People Moves

Executive Moves March 2008

Stephen Harris 2 April 2008

Executive Moves March 2008

WealthBriefing's monthly round-up of wealth management moves and hires.

UK
EFG Private Bank the London-based arm of Switzerland’s EFG International, has appointed four new directors to its private banking team.

Matthew O’Keefe and Catherine Stroud join from the wealth management firm Ansbacher, where they established and developed its UK private banking and fiduciary team. Before working at Ansbacher, Mr O’Keefe worked as a wealth structurer at Merrill Lynch for ten years. Ms Stroud was a solicitor within the corporate department at the international law firm Withers.

In their new posts, they will focus on offering wealth structuring and private banking solutions to both UK and international ultra high net worth clients.

Meanwhile, Pedro Silva and Joao Vinagre, previously at Investec Private Bank, will be responsible for providing banking and investment advice primarily to Spanish, Portuguese and also to the wider Latin American client base.

Sean Wallace has been appointed the new group head of corporate finance at Standard Chartered. He takes over from Vis Shankar who will now focus on his roles as group head of origination and client coverage and chairman of principal finance and private banking.

Mr Wallace joins from Franklin Templeton’s private equity arm Darby Overseas Investments, where he was head of their Asian operations. Prior to Franklin Templeton, he held senior positions at JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch.

He will be a member of the wholesale banking management group, reporting directly to Mike Rees, chief executive officer of wholesale banking.

Toby Hogbin, former Credit Suisse director of product development for the UK, is to join Edinburgh-based Martin Currie as global head of product development in May 2008.

Reporting to Andy Sowerby, director of marketing, distribution and product management, Mr Hogbin will be responsible for the ongoing development and implementation of the product management strategy.

Colin Maloney has been appointed chairman of Mackenzie Taylor Wealth Management after retiring in December 2007 as director of pensions at London-based Jupiter Asset Management.

MTWM was started by Ken Taylorand Duncan Mackenzie when they left Scottish accountancy firm Johnston Carmichael.

Private client wealth manager Citi Quilter has hired Leigh Yeaman as an investment manager in its Belfast, Northern Ireland, office.

Mrs Yeaman joins from stockbrokers Cunningham Coates where she was an investment manager responsible for the management of private client portfolios.

She will report to Nigel Crawford, head of the Belfast office.

UK accountancy and investment management group Smith & Williamson has hired Lynnette Bober to be a national tax consultant. She joins from private client tax and finance specialist Rawlinson & Hunter.

Ms Bober, working alongside national tax head Richard Mannion, will be responsible for providing technical and policy research to private client tax services teams in London and regional offices.

Thomas Eggar, a regional law firm based in the south of England, has taken on Richard Jordanas a partner in its private client practice group.

Based at the firm’s Chichester office, he will work within the personal wealth team, expanding the private client offering and working alongside partner Amanda King-Jones.

Having previously worked for City law firm Lawrence Graham, he joins from another regional firm, Stevens & Bolton in Guildford. His experience includes tax and succession planning for high net worth individuals, both domestic and overseas clients.

His speciality is advising trustees, settlors, beneficiaries and trustees on the implications of the UK anti-avoidance legislation relating to offshore structures.

J O Hambro Investment Management, the UK-based private client fund management boutique, has appointed Simon Wilson and James Pike as company directors and appointed Mark Barrington as head of sales for the company’s managed funds service.

Mr Wilson has worked at Merrill Lynch, where he held roles including head of UK equity derivatives sales. Mr Pike joins from Barclays Private Bank. Mr Barrington previously worked at F&C Asset Management.

JOHIM is a wholly owned subsidiary of Credit Suisse and partners closely with Credit Suisse’s private banking business in the UK.

SilverStreet Capital, the London-based hedge fund management group, has appointed Edwin Doeg, who previously worked at Gartmore for 17 years between 1984 and 2002, as a director.

At Gartmore, Mr Doeg was head of the bancassurance and retail businesses, managing a team of around 50 staff. He was also a member of the management committee of Gartmore Fund Managers.

Withers, the international law firm, has appointed Rosalyn Breedy, a corporate lawyer and family office expert, to its London office. Ms Breedy joins from the multi-family office, Sand Aire, where she was general counsel and company secretary.

At Sand Aire, she was responsible for advising on fund structures, investment vehicles, and corporate, commercial and regulatory law.

Previously, she was European chief operating officer of corporate finance at UBS Warburg. She originally qualified as a solicitor at Slaughter and May.

Investec Private Bank has appointed five senior advisers to its banking division, saying the move has been prompted by rising demand for its high-end mortgages.

The new hires are Andrew Michael, David Faries, Lindsey Sykes, Matthew Gwynne and Oona Ferst. They will be based in Investec’s London office. The appointments come, Investec says, after Investec’s latest mortgage offering which is designed specifically for high net worth and high income individuals who earn a large proportion of their income from annual lump sum bonuses.

Mr Faries joins from Coutts. Mr Michael joins from Barclays Premier; Ms Sykes joins from Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander. Ms Ferst was previously at Barclays Premier and Mr Gwynne joins from Clydesdale Bank.

SEI, a US-headquartered international provider of outsourced asset management, investment processing and investment operations systems, has expanded its UK financial advisory team with the appointment of Tony Walters as regional sales director.

He will be focusing on developing and managing relationships within the UK financial advisor market, having previously held business development roles at Aberdeen Asset Management and, most recently, a leadership position at Threadneedle Asset Management.

Ryan Hicke, managing director of IFA business at SEI, said: “We are focused on expanding the distribution of our asset management solutions through IFA and intermediary distribution channels and we believe that Tony’s appointment is a demonstration of our firm commitment to the intermediary marketplace.”

Credo, a UK-based wealth management company, has appointed Barry Stillerman to the post of senior investment advisor at its asset management division. Mr Stillerman joins from London & Capital, where he had been managing director of that investment firm’s UK division.

Before joining London & Capital in 2004, Mr Stillerman founded the wealth management arm of BDO Stoy Hayward in 1987.

Smith & Williamson has appointed Guy Rigby as a director to lead the further development of the firm’s activities in the entrepreneurial sector.

Mr Rigby has worked alongside entrepreneurs in both commerce and professional practice. He has been senior partner of a top 50 accountancy firm and a director of business advisors Chiltern, now part of accountancy firm BDO Stoy Hayward.

He will be based in S&W's City office and will work across the range of services it provides, spearheading the “one-stop-shop” offer to entrepreneurs.

Barclays Wealth has seen resignations from staff at its Gerrard operations in Nottingham and Edinburgh who have tendered their resignations.

Up to 25 relationship managers from the Nottingham office are planning leave to join Brewin Dolphin and around 20 from Edinburgh may go to Evolution-owned Williams de Broe.

UK-based fund manager Neptune is following the launch of its Luxembourg-domiciled SICAV in December 2007 with the appointment of Paul Boughton as head of continental European sales. He will lead sales of Neptune funds across the key continental markets, with a focus on banks and wealth managers.

Mr Boughton spent more than 10 years at Schroder Unit Trusts, where he was responsible for sales development in the London asset manager, private bank, fund of funds, family office and stockbroker channels. At Legg Mason Investments he was accountable for that firm’s strategic development and distribution across the UK and Europe. Most recently he was head of sales at Matrix Property Fund Management.

Coutts & Co has announced a raft of UK regional appointments.

David Spark, has been appointed as senior private banker to its Cambridge Regional Office. Mr Spark will be advising the growing client base in the region, with a particular focus on the local entrepreneurs market. He joins a team of four private bankers, taking the team total to five members.

He joins Coutts following a career spanning 20 years with Lloyds TSB, with the last four taking responsibility for their wealth management business within the East of England.

Also joining the Cambridge team is Barry Arbon, as private banker. He joins Coutts, following six years as a Premier relationship manager, with Barclays Private Clients in London.

Mr Arbon and Mr Spark will be joined in Cambridge by private banker Craig Salisbury who joins following five years as a senior private banking manager, with NatWest.

Prior to this, Craig spent 12 years within a variety of roles throughout Royal Bank of Scotland Group, including three years working as an international investment manager in Europe.

Coutts has also appointed Anthony Jones, as a private banker to its Nottingham team. He joins Coutts, following 19 years with Barclays Premier banking.

Paul Galloway, also from Barclays, has joined Coutts as private banker in the Nottingham team.

Coutts & Co has also hired Andrew Jackson into its Nottingham team as a senior private banker. He will be advising the firm's growing client base in the region, with a particular focus on local entrepreneurs. His arrival takes the team total to eight private bankers.

Mr Jackson has spent 15 years within a variety of roles throughout the Midlands area, including six years working as a personal financial planning manager for Natwest Bank.

Coutts has taken on Clive Batchelor and Lee Ascott as private bankers to its Birmingham team. Both will be advising the growing client base in the region, with a particular focus on the local entrepreneurs, professionals and executive client markets.

Mr Batchelor joins from Barclays, where he was a senior relationship manager in the Premier Banking business in Birmingham. Before that, he worked for NatWest and Coutts' parent company Royal Bank of Scotland within a number of financial services roles across the local area.

Mr Ascott has spent most of his career advising businesses and high net worth individuals in Birmingham, Manchester and Cardiff.

Private client wealth manager Citi Quilter has hired Torquil Bebb as an investment manager and vice president at its London office. He will report to Stephen Vakil, managing director and head of London investment management.

Mr Bebb joins from London & Capital Asset Management, where he was a senior portfolio manager responsible for the management of private client portfolios. Before that he worked for Carr Sheppards and ANZ National with private client investment management responsibilities.

London-based broker and asset manager Eden Financial has hired a team of equity brokers from Insinger de Beaufort.

The team deals in stocks, CFDs and other derivative products for institutional and high net worth individual clients and comprises four senior brokers, one dealer and two assistants, between them handling over 500 client relationships.

Colin Huelin has been appointed as managing director of Abbey International, the offshore subsidiary of Banco Santander-owned Abbey UK.

The bank says that his appointment is central to Abbey International’s key strategic objective in 2008, of integrating the company into the newly formed Global Private Banking Division of Banco Santander.

Mr Huelin joined Abbey International in November 1998 as head of Financial Planning and was appointed finance director in February 2003. At the end of 2007, he was appointed as the new Managing Director of Abbey International.

Switzerland
Eftychia Fischer, chief risk officer and a member of the executive committee of Zurich-based EFG International, is to leave the organisation to evaluate a number of potential personal projects, including setting up an alternative investment management operation.

Jim Lee, deputy chief executive of EFG International, will take over the responsibilities of chief risk officer on an interim basis whilst a replacement is found.

Julius Baer, the Swiss banking group, will not be replacing the team of wealth management professionals recruited by Liechtenstein-based VP Bank to work at its expanding Zurich office, a senior Julius Baer executive told WealthBriefing.

The departing Joerg Sturzenegger, who headed up Julius Baer’s 20-strong wealth engineering team, will not be replaced because his team’s role has been made redundant by a re-organisation at the bank, Beat Wittmann, chief executive of the investment product division at the Swiss bank, said.

VP Bank said that it was recruiting 20 advisors to bolster its Swiss operations although the statement did not disclose names of specific individuals.

Merrill Lynch’s global wealth management group has appointed two financial advisors, Saleem Jan Khan and Yuvendra Hora to Merrill Lynch Bank (Suisse) in Geneva.

They will focus on non-resident Indian high net worth clients and report to Saleem Awan, head of the non-resident Indian and South Asia team at Merrill.

Mr Khan previously was part of the European private banking team at Clariden Leu in Geneva. Mr Hora joins from Merrill Lynch in Dubai, where he held a similar position.
Swiss giant UBS will bring David Sidwell on board as a non-executive director in April 2008.

Mr Sidwell retired as chief financial officer and a member of the management committee at Morgan Stanley at the end of 2007. There he led a finance function of 3,000 professionals and played a central role in Morgan Stanley's efforts to improve its risk-taking and capital allocation
through his performance evaluation of its businesses.

He also devised and ensured the approval and execution of UBS's strategic plan for acquisitions, divestitures and growth.

HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) has announced that Peter Braunwalder has decided to retire as chief executive officer, as of 1 October 2008.

He is to be replaced by Alexandre Zeller, currently chief executive of Banque Cantonale Vaudoise who will join HSBC Private Bank in August 2008.

Mr Braunwalder will remain associated with HSBC Private Bank in an advisory capacity.

Mr Zeller has been CEO of BCV since 2002 after a 15 year career at Credit Suisse which saw him rise to the post of CEO Private Banking for Switzerland.

Cary Adams, the Geneva based head of Lloyds TSB International Private Banking, is to move on to another role within the bank at the end of April this year. His place will be taken by Piero Grandi who was previously at American Express in London.

Early last October Lloyds TSB announced a restructuring of its private banking business including a merger of the Offshore Wealth Management business into the International Private Banking unit headed by Mr Adams.

Rothschild Private Banking and Trust has appointed Dirk Wiedmann as its new head of Investments. He will be a member of the executive board and chairman of the Group’s Global Asset Allocation Committee.

As head of Investments, Mr Wiedmann will be responsible for global investment policy and its implementation. This includes all portfolio management and research activities, as well as the selection of investment products. Mr Wiedmann will also have responsibility for strategic marketing.

Mr Wiedmann will join Rothschild from Bank Julius Baer, where he was global head of Research and head of the Advisory Business.

Prior to this, he spent 12 years with UBS, where he held a number of different managerial positions including head of Market Development and head of the Active Advisory Team.

Mr Wiedmann’s marketing responsibilities follow a decision by Alison Petit, the current marketing director, to leave the firm to establish a marketing consultancy. Rothschild will be retaining her services on a consultancy basis.

Ms Petit, a marketing award winner, was previously business director of investment services at Barclays Wealth.

Credit Suisse has named Karl Landert as chief information officer. Mr Landert was most recently head of IT private banking and a member of the private banking management committee.

He will report directly to Brady Dougan, chief executive of Credit Suisse and will continue to be based in Zurich. In his new role, Mr Landert will focus on continuing to enhance the integrated IT platform while partnering closely with the businesses.

Asia Pacific
Australian Wealth Management has announced that its chief executive Alex Hutchison is leaving the company and leadership of its financial planning subsidiary Bridges Financial Services. His destination was not stated.

Michael Carter, general manager of alliance and distribution, has been made acting chief executive of wealth management while the recruitment of a replacement is undertaken.

Mr Hutchison has been a director of Bridges for five years and joined the company in 1996 as head of compliance. He had previously worked in enforcement at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Edmund Koh, has been appointed head of Taiwan’s Ta Chong Bank with a remit to focus on expanding its wealth management business.

Mr Koh was most recently head of the regional consumer banking division at Singapore-based DBS and was a member of the bank's management committee. The report says that Mr Koh will be joined by two colleagues from DBS.

An earlier report had quoted a Ta Chong executive vice-president confirming that wealth management was its key business and that growing that segment was the bank’s priority.

Ta Chong, now owned by private equity group Carlyle, has around 100,000 wealth management clients.

Six financial advisors have joined Australian banking group Macquarie which is recruiting to expand its wealth operations in Queensland and other parts of the country.

Shayne Gilbert and Stephen Morgan have joined Macquarie Private Wealth’s stockbroking operations from Ord Minnett, a private client advisory firm. Matthew Hinrichsen has joined from MF Global, while Nicolas Kerr joins from Grange Securities. Nathan Smith and Margaret Yu have been appointed by Macquarie from ANZ Financial Planning.

Baltimore-headquartered asset manager T Rowe Price has hired Yoko Matsumoto from Goldman Sachs Asset Management Japan, where she was vice president, institutional client service.

Based in Tokyo and working closely with TRP’s Japanese sales and marketing team, her new responsibilities as head of client service will be leading day-to-day contact and service to clients including institutional clients, financial intermediaries, retail distributors and consultants.

She worked previously at Nomura Asset Management Company as an assistant portfolio manager and Barclays Trust & Banking Company Japan as an equity trader.

Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management has named the six private wealth bankers from JP Morgan that it has recently hired into its Hong Kong offices.

Margaret Kwong, former head of JP Morgan Bank's Hong Kong Coverage team, will be a managing director, reporting to Kenneth Toong, Deutsche’s North Asia head.

She is accompanied in her move by Wendy Kong, as managing director and relationship manager, Alice Chow, managing director and investment advisor, Wilfred Ng, director and investment advisor, Wayne Wai, director and relationship manager and Frederick Fong, vice president and relationship manager.

Merrill Lynch has appointed Thomas Alexy to lead its wealth management operation in Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Alexy has been with Merrill since 1983, having worked in New York, Switzerland, the UK and Singapore, as well as a previous spell in Australia.

Merrill currently has around 30 wealth management staff in the region and is planning to increase that to 45 by the end of this year. Of the 30, 13 are currently client advisors, a figure that is predicted to rise to 20 by the year-end, according to Mr Alexy.

The US firm is developing a new platform for Australia and New Zealand which will offer around 100 funds along with its own research on those funds.

US
Union Bank of California is adding senior vice presidents John Calhoun and Chris Merrywell to its wealth management group.

As regional director for the Pacific Northwest personal trust business, Mr Calhoun has been appointed regional director for the Pacific Northwest personal trust business. He will be based in Seattle. Mr Calhoun previously managed high net worth business at Charles Schwab, the brokerage.

Mr Merrywell, who will manage private banking relationships in his new role, previously served as a wealth advisor at Harris Private Bank.

Dallas-based Southwest Securities has promoted Mark Sachse to executive vice president and director of the firm's Private Client Group.

Mr Sachse, who previously served as district manager of the firm's Dallas area brokerage offices, assumes overall responsibility for the Private Client Group from Jim Ross, who has been promoted to president and chief executive of Southwest Securities.

Optima Fund Management, the fund of hedge funds company, has replaced its chief investment officer who had been at the firm for four years.

Robert Picard will leave to start a new venture. Mr Picard joined Optima, which has offices in New York and Bermuda, as director of research in 2004 and previously worked for Carlyle Group.

GenSpring Family Offices, a US wealth management firm focused on ultra high net worth families, has made three promotions in its Phoenix office. This office was trading under the name Inlign Wealth Management until its recent acquisition by GenSpring.

Mason Longstreth has been promoted to relationship manager, working with a director to oversee client relationships and addressing complex tax planning situations.

Elizabeth Shabaker moves up to be director of investment operations. In her new position she oversees investment implementation and reporting across all clients for the office. She also oversees all central office personnel in the Phoenix office.

Christina Burroughs becomes director of family office services.

GenSpring Family Offices has also made three senior staff additions to its New York office.

Bruce Arella, formerly with Orion Capital Management, joins GenSpring as president of its New York office. Jim McCarthy, the former president of that office, will continue to help the firm develop its trust and fiduciary advisory capabilities.

In addition, Marcia Lyons Wilson and Felicia Yieh both join as senior vice presidents and wealth management strategists, having been private wealth advisors at Goldman Sachs.

Quadrangle Group, a US private investment business, has appointed Alice Ruth as a managing principal chief investment officer of Quadrangle Asset Management, Quadrangle’s asset management arm.

Ms Ruth most recently served as chief investment officer of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, an organisation promoting science and environmental causes, where she oversaw management of a $6 billion fund.

Julius Baer-owned alternative asset manager GAM has hired Richard Silver as head of GAM Multi-Manager New York and Jeffrey Rose as an investment manager. Both will join GAM’s New York office at the end of March 2008 from US-based fund of hedge funds boutique Condor Capital.

Signature Bank, a New York-based commercial bank, has announced the addition of a new private client banking team that will work from its Manhattan headquarters.

John Mulvanerty has been named group director. Most recently, Mr Mulvanerty served as a business financial advisor at Merrill Lynch. At Merrill, he co-created a private banking practice focused on the provision of a broad range of financial services to commercial clients, their principals and employees.

Another hire is Nella Agostino, who was named senior client associate at Signature Bank. She has worked with Mr Mulvanerty for the past eight years.

US west coast bank City National has hired Marc Goldstein as vice president and trust officer to seek personal trust business in Nevada through its Wealth Management Services group.

Before joining City National in 2006, Mr Goldstein was a relationship manager with Citigroup Private Bank in Los Angeles. He started in private banking with JP Morgan Private Bank in 1998.

US Trust-Bank of America tapped a former vice president and managing director from rivals Brown Brothers Harriman Trust Company and Citigroup respectively to fill senior adviser roles in its Multi-Family Office Group.

Santo Vicenzino, former Brown Brothers Harriman vice president and trust officer was appointed senior fiduciary and administrative advisor at US Trust MFO. He will report to MFO Group principal and managing director, Lori Jackson.

Also, Douglas Moore, former managing director and head of Estate & Charitable Planning for Citi Trust and the Citigroup Private Bank, was made managing director and senior financial planner at the US Trust MFO. Mr Moore will report to MFO group principal and managing director, John Voltaggio.

Mr Vicenzino was previously with US Trust before leaving to join Brown Brothers Harriman in 1995. He began his career with US Trust in 1999 in the trust settlement and wealth management departments.

Mr Moore previously spent 11 years at Citigroup in a number of leadership positions, according to US Trust.

Chris Zander, managing director and head of the US Trust Multi-Family Office Group said the business unit brings together benefits of a boutique multi-family office supported by the financial strength and resources of the broader bank.

Detwiler, Mitchell & Co has hired Bradford Miles Kimball into its wholly-owned broker dealer subsidiary Detwiler, Mitchell, Fenton & Graves as its executive vice president and managing director of the private client group. He will primarily be responsible for recruiting and directing sales for the firm’s Boston and Connecticut offices.

Mr Kimball joins DMFG after 17 years with Morgan Stanley.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management has axed 20 of its New York-based investment professionals from a team of 125 staff in its quantitative investment team.

Among those who have left the firm are: Constantin Filitti, Bernd Hanke and Christopher Li, who are vice presidents in the research team. Other departures include Max Belenitsky and Patrick McDonough, vice presidents; Eric Tsang, a vice president in trading and Michelle Bahk, a vice president who assisted with portfolio coordination.

Takahiro Komatsu, managing director, will move to another team within the company, Goldman Sachs said.

Coast Asset Management, an independent alternative investment firm that manages money for high net worth clients and institutions, has appointed Roger Hartley as chief operating officer. Mr Hartley was previously managing director of Putnam Lovell.

Patrick McQueen has been appointed chairman and chief executive officer of The PrivateBank-Michigan, replacing David Provost, who resigned to pursue other opportunities.

Mr McQueen had been president and chief operating officer at the bank, having joined in 1999 after serving six years as the state banking commissioner.

The PrivateBank-Michigan is owned by the Chicago-based PrivateBancorp.

Merrill Lynch has appointed Gregory Costello to the post of director of its New York capital complex, containing a team of 116 financial advisors working from seven branches. The complex is located in Albany and currently oversees $9.3 billion of client assets.

Mr Costello joined Merrill Lynch as a financial advisor in 1997, working as an associate director and district sales manager in the company’s Washington DC office. He was appointed director of the central Pennsylvania complex in 2006.

Deutsche Bank Alex Brown, the US private client services division of Deutsche Bank Securities and Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management, has hired Karl Hahn into its Boston office as a managing director and client advisor for PCS, reporting to Gary Domoracki, a managing director and Boston regional executive.

Mr Hahn joins from Merrill Lynch where he was a first vice president and senior financial advisor. Previously, he worked at Prudential/Wachovia Securities where he was a director and investment officer.

Deutsche Bank in Cayman has made a double appointment to expand its Financial Intermediaries team.

Dan Peterson has been appointed business manager and will provide senior level strategic support to the bank’s FI team. He will also assist the relationship management team in providing holistic solutions for clients.

Mr Peterson joins Deutsche from the Royal Bank of Canada in Miami, where he was responsible for developing business with corporate and institutional clients, including investment management and commercial banking, global equity and foreign currency trading services.

Billy King has been appointed relationship manager within the FI team to work closely with the bank’s expanding intermediary client base. Mr King joins from the Lucas Group in Chicago, where he was responsible for the recruitment of high level finance and accounting professionals.

David Hirsch and James Kelly have joined Credit Suisse Private Banking USA as relationship managers.

Both were previously principals of the Hirsch-Kelly Group at Smith Barney, representing foundations, endowments, profit-sharing plans and individuals.

Wachovia has appointed Mark Wesson as the new regional director of its private banking operations in Alabama.

Mr Wesson will be responsible for managing the largest metro areas in Alabama, including Birmingham, Huntsville, Mobile, along with Destin, Florida. He previously worked as the managing director of the Birmingham wealth management team.

US private banking group PrivateBancorp has named Gary Collins, currently executive managing director and president of the PrivateBank - Chicago Offices, to the new position of executive managing director and president of the PrivateClients Group, a new line of business of the PrivateBank - Chicago.

In this position, Mr Collins has management responsibility for the bank's private client services in all the company's Chicago offices, including its suburban offices. He continues to serve on the company's management executive committee.

The company also announced that Hugh McLean, executive managing director and president, PrivateBank - Suburban Offices, has resigned. His offices will now report to Mr Collins.

Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management has hired a team of three investment professionals from UBS to serve the Latin American international market.

The team will be based in New York and will report to Fabian Onetti, executive director and sales manager of the New York Latin America/International office. It consists of investment representative and executive director Sung Choi, sales associate David Cervantes and sales assistant Robert Yang.

Europe
Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch has appointed Michel Alofs as managing director of its Dutch subsidiary in Amsterdam.

Mr Alofs was previously employed at Aberdeen Asset Management as head of business development in continental Europe. Before that he was managing director of Deutsche Asset Management in the Netherlands; he also worked for Deutsche Bank and Barclays Capital in London.

SPA ETF, the UK-based exchange traded fund company, has appointed Piero Burragato as sales director in its Milan office.

Mr Burragato was previously a director in the global markets division of Japanese bank Nomura International, where he was responsible for the distribution business in the institutional investor sector. He has also been head of sales at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.

SPA ETF is supported by London & Capital, a UK independent firm of investment advisors and fund managers.

SG Private Banking has hired Laurent Brünisholz to the newly-created position of global head of relations with independent financial advisors and external asset managers. He joins from the wealth management division of UBS France, where he was executive director, head of financial intermediaries. He will remain based in Paris, reporting to the commercial and marketing division of SG Private Banking.

UBS has named Jan-Christian Dreesen as the new chief executive of its German subsidiary UBS Deutschland.

Mr Dreesen, a board member and executive board chairman for Wealth Management in Germany, succeeds Juerg Zeltner, who is to return to Switzerland and concentrate on his role as head of wealth management for northern, eastern and central Europe.

Mr Dreesen was previously head of retail banking at German bank HypoVereinsbank before joining UBS in 2006.

Daniel de Fernando, formerly head of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria's private bank, resigned yesterday over a disagreement with the restructuring of the division.

Mr de Fernando was a director and head of BBVA Patrimonios - the private banking and asset management arm of BBVA. But in December, chairman and chief executive Francisco González announced a general reorganisation which took asset management out of his hands.

At the same time the head of global markets, Jose Barreiro, took his number two, Eduardo Fuentes, who left as a director of BBVA Patrimonios to become head of pensions and insurance in the US. He was replaced by José Pedro Garcerán, until then commercial director of Patrimonios.

BBVA, which yesterday had a management board committee to deal with this and other matters, declined to comment on the departure and has not yet named a replacement.

His departure is the latest in a series of senior moves in the Spanish sector this year. Juan Aguirre and Cipriano Rodríguez Arias, the heads of Morgan Stanley's Spanish private banking unit in Madrid, left following the acquisition by La Caixa.

Elsewhere, Deutsche Bank has apopinted Juan González Cantero and Ignacio Guzmán, and Banco Urquijo has hired Valentín Arroyo, formerly of Santander.

Liechtensteinische Landesbank is to appoint Konrad Schnyder, currently a member of the board of Bank Linth to its board of directors.

Mr Schnyder will replace Ewald Marxer, who for personal reasons is not standing for re-election and will concentrate more on his activities as an asset manager.

Martin Nijkamp, currently head of institutional business development, has been named as head of business strategy and member of the management team of Dutch group ING’s Investment Management Europe business. He will report to Gilbert Van Hassel, chief executive of ING IM Europe.

In his new role Mr Nijkamp will be responsible for investigating opportunities for non-organic growth, the development of strategic partnerships and distribution channels as well as green fields in emerging Europe. At the same time he will be involved in the creation of a global alternatives platform.

Maaike van Meer has been appointed from April 2008 to be head of legal and compliance and member of the management team of ING IM Europe. She will take up the overall European responsibility for legal and compliance. Ms Van Meer is currently head of legal services at ING IM.

Middle East
Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management has appointed Samy Al Habal as head of its Saudi Arabia business.

Mr Al Habal, who currently heads PWM’s Middle East coverage team in Geneva, will report to Fahad Almubarak and London-based managing director Ausaf Abbas. He will be responsible for all aspects of building and growing Morgan Stanley’s PWM business in Saudi Arabia and will be relocating to Riyadh in the near future.

Mr Al Habal joined Morgan Stanley in 2001, prior to which he worked for JP Morgan in Geneva and New York focusing on Saudi Arabia and the Levant.

In a related move, Samer El Haje Ibrahim has joined Morgan Stanley PWM as an investment advisor in the Dubai office. He will relocate to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia later this year, as part of the firm’s build up of its Saudi Arabian business. He will report to Mr Al Habal.

Mr El Haje joins from American Express Bank in Dubai, where he was a director in the private banking team focusing on asset management for ultra high net worth clients in Saudi Arabia and other GCC markets.

Prior to that, he was regional manager for American Express in Jeddah and before joining the banking industry he was acting director of sales and marketing for the Jeddah Hilton.

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