was in charge of client portfolio management for public pensions clients for the bank. From 1996 to 2005 he was a portfolio manager of global bond funds at SMTB, and also gained experience as a strategist on world economy and markets.

Bank of Singapore’s Greater China team head, and a former member of parliament in Singapore, left the bank. Arthur Fong, who was serving out his notice period, was most recently managing director, team head, reporting to Oliver Tang, market head, Greater China. Fong has more than 25 years of banking experience, of which 23 years were spent in private banking. He has held roles at Citigroup Private Bank, Singapore and UBS, Singapore. He had also served three terms as an elected member of the Singapore Parliament from 2001 to 2015.

ABN AMRO appointed Ghislaine Nadaud as a senior sustainability advisor for its energy, commodities and transportation clients in Asia. Nadaud, who started her career in law, joined ABN AMRO in 2006 as legal counsel. Since 2011, she has specialised in sustainable banking, policy and risk management. 

KKR named its new head of Greater China, taking effect from the start of next year and taking the reins from David Liu, who is leaving the firm. Yang, who is based out of Hong Kong, was president and chief executive of China Development Financial Corporation.

 PIMCO appointed hired Steve Chiu as head of Hong Kong Retail, reporting to Michael Thompson, who is head of global wealth management for Asia ex-Japan and head of Singapore. PIMCO also hired Stacie Wang as head of China, global wealth management. Wang joined PIMCO in early August and is responsible for building partnership with intermediaries in China, with a strategic focus on private banks, retail banks, domestic asset managers, wealth management platforms, financial advisors and family offices.

In addition, existing Asia ex-Japan Global Wealth Management business team heads assumed dedicated channel responsibilities to systemically prospect and develop the opportunities. These included Todd Staley leading the gamily office sub-channel, Henry Chui on private banks for North Asia and Freida Tay on Singapore retail. Chiu most recently was VP of investment funds of Manulife Asset Management (Hong Kong). Prior to that, he held senior management roles in Bosera Asset Management (International), AIA Wealth Management, Invesco Asset Management, HSBC Retail Banking and HSBC Asset Management.

Julius Baer reached into the world of the luxury goods sector to appoint a new marketing boss: Florence Rollet became new marketing head, replacing co-heads Nicole Chandrashekara and Marco Parroni. Rollet is based out of Zurich and report to Boris Collardi, chief executive. Previously, Rollet worked at Tiffany & Co., where she was group vice president EMEA. Prior engagements include various senior management roles in the luxury and consumer goods industry, including LVMH Group, Coty and Reckitt Benckiser Group. Rollet is a member of the board of directors of Rémy Cointreau.

Going forward, Chandrashekara took on a new senior role within the bank. Parroni remained in the marketing department as head of global sponsoring as well as deputy to Rollet. Additionally, he will continue to drive selected key marketing projects with strategic importance for the bank, in collaboration with Collardi.

AXA Investment Managers set out details of AXA IM Chorus, its new 16-strong investment team in Hong Kong, focusing on liquid absolute return strategies. AXA IM first announced the team in April this year when Pierre-Emmanuel Juillard re-joined the firm, becoming managing director of AXA IM Chorus. Since then, it hired Jérôme Brochard and Hector Chan as co-chief investment officers, Augustin Landier as head of research, Ahcène Garèche as senior quant researcher and Philippe Muller as chief technology development officer. 

Brochard joined from Goldman Sachs where he was managing director in the equities division, in charge of the systematic trading strategies team. Chan joined from Goldman Sachs where he was managing director and head of Asia-Pacific FICC structuring. Before Goldman Sachs, he was responsible for the Asia-Pacific ex-Japan interest rate and foreign exchange structuring team at BNP Paribas.

Landier is a visiting professor of finance at Harvard Business School and will continue this role alongside his new position as head of research at AXA IM Chorus. He has taught at New York University and the University of Chicago, and was a resident scholar at the International Monetary Fund.

Garèche joined from Marshall Wace where he was a quantitative researcher for the hedge fund and Muller joined from adtech company Criteo where he was a senior engineering lead. Muller brings experience in software development and infrastructure, and has previously worked at Capital Fund Management.

Harvest Global Investments appointed Ashley Dale to the newly-created role of chief business development officer and chief marketing officer, covering Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Middle East. Dale previously seven years as chief marketing officer and head of international business development at Mirae Asset Global Investments. Before that, he held senior positions at CLSA, GLS Capital and SG Securities. Based in Hong Kong, Dale reports to chief executive, James Sun. 

PricewaterhouseCoopers' Australia business recruited former ANZ chief executive Mike Smith, who left the lender last year, as a senior advisor to support its Asia practice.

Chubb Life, the global life insurance business, appointed Raymond Ting as chief agency officer and member of the executive committee of Chubb Life Insurance Company, its Hong Kong operation. Ting is responsible for all aspects of the agency channel and leads the agency management team. He reports to Allan Lam, country president of the company. With more than 30 years of experience in the life insurance industry in the US and Asia, Ting previously was chief executive of ACE Life in Thailand in 2010. Until 2006, he was the MD of MetLife in the US, heading up financial services for 30 years.

A former chief executive of Singapore-listed DBS, Jackson Tai, joined rival HSBC as an independent non-executive director. His appointment is initially for three years. A luminary of the Asian banking sector, Tai spent the first 25 years of his career as an investment banker at JP Morgan, latterly as chairman of the Asia-Pacific region. Between 1999 and 2007, he held senior positions at DBS Group. He joined DBS as chief financial officer, moving to become president and chief operating officer and, from 2002, vice-chairman and CEO. Tai continues to serve as a non-executive director of Eli Lilly and Company, MasterCard Incorporated, and Royal Philips NV, as well as a member of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. His previous non-executive roles include The Bank of China, Singapore Airlines, NYSE Euronext, ING Group NV, CapitaLand, SingTel and Jones Lang LaSalle. In the not-for-profit sector, Tai is a director of Metropolitan Opera and a trustee for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Emerging markets specialist GEMCORP Capital, which is headquartered from London, has a new advisory board, including figures from the banking and private client world.  

The chairman is Ken Costa, who served also as chairman of Lazard International, the financial advisory and asset management firm, from 2007 to 2011. This followed a 30-year M&A career at UBS, where he was chairman of EMEA for UBS Investment Bank, vice-chairman and board member of the UBS investment banking board as well as global head of M&A.  

Tommy Helsby joined the board from Kroll, the corporate investigations and risk consulting firm, where he has been working for the past 35 years. Helsby is chairman of Kroll’s investigation and disputes practice and is responsible for the firm’s strategy and major client relationships worldwide. He has experience in emerging markets, especially Eastern Europe and Russia, the Middle East and Africa.

Igor Sagiryan was MD and head of private clients at CJSC “Sberbank CIB”, after serving as a co-head of investment banking at the bank. Sagiryan was president of Renaissance Capital from 1999 to 2009, and, prior to that, was founding partner and managing director at Bain-Link for eight years.

Sam Bennett spent 35 years at BP, where for the last ten years he has been the company’s chief negotiator at its exploration and production division. Bennett has worked across most of BP’s upstream businesses, focusing on exploration access, dispute resolution, government negotiations and joint ventures, including commercial, political and country risk assessments in a large number of countries including the US, Central and South America, Russia, North and sub-Saharan Africa.

ZEDRA, the independent trust, corporate and fund services firm acquired from Barclays in January, appointed Robert Burchett-Coates to the newly created role of director of business development and sales. Burchett-Coates worked for more than 15 years in administration, investment management and corporate solutions markets. He operates from the firm's offices in London with a brief to grow business from ZEDRA's existing client base and new partnerships, particularly in Asia and Europe. Prior to this new role, Burchett-Coates was a director at Deutsche Bank in London, leading fund services sales in EMEA. He also worked at Man Group in a senior role, overseeing commercial management of fund administration services and related corporate solutions for funds.

Robeco Institutional Asset Management, part of the Netherlands-based group Robeco, which recently opened an office in Singapore, appointed a new chief executive. The CEO is Gilbert Van Hassel. He was also appointed chairman of the management board of Robeco. Van Hassel has over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, mainly in asset and wealth management, working in Europe, Asia and the US. Until 2013 he was global CEO of ING Investment Management. Before joining ING in 2007 he made his career at JP Morgan in various executive roles in Europe, Asia and the US. In his new role he took over from Leni Boeren.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a major institution involved in the standards around the global property market, appointed a new chairman in Hong Kong. Clement Lau serves for two years. He was previous vice chair of RICS' board in Hong Kong.

Fidelity International appointed Juliet Bullick from rival investment management giant BlackRock as global head of consultant relations. Bullick works with Fidelity International’s institutional teams across the globe. Her regional reach will include Asia. At BlackRock, Bullick worked for 18 years, holding a number of roles including that of head of UK institutional business. Bullick reports to Chuck McKenzie, who is global head of institutional, Fidelity International. 

Patricia Enslow, the head of marketing for Asia-Pacific covering wealth management at UBS, left the firm. On an interim basis, Lorraine Yee, the current head of wealth management marketing for Greater China, stepped up as head of APAC. Yee reports directly to Nicholas Wright.

Bank J Safra Sarasin hired Samai Natarajanhas, as an executive director to cover Southeast Asian markets, reporting to Tan How Seng, who is market head for Indonesia. Previously, Natarajanhas was a senior vice president at DBS, having joined the bank as result of the takeover of Societe Generale Private Banking in 2014. He had been at the French bank since 2010.

Bank J Safra Sarasin also hired Singh into its non-resident Indian team in Singapore. Singh, who was previously a team head at Bank of Singapore for six years, joined as an executive director, reporting to Hena Hoda, managing director and team head for Southeast Asia. Singh previously worked with Hoda at Bank of Singapore.

BlackRock launched an Asia-focused absolute return fund that takes long and short positions, targeting returns above what can be captured by more traditional approaches. The fund is called the (BSF) Asia Pacific Absolute Return Fund and is co-managed by Oisin Crawley, portfolio manager and co-head of research for the Asian equities team, and Andrew Swan, head of Asian equities at BlackRock. They are supported a team in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

A former Indonesian desk head at UBS who left the Swiss bank in May resurfaced as team head of Southeast Asia at RBC Wealth Management. Duncan Ong joined the Canadian firm on 22 August. He is based out of Singapore. In his new role, Ong is executive director, team head. In this role he covers the Southeast Asia market, reporting to Tho Gea Hong, who is head of wealth management, Southeast Asia. Ong has a total of 18 years’ experience in the wealth sector.

Lyxor Asset Management, the fund house owned by Societe Generale, appointed Laurent Renaud as its chief executive in Japan. He replaced Toshiro Kubozono, who retired after nine years in the role. 
Based in Tokyo, Renaud reports to Lionel Paquin, CEO, Lyxor Asset Management, and locally to Raphael Cheminat, group country head for Japan at Societe Generale.

Deutsche Bank’s wealth management arm appointed Johnny Lau, who previously worked at Standard Chartered, as a senior wealth planner. At Standard Chartered, Lau was a director for fiduciary services. He has also worked for HSBC Private Bank.

Bain & Company, which works in fields including wealth management and financial services, named Weiwen Han as managing director of its Greater China practice. He took the helm from Michael Thorneman, who was MD of Bain Greater China for eight years and returned to advise private equity and corporate clients in China on strategy. The change in Thorneman's role, the firm said, was part of its "servant leader" model in which partners regularly rotate into leadership roles and then back to full-time client work. Han is responsible for leading growth, operations, people and brand strategy for the firm’s offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong. Most recently, Han was a partner in the firm’s private equity practice and a senior member of its digital, consumer products and retail practices. He is also actively engaged in Bain’s "Developing Market 100" initiative.

Citigroup appointed Bryan Murphy as the Asia-Pacific head of intermediaries client coverage for its direct custody and clearing business. He took over from George Hindmarsh, who moved to another role at the bank. Murphy is based in Hong Kong and responsible for the sales origination and relationship management for DCC clients in the region. He reports locally to Jeff Williams, Asia Pacific DCC head, and globally to Marcus Austin, global head of intermediaries, DCC at Citigroup. 

Prior to this role, Murphy was based in Bangkok, where he served as securities services head for the ASEAN (ex Singapore) cluster for the past two and a half years. He has also had intermediaries coverage roles in both Asia and EMEA for the US banking group and held coverage end product roles for both Bank of New York Mellon and Deutsche prior to joining Citigroup.

Man Group, the listed hedge fund business, unveiled a new management line-up, including a new chief financial officer and investment head. Jonathan Sorrell’s role as Man Group’s president developed to include a number of areas across the business and he stepped down as CFO and focused alongside Luke Ellis, chief executive, on strategic and commercial areas of the business. 

Mark Jones, former co-CEO of Man GLG, was appointed CFO and executive director of Man Group. Sandy Rattray was appointed as chief investment officer, taking on responsibility for Man AHL, Man Numeric, Man GLG and Man Solutions. This was previously part of Ellis’s role while he served as president of the firm. 

Robyn Grew was appointed to the newly-created position of chief administrative officer. Grew was previously Man Group’s general counsel and global head of legal and compliance.

Man Group also unveiled changes at its discretionary fund management business, Man GLG. Pierre-Henri Flamand was appointed as chief investment officer. He works alongside Teun Johnston who remained CEO. Tim Wong, executive chairman of Man AHL and a member of the Man Group executive committee, became chairman of Man Group Asia. He took over the role from Pierre Lagrange, who focuses on Man GLG’s ELS strategy.

Andrew Lee, market head of Indonesia at HSBC Private Bank, left the firm. Lee, who was a managing director based out of Singapore, held the role from July 2009. Prior to this, he was market head, private wealth management for Malaysia and Thailand business at Deutsche Bank for 10 years. From 1985 to 1998, he was vice president, private banking, at Citi.

HSBC Private Bank appointed former Citi senior manager Chester Wong as head of investor counselling and David Ng, former head of HL Bank in Singapore, as head of ultra-high net worth investment counselling. The pair work in the private bank's investment services and product solutions group for Southeast Asia. Both roles were newly-created.

Wong leads a team of investment counsellors in supporting clients’ wealth management needs in the region, working with relationship managers to provide advice on investment portfolio construction and diversification. He reports to Kenneth Yeo, head of investment services and products group for Southeast Asia.

Ng, meanwhile, was most recently head of private banking at HL Bank Singapore and has held senior markets and investments roles in global financial institutions including UBS Wealth Management, Citigroup Private Bank and Banque Indoseuz Singapore. 

Bank J Safra Sarasin hired Harpreet Singh into its non-resident Indian team in Singapore. Singh, who was previously a team head at Bank of Singapore for six years, joined as an executive director, reporting to Hena Hoda, managing director and team head for Southeast Asia. Singh previously worked with Hoda at Bank of Singapore.

Vanguard Australia, part of US-listed fund management giant Vanguard, appointed Ashley Warmbrand as head of legal and compliance, taking over from a predecessor who has moved to London. Warmbrand most recently served as head of risk and audit governance at National Australia Bank, where he held a range of senior legal and governance roles since joining in 2008. He has over 15 years' experience in the financial and professional services sectors including roles at Herbert Smith Freehills, Clarendon Lawyers and Centro Properties Group.

BNP Paribas Investment Partners appointed Christian Bucaro as its chief executive in Singapore, taking over from Puay-Lit Tan, who left to pursue other interests. Bucaro, reports jointly to Ligia Torres, head of Asia-Pacific, and Tino Moorrees, head of Asia sales. As part of the role, Bucaro is also responsible for overseeing Singapore business interests, and driving local strategy across all client groups.  Bucaro joined BNP Paribas Investment Partners in 2005 in Italy, where he set up a retail business development team. In 2008, he moved to London, where he held several senior roles such as head of UK offshore business development and deputy head of global distributor relationships. He joined the Singapore office in 2012 as team head of distribution sales for Southeast Asia. He was appointed head of private wealth for BNP Paribas Investment Partners, Asia-Pacific in January 2014.

HSBC Private Bank appointed Roger Goetz as regional head of advisory and sales management for the Asia-Pacific region, joining from Credit Suisse. Goetz's role is an expanded role that encompasses responsibilities for sales management and advisory in Asia-Pacific. Based in Hong Kong, Goetz has 15 years of private banking experience. His career includes more than 10 years in multiple regional and global senior leadership roles at Credit Suisse Private Banking. Prior to joining HSBC, he was global head of digital relationship management strategy and experience at Credit Suisse Private Banking. He earned an Executive MBA from the University of Chicago and a Master of Science from the University of Zurich.

Indosuez Wealth Management, which was rebranded at the start of the year from Crédit Agricole Private Banking, appointed Paul de Leusse as chief executive. He replaced Christophe Gancel, who stepped down earlier this summer. As CEO, de Leusse also joined the extended executive committee of Crédit Agricole. The firm said that de Leusse started his career in management consulting, first as a consultant (1997-2004) then as managing partner of Mercer Oliver Wyman (2004-2006). He subsequently joined the consultancy firm Bain & Company as partner (2006-2009).

DBS Group appointed Shee Tse Koon as its group head of strategy and planning. He joined from Standard Chartered, where he was most recently chief executive of the lender’s Indonesia franchise. Shee worked in banking in various roles for more than 22 years, working in Asia, the Middle East and the UK. A Singaporean, he spent the early years of his career in trade finance and corporate and institutional banking. Prior to his posting in Indonesia, he was head of governance (Europe, Middle East, Africa and Americas), based in the United Arab Emirates, as well as chief information officer and head of technology and operations for Standard Chartered in Singapore. Before this, he was the executive assistant to Standard Chartered’s group executive director for Africa and the Middle East, based in the UK.

Unigestion, the Switzerland-based asset management house, appointed Edouard Merette as non-executive chairman of its Asian business. Merette is based in Singapore and took over from Bill Foo, who was chairman for five years and stepped down. He remained on the board. Prior to this role, Merette was managing director, Asia-Pacific, for the Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, the Canadian fund manager.

Falcon Private Bank, the Swiss-based firm owned by Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company and operating in Asia, recruited industry luminary Walter Berchtold as its new chief executive. He replaceed retiring CEO Eduardo Leemann. Berchtold, who has been on its board since May last year, took over at the start of October. Leemann remained at the bank as a senior advisor. Berchtold has more than 30 years of experience in the banking industry. He was named head of private banking of Credit Suisse in 2004. In 2011 he gave up the operational responsibility and continued to serve as chairman of the private banking division. 

The Monetary Authority of Singapore appointed to its board Ong Ye Kung, acting minister for education and senior minister of state, Ministry of Defence. Ong’s term of appointment will be from 29 August 2016 to 31 May 2019. Prior to his government roles, Ong was director of group strategy at Keppel Corporation, overseeing long-term strategic planning of the firm's activities. Before this, he was deputy secretary-general of National Trades Union Congress. Lawrence Wong Shyun Tsai, minister for national development, stepped down from the board; he joined the MAS board in June 2011. 

Julius Baer established a new chief investment officer position by hiring Bhaskar Laxminarayan. Based in Singapore, he also heads the Asia IM division. Laxminarayan has over 23 years of experience in multi-asset investing in Asia. He joined from Pictet Wealth Management where he was CIO as of 2007, responsible for investment strategy in Asia.

Singapore’s stock market has a new chairman in the person of Kwa Chong Seng, who took the helm from Chew Choon Seng. Chew retireed after SGX's annual meeting did not stand for re-election. He joined the board in December 2004 and has been chairman since January 2011. Kwa, meanwhile, was elected to the board in September 2012. He was appointed lead independent director in December 2013, and has been the chairman of the nominating and governance and the remuneration and staff development committees since September 2013.

ASK Wealth Advisors, part of India-headquartered ASK Group, brought in four senior executives from the private banking division of Citibank in various positions. The joiners were Prakash Bulusu, Raghav Gupta, Vidushi Tandon and Amit Srivashtava. Bulusu has reportedly previously worked at Principal PNB Asset Management Company and Zurich Asset Management; Gupta joined Citibank in 2006 from Kotak Mahindra Bank to set up the private banking arm in North India. He has also worked at JM Morgan Stanley and ANZ Grindlays. Tandon, a vice president at Citi’s private bank, worked at Citi for six years; prior to this, he worked at the wealth management arm of HSBC. Srivashtava managed investments at Citi for around eight years and has worked previously for firms such as HDFC Bank, Barclays, IDBI Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank.