November proved to be a busy month for moves in the region - with a number of them being exclusive reports by this news service.

DBS appointed Pearlyn Phau as the new deputy group head of consumer banking and wealth management, starting from 1 January 2016. Phau relocated to Singapore and reports to Tan Su Shan, group head of consumer banking and wealth management. Previously, Phau was managing director and head of consumer banking group and wealth management at DBS Bank (Hong Kong).

Andrew Niles, a senior figure at Bank of China International in Hong Kong, left the Asian banking group. Niles joined the Chinese banking group in 2013, having previously worked at the private bank of Standard Chartered in Asia. His future plans are as yet unknown.

A senior figure at the private banking arm of HSBC left the firm. Edward Chan, who held the role of managing director, regional head of sterling fixed income, left in November. He had been based in Hong Kong. Chan held that post since April this year. From January 2013 to April 2015, he was regional head of equities and fixed income; prior to this, starting in April 2008, he was global head of fixed income, according to his LinkedIn profile. From January 2007 to March 2008, he was managing director, head of investment advisory group at the private bank. 

BNP Paribas Investment Partners appointed Mandy Lui from Schroders as head of private wealth distribution, North Asia, and her predecessor, Guenter Tschiderer, to a new leadership role for Southeast Asia. Lui joined from Schroders Investment Management where she was responsible for the private bank's distribution business in Hong Kong. Based in Hong Kong, she replaced Tschiderer to provide services and fund products to third party intermediaries, including banks, private banks and insurance companies across North Asia.

Tschiderer, who has been with the BNP Paribas Group for over a decade, relocated to Singapore to take on the newly created role of head of private wealth distribution, Southeast Asia. Both Lui and Tschiderer report to Christian Bucaro, the firm's head of private wealth distribution in Asia-Pacific, who is based in Singapore. 

UBS named one of its most senior figures in Asia, Edmund Koh, as head of UBS Wealth Management for Asia-Pacific, as the predecessor moved to a new role at the Zurich-listed firm. Koh was the head of UBS Wealth Management for South East Asia and its Asia-Pacific hub, which covers the domestic businesses of China, Taiwan and Japan. Koh took over from Kathryn Shih, who was named president of UBS Asia-Pacific. These appointments took effect from 1 January 2016.

Koh, who is also a member of the UBS Global Wealth Management executive board and country head of UBS Singapore, joined the Swiss banking group in early 2012 following over 20 years in the Asian financial services industry. Prior to joining UBS, Koh was president and director of Ta Chong Bank and before that was managing director and regional head of the consumer banking group at DBS Bank.

An India-focused banker joined ABN AMRO Private Bank in Hong Kong. Rajeeev Ramanathan has joined the Netherlands-headquartered firm, having previously worked in the international NRI team at UBS. There had previously been a number of departures from the Swiss bank’s NRI team in Hong Kong. In his current role, he is director, international clients, private banking international Hong Kong.

Elian, a firm offering corporate, fund, private wealth and due diligence services, appointed Kathy Cheng to its Hong Kong office to oversee the fund services team. Cheng, who was educated in Australia and Hong Kong, has more than 10 years of fund, alternative investment and auditing experience. She previously worked at Citibank, where she led a team of fund accountants. 

Eastspring Investments hired four portfolio managers within its equity team, which manages more than $30 billion in assets. Bonnie Chan joined as a portfolio manager for the Asian Infrastructure Fund. As part of the regional Asia focus team, she specialises in Asian infrastructure equities. She previously served as a senior analyst for transportation and infrastructure at Jefferies, Hong Kong, and before this, at Macquarie's equity research team in Hong Kong.

Mandeep Sachdeva joined as a portfolio manager in the global emerging markets (Asia) focus team, where he specialises in Asian emerging market equities. He most recently worked at Fidelity in London and previously held roles at Orbis Investment Advisory and Citigroup.

Arthur Kadish is a portfolio manager in the equity team. A member of the regional Asia focus team, he specialises in Asia equity research and portfolio management. He was previously an Asian equity analyst and partner at Primrose Capital Management in Shanghai. Before this, he spent six years at Orbis Investment Advisory in London as a global equity analyst.

Shea Pei Shee is a portfolio manager and member of the equity income focus team, having previously served as an investment director at Leedon Capital Group. There, she managed an absolute return, long-only portfolio focusing on public equities primarily in the Asia Pacific (ex-Japan) region. She was also an investment analyst at Fidelity International.

RBC Wealth Management appointed Vivian Kiang to the newly-formed role of head of wealth planning for Asia. She is based in Hong Kong. The role involves responsibility for providing bespoke fiduciary structuring services including trust, insurance services, and bundled solutions to high and ultra-high net worth clients in Asia. Kiang joined RBC in late October and reports to Stefan Mueller, head of investments and products for Asia. Kiang has 16 years of experience; she has performed a number of roles at financial institutions including Royal Bank of Canada in Toronto, where she started her career. Most recently, she held the role of vice president, wealth planner at Citi Private Bank in Hong Kong. She holds an MBA from the University of Hong Kong.

Renowned investor, commentator and traveller Jim Rogers joined the advisory board of EM, an emerging markets media and investor relations business. Rogers is known for having co-founded the Quantum Fund in 1973 alongside hedge fund legend and political activist and philanthropist George Soros; he is also the creator of the Rogers International Commodities Index and the Rogers Global Resources Equity Index. Rogers’ books include Investment Biker, Hot Commodities, Street Smarts and A Bull in China.

Martin Currie Asia Unconstrained Trust, a listed investment trust in the UK, appointed investment industry figure Martin Shenfield as a non-executive director. Shenfield has held various senior positions following a career with Fidelity. He is currently a senior macro strategist at Lombard Street Research and travels extensively throughout the Asian region.

A former senior figure at the Indonesia business for UBS has joined Standard Chartered Private Bank. Suci Guntur was appointed as managing director, client advisory. Guntur is based in Singapore. In her role, she is responsible for overseeing the ultra-high net worth business covering Indonesia and reports to Stephen Richards Evans, who is the interim market head of Indonesia for the private bank. Guntur previously worked at UBS, where she was most recently the head of financing solutions in Indonesia, covering private client side corporate financing and special situations for UHNW clients.

Northern Trust, the Chicago-headquartered banking group, appointed Ali Sheikh as head of hedge fund services for the Asia-Pacific region, based out of Hong Kong. Sheikh reports to Peter Sanchez, global head of Northern Trust’s hedge fund services arm. He took over from Jeb Altonaga, who left the firm. Sheikh joined the bank in 2011 as part of Northern Trust’s acquisition of Omnium from Citadel, where he began working in 2008.

Barclays hired Sabrina Tse, a relationship manager from Coutts, within its private banking business. Tse, who was previously managing director at Coutts, is now based in Hong Kong. 

Hansard International, the investment firm that is part of UK-listed Hansard Global, an Isle of Man-headquartered group, made a number of appointments for roles in regions including Asia. The arrivals include Norrie Little, sales development manager, who previously worked for 21 years at Zurich International, holding roles in its operations, propositions, sales and finance areas. She has been appointed to the role of sales development manager to bolster the firm’s relationships with independent financial advisors. Tommy So was named head of business development for North East Asia, reporting to Elba Tse, general manager for North East Asia. He was previously senior sales manager at Zurich International Life in Hong Kong for almost six years. Ed Alderson was named sales development manager for Latin America; he recently moved from Friends Provident International, where he joined the industry in 2003. 

Hansard also confirmed the appointment of Michael Wrigley as head of sales for South East Asia, who moved to Hansard International from Standard Life International. Maria Santodomingo Lorente was appointed account executive in the existing business segment, having joined Hansard International in 2013 as a relationship manager.

UBS Wealth Management appointed Lucas Wilson as vice chairman within its global emerging markets team in London. The GEM unit provides wealth management solutions to international clients in regions including Asia-Pacific. Wilson is responsible for further building the ultra-high net worth and global family office franchise within the bank's London GEM team. He focuses on developing new client relationships while enhancing relationships with existing clients. The role was a newly-created one. Wilson has 35 years of investment banking experience with UBS and its predecessor firm SG Warburg. Wilson reports to Nick Perryman, head of wealth management, global emerging markets London, and Caroline Kuhnert, head of wealth management GEM UHNW.

Nikko Asset Management promoted Peter Lynn to a newly created global role that will see him head product promotions in Singapore. Lynn was formerly managing director of Nikko Asset Management New Zealand.

ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management appointed Laura Lui as head of index and quantitative investment. Lui was previously head of the exchange-traded fund and index team at Mirae Asset Global Investments, responsible for boosting the firm's ETF and index capabilities in Asia. She has more than 12 years of experience in the finance industry. Based in Hong Kong, she reports to Richard Tang, chief executive of ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management. 

Sotheby’s Asia hired Steven Zuo as head of its classical Chinese paintings department. In the newly created role, Zuo is responsible for the company's growth in Asia and appraising classical Chinese paintings for auctions. He is based in Hong Kong and has 18 years of art expertise, primarily in curating and auctioning art in mainland China and Hong Kong.

Maples Fiduciary, part of the Maples group, appointed Charlie Sparrow as regional head of fiduciary in Hong Kong. Sparrow previously worked at the firm’s affiliated organisation, Maples and Calder, an international law firm. 

Private banking group LGT made a senior appointment for its Singapore operations: Lydia Lum, who was a team head and senior private banker at HSBC Private Bank from 2007 to this year, joined LGT in Singapore. In another move, Gregor Hochet, who left BNP Paribas, joined LGT’s Singapore business.

Manulife Singapore made two additions to its team, coming in the wake of a number of other appointments at the Manulife group of firms in Asia. Neil Bowyer was appointed as chief bancassurance officer of Manulife Singapore – a newly-created role. He is responsible for the overall development of the company’s bancassurance operations in Singapore, including strategic development, distribution services, training and sales. He has more than 20 years of industry experience and has spent the last six years working in Singapore. Arijit Chakraborty was appointed as chief legal and compliance officer of Manulife Singapore. He has significant experience in handling legal, compliance and regulatory matters in the financial and investment space. He started his career in Singapore as a lawyer specialising in merger and acquisition transactions at Temasek Holdings and has held senior roles with other insurance companies. In his last role, he was the general counsel for one of the largest European insurers in its Singapore office.

Julius Baer hired a team head for its newly-created Japan desk in Singapore. It also added to the business development team of an asset management business, in which it has a stake, in Tokyo.

It appointed Takuma Mizuguchi to the team head position. In this new role, he drives the bank’s Japan coverage out of Singapore. 

Reporting to Wolfgang Humbert-Droz, market head Japan, Mizuguchi works with teams locally and regionally. Before he joined Julius Baer, Mizuguchi was director of the Japan international team of Credit Suisse in Singapore from 2012 to 2015.  Separately, Stefan Hofer was appointed head of business development of TFM Asset Management’s Tokyo office. He reports to Hirokazu Mikuniya, TFM’s representative in Japan. 

Vontobel Asset Management appointed Joanna Poon as client service manager to support its work in the Asia-Pacific region. Poon held similar roles at Allianz Global Investors, Baring Asset Management and Western Asset Management. She also held research and support roles at the Securities and Futures Commission and at Commercial Asia Economic Limited.