UBP has made a number of senior hires in its investment services unit, part of a broader build-out to its Asia business.

Geneva-based Union Bancaire Privée has appointed Anthony Kao as managing director, head of advisory solutions for Asia – a newly-created team. 

Kao, based in Hong Kong, will report regionally to Edouard Hoepffner, head of investment services Asia, and globally to Philippe Henry, global head of advisory.

Under Kao’s leadership, this regional team will have full oversight of UBP’s content capabilities, from direct equities to fixed income and funds, management of the product pipeline, product launches and product innovation. 

Prior to this, Kao spent more than 10 years at Citigroup where he was most recently the North Asia team lead for the Global Investment Lab, a team covering multi-asset class portfolios for ultra and mega wealth clients and family offices. Before that, Kao held senior positions in Hong Kong and New York, as a treasurer, merger and acquisition analyst, as well as on the equity research side.

“We strongly believe that Anthony and the team will add real value to our thought leadership creation in Asia − content which will be relevant and highly useful to our clients across the world. Our ambition is to continuously build out our investment services in the region, increase the creation of unique and meaningful content in Asia and leverage our innovative investment expertise globally,” Hoepffner, head of investment services Asia, said. “This will not only further support our advisory and discretionary propositions but will also help us to provide a differentiated and innovative range of services to all our clients.”

Last year, UBP made several senior hires in its Investment Services unit, including Frankie Tong as head of investment consulting, North Asia, Ling Vey-Sern as senior equity advisor, Asia Technology and Nicolas Wang, senior equity advisor, Asia Healthcare.