David Sokol, the man seen as a potential successor to Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway and a chairman at several of the investment firm’s subsidiaries, resigned after buying shares in a chemical company then suggesting to Buffett the idea of purchasing it.

Citi Private Bank added five professionals from Wilmington Trust to its Philadelphia office, focusing on the ultra high net worth client segment.

Barbara McCollum and Robert Rosenberg joined as managing directors and private bankers. McCollum was with Wilmington Trust for some 30 years, and was most recently that firm’s Delaware Mid-Atlantic wealth advisory market leader.

Rosenberg, meanwhile, was Wilmington Trust’s head of sales for the Mid-Atlantic region, and spent nearly 13 years at the firm.

Also joining the Philadelphia office is Timothy Carroll, who was appointed as a director and wealth planner. He joined Wilmington in 2010 from PNC Wealth Management in Delaware, where he was a senior wealth planner. As well as estate planning and transfer, he specializes in exit strategies for business owners.

Citi also named Paul Gordon as a director and investment counselor at its private bank. Gordon was latterly a senior investment advisor and vice president at Wilmington Trust, prior to which he was at Wachovia Bank.

Completing the appointments is Jennifer Phillips, who joined Wilmington in 2006 and is now moving to Citi Private Bank in the capacity of banker associate. 

Houston-based US Capital Advisors appointed Michael McConnell as a managing director, specifically to focus on working with energy entrepreneurs looking to access additional capital to grow their businesses.

McConnell joins USCA from Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management, where he was a vice president, also in Houston. Before this he co-founded the long/short equity hedge fund Spring Street Advisors and served as co-portfolio manager on the strategy. During his career he has also been involved with structuring several energy-related private equity transactions, which had a cumulative value of over $200 million in equity and debt.

US Trust made five senior wealth management hires in the West, Central and East divisions.

These moves in San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Houston and Richmond are, the bank says, part of an initiative targeting ultra high net worth clients in key markets across the nation.

Therese Murphy Firestone joined as a senior vice president and private client advisor in San Francisco from Smith Barney, where she was a managing director and led their software and networking research teams.

Michelle Castano Garcia was given the same roles in Portland, Oregon, coming from Washington Trust Bank where she was a vice president and senior relationship manager.

Joel Petersen joined from Bernstein Global Wealth Management as a senior vice president in Seattle.

Belinda Phelps took up the post of senior vice president and private client advisor in Houston, Texas from Citi Private Bank, where she was the director and senior private banker responsible for developing private wealth financial solutions for their ultra high net worth individual and family office clients.

Lloyd Conley will be a senior vice president and senior trust officer in Richmond, Virginia. He joined from SunTrust Bank Private Wealth Management where he was senior vice president and region trust advisor.

First Republic Bank appointed Christine Gorelick as managing director at its St Helena, California office.

Gorelick will provide a range of banking, lending and wealth management services to individuals and businesses in the Napa and Sonoma counties, as the bank expands in the wine counties.

Prior to joining First Republic, Gorelick was a senior private banker at Wells Fargo Bank, and also previously held a similar role at Bank of America in San Francisco. Before joining BoA she worked for Union Bank of California in large corporate and commercial banking. 

CIBC, the Canada-based bank, reshuffled its senior management team, appointing Victor Dodig as senior executive vice president and group head, wealth management.

Dodig, who joined the bank in 2005 and previously held a number of other leadership roles within its retail and wealth management businesses, will join the senior executive team, reporting to Gerry McCaughey, chief executive of CIBC.

In other group-level changes, Kevin Glass was appointed as senior executive vice president and chief financial officer. He joined the bank in 2009 and also reports to McCaughey.

Glass takes over as CFO from David Williamson, who was named senior executive vice president and group head, retail and business banking. He is responsible for the firm’s Canadian personal and business banking operations.

Completing the changes is Richard Nesbitt’s appointment as senior executive vice president and group head, wholesale, international and technology and operations.

BNY Mellon Alternative Investment Services expanded its global team with hires to its US and EMEA businesses.

Jim Whitaker was named head of relationship management for the Americas, a role previously held by Marina Lewin, who was recently named global head of sales for Alternative Investment Services.

Whitaker was latterly head of the alternative fund client management team, and has also held positions within the company's corporate restructuring and global client management groups. In his new role he will oversee the firm's relationship management teams in the US, covering hedge funds, funds of hedge funds, prime custody and private equity administration.

Also recently appointed is Mark Mannion, who takes on the role of head of relationship management for EMEA. Mannion was previously the managing director of European business for the former PNC Global Investment Servicing unit, which BNY Mellon acquired in 2010.

Whitaker and Mannion will be based in New York and Dublin respectively, and will report directly to Brian Ruane, the AIS chief executive for BNY Mellon.

The Toronto-headquartered investment firm Sprott appointed David Franklin as chief executive officer of Sprott Private Wealth and Paul Wong as a portfolio manager for Sprott Asset Management.

Franklin joined Sprott in 2008 as a research analyst, and was latterly a market strategist assessing the macroeconomic environment.

Wong, meanwhile, was most recently a portfolio manager focusing on natural resource-related funds for Natcan Investment Management.

US Bank Wealth Management appointed Daniel Rauchle - latterly of Wells Fargo & Co - as head of investment management for its ultra high net worth division.

Rauchle was latterly the president and founder of Wells Fargo Alternative Asset Management, a subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Co.

He also previously served as head of the Wells Fargo Family Wealth Alternative Investment Group and as chairman of both WFAAM's investment advisory board and SEC-registered funds board.

In his new position at US Bank, Rauchle will lead the investment process and develop and head the group responsible for creating and implementing customized investment strategies for UHNW clients. This covers risk management, manager due diligence, asset allocation, portfolio construction, and communication on investment policy and trust and fiduciary issues.

Whittier Trust Company, the US-based investment and wealth management firm, hired Peter Zarifes as senior vice president and member of the executive committee.

Zarifes joins Whittier Trust after 25 years of working with high net worth individuals and families. He spent the last 11 years as a managing director at Bessemer Trust.

In his new role, he will be responsible for the day-to-day management of client relationships. He will be based at the firm's South Pasadena, California office.

Seattle, Washington-headquartered Russell Investments, a subsidiary of Northwestern Mutual, named Trevor Persaud as practice leader of its consulting and advisory business in the ASEAN, India, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

Persaud will lead the development and delivery of investing consulting services to clients in the above regions, covering business areas including investment advisory, asset allocation, strategic asset tilting, risk management, and portfolio construction.

He reports directly to Mahendran Nathan, chief executive for the ASEAN, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and India.

First Republic Bank added Matthew Keenan as a relationship manager at its Santa Barbara, California office, a region in which the firm says it is expanding.

Keenan joins from Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, where he was a vice president and private banker. Prior to that, he worked for Citibank.

In his new position Keenan will work with individuals, families, businesses and foundations to provide banking, investment management, trust, brokerage and real estate lending services.

Norcross, Georgia-headquartered Triad Advisors promoted Chet Payne to the role of executive vice president and chief operating officer, and Ernie Strauss to senior vice president, chief compliance officer.

Payne was latterly a senior vice president and chief operating officer at the firm, but his position has been expanded to include oversight of the firm’s daily operations, technology, accounting and advisor compensation departments.

Strauss was formerly a vice president, as well as Triad’s deputy chief compliance officer. He is now responsible for the oversight of daily compliance functions and ensuring compliance with state, federal and self-regulatory agency regulations.

Baird expanded its new San Francisco office with the addition of Jason Schlesinger as a financial advisor, director and Stephanie Wong as a registered client relationship specialist. Both join from Wells Fargo.

Schlesinger, who spent the last three years at Wells Fargo, oversees $200 million in assets and generates $1.3 million in annual production. Prior to joining Wells Fargo he worked at Bank of America Investment Services.

Wong also spent the last three years at Wells Fargo, and worked at BofA Investment Services before that.

Harris Private Bank, part of BMO Financial Group, appointed Kent Anderson as a senior private banker in the Naples, Florida area.

Anderson latterly worked at US Trust, also in the Naples region, where he was a senior vice president, private client manager. He took up that role in 2004. Prior to that, he worked at Northern Trust, Bank of America, Huntington Private Bank, and Continental Illinois National Bank.

In his new role he is charged with designing, developing and implementing customized solutions for the private bank’s clients.

Raymond James, the Canadian arm of North American investment dealer Raymond James Financial, appointed industry veteran Andy MacLean as its new private client strategist for Canada.

MacLean previously served as head of investment strategy at Richardson GMP where he was responsible for that firm's investment strategy including asset allocation, security recommendations and alternative products.

US Bank Wealth Management appointed Scott Winget – latterly of Wells Fargo – as senior managing director of wealth planning for its ultra high net worth group.

In his new role, which he took up on 21 March, he is responsible for developing and leading complex wealth planning, family education, governance and stewardship for US Bank’s UHNW clients.

Based at the firm’s Denver, Colorado office, he reports to Michael Cole, president of the firm’s UHNW group.

At Wells Fargo, Winget was senior vice president and managing director of the firm’s wealth planning center. He was also formerly a vice president and wealth planning advisor for Fifth Third Bank.

HighTower recruited an advisory team from Merrill Lynch for its office in Naples, Florida.

The new team, called Masterson, Emma & Associates, is comprised of Mark Masterson and David Emma. Both join HighTower as managing directors and partners.

Masterson was an advisor at Merrill Lynch for over 14 years, and was also ranked as a Barron's Top 1000 Financial Advisor in 2010, according to HighTower.

Emma, as well as his period at Merrill Lynch, has experience as a real estate developer.

Envestnet appointed Sean Mullen from Fortigent as vice president, director of portfolio strategies, eastern region, and John Fitzpatrick from Fidelity as senior vice president on the enterprise sales team.

In his new role Mullen will consult with Envestnet partners and advisors on growing their firms, and will also promote the use of unified managed accounts. At Fortigent, Mullen was a director of sales and an architect of the firm's UMA platform.

Fitzpatrick joins from Fidelity Investments and, among other tasks, will be responsible for working with Envestnet partners to explore distribution opportunities, and assist them to raise assets through advisory solutions. At Fidelity he held various roles, including in strategy development, the Fidelity mutual funds, intermediary distribution, international markets, and wealth management.

Gibraltar Private Bank appointed Walter Schacht as senior vice president, market executive for its Naples, Florida branch.

Schacht latterly worked at another Florida-based private bank, where he served as a director and wealth advisor. He specialises in financial planning, estate planning, investment management, and wealth transfer.

Genworth Financial appointed Martin Klein as its new senior vice president and chief financial officer, effective April 2011.

Klein's background covers deep life insurance and finance and investment banking. He joins the firm from Barclays Capital, where he was a managing director, leading both the insurance solutions and the pension solutions units. Prior to that, he also led the insurance advisory division of Lehman Brothers.

Caldwell Partners, the international executive search firm, bolstered its financial service practice with the appointment of Richard Stein to its New York office.

Stein's recruitment experience encompasses private banking, wealth management, risk and compliance, and consumer banking, on a global basis. Prior to his new post, he was a senior partner for the North Atlantic unit of Global Sage, and also served as a senior client partner at Korn/Ferry International before that.

Palmer Square Capital Management, the investment firm that serves high net worth registered advisor firms and institutional clients, named Angie Knighton Long as its chief investment officer.

Long joined the company in February 2011 and is currently a member of the firm's investment committee. Before that, she worked for JPMorgan Chase & Co in New York, where she held a number of management and trading positions. Her trading experience covers high-yield bonds, high-yield credit derivatives, distressed debt, capital structure arbitrage and structured credit.

At Palmer Square, Long's key responsibilities include all investment-related activities, with a focus on portfolio and risk management.

Citizens Financial Group strengthened its premier banking division with the appointment of Lauretta Chrys as its new head.

Chrys previously headed the firm's retail banking unit for the New York market and will be based in Boston for her new role.

Fiduciary Investment Management International appointed C Ware Palmer as managing director of business development.

Palmer's new role will see him responsible for building new investment and trust client relationships with individuals, families, and foundations. Before joining the company he was senior vice president and team director at BB&T Financial, where he led the wealth management units in Washington DC, Virginia, and Maryland. At Fiduciary, Palmer will be based in Washington DC.

Barclays Wealth, part of the UK-listed bank, bulked up its US operations with the addition of 14 investment representatives to its New York, Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Boston offices.

In New York, Steven Sweetwood joins from JP Morgan, and Robert Meenan and Shlomi Yedid join from Merrill Lynch. The trio report to Mark Stevenson, regional manager for the New York office.

Meanwhile, Louis Tinoco and Ruben Lesmes join the private bank’s Miami office. Tinoco has worked at UBS since 2005, and Lesmes was latterly a relationship manager working with Latin American private banking clients at HSBC. Both report to Marilyn Gonzalez, regional manager for Miami.

In San Francisco Alex Witherill and Matt Hodus were recruited from Credit Suisse. Witherill specializes in advising ultra high net worth clients.

Also joining the San Francisco office are Christopher Bender, John Shaw and Peter Kong. All three join from Thomas Weisel Partners, where Bender was lead portfolio manager and head of fixed income in private client services, and Shaw and Kong advised HNW clients.

All five report to Doug Ireland, regional manager for San Francisco.

Recruited to Barclays Wealth’s Los Angeles office are Ron Jacoby, latterly of JP Morgan, and Larry Roth and Gerald Gallagher, who join from Northern Trust. Jacoby, Roth and Gallagher report to Brian Sears, regional manager for Los Angeles.

Completing the raft of hires, Joel Beeders was appointed to the firm’s Boston office. He joins from Merrill Lynch, prior to which he worked at a number of law firms.

Citigroup appointed Dermot Boden as its chief brand officer, responsible for the company brand across all of its businesses, including wealth management.

In his new role Boden is responsible for ensuring Citi’s brand is consistent and effective throughout the group, and for leading strategy in this area.

Boden latterly worked at LG Electronics, where he was global chief marketing officer. Prior to that he worked in business and marketing roles at Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson in Europe, Asia and the US.

Appropriate Balance Financial Services, the Bellevue, Washington-based wealth management firm, appointed Mark Jaeger as its chief operating officer and chief compliance officer.

Jaeger was formerly chief operating officer and chief investment officer at Moss Adams Wealth Advisors. He was also chair of the wealth advisors investment committee at the firm.

In his new role he will be responsible for practice management, technology, finance and compliance, and also join ABFS’ investment committee.

The Bank of America board of directors appointed Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of India-based Reliance Industries, as a director. Ambani will stand for election at the 2011 BofA annual meeting of shareholders.

With the appointment of the first non-American citizen to its board, BofA says it is aiming to increase its global perspective.

Ambani headed Reliance Industries since 2002, after joining the firm in 1981. It is India’s largest private enterprise, and was also the country’s first private sector company to make it into the Global Fortune 500.

He is also a member of the Indian prime minister's Council on Trade and Industry, a member of the Indo-US CEOs Forum, and the co-chair of the Japan-India Business Leader's Forum, and the India-Russia CEO Council.

Sanibel Captiva Trust Company, the Florida-based independent trust firm, brought in market analyst Patrick Dorsey as its new vice chairman, director of research and strategy.

Dorsey was previously a director at Morningstar, where he was charged with developing the firm's equity research process and economic moat ratings.

In his new role, he will be responsible for leading the company's investment research and portfolio management efforts and overseeing certain major client accounts. In addition he will serve as chairman of Sanibel Captiva's asset management committee and manage the firm's recent investment in Suncoast Equity Management. He joins Tim Vick, senior vice president and senior portfolio manager, at the firm's Chicago office.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch added a UBS advisor team as well as a branch manager from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Reuters reports.

Brothers David and Kenneth Ramirez reportedly moved from UBS to Merrill Lynch’s office in Paramus, New Jersey, while Shamus O'Rourke – latterly of MSSB – reportedly joined Merrill Lynch in New Haven, Connecticut.

Florida-headquartered GenSpring Family Offices bolstered its Mid Atlantic coverage with the hire of Brett Scola as a family wealth advisor.

In his new role Scola is responsible for a variety of wealth management services including estate planning, tax, financial planning, fiduciary, philanthropy and family governance issues.

He is charged with working with clients’ advisory teams as well as external advisors to make sure all aspects of their family wealth plans are coordinated.

Scola joined from PNC Wealth Management, where he was a senior wealth planner. Prior to PNC, he worked at Wachovia Wealth Management as a relationship manager and wealth strategist. He also previously spent 12 years at the tax advisory practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Convergent Wealth Advisors strengthened its Washington DC office with the appointment of Gregory Blake as director.

Blake, who was previously a vice president at Bernstein Global Wealth Management, will focus on expanding the company's presence in Washington DC, as well as the Baltimore metropolitan areas. At Bernstein he specialized in dealing with high net worth families and institutions on investment planning and strategy.

New York-based Signature Bank added two private client banking teams as well as a group director to one of its existing teams.

The first team to join are Vincent LoPreto, Keti Dervishi and Claudia Aviles, who all join the bank’s Madison Avenue, Manhattan, New York private client office. LoPreto and Dervishi were appointed group directors and senior vice presidents, while Aviles is a senior client associate.

The team joined from Metropolitan National Bank and have worked together for a total of 10 years.

Meanwhile, joining the firm’s office in Jamaica, Queens, New York are George Taitt, as group director and senior vice president; John Millwood, as associate group director; and Cindy Sankar, as a senior client associate.

Taitt was latterly the branch manager and vice president for CapitalOne Bank in Jamaica, Queens, where he worked with Sankar for five years. Millwood joins from JP Morgan Chase.

Completing its recruitment drive, Signature Bank named Todd Flamenbaum as group director and senior vice president of its private banking team headed by David Saunders in Melville, Long Island, New York. Flamenbaum was previously a senior vice president/senior client relationship manager at Bank of America in Melville.

New York-headquartered CTPartners, an executive search firm, appointed Sam Stylianou as a partner to expand its financial services practice in Europe.

Stylianou, who predominantly serves capital markets and asset and wealth management clients, will be based at the firm’s London and Geneva offices.

He joins from Armstrong International, where he was most recently responsible for strengthening the firm’s asset and wealth management practice, located in Geneva. Prior to this, he specialized in derivatives and capital markets recruiting, covering both developed and emerging markets.

Northern Trust filed a proxy statement for its annual meeting for 2011 where 13 new directors will be elected.

William Smithburg will be retiring this year and will not stand for re-election. Smithburg, a director since 1981, steps down after 30 years at the company. He has also formerly served as chairman, president and chief executive of the Quaker Oats Company.

Meanwhile, Martin Slark, the vice chairman and chief executive of Molex Incorporated, will be put up for election to the Northern Trust board. Slark has been with Molex for 35 years and is credited for having started the firm's offices in various Asian countries.

Index Wealth Management, a Canada-based portfolio manager, added an office in Vancouver and hired portfolio manager Gordon Ross to lead its expansion throughout British Columbia. 

Ruggie Wealth Management, the US-based asset management and financial planning firm, strengthened its financial advisory team with the addition of Timothy Moyer and Louis Shinaman. 

Moyer was latterly chief compliance officer at a securities firm based in Longwood, Florida and New York, New York where he oversaw compliance operations across the firm.

Shinaman previously spent the majority of his financial services career as a producing manager.  After a stint at Southern Financial Group, where he was one of the firm’s top producers, he launched his own independent brokerage in 2004.

Chicago, Illinois-based Blue Prairie Group added Kevin Moore as a client relationship manager.

In his new role Moore will support the client relationship management group, working on both institutional and individual relationships. He joins from Portland, Oregon-based Paulson Investment Company, where he was an investment executive with similar responsibilities.

Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust, the privately-held bank based in Coral Gables, Florida, hired Angel Medina as chief credit officer and executive vice president, according to the South Florida Business Journal.

Medina’s prior career includes 10 years as South Florida president for Regions Bank, as well as a 12-year term at Barnett Bank, the report says.

He replaces Peter Raffalski, the former chief credit officer, who remains at the bank as executive vice president, chief branding and community relations officer.

Eaton Vance Investment Counsel, a subsidiary of Eaton Vance Corporation, appointed Stephen Kistner as vice president, investment counselor.

In his new role Kistner reports to G West Saltonstall, president of Eaton Vance Investment Counsel. EVIC provides investment management and counseling services to high net worth individuals, families, trusts and foundations.

Kistner joins from the multi-family office Bessemer Trust, where was a managing director and senior resident officer in the Boston market. He also formerly worked at US Trust Co and State Street Bank and Trust Company, and specializes in areas such as asset allocation, equity selection, diversification, financial planning and gifting strategies.

Robert Elliott, senior managing director at Bessemer Trust, will retire from that role at the end of the month, a spokesman for the multi-family office confirmed.

Elliott will remain active in the firm as a senior advisor, according to Reuters, which first reported the news. A single successor will not be named.

Well known in the wealth management industry, Elliott joined Bessemer in 1975, shortly after the Phipps family opened its family office to other wealthy families.

San Mateo, California-based Franklin Templeton Investments appointed Pierre Caramazza to head up its registered investment advisor sales division, as well as filling three other posts in the RIA division.

In his new role Caramazza will oversee the expansion of Franklin Templeton’s services within the RIA marketplace, across the firm’s complete product range. He reports to Dan O’Lear, executive vice president of US advisory services for Franklin Templeton Distributors.

Caramazza, who has been with the firm five years, was latterly a senior vice president, running the fixed income product management and development and regional product strategy groups.

Baird Private Wealth Management hired Dean Cottle as brokerage manager for a soon-to-open new office in Salt Lake City, a report by Reuters said. The firm also plans to add 150 advisors.

Cottle joined from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney where he was complex manager. Joining Cottle from MSSB is Theresa Sommerdyke, a vice president and administrative officer manager.

UK-based alternative asset manager Man Group bolstered its US team with three new hires.

Stepping in as senior analyst for the equities unit is Todd Kata, who will be focusing on hedge fund research. Kata, who was managing director at Calypso Capital, will be based in New York and report to Robin Lowe, head of equities.

Also joining as analyst but on the portfolio management team is Jeremie Ho Hio Hen, who will be overseeing the research and construction of analytical models. Before he took on this new post, he was a rates and foreign exchange trader at JP Morgan. He reports to Art Holly, portfolio management head for North America.

Completing the list of new hires is Michael Callahan, who becomes part of the North American sales team with a focus on US institutional and family offices. Callahan, who used to be a vice president at Blackstone Group, will report to Raffaele Costa, the head of North America and Europe sales.

Merion Wealth Partners, the advisor-owned, independent wealth management firm, appointed Richard Hughes as president, responsible for spearheading advisor recruitment.

As well as growing the firm’s network of advisors, Hughes will also be working with advisors to help them grow their practice using Merion’s infrastructure and support.

Hughes was latterly co-president of Portfolio Management Consultants, a unit of Envestnet Asset Management. He was also formerly president of the separate accounts division for Nuveen Investments, including Nuveen Asset Management and Rittenhouse Asset Management.

UBS Wealth Management Americas recruited a trio of advisors from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney who have a combined $1.1 billion in assets under management.

Renato Reali, Paul Vigue and William Platt, known as The Fortis Group, have UBS’ Avenue of the Americas branch.

Also joining the New York office is Steven Erenfryd. He comes on board from Oppenheimer & Co and has $100 million in assets under management.

Boston Private Bank & Trust Company appointed Tim MacDonald as vice president and chief risk officer, replacing Robert Buffum, Boston Business Journal reports.

In his new role MacDonald will become chair of the risk management oversight committee and serve as a member of the bank’s key governing committees, including its policy group, according to the report. He was latterly a member of the enterprise risk management group at the firm’s parent company, Boston Private Financial Holdings.

Buffum, meanwhile, reportedly remains at the bank, but no further details were given on what his position will be going forward.

US Trust ramped up its recruitment with the appointment of 14 advisors for its wealth management services across the country, according to media reports.

The firm, the private banking unit of Bank of America Corp, added seven client advisors, four portfolio managers and three senior trust officers, from UBS, Northern Trust, BNY Mellon and US Bancorp, reported Reuters.

From those hired, John Benun and Warren Cohn, client advisors to be based in Century City, California, join from BNY Mellon. From Northern Trust Mark Kessinger is named portfolio manager to be based in St Louis, Missouri and Elizabeth Kurman is named trust officer in Chicago. From UBS, client advisor Christopher Robinson will be based in Portland, Maine.

Meanwhile portfolio manager Teresa Meyer joins from DA Davidson to be based in Portland, Oregon and George Smith, a portfolio manager for SunTrust will join US Trust in Nashville.

PineBridge Investments, a US-based financial services company, appointed Arthur Lau as managing director, head of Asia ex-Japan fixed income.

Lau brings over 20 years of experience in Asian fixed income to his new role. Based in Hong Kong, he will be responsible for the company's Asian fixed income capabilities, with a particular focus on local fixed income investment strategies for cash unit trusts, pension funds, and other client portfolios. He will lead a team of eight fixed income specialists based in Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. In addition, Lau will be a member of the emerging markets and international fixed income team.

Prior to PineBridge, Lau served as senior portfolio manager and head of Asian credit at JP Morgan Asset Management in Hong Kong. Before that, he was a director in credit research at Barclays Capital in Singapore and a director at Fitch in Hong Kong.

BNY Mellon Asset Management announced new heads for Mellon Capital Management and The Boston Company Asset Management.

Gabriella Parcella, who served as chief operating officer of Mellon Capital since 2008, was appointed chief executive officer of the company. Other related appointments within the firm involve Charlie Jacklin, who was named chairman, and Tom Loeb, who shifts from being chairman to join his Mellon Capital co-founder Bill Fouse as chairman emeritus. These changes were effective immediately.

The othey key appointment was that of Bart Grenier, who assumes the role of chairman and chief executive at The Boston Company Asset Management. Grenier stepped in from Deutsche Asset Management, where he served as chief investment officer and global head of institutional investments at DB Advisors. His new position takes effect on 1 June 2010. During the transition, Grenier will be working closely with outgoing chief David Cameron, who will assume a senior role within BNY Mellon Asset Management.

Bank of America's Lyle LaMothe is retiring as head of Merrill Lynch's US wealth management business after 24 years at the firm.

According to the memo, LaMothe, who took up the role in 2008, wants to focus on personal interests going forward but will remain in role until 1 May.

No successor for LaMothe has yet emerged, but one will be named “in due course”, a spokesperson told the publication.

First Republic Bank hired Philip Hill to work in its private wealth management business as portfolio manager and managing director at its San Francisco headquarters.

Hill joins from US Trust, where he was senior vice president and portfolio manager; before that, he worked for the Savant Group and Rankling Futures and Options.

First Republic said in a statement that it is continuing to expand to meet what it sees as increased demand from clients for wealth management services throughout its markets.

Mark Pannes left his role as head of the global sports group at HSBC Private Bank, and will be returning to the US to work for the hedge fund firm Raptor Capital Management.

He joined HSBC in 2006 to spearhead the launch of the bank’s global sports division, and went on there to strike a high-profile partnership deal with IMG Worldwide, the sports marketing giant which has counted golfing stars such as Tiger Woods, Colin Montgomerie and Sergio Garcia among its clients.

Exact details of his role at US-based Raptor Capital Management have not emerged yet; however, in contrast to media reports around, it is understood he will not be working in an investment management capacity.

Brown Brothers Harriman appointed two new partners, adding Jared Keyes and Jeffrey Meskin to its ranks.

Keyes joined BBH in 1994 in Boston as a corporate banker. He is responsible for the banking activities of the firm's New York office, which include the commodities trade finance group and the local tri-state corporate banking practice. 

Prior to moving to New York in 2008, Keyes was a managing director in the corporate banking group in BBH's Boston office.

Meskin joined BBH in 2000 as an executive in the mergers and acquisitions advisory group and the 1818 equity funds. Since 2007, he co-managed BBH Capital Partners private equity funds.

Credit Suisse appointed Eric Miller as managing director and head of fixed income research globally, effective June this year.

Miller most recently served as global head of credit research at Barclays Capital. Prior to that, he worked in the research departments of Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. In his new role he will be based in New York and will report jointly to Gael de Boissard and Tony Ehinger, the co-heads of global securities.

As the new MD and fixed income head, Miller will be responsible for continuing to build on the unit's growth strategy. The Credit Suisse research department offers cross-product and economic research content.

Miller takes on a role that has been empty since the former fixed income chief, Lara Werner, was named head of finance for investment banking in June 2010.

Paulson Wealth Advisors, the independent investment advisory arm of Portland, Oregon-based Paulson Investment Company, added two financial advisors to help grow this newly-launched division in the Pacific Northwest.

Brent Norman and Erik Lawrence were appointed to work with John Noble, managing director of PWA, who was given the role of spearheading the wealth arm at its launch late last year. They are charged with working with Noble to expand the division.

Lawrence is a board director for both the Dougy Center and the Portland State University Foundation, while Norman was formerly a financial advisor at Kidder Peabody, a UBS predecessor firm.

HSBC Private Bank in the US appointed Victoria Garrigo as Southeast regional manager, based in Miami.

Garrigo reports to Patrick Campion, chief executive US private bank. Previously, she held various management roles at Northern Trust including most recently as a managing director in wealth advisory.

Presidio Financial Partners named Paul Boscacci head of wealth management operations.

In the newly created position, he will be responsible for day-to-day operations and reporting for Presidio’s wealth management business, the firm's largest unit.

Previously Boscacci was a founding partner of Offit Capital Advisors in New York, where he established and managed the firm’s operations, technology, and reporting platforms. As vice president of Offit Hall Capital Management, he developed the operations platform for the firm’s client advisory practice and built and maintained client investment portfolios.

Fieldpoint Private Bank & Trust hired Paul Guidone as its chief investment officer.

Guidone is a former chief investment officer of Citigroup Global Wealth Management where he oversaw investment activities, totaling $1.3 trillion in assets under management, for Citi Private Bank and Smith Barney. He left Citigroup in 2007.