Coutts & Co., has appointed Sarah Deaves as its new chief operating officer, replacing John Williamson, who left recently to join EFG Bank i...

Coutts & Co., has appointed Sarah Deaves as its new chief operating officer, replacing John Williamson, who left recently to join EFG Bank in London as its new chief executive. Deaves was previously head of Royal Bank of Scotland's own brand business, but has had an advisory role at Coutts since January.

The appointment represents another senior manager being replaced at the bank since Gordon Pell took over from Andrew Fisher, who left to join the Carlyle Group earlier this year, as chief executive. Werner Peyer, head of private banking, left at the same time as Fisher and was replaced by Robert Taylor and Perry Littleboy as joint heads of private banking. These were both promotions from within Coutts, which is owned by RBS. Nick Gornall, previously a senior private banker within the firm, has replaced Littleboy as head of the bank's Inpatriates section. Taylor's job has yet to be filled although a Coutts spokeswoman told Private Client Management that it was close to finding a replacement. Deaves' appointment would suggest Pell consolidating his position at the top of the bank, by putting his own people in key positions within the organisation. Pell, who sits on the main board of RBS, is keen to find greater synergies between Coutts and RBS' other businesses.

Woes at Deutsche Bank Private Banking operations in London continue to mount with the recent news that Hugh Tottenham, client relationship director has resigned from the London office to go to GAM. Richard Madeley, the former head of private banking for Deutsche Bank in the UK, was forced out in early March and since then their have been rumours that as many of half of the staff in London could be forced out.

Anthony Cooke-Yarborough has landed himself a plumb job as head of Barclays Private Clients, UK private banking. Cooke-Yarborough will have responsibility for driving the UK private banking strategy and the continued development of what is the largest and fastest growing business segment within Barclays Private Banking, accounting for 30 per cent of private banking revenues. Cooke-Yarborough joins Barclays from Merrill Lynch where he was deputy head of its UK private client business.

Credit Suisse Private Banking has decided to merge its UK and international relationship management teams under just one head of private clients. Jonathan Norbury, head of UK private clients, and Caroline Burkart, head of international private clients, have both left as a result of the change. "The move is designed to provide a more focused and efficient structure for the future," a Credit Suisse spokesman in Zurich told Private Client Management. The bank is seeking the new head of private clients.

EFG Private Bank has appointed John Williamson as its new chief executive. Williamson, who joins the bank in mid-May, is currently chief operating officer of the Coutts Group. EFG has also appointed Herschel Post as non-executive deputy chairman. Post was also previously with Coutts, as chief executive and duty chairman.

Rothschild Asset Management has named Camilla Karlsson as senior portfolio manager for its private banking. Karlsson was previously vice president and portfolio manager at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers private investors division.

Richard Charnock, managing director of private banking at Lloyds TSB, has jumped ship to join Williams de Broe, as director of private client investment management. Charnock's job at de Broe will be to build a distinct private client offering.

Gerrard has lost another member of its private client fund management team to Bell Lawrie White, the Glasgow investment managers owned by Brewin Dolphin Securities. Lindsay Strachan is to join the firm in October after six months' gardening leave as senior divisional director. Over the last six months Gerrard has lost 11 private client fund managers to BLW. Another former Gerrard executive, Richard Maclaurin, joined this week, the last of his five-strong team to quit Gerrard and go to Bell Lawrie. Cameron Kinnaird and three other executives have also joined in recent months. The 11 new fund managers swell Bell Lawrie's private client side by a third to 30 executives.

Arun Sarwal, formerly managing director strategic business development at ABN AMRO's private client and asset management division, has joined the advisory panel of Scorpio Partnership, the wealth management think tank. Sarwal will collaborate with Scorpio on client relationship management consulting projects to private banks and wealth managers.

Switzerland/Luxembourg

Millenium Associates has hired Chris Bierman as a senior adviser. Bierman will join the advisory board of the wealth management mergers and acquisitions specialist firm. He was previously chairman of the executive board of Bank Labouchere in the Netherlands for four years. He has also been chief executive of Swiss Bank Corporation Nederland. The firm already has several people on its advisory board from different countries. Last summer Millenium Associates hired Higinio Bartolome from a Spanish M&A boutique; Herve de Carmoy from a French private equity firm; Mike Giles from Merrill Lynch in London and Claus Helbig, who has been on the boards of several German companies.

Credit Suisse Private Banking has appointed Jürg Segmüller head of its Baden office. He succeeds Anton Zeier, who decided to hand on responsibility after managing the office for more than 25 years. Zeier will continue to advise his clients.

Bank of Bermuda has appointed Germain Birgen as head of global fund services in Luxembourg. Birgen joins the bank from Société Européenne de Banque (IntesaBCI group) in Luxembourg where he was a general manager, responsible for the development and setting up of their investment funds operation.

France

Gurval Poirier has been appointed co-director of the private banking and financial engineering division of CDC Ixis Private Capital Management, a subsidiary of CDC Ixis Asset Management, the French asset manager.

Pascal Roché has been appointed country manager and managing director at Barclays Private Clients, France. He was formally with the AXA Group, where he was a member of the executive committee. Roché takes over from Henri-Paul Pellegrino.

Italy

Merrill Lynch has appointed Mario Dell'Oro, a near 20-year veteran of the bank, as director general of its private banking and wealth management unit in Italy. Dell'Oro will assume responsibility for all Merrill's private banking in Italy, where the division has grown more over the past ten years than anywhere else in Europe, except the UK, said the US firm in a statement. Dell'Oro joined Merrill in 1983.

US

Eric Hayes has been promoted to run State Street Global Advisors private asset management division. Hayes succeeds John Serhant. Serhant will continue to oversee State Street’s private client business and Hayes will report to Serhant as he runs the firm’s asset management arms in New England and Florida. The unit manages $20bn of assets for individuals and families with more than $5m of assets under management.

Mercantile Bankshares Corporation has poached Margaret Preston as head of its private wealth management group from Deutsche Bank where she was chief operating officer of its private client asset management division. Mercantile Bankshares Corporation is a Baltimore-based multibank holding company.

Standard Federal Bank has appointed Marita Grobbel head of private banking. The US bank is a subsidiary of ABN AMRO North America.

US investment bank Robertson Stephens has appointed Robert Zrike as a managing director and East Coast regional manager of private client services. Zrike was previously with Trade.com Global Markets, where he led the global brokerage business. Prior to that he served as co-manager of Goldman Sachs' private client services office in New York. He will be based in New York and will report to Joe Piazza, head of financial services.

Asia Pacific

Alice Lo has been appointed head of international private clients in Hong Kong and north Asia marketing manager of ABN AMRO. Her last job was as head of sales for private clients for Standard Chartered Grindlays in Hong Kong. ABN AMRO has also appointed Jennie Hananto as head of its private client management team in Indonesia. Hananto was previously head of private clients for Société Générale in Indonesia.

Macquarie Private Bank has announced an expansion and shake up of its senior team in Australia. It has tapped up Olivia Jones, who was assistant vice president at Citigroup Private Banking in Sydney, to be its new private banking senior adviser. She was earlier with UBS Private Banking in London and New York as associate director in charge of the art banking division. In a second move, Cameron Hagger has been appointed associate director/adviser in Melbourne. He was previously at William M Mercer. Two officials, Beata Kent and Jeremy Sadleir, have been promoted within Macquarie Private Bank to the roles of adviser.

Australia & New Zealand Banking Corp has appointed Elmer Funke Kupper as the head of its newly created personal banking and wealth management business. The move is part of a reorganisation of ANZ's senior management, which is designed to create a flatter management structure to "give greater freedom and development opportunities to its senior business executives." The bank provided no further details.