A roundup of moves in the Asia-Pacific wealth management sector during July.

Aviva Investors, the global asset management business of Aviva plc, appointed Thijs Hupkes in the newly-created role of director, real estate client solutions, Asia-Pacific and Middle East. He is based in Singapore. Hupkes has nearly 10 years' experience in the real estate investment management industry. Most recently, he was with CBRE Global Investors, where he spent more than eight years in its Amsterdam and Singapore offices.

DBS appointed a new chief investment officer for its consumer banking and wealth management division, Hou Wey Fook. He took the helm from Lim Say Boon, who has spent seven years with the Singapore-headquartered bank and left DBS to return to Australia for family reasons. The new CIO has 30 years of fund management experience, and was most recently at Bank of Singapore where he held various senior management roles including CIO, head of discretionary portfolio management and funds. He started his career at Government of Singapore Investment Corp followed by OCBC Asset Management before joining ING Asia Private Bank, later renamed Bank of Singapore.

UBS appointed Yoshikazu Kato as vice chairman of UBS Wealth Management in Japan. Kato supports coverage and acquisition of new clients in his new role. In a career lasting for more than 35 years, Kato is extensive advisory experiences in banking and corporate finance in both domestic and global markets. He was HSBC Japan Corporate Banking head for eight years and was most recently corporate advisor. Before that, Kato spent his entire career in The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd where he held a number of senior positions in corporate banking, including General Manager of Marunouchi Commercial Banking office.

Former president and chief executive of the Philippine Stock Exchange, Hans Sicat, now heads the Manila branch of Dutch firm ING Bank. He replaces country manager Consuelo Garcia, due to retire in November.

Sun Life Investment Management appointed Le Minh Man as director, head of investments, Sun Life Vietnam. He reports to Sancho Chan, chief investment officer, Sun Life Asia and reporting to Hoang Bich Van, chief financial officer, Sun Life Vietnam. Man has over 11 years industry experience.  Most recently, he was a senior portfolio manager at AIA Vietnam Life Insurance Company.

UBS Wealth Management appointed Cat Ruest as head of innovation technologies, Greater China. Previously, Ruest spent more than 15 years building eight technology companies in software, cloud and mobile in Hong Kong, China, the US and the UK. She holds senior roles with the Women’s Foundation and InvestHK; Ruest also leads a Facebook community with over 12,000 members around start-ups. She was named a top 20 female entrepreneur to watch by ANZ Bank.

Bank of New York Mellon said former chief executive of financial card giant Visa, Charles W Scharf, was its new CEO. He takes up the role immediately. Gerald L Hassell, a life-long employee of the bank and its CEO/chairman since 2011, stepped down from the CEO role. Hassell remained chairman for a period until the end of this year. Scharf was to take up the chairmanship as of 1 January, 2018.

Scharf had been CEO and director of Visa from October 2012 through December 2016. Before joining Visa, Scharf served as managing director of One Equity Partners, JP Morgan's private investment arm, and previously served as the CEO of Retail Financial Services, one of JP Morgan’s lines of business. Earlier in his career, he was at Bank One Corp as chief financial officer and CEO of the retail division, and previously at Citigroup and its predecessor companies.

Standard Chartered Private Bank expanded its global South Asia private banking operation with a number of hires, all based in Singapore. Bharath Shetty was hired as managing director and team head in June, Gagan Mehorotra was appointed as executive director in May, Apurva Kothari and Deepak KV were both appointed managing directors in June, and lastly, Komal Syal was hired as a managing director in early July. All of the hires report to Vishal Jain, managing director and market head of global South Asia community.

UBS' wealth management business in Asia made several top-level changes, including making Amy Lo, the  head of WM for Greater China, the chairman for Greater China, reporting to Edmund Koh, who heads up the wealth management business in Asia-Pacific. Lo continues her role as country head for Hong Kong. Ravi Raju, based in Hong Kong, assumed responsibility for the global ultra-high net worth business across the APAC region; he continues to report to Edmund Koh and Joe Stadler, who is head of global UHNW.

DBS Private Bank appointed John Ng as head of portfolio counselling and product strategy. Ng joined the product advisory team, and is responsible for providing strategic portfolio advice and formulates model portfolios to cater for various market segments. He reports to Audra Seah, head of investment advisory and capital markets solutions. He also works with investment counsellors in the wealth management group. Prior to DBS, Ng worked at Bank of Singapore, where he spent eight years building and managing the research teams in cash equities, bonds, funds and private equity.

Swiss-Asia life insurance brokerage firm Charles Monat Associates appointed Berry Wong as its new chief executive in Hong Kong. He replaced Peter Tsih. With more than 22 years of service, Wong was previously the regional head of wealth planning services, Asia-Pacific for BNP Paribas. Prior to this, Wong was senior director, wealth planning services of HSBC Private Banking with primary focus on expanding and developing the fiduciary services for wealthy family in Asia, including Greater China, The Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. In his role, Wong reports to Yves Guélat, Charles Monat’s group CEO.

Michael De Guzman was appointed country manager for the Philippines at Credit Suisse. This role sits alongside De Guzman’s existing position as head of Philippines coverage for investment banking and capital markets. Prior to joining Credit Suisse, De Guzman was the Philippines office head for Australia-listed Macquarie and head of Macquarie Capital Philippines for eight years.

Credit Suisse made a pair of senior appointments in its Asia-Pacific private banking business. Jacqueline Koo, a former regional head of discretionary portfolio management, Asia and Middle East, for ABN AMRO, is based in Hong Kong. At ABN AMRO, she worked there from September 2012 to May 2016. Prior to this, she worked at Julius Baer and LGT. Peter Chan joined Credit Suisse Private Banking Asia Pacific’s China team as an expert relationship manager and is based in Hong Kong and reports to market leader China Victor Chao. Chen joined from Julius Baer where he was a MD and senior advisor.  Chen has more than 25 years of financial services and business consulting experience. Prior to Julius Baer, he was senior vice president for investment at Merrill Lynch Private Wealth Management. He is experienced in consulting, focusing on the China market in the areas of business strategy, capital markets and fund raising.

Principal Financial Group, the US-headquartered organisation, appointed Celestine Khoo as managing director and head of Asia ex-Japan for its asset management arm, Principal Global Investors. Khoo is based in Singapore. The role is a newly-formed one. Khoo heads PGI's Hong Kong and Beijing offices. Khoo continues as managing director and head of Southeast Asia, a position she’s held since 2015.
Charles Russell Speechlys, an international law firm, set up an office in Hong Kong, representing its first move into the Asia market. The law firm also appointed Richard Grasby, partner, and prominent litigator Jonathan Mok, partner. In addition, Charles Russell Speechlys partner Ashley King Christopher relocates to Hong Kong.

HSBC Private Banking appointed Patrick Ho as Asia investment strategist, based in Hong Kong. Before his current role, Ho was director of Greater China equity research at Credit Suisse Private Bank and head of thematic research, APAC and deputy head of equity for APAC at UBS Wealth Management.

Private equity house Orrick appointed Scott Peterman as a partner to its mergers and acquisitions practice in Hong Kong. Peterman acts for private fund sponsors and investors in the formation of alternative investment vehicles, including private equity funds, infrastructure and real estate funds, and hedge funds. In addition, he has advised on more than 150 account arrangements, representing sovereign wealth funds, universities, seeding and first-loss capital programs, family offices and individual investors. Peterman previously worked at Jones Day and is the sixth partner to have joined the M&A practice in 12 months, becoming the firm’s fifth partner in Hong Kong.

Carret Private Investments, an affiliate of Carret Asset Management, hired Samuel Chee as a senior wealth manager. He joined the firm as a partner and brought with him more than 20 years' experience in finance and wealth management. Most recently, he served as managing director of BNP Paribas Wealth Management in Hong Kong. 

Standard Chartered’s private bank appointed Kirk Tan, head of credit structuring ASEAN and South Asia. Tan previously had worked at Barclays as a senior credit structurer. In the new position, Tan reports to Heinz Braegger, head of credit structuring, private banking. Both men work in Singapore at Standard Chartered.

Indosuez Wealth Management recruited Eugene Huang as senior banker in Singapore. Huang was the seventh senior banker recruited since 1 January 2017. He has 20 years of wealth management experience in Singapore, previously working with Nomura, Barclays and Merrill Lynch.

Mercer made several appointments in Singapore and Hong Kong to facilitate growth in Asia. Chong Chee Loong was named principal consultant in Singapore in April; Adrian Worth was appointed manager research consultant in Hong Kong in April; and Keith Zou became senior analyst in Hong Kong in January. Chong Chee Loong has more than 20 years' experience in the investment industry with expertise in advising and constructing hedge fund portfolios for institutional investors. He spent almost 13 years working for Singapore's central bank and regulator, the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Worth conducts research into hedge funds and multi-asset strategies in the Asia region. He spent 10 years in London, where he worked as an investment director at Cambridge Associates, and as a hedge fund performance analyst at Man Group. Zou was previously at Willis Towers Watson, where he focused on private markets manager research for four years.

Law firm Withers in Asia hired a 12-strong team experienced in representing clients such as family offices and entrepreneurs. The team is led by Mabel Lui, who joins as head of the Greater China commercial practice. Lui, who was previously Winston & Strawn’s head of corporate in Asia, has more than 40 years of experience on China-related matters, including advising the foreign investor in the first Sino-foreign joint venture in China in 1979. The team also consists of two partners, four associates, three paralegals and other support staff.

Julius Baer appointed a new chief executive for its wealth advisory business in India, taking over from a predecessor who has decided to leave to follow new opportunities. The new CEO of Julius Baer Wealth Advisors (India) Private Ltd is Ashish Gumashta. He reports to Rémy Bersier, head of emerging markets and member of the Zurich-listed bank’s executive board. Gumashta has more than 20 years of experience in senior management positions in the Indian private banking industry. He joined DSP Merrill Lynch in 1994, was managing director as of 2006 and held various leadership positions within DSP Merrill Lynch. Since the integration of Merrill Lynch’s International Wealth Management business in India in September 2015, he has been a senior figure at Julius Baer in India. The appointment sees him take over from Atul Singh.

Standard Chartered appointed Lyndon Hsu to the role of global head for leveraged and structured solutions. He reports to Sumit Dayal, global head, corporate finance. Hsu replaced Sanjay Chowdhry who left the bank and has 29 years of experience in corporate financing in the Asia Pacific region. His prior experience most recently includes establishing and maintaining a prominent Asia-Pacific acquisition financing business while HSBC’s head of leveraged and acquisition finance for Asia-Pacific. He has also worked at Credit Suisse.