, an Asian insurance, trust and family office consortium, has appointed Gary Mak (pictured below) as general manager, Hong Kong.
Mak will oversee Lioner’s Hong Kong operations, driving sales strategy, commercial execution, and advisor engagement across the firm’s 3-in-1 wealth structuring platform. He will also be important in scaling Lioner’s presence across Asia so that it can offer a better service to high net worth and ultra-HNW clients. Mak’s remit will also include leading the rollout of advanced, AI-driven solutions across Lioner’s operations.
Gary Mak
With over 20 years of senior leadership experience, Mak has held positions at firms such as Fubon Life, ACE Life, AXA, MetLife, and New York Life. Most recently, Mak served as head of brokerage at Fubon Life (Hong Kong).
“Gary’s appointment marks an important milestone in our journey. His deep industry relationships, operational rigour, and understanding of HNW client priorities make him an ideal leader to accelerate our growth across Hong Kong and the broader region,” Tony Chan, partner at Lioner, said.
The firm said it is “actively identifying strategic markets as part of its long-term roadmap to build a globally-connected, Asia-rooted wealth platform”.
Lioner, which was founded in Hong Kong in 2021, opened a Beijing office in August 2023. In March 2025, it appointed former HSBC private banking figure Andy Leung as managing director in consultancy. In May, it appointed Francis Tang as managing director, Hong Kong.
Blackstone
figure Apurva Shah to join its Blackstone Credit & Insurance (BXCI) business – its first hire in India.
Shah will take on the managing director role to lead BXCI’s private credit origination in India. He brings over 26 years of experience and expertise in leveraged finance, securitisations, structuring, M&A advisory, and capital markets. Shah will report to Mark Glengarry, head of APAC for private credit strategies in BXCI.
Before Blackstone, Shah spent two decades in senior roles at Deutsche Bank after working at Citigroup, DSP Merrill Lynch, and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson.
Recent BXCI hires include: Mike Culhane, head of international business development for asset-based finance; Kimberly Kim, head of APAC insurance institutional client solutions; Mao Ito, principal (focusing on private credit origination in Japan); Pierre-Emmanuel Brard, principal (focusing on Asian strategy and solutions for Insurance), and Paulina Ting, principal (focusing on private credit origination in ANZ).
JP Morgan
JP Morgan Asset Management has appointed Swa Wu as head of Asia ex-Japan investment specialists within its global fixed income, currency and commodities (GFICC) group, based in Hong Kong.
Reporting to London-based Jemma Clee, international head of investment specialists for GFICC, Swa Wu leads the investment specialist team in Asia.
Wu returns to JPMAM with over a decade of experience as a senior fixed income investment specialist at the firm, complemented by her recent three-year tenure at Schroders as fixed income investment director.