People Moves

Asia Executive Wealth Management Job Moves – November 2011

Tara Loader Wilkinson and Vanessa Doctor 5 December 2011

Asia Executive Wealth Management Job Moves – November 2011

Here WealthBriefingAsia rounds up the biggest movers and shakers of the Asia-Pacific wealth management industry in November 2011.

Here WealthBriefingAsia looks back at the biggest movers and shakers of the Asia-Pacific wealth management industry in November 2011. 

The chairman of the board of Switzerland’s
UBS, Kaspar Villiger, announced he will step down earlier than expected, to be
succeeded by Axel Weber at the bank's annual general meeting next year,
hastening the change of the guard at the bank in the wake of a $2.3 billion
rogue trader loss. UBS will appoint Sergio Ermotti as its permanent chief
executive before its investor day on 17 November, according to media reports.
Swiss weekly paper the SonntagsZeitung said the board would make the
appointment on a telephone conference so Ermotti could present the bank's new
strategy in New York as permanent CEO.

*****

Aberdeen Asset Management hired Dr David Smith as a forensic
corporate governance expert to its Singapore-based Asian investment team as
head of corporate governance. He joins from Institutional Shareholder Services,
where he spent four years, most recently as head of Asia-ex Japan research.

*****

Solution Providers, the Swiss management
consulting firm for financial institutions, hired Sarah Luheshi as principal
consultant in its Singapore office effective 28 November 2011. Before, Luheshi
established the Singapore presence of Owen James, the UK-headquartered wealth
management consulting and events firm.

*****

Piyush Gupta, chief executive and director
of Singapore's DBS Group Holdings and DBS Bank, was named a member of the board
of directors of the Institute of International Finance. This is the first time
an executive from a Singapore-headquartered bank is appointed to the IIF board, the
Washington-based association of financial institutions worldwide, said the
firm.

*****

Credit Suisse named Olivier Thiriet as chief executive for Japan
effective 1 January 2012. Thiriet is the head of cash equities for Asia-Pacific
and will assume the new responsibility as Japan chief in addition to this role.

*****

Investment house Ocean Dial Group named Gaurav Narain as the
head of research at its Mumbai subsidiary, Ocean Dial Advisers Private. He
joined from New Horizon Investments.

*****

Altamount Capital Management, the India-based
multi-family office, named Murlidhara Kadaba as non-executive chairman.
He was until recently senior managing director guiding its strategy and
business development.

*****

Manulife Asset Management named Kisoo Park managing director and
portfolio manager for the global multi-sector fixed income team in Hong Kong. Park
has over 20 years of foreign exchange and global fixed income experience,
previously serving as founder and chief operating officer of an Asia-focused
event driven hedge fund.

*****

Man Group, the London-listed investment manager, appointed a
country chair of China following its acquisition of rival GLG Partners year, as
part of an aggressive push into Mainland China. Yifei Li previously worked at
GLG which was acquired by Man in October 2010.

*****

Noah Holdings, the wealth management firm that caters to high net worth
clients in China, appointed Shusong Ba and Ji Liu as independent directors to
its board. Shusong Ba is the deputy director of the Research Institute of
Finance under the Development Research Center of China's State Council.

                                                                              *****

Macquarie Private Wealth, the Australian
manager, announced the hiring of 19 advisers across six states including four
from Perth-based adviser Plan B. The wealth manager made the hires over the
last six months. These include Michael Harwood, Michael Moursellas, Ryan
Wareing and Andrew White in Perth. In Queensland, Scott MacKenzie, Emmet Ryan,
Matthew Cahill, Joshua Derrington, Ben Kirkegaard and Lawrence Williamson
joined the company in Brisbane. Macquarie also
hired five private client advisers in Canberra. Paschal Leahy and Luke
Furner specialize in defined-benefit superannuation, Bob Backer focuses on
advising clients in the defence and public sectors about retirement planning
and super, and Hena Power and Penny Ponder specialise in portfolio management
and SMSFs. In South Australia, Macquarie Private Wealth hired David Duncan to
provide advice for business owners and self-funded retirees, and risk
specialist James Inglis. On the direct equity side, it hired Paris Magdalinos
from Lonsec in Melbourne and Patrick Hunt from Lonsec in Sydney.

The Antipodean wealth manager also recruited Mark Chartres from Intersuisse as senior investment advisor for its Melbourne wealth management office. Also Emil Walter was recruited as a successor to Mark Matthews for the role of Asia strategist. Walter was the head of regional strategy for Asian equities at Royal Bank of Scotland. Matthews left the company for Julius Baer early this year.

*****

The chief executive of Australian
investment manager Challenger, Dominic Stevens, resigned after nine years at
the firm to take “a career sabbatical”. Stevens will be replaced by current
chief financial officer and group chief operating officer Brian Benari, who
will succeed Stevens in February next year.

*****

ANZ Wealth appointed Neil Younger as head
of practice-based financial planning. Younger was previously the general
manager for Commonwealth Financial Planning, the graduate program under
Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

*****

BT Financial Group, the wealth management
arm of Australia's The Westpac Group, launched a new business unit that
highlights the firm's Magnitude financial advisory business. The new divison is
led by Phil Butterworth, who is credited for establishing and leading the DKN
Financial Group, a wealth services provider that was recently taken over by
IOOF Holdings.

*****

MLC, the wealth management affiliate of
National Australia Bank, appointed Megan Beer as general manager of group
insurance. Beer brings almost 20 years of financial services and over 12 years
of insurance experience to the role. She was previously the head of finance for
MLC Insurance, where she worked for the past two years.

*****

State Street Corporation appointed two executives
to its Australian Global Markets team. Sinclair Scholfield will lead the firm's
securities finance business in Australia and New Zealand as managing director,
while Jonathan Gencher was named head of e-Exchange, the firm's electronic
foreign exchange trading service. 

*****

Bank of Melbourne Private, the
newly-established Australian wealth manager, appointed Jonathan Ayres to head its
private division. Ayres joined from National Australia Bank where he spent more
than a decade in senior roles, including as head of financial planning for NAB
Private and as a regional executive. He most recently served as senior
investment specialist with NABInvest.

*****

UK-based accountant Ernst & Young made a number of senior
appointments for its asset management arm in Asia-Pacific. Roy Stockell was
appointed head of asset management for Asia-Pacific, in addition to his
current role leading the asset management group for Europe, Middle East,
India and Africa. Ernst & Young also appointed Elliott Shadforth, George
Saffayeh, Teresa Tso and Christine Lin all in senior asset management
positions in Asia-Pacific.

*****

Bravura Solutions, the wealth management software developer, named Jason Wilby as manager for
global strategy, risk and planning. Wilby was previously the head of change, global wealth
management at Bravura. He joined the firm in 2008 as head of human resources,
global wealth management.

*****

Citi promoted its Asia-Pacific co-head Stephen Bird
to the position of sole chief executive of Asia, while his former co-head,
Shirish Apte, became chairman of the region. Since 2009 Bird and Apte shared
the role, with Bird focusing on China, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan, and Apte
concentrating on South and Southeast Asia. Both appointments are effective
from 1 January 2012.

*****

Man Group, the London-listed investment manager, appointed a
country chair of China, Yifei Li. She previously
worked at GLG which was acquired by Man in October 2010, and is a well-respected Chinese business woman.

*****

Banca della Svizzera Italiana appointed George Lam as a new
investment advisor on the China-Taiwan team of its Singapore wealth management
business. He joined the Lugano-headquartered bank from HSBC Private Bank
where he was a director in the investment group.

*****

Goldman Sachs' former Asia co-president Yusuf Alireza, whose
departure was announced early November 2011, resurfaced at troubled commodities
trader Noble Group as chief executive. Alireza left Goldman after 19 years at
the firm and replaced Ricardo Leiman, who resigned. David Ryan remains as sole
president as Goldman Sachs in Asia Pacific ex-Japan. 

*****

Credit Suisse hired David Murray, formerly chief executive of
the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, as senior advisor based in Australia.
Working from Sydney, Murray will work with private clients as well as the
corporate and institutional divisions of the bank in Australia and
Asia-Pacific.

*****

Charles de Boissezon, the former chief executive at Banque
Piguet, the Swiss private bank, took the post of CEO at Hinduja Bank (Suisse),
part of Hinduja, the giant India-based conglomerate with substantial banking
and finance interests. Boissezon was appointed CEO of Banque Piguet in 2004 and
retired from the firm in 2008.

*****

Australia and New Zealand Bank, the fourth largest bank in
Australia, appointed Nigel Williams as chief risk officer and member of the
management board. Williams served as the managing director, institutional
Australia since 2008 and previously worked as managing director, director for
institutional and corporate and commercial banking in New Zealand. He joined
the firm in 2004. His appointment takes effect 16 December 2011. 

*****

MLC, the wealth unit of National Australia Bank, reshuffled its
advice and marketing senior management ranks with moves effective 1 February
2012. Greg Miller, previously the general manager of MLC Advice Solutions and
MLC Direct, will move to a full-time position as general manager of MLC Direct.
His old role will be assumed by Tom Reddacliff, who used to be the general
manager of Godfrey Pembroke. Reddacliff will in turn replaced by Peter Smith,
who used to serve as general manager for distribution for MLC's UK
operations. 

*****

IOOF Holdings, the Australian investment management firm, made
several changes to its sales and distribution team. Leah Waldie, previously the
northern regional manager is now covering the newly-created role of national
key account manager. Concurrent with the appointment was the creation of state
manager roles in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia,
to be managed by former business development managers Georgia Nides, Julie
Wise, Matt Kent and Nathan Morgan, respectively. 

*****

Two former members of BNP Paribas's top Asia private banking
ranks were named in new roles at rival firms. Serge Janowski, the former chief
executive of wealth management of Hong Kong and North Asia at BNP Paribas, was
named CEO of the Hong Kong branch of Crédit Agricole Suisse. He started the
role 14 September. Meanwhile, Sharon Chou, who headed up credit and risk at the
BNP Paribas's private banking arm, left to join Pictet as head of wealth
management for North Asia. She succeeds Franco Cheng, who becomes senior
advisor to the board of directors and a non-executive board member of Pictet
(Asia).

*****

Barclays Wealth said it will add over 20 senior private
bankers to its Greater China division within the next twelve months. The new recruits will join its existing ranks of 100
relationship managers in Asia-Pacific. Currently Greater China clients are
served mainly out of Hong Kong, but the bank plans to add a Singapore-based
Greater China desk too. 

The bank recruited Deepak Malhotra as managing director and wealth advisor to focus on high net worth families from South Asia effective January 2012. Malhotra is from Grant Thornton and at Barclays will be working closely Jonathan Burth, head of key clients, and Andrew Tailby-Faulkes, head of client advisory.

The UK wealth manager also bolstered its Greater China desk with the hire of Januar Tjandra as head based in Hong Kong. Tjanda began on his new role in 5 December. He was hired from Goldman Sachs, where he served as relationship management executive for Taiwan. He also served as head of the Hong Kong and Taiwan desks.

*****

HSBC appointed Bernard Rennell, an 11-year HSBC veteran, as
chief executive officer for its private banking unit in North Asia. He has
served as global head of private wealth solutions for the bank since 2009.

*****

Ibbotson Associates Australia, a subsidiary of US-based asset
management firm Morningstar, has named Matthew Esler head of advisor services.
Esler was previously an executive director for strategy and technical services
at Midwinter Financial Services. He reports directly to Chris Galloway, general
manager for investment services. 

*****

Phil Kearns, the former captain of Australia's national rugby
union team, was been named chief executive officer of Centric Wealth. He will
take the reins at the Australian wealth advisor from 12 December.

*****

Banque Degroof Luxembourg, the Belgian private bank, opened a
Hong Kong representative office and appointed Cecilia Chin as its chief
representative and general manager. Chin used to head sales and investor
relations at SAIL Advisors, a fund of hedge funds group. 

*****

Julius Baer, the Swiss bank, named Frank Keller as chief
financial officer for Asia and Tobias Murer chief operating officer for North
Asia effective 1 January 2012. Keller joined the bank in November 2009 from
HSBC Private Bank, while Murer has been deputy COO of Julius Baer Hong Kong
since 2009. Both replace Ian Pollock, who has quit after two years running the
roles jointly.

*****

The Royal Bank of Scotland announced that Brian Hartzer had left
to lead a newly-created wealth management unit at Westpac Private Bank. Hartzer
now leads Australian Financial Services, which covers Westpac's wealth
management unit BT Financial Group, Westpac retail and business banking, St
George Banking Group and banking products and risk management. Hartzer begins
on his new role next year. Also newly appointed is John Arthur to lead Group
Services, another division at Westpac, as group chief operating officer. Both
Hartzer and Arthur report to Gail Kelly, chief executive of Westpac.

*****

US asset manager Titanium hired Paul Stanley as senior portfolio
manager for its Sydney office. Stanley will be responsible for the TAM ASX 200
All Weather Fund, working with Peter Rice, chief investment officer. He
previously worked for UBS Global Asset Management as portfolio manager.

*****

MLC, the wealth management arm of National Australia Bank, named
Jeremy Duffield as non-executive director. Duffield is the chairman of the
Australian Centre for Financial Studies and before the appointment served as
director on the boards of Vanguard Investments Japan and Singapore.

*****

Hunter Hall, the ethical investment manager, appointed James
McDonald as deputy chief investment officer to replace newly-departed officer
Jack Lowenstein. McDonald was previously a senior portfolio manager at the
company.

*****

Kames Capital, the UK investment manager, opened an office in
Hong Kong and appointed James Cooper from Liminal Image as head of business
development. Cooper reports to Martin Harris, head of distribution.

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