Asia was an important month for moves, particularly with the announcement that UBS – now a major player in the region’s wealth management sector – has appointed a new chief executive. Credit Suisse also announced that its CEO had resigned, with a successor named. 

February Chinese conglomerate Fosun International, which owns stakes in a number of Western financial firms including private banks, appointed chief executive Wang Qunbin as co-chairman alongside billionaire founder Guo Guangchang. Fosun’s co-presidents, Chen Qiyu and Xu Xiaoliang, became co-CEOs. The CEO of the group’s property arm Gong Ping replaced the group’s chief financial officer Xue Linnan, while Xue became the property branch’s vice-chairman.

Thunes, a cross-border payment platform pitched at emerging markets, appointed Bogdan Dinu to head the product development team from Singapore while Frido Tober joined to lead the Americas team. Dinu, whose career spans Amsterdam, Berlin, and Bucharest, has more than 15 years of experience working in tech and product management for global companies such as Nike, PayU and Ingenico. Based in San Francisco, Tober builds and develops Thunes’ business growth in North and South America. He has nearly 20 years of experience in fintech and financial services for companies such as Velo Payments, Worldpay and ING, with a strong emphasis on payment processing.

Standard Chartered appointed a prominent woman in financial technology, Kahina van Dyke, as global head for digital channels and client data analytics. She joined the bank’s corporate, commercial and institutional banking division. Van Dyke joined from Ripple, the blockchain-based enterprise payments company, where she was senior vice president, business and corporate development. She was previously global director, financial services and payments at Facebook, and before that spent several years at Mastercard and Citigroup.

Matthews Asia, the asset manager appointed Yu-Ming Wang as president and global chief Investment officer to lead the firm’s investment team, based in San Francisco. He also serves as a member of its executive committee. A 35-year veteran of the sector, Yu-Ming was previously deputy president and global CIO for Nikko Asset Management and has managed investment teams in APAC for the past 12 years. 

HSBC appointed Kevin Martin, its head of Asia-Pacific retail banking and wealth management unit, as the chief operating officer of the bank’s newly-created global wealth and personal banking business. Martin, who has been at HSBC since 2014, leads the new organisation’s digital initiatives. As a result of the changes, Martin continues to work from Hong Kong.

J Safra Sarasin appointed Enid Yip to join its board of directors and Andy Chai as new chief executive for Asia. Also, Vinay Gandhi was appointed as deputy CEO, Asia.

Prior to this, Yip was CEO Asia and a member of the bank’s executive committee; she continues to give strategic advice to the group in her new role. Chai, who has 20 years’ experience, joined from BNP Paribas Wealth Management Asia, where he was most recently co-CEO. Chai was previously head of Greater China Markets and led the strategic client segment across Asia. He has extensive experience in wealth management, private equity, corporate finance and consulting. Gandhi was promoted to deputy CEO Asia after Yelandur N Nagendra’s retirement on 21 February 2020. Gandhi continues in his role as CEO Singapore branch.

Independent wealth management firm SingAlliance appointed the ex-country head for Indonesia and chief executive of PT Bank BNP Paribas Indonesia. Luc Cardyn joined SingAlliance, taking on the role of senior advisor. Cardyn has served in senior roles at BNP Paribas, including global head of bond syndication. He was the head of country for Indonesia and CEO of PT Bank BNP Paribas Indonesia. 

Sergio Ermotti, chief executive of UBS for the past nine years, announced that he was standing down. Ralph Hamers, formerly of ING Group, was named the new CEO and takes up the post from 1 November this year. To ensure the transition is smooth, Hamers was slated to join the executive board from 1 September this year.

A former long-standing banker at Merrill Lynch, Ermotti joined Zurich-based UBS in 2010 as chairman and CEO of Europe, Middle East and Africa and a member of the group executive Board. Previously, he had been deputy group CEO at Italy’s UniCredit, and he was at Merrill Lynch for 18 years. When Ermotti first became CEO, it was on an interim basis but he was soon made permanent chief. He had filled the gap left when Oswald Grübel resigned from the post at what had been a tough time for UBS. The new CEO at UBS has had a long career at Netherlands-based ING Group, joining it in 1991. Hamers progressed through a series of roles across business segments and geographies before becoming CEO in 2013. Hamers holds a master of science in business econometrics and operations research from Tilburg University in the Netherlands and is chairman of the European Banking Group, the European banking association.

Following Alex Jeffrey’s arrival last October as global chief executive for Savills Investment Management, the group appointed Dougie Crichton to head asset management for Savills Malaysia. Crichton joined from an advisory role in Kuala Lumpur for HSBC.

Bank of Singapore created the new post of chief data and innovation officer. Former AXA insurance executive Celine Le Cotonnec took on the role, reporting to CEO Bahren Shaari. She joined from AXA Insurance Singapore, where she had a similar data management role, using analytics and artificial intelligence to develop new customer experiences and find new revenue streams. She was also active in forging partnerships with fintechs and large tech providers to develop new insurance products, the bank said.

India-based Avendus Wealth Management recruited former Standard Chartered figure Nitin Singh as its chief executive. Singh, who also holds the title of managing director, reports to Kaushal Aggarwal and Gaurav Deepak, co-founders and MDs, Avendus Capital. At Standard Chartered, Singh was MD and head of the wealth management business in India. 

Prior to Standard Chartered, Singh was global head of fund strategy at HSBC Private Bank, responsible for long-only mutual funds and ETF product offerings. At HSBC, he established the global funds desk in London with responsibility for fund selection, strategic partnership programmes with asset managers, and led the distribution efforts for mutual funds and ETFs across the Private Bank customer base, globally. He is a postgraduate from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore with a graduate degree in economics.

The Citco Group of Companies appointed Ryan Fitzgerald as head of middle office solutions to increase development of the business line, which recently achieved double-digit growth. Fitzgerald previously worked at Hazeltree Fund Services, a specialist treasury management solutions provider to the buy-side.

UBS replaced its wealth management finance head in the wake of an overhaul of its strategy. Markus Habbel, CFO for wealth management and for the Zurich-listed bank’s Europe, Middle East and Africa region, was replaced by UBS’ group controller and chief accounting officer Todd Tuckner. Tuckner relocated from the United States to Zurich, reporting to four separate executives as he maintained his group-wide, division and regional roles.

Bank of Singapore created a new senior role to deepen its wealth and investment planning for the Greater China region. Joanna Ho was made head of wealth planning for Greater China and North Asia, to drive the bank’s wealth planning, family office, trust, succession and insurance offerings. Based in Hong Kong, she reports locally to Angel Wu, head of product management for Hong Kong, and functionally to Tariq Saleim, global head of lending products, credit structuring and wealth planning based in Singapore. Most recently the UK and Canada-educated Ho was head of wealth planning and wealth solutions for Asia Pacific at HSBC Private Banking, where her focus was on clients in Greater China. She is also vice president of The Association of Women Accountants in Hong Kong.

The chief executive of Credit Suisse, Tidjane Thiam, resigned and was replaced by Thomas Gottstein. The move came after the bank was rocked last year by a spying scandal which had raised questions about Credit Suisse's corporate culture. Thiam, at the bank since June 2015 and praised for restoring the fortunes of the Zurich-listed banking group after a tough period before his appointment, came under pressure last year following the spying scandal. A former top wealth management figure, Iqbal Khan, was followed by people employed by the bank after he had left to work for UBS. The bank said last year that its former human resources chief Peter Goerke had been put under observation, in addition to spying on Khan.

Thiam had been absolved of blame for the saga following an investigation. In hiring Gottstein, the bank picked a senior member from its own ranks. Gottstein has more than 30 years of experience in the banking industry, including more than 20 years with Credit Suisse.

Singapore-based digital wealth manager Kristal AI appointed a new head of private wealth management - Swapnil Mishra. Mishra, who was most recently a managing director at Deutsche Bank, had been a relationship manager at Citibank. He was also senior vice president at RBS Coutts Bank.

Foreign direct investment advisory firm BowerGroupAsia appointed Teerasak Siripant as managing director of its Thailand business. He leads a team of 20 people providing advisory services and strategic communications support for investors in the country.

Teerasak Siripant is a former army intelligence officer in the Royal Thai Armed Forces. He spent more than a decade serving as the chief political advisor to the Australian ambassador to Thailand. He received two certificates in Thailand & ASEAN Economic Community and Political Leadership from the prestigious King Prajadhipok's Institute. He has a joint master's degree in business from the University of Hamburg in Germany and Fudan University in China. His undergraduate degree is from St John's University in New York.

Gianmarco Timpanaro, managing director and marketing, communications head at Falcon Private Bank, took up a new role at Swiss Startup Group. His new firm is a privately financed venture platform in Switzerland with offices in Freienbach, Zurich and Lausanne. In his new role, Timpanaro is chief communications officer and member of the group’s executive management. 

Calastone, the global funds network, appointed Ed Lopez as chief revenue officer, having most recently held the same role at JHC, the wealth management software firm. (JHC is now part of FNZ). Lopez has more than 25 years’ experience in the treasury, wealth and asset management sectors.

Prior to JHC, Lopez was head of sales and business development for OpenLink’s (now part of Ion) Europe, Middle East and Africa business, which included OpenLink’s corporate treasury management solutions. Lopez also previously built the sales function for SunGard’s (now FIS) UK broker dealer, building the institutional money market fund portal and network internationally.

HSBC appointed Kaber Mclean as chief executive officer of its Australian unit. Mclean, who has been with the bank since 1996, has had many senior roles including a stint as president and CEO of HSBC Japan between 2012 and 2016. He succeeds Noel McNamara, who has been the interim CEO since June 2019. McNamara continues as chief risk officer, HSBC Australia. Kaber joined HSBC in 1996 and has had senior leadership roles across Asia-Pacific, North American and Europe, and is experienced in its global banking and markets business. He was president and CEO of HSBC Japan between 2012 and 2016, and more recently worked in regional roles including head of wholesale credit and market risk, Asia-Pacific and head of the remediation office, Asia-Pacific.

A former Pictet managing director Reshmi Sehgal joined Lighthouse Canton, the Singapore-based investment firm. Sehgal, who left her role at the Swiss private bank last September, had been there for less than a year. Before that, she worked at BNP Paribas for 21 years, also in Singapore. Prior to that, she worked for eight years at Citigroup in Singapore and New York.

Shilpi Chowdhary is chief executive of Lighthouse Canton, a business founded in 2014, and the chief investment officer is Rajesh Sundaresan. The firm is an example of the independent wealth management firms that have sprouted in Asia over the past decade, often founded by teams from large banks.