August may be a holiday month but there remained some significant announcements in the wealth management executive field that month.

HSBC Private Banking appointed Sanjay Shah as desk head, international markets and Amit Ratadia as senior director. Based in Singapore, Shah supports the build-out of the bank’s offshore India business and oversee wealth management strategies for its international client base.

He has 18 years of international private banking experience spanning India, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Singapore. Shah reports to Sundar Ramani, market head, Australia, international, offshore Japan and offshore India. Ratadia was previously relationship manager of international markets. He has 16 years of experience in the Middle East and Singapore. He reports directly to Shah.

Sydney-based boutique wealth management firm Lipman Burgon & Partners appointed Alex Pikoulas to the newly created role of portfolio manager. Pikoulas has 20 years of markets experience in Australia and overseas, including eight years as an equity analyst in funds management and broking, and 12 years in equity sales at JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank.

Credit Suisse appointed Makoto Kuwahara as chief executive of Japan, based in Tokyo. Kuwahara oversees Credit Suisse’s businesses and regulatory activities in Japan. Kuwahara-san reports to Helman Sitohang, CEO Asia-Pacific. Kuwahara joined from Deutsche Bank, where he worked for the past 21 years. He was the chief country officer in Japan from 2013, and previously worked in a variety of senior roles in global markets.

Bank of Singapore appointed Rajeev De Mello as its chief investment officer. He reports to Marc Van de Walle, global head of products. De Mello replaced Johan Jooste, the bank’s new head of rates (a newly-formed position). De Mello has more than 30 years of experience in global financial markets. In Asia, where he has spent a total of 14 years, de Mello has worked in Hong Kong and Singapore. Based in Singapore since 2005, he was most recently the head of Asian fixed income and co-head of emerging market debt at Schroders Investment Management overseeing the investment teams in Singapore, Hong Kong, Jakarta Taipei and Tokyo.

HSBC Private Banking created the new role of market head for China and Taiwan, appointing former Credit Suisse man and industry veteran Edwin Lim to the role. Lam leads the business for these two markets across all booking centres in Asia, including onshore China, onshore Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, the private bank said. He is based in Hong Kong. He joined from Credit Suisse, where he was market head for Greater China, managing a team of RMs. Prior to Credit Suisse, he held senior positions at JP Morgan, initially as market manager for Greater China before leading the North East Asia region. Lam also worked at DBS Private Bank and Citi Private Bank.

Australian banking firm Westpac Group said chief information officer (CIO), Dave Curran, decided to retire from the firm at the end of January 2019.  The firm appointed Craig Bright as CIO of Westpac Group, taking effect from December 2018. Curran led the Group’s technology function since 2014 and played a part in resetting and reshaping Westpac’s digital operation. Bright has been chief technology officer for Citi’s Global Consumer Bank. He joined Citigroup in 2011 as managing director.

BOC Hong Kong appointed Liu Qiang as non-executive director, a member of its remuneration and budget committees and its principal operating subsidiary, Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited. It also named Lin Jingzhen as non-executive director, member of the strategy and budget committees. Liu Qiang is executive vice president of Bank of China, a role he has held since November 2016. Bank of China owns about 66.06 per cent of the BOC Hong Kong’s issued shares. Liu has been serving as the Chairman of BOC Aviation since March 2018 and BOC Credit Card (International) since April 2018. Prior to joining Bank of China in 2016, he worked in Agricultural Bank of China in various roles.

Lin Jingzhen has been executive vice president of Bank of China, and served as chairman of BOC International Holdings.

DWS, previously Deutsche Asset Management, appointed Clarence Ng as chief financial officer for the alternatives Asia-Pacific business, and chief operating officer for DWS China. The roles were new ones by the firm. Based in Shanghai, Ng reports to Leon Williams, COO alternatives, APAC. Ng has 16 years of experience. His most recent position was global markets finance director for Deutsche Bank (China), where he was responsible for legal entity financials.

State Street Corporation named Kamal Jandu as head of insurance services Asia-Pacific. In this newly-created role, Jandu is responsible for defining and executing State Street’s regional insurance services strategy, helping maintain and grow the insurance services business. Jandu is based in Hong Kong, reporting to Ivan Matviak, global head of insurance solutions based in Boston, and Ian Martin, head of global services and global exchange for APAC. Jandu has 30 years of experience in the financial institutions sector globally. He joined State Street from Citibank, where he was the senior client manager for the insurance sector.

Credit Suisse appointed two of its most senior figures to head up its private banking operations, replacing Francesco de Ferrari, head of private banking for Asia-Pacific and chief executive for Southeast Asia and frontier markets. De Ferrari left after 17 years to follow other opportunities. Ferrari was appointed by the embattled Australian financial services group, AMP. De Ferrari succeeded Mike Wilkins, who has served as interim CEO since April 2018. 

Francois Monnet and Benjamin Cavalli were named to lead Asia-Pacific private banking; Monnet and Cavalli continue to be based in Hong Kong and Singapore respectively, and report to Helman Sitohang, CEO for Asia-Pacific.  Monnet took the  of head of private banking for North Asia, with Cavalli appointed as head of private banking for South Asia. 

Monnet joined Credit Suisse in 2007 as head of Private Banking for Southeast Asia. Since January 2016, he held the role of head of private banking of Greater China, and is also the CEO of Credit Suisse’s Hong Kong branch. Cavalli joined Credit Suisse in 2009 as head of private banking for the Singapore market.  He was appointed head of private banking for Southeast Asia and head of the Singapore location in October 2014, and in January 2017 he also assumed the role of Singapore CEO.

Barings, the investments and financial services group, said its global distribution and marketing head, Duncan Robertson, took on an expanded role as Asia-Pacific head. Additionally, former Vanguard senior manager joined as country head of China. Robertson’s position is a new one. In this role, he leads Barings’ overall business operations and growth strategy in the Asia-Pacific region while continuing to oversee the firm’s global distribution and marketing strategy.

Deutsche Bank appointed Hans-Dieter Holtzmann as chief country officer and head of global transaction banking in Vietnam. Holtzmann in his country head role reports to Werner Steinmueller, member of the management board and APAC head of Deutsche Bank, and in his GTB capacity, to Kaushik Shaparia, head of global subsidiary coverage, GTB foreign exchange and corporate cash management for Asia. At the bank for over two decades, Holtzmann has worked in various senior capacities across global offices with corporate and investment banking, regional management, and government and regulatory affairs, most recently as head of public sector for Germany where he was responsible for covering clients at the federal, state, and municipality level.

Global investment management firm T Rowe Price appointed Scott Keller as head of global investment management services of Europe, Middle East and Africa. Previously head of global investment management services of Asia-Pacific, Keller joined T Rowe Price from UBS in 2014, where he was head of Pan Asia. His career at UBS spanned 17 years working in Europe and Asia across the wealth and asset management markets, the firm said in a statement. He reports to Robert Higginbotham, head of global investment services for T Rowe Price, and is based in London.

Also, Nick Trueman succeeded Keller as head of global investment management services of APAC. Trueman is head of the Asia ex-Japan institutional business and a member of the APAC executive committee. He has 17 years of investment industry experience, 10 of which have been with T Rowe Price. Elsie Chan, head of GIMS Asia ex-Japan intermediaries, took on a newly created role as head of GIMS Asia ex-Japan.  

Credit Suisse reshuffled its Asia-Pacific communications team, with Sheel Kohli, who has headed up this team at the bank, moving on. He replaced by Edna Lam, head of communications for Southeast Asia and communications partner for private banking in Asia-Pacific. Lam has worked at the Zurich-listed bank for more than 12 years. Lam is a 25-year veteran of in-house communications spanning diverse sector experience in both North and Southeast Asia, from banking and finance, aviation, healthcare, tourism, electronic payments to chemical industries, as well as across all communications pillars from media relations, internal communications, crisis and issues management to digital and social media. Kohli left the bank to pursue other opportunities.

Swiss investment manager SUSI Partners appointed Wymen Chan to head its Singapore-based investment team. He joined from Armstrong Asset Management and has previously held positions with investment firms in Singapore and New York.

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Asia-based fintech firm AGDelta appointed of David Roy as Managing Director – Product Management, based in Hong Kong. Roy came from JP Morgan. 

Willis Towers Watson appointed Terence Montgomery to a newly-created position as head of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transaction solutions in Asia-Pacific. Based in Hong Kong, Montgomery partners Asia Pacific companies by providing solutions, including warranty and indemnity, tax and contingent risk insurance that allows transfer of liability to facilitate M&A transactions. Montgomery was previously head of Asia at Australia-based M&A insurance broker Risk Capital Advisors. He reports to Namit Mahajan, the company’s head of FINEX Asia and Alex Keville, the FINEX M&A practice leader.

Alfred Tsai, the China market head at BNP Paribas Wealth Management, left the firm. Tsai has held the role since October 2011; from July 2009, he served as the managing director, senior advisor at Julius Baer Bank. He has more than 20 years of financial services expertise with companies such as UBS, Citibank, American Express and National Westminster Bank. He started out his banking career at Citibank Hong Kong in 1982. Tsai has also been an independent non-executive director of Impro (China) Limited since June 2011. During the period from 1997 to 1999, he was the executive committee member of Hong Kong Financial Markets Association advising Central Bank of China on foreign exchange matters. 

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group appointed one of its senior managers, Jodi West, as chief executive for its Vietnam operation. She reports to Farhan Faruqui, ANZ group executive in the international business. She took the helm from Ha Bach, who has been the interim CEO since March this year. West joined ANZ in 2015 as head of institutional foreign exchange sales for Australia. Prior to ANZ, she held roles in the forex and commodity sales team at Citigroup and Barclays, and was also head of corporate and institutional market sales at National Australia Bank.

SANNE, which provides alternative asset and corporate administration services, named Peter Nagle as its new company boss for Mauritius. Nagle works with Mark Law, managing director, alternative assets for Asia-Pacific. Prior to this, Nagle held senior positions in Hong Kong, Singapore and Ireland, most recently with JP Morgan and Standard Chartered where he was global head of trust and fiduciary responsible for over 14 jurisdictions worldwide.

Julius Baer reportedly appointed Wendy Kwan as managing director, senior advisor and head of investment specialists for funds in Hong Kong. She replaced Johann Santer, who left the role to join US investment manager Fidelity. Kwan was recently head of private bank distribution in Hong Kong at asset manager Blackrock. Kwan joined Blackrock in May 2015. Previously she worked at Goldman Sachs, Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas Asset Management, Invesco and Fidelity Investments.

Aberdeen Standard Investments appointed David Lam as head of its Hong Kong operation. Lam reports to Ian Macdonald, deputy head of Asia-Pacific for ASI. Lam is responsible for managing the Hong Kong team and driving a long-term growth strategy for the business. Prior to ASI, Lam was chairman of the advisory board at Carret Private Investments. His previous roles include managing director and head of North Asia for Coutts, managing director of APAC for GAM, and director of private wealth services – APAC at Merrill Lynch.

Credit Suisse recruited four people - some of them bankers - from Julius Baer in Singapore. They focus on Indonesian clients. It appointed Heinz Puth and three of his colleagues.

Standard Chartered appointed eight people in its Global South Asian Community (GSAC) team, all of whom are based in Singapore. The appointees are:

-- Murtaza Gilani, managing director, team leader, GSAC, private banking. Murtaza reports to Srinivas (Srini) Siripurapu, regional head, private banking, ASEAN & South Asia, and global head, GSAC, Murtaza was most recently a senior vice president at DBS. He has experience in wealth management for affluent and high net worth clients in South Asia and the Middle East, and has held senior positions in other financial institutions like Samba Financial Group and NIB Bank (subsidiary of Temasek Holdings); 

-- Hussain Poonawalla as MD, team leader, GSAC, private banking, who reports to Siripurapu; he most recently was at DBS; 

-- Rahul Chowdhury, Sujit Pillai, Richu Singh, executive director, relationship manager, GSAC, private banking; and 

-- Rahul Gopalakrishnan, Sonam Gupta and Kunal Mukherjee, directors, RMs, GSAC, Private Banking.

Sri Lanka-based Asia Securities, the brokerage firm, named Avancka Herat as head of wealth management. He also takes on the role of chief executive of the firm’s wealth management affiliate. Herat joined from National Asset Management, where he had been CEO. The firm provides unit trusts and individual portfolio management services across equity and fixed income instruments. Previously, Herat was chief investment officer of Aegis Fund Management, which was Sri Lanka’s largest private asset management company with assets under management of LKR 93 billion ($600 million). Early in his career, he worked at oil industry leader Caltex (in Singapore and Sri Lanka) and the investment house Jardine Fleming (in Hong Kong and Sri Lanka) in research and investment-related roles.

Investec Asset Management appointed Lerong Kang to the newly-created role of head of advisory, Southeast Asia. Kang is based out of Singapore and is responsible for managing and driving Investec’s advisory business in the region. She reports to Kevin Kong, head of the company’s Singapore office. Kang was previously an executive director at UBS Private Bank Wealth Management for over five years. Prior to this, Lerong worked as the head of business planning at Eastspring Asset Management Singapore, focusing on fund distribution. She has also held various senior positions at Citigroup and Standard Chartered in both retail and private banking, both in the US and Singapore.

Global law firm Baker McKenzie appointed London-based disputes partner Jonathan Peddie as global chair of financial institutions. Peddie joined Baker McKenzie's dispute resolution team from Barclays in 2015, where his most recent roles included global head of financial crime legal and managing director of litigation, investigations and enforcement.

HSBC Private Banking appointed Rachel Wei as co-market head - Hong Kong. Together with Annie Kwok, co-market head, Wei leads the Hong Kong business, responsible for developing client relationships and enhancing collaboration with HSBC’s other global businesses. Wei joined HSBC Private Banking from HSBC Commercial Banking. 

Old Mutual International appointed Flora Chan as head of distribution development for the Hong Kong domestic market. Chan works alongside Ivy Lee, head of business development for Hong Kong and reports in to Mark Christal, chief executive for Old Mutual International in Hong Kong. She joined from MetLife, where she was a senior sales manager. Prior to that, Chan spent 18 years at Generali Worldwide Insurance Company as a sales manager.

HSBC appointed Surendra Rosha as chief executive for HSBC India. Rosha was HSBC’s head of financial institutions group (FIG) for Asia-Pacific, and has experience of working with retail and commercial banks. He began his financial services career when he joined HSBC’s Indian operations in 1991. He has worked in multiple roles in FX trading, corporate treasury sales, treasury and capital markets across a variety of countries. The new India CEO succeeded Jayant Rikhye, who is taking a leave of absence for medical reasons.