The latest senior wealth management and legal practice moves from across Asia.

The Financial Markets Authority
The Financial Markets Authority, the New Zealand regulator, has appointed Karen Chang as acting general counsel until the FMA’s new chief executive – Samantha Barrass - joins in 2022. Chang is head of enforcement.

Chang’s appointment follows the appointment of Liam Mason, the current general counsel, as acting chief executive. Mason will take up the Acting CE role after the CEO Rob Everett leaves the FMA at the end of October.

As acting general counsel, Chang will lead the policy and governance, corporate legal, investigations and enforcement functions for the FMA, and will join the executive team.

Previously a Senior Crown prosecutor at Meredith Connell, Chang joined the FMA as head of enforcement in 2017. She has extensive experience in commercial litigation, regulatory litigation and criminal prosecution, in New Zealand, Australia and New York. Chang has been responsible for executing the FMA enforcement strategy, leading cases ranging from fair dealing breaches and insider trading, through to AML/CFT contraventions and several fraud cases.

Margot Gatland, a manager in the enforcement team, will be appointed as acting head of enforcement while Chang carries out her new role. Gatland, who joined the FMA in 2017 from the Serious Fraud Office, has a background in regulatory, criminal and civil litigation predominantly acting for the Crown.

The changes take effect on 1 November, when Everett finishes his seven-and-a-half-year tenure as CEO. Samantha Barrass was announced as the FMA’s new CEO earlier in September and will join the regulator in January 2022, subject to COVID-19 practicalities.

State Street
State Street Global Advisors, part of State Street, has appointed four individuals for its exchange-traded funds business in the Asia-Pacific region.

Kathleen Gallagher has been appointed as head of SPDR ETFs Australia, in addition to her role as head of ETF Model Portfolios Asia-Pacific and EMEA. Marie Tsang has joined as a SPDR fixed income strategist for Asia Pacific. Jean Gan has joined as a SPDR fixed income sales specialist for Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia, and Robin Tsui has expanded his role to include being Asia Pacific gold strategist and gold sales specialist for Hong Kong. (SPDR is the firm’s ETF brand.)

Gallagher began her expanded role earlier in September in Sydney, while the new roles of Tsang, Gan and Tsui are effective from yesterday. They are based in Sydney, Singapore and Hong Kong, respectively. 

 All four individuals report to Meaghan Victor, head of SPDR ETFs Asia-Pacific distribution at State Street Global Advisors, who is based in Sydney.

Relocating from the UK to Sydney, Gallagher was most recently the head of ETF Model Portfolios EMEA and Asia Pacific at SPDR ETFs of State Street Global Advisors. 

The two fixed income appointments are both newly created roles. Tsang has joined from BlackRock, where she was most recently the senior investment strategist for BlackRock Portfolio Analysis and Solutions. In her new role, Tsang will be responsible for State Street Global Advisors' fixed income ETFs advising Asia Pacific clients on how to position and employ themselves in investor portfolios most effectively, promoting the strategic growth of SPDR's fixed income products by working together with the SPDR distribution team.

Gan joins from MUFG Securities, where she was most recently the director for institutional investor sales. Prior to that, Gan worked in various fixed income, derivatives and structured products sales roles at JP Morgan, Societe Generale, Citibank and UBS. 

Before taking the expanded role, Tsui was Asia Pacific gold strategist. Prior to joining State Street Global Advisors in 2016, Tsui was investment product and research manager at the World Gold Council.