The final month of 2023 was a busy one for a number of banks and institutions in Asia, with examples including Bank of Singapore and EFG, to give just two.

Private equity firm Gaw Capital Partners appointed Oliver Yates as head of Australia. Yates is a veteran senior executive of Macquarie Group.

Nikko Asset Management added three figures to its global ESG team, based in Singapore. The joiners – Sheela Veerappan, Bhaveer Shah and Alexandre Tessier – report to Natalia Rajewska, global head of sustainable development. Veerappan, who is global ESG integration lead, has a background of 15 years in sustainable investment. 

Shah, who is Nikko AM’s global environmental lead, was previously vice president, applied climate and ESG investment research at MSCI. Tessier, an ESG regulations specialist, worked at a Europe-based asset management house.

RBC Wealth Management appointed Rod Ireland as head of wealth management for Asia; this added to his existing job as head of APAC global markets. Ireland was appointed interim head of wealth management for Asia in August, filling a spot left by Terence Chow who left the Canadian bank. Joining RBC in 1998, Ireland was appointed head of the Australian business in 2013. He relocated to Asia in 2017 to lead RBC’s global markets business in APAC.

BlackRock named Stephen Allan as head of Australasia Private Credit. Allan, who is based in Sydney, has almost 20 years’ experience in credit deal origination and sourcing. Previously he worked at Nomura.

EFG Bank hired several client relationship officers (CROs) for its team in Hong Kong. The Greater China team is led by Philip Cheung, Greater China market group head:

-- Steven Li, who has almost 15 years of industry experience with a focus on Greater China. He was formerly at CICC, where he spent more than 10 years.
-- Melissa Lau, who has more than 20 years of wealth management experience, was previously a director at Credit Suisse. 
-- Sarah Tan has almost 25 years’ private banking experience, serving high net worth clients in Greater China. She joined from Credit Suisse, where she was most recently a director.
-- Karson Chu, who has over 15 years of wealth management experience, specialises in financial solutions, financial planning, and client portfolio management. Most recently, Chu worked for Credit Suisse.
-- Elsie Wang has served UHNW clients in the Greater China market. She previously worked for financial institutions in Asia including Credit Suisse, Bank of Singapore, and Julius Baer.

Other changes:
-- Loretta Chim, who has 17 years of private banking experience, joined from Credit Suisse.
-- Flora So has almost 30 years of private banking experience. She previously worked at BNP Paribas.
-- Daphne Chen, who has over 15 years of experience in private banking, focuses on delivering wealth management solutions to entrepreneurs and UHNW clients in the Hong Kong market. Chen joined from Bank of Singapore.

Ostrum Asset Management, an affiliate firm of Natixis Investment Managers, appointed a new CEO, Olivier Houix, to take over from Philippe Setbon, who became CEO of Natixis IM and is in charge of asset and wealth management for Groupe BPCE. Houix reports to Philippe Setbon.

JP Morgan Asset Management appointed Ayaz Ebrahim as Singapore and Southeast Asia chief executive. He took over from Sherene Ban, who moved to Europe to become head of Continental Europe Institutional, the asset management business, part of JP Morgan. 

Ebrahim is a portfolio manager and co-head of the Asia-Pacific regional team within emerging markets and APAC equities (EMAP). He reports to Dan Watkins, APAC chief executive, and Anuj Arora, head of EMAP equities team, JP Morgan Asset Management. He joined the firm in 2015. 

Sun Life Singapore appointed Christopher Albrecht as its new chief executive. The previous CEO was Belinda Au, who moved to Chubb Life Hong Kong. Albrecht is based in Singapore and reports to Karim Gilani, president, Greater China, Singapore, and International High Net Worth, Sun Life Financial. He has more than 25 years’ experience in the industry sector.

EFG Bank made three senior hires for its Asia-Pacific business. Christina Wong joined the bank as a senior client partner based in Hong Kong. Jane Li was named as the new market head for Greater China (“ultra clients”) and Ian Campbell was named as the new regional head of credit and head of risk for Hong Kong. 

Julius Baer promoted Josephine Wang to group head for Greater China. Rocky Mak took on a new role as team head for Greater China. Andrew Lam joined as team head for Greater China, reporting to Salina Cheung, group head of Greater China.

Wang reports to David Shick, the head of Greater China and Hong Kong branch manager. She has more than 25 years’ experience mainly serving Greater China clients.

Mak, who joined Julius Baer in 2016, has more than 10 years of relationship management and investment advisory experience. He reports to Edward Chow, the group head for Greater China. Lam joined Julius Baer with more than two decades of experience in the Greater China market. 

Sun Hung Kai & Co, the Hong Kong-based alternative investment firm, appointed Tony Edwards as its new deputy chief executive. He took over from Simon Chow, the ex-deputy CEO who retired this year. Edwards reports to the chairman Seng Huang Lee.

Edwards started his career in the 1990s, and went on to work at firms including AllianceBernstein, Neuberger Berman, Robeco and Arisaig Partners. He was the CEO of Robeco Asia-Pacific and the chief operating officer of Arisaig Partners.

Bank of Singapore appointed Shovit Sahai as head of product management group. Sahai reports functionally to Vivienne Chia, head of Investment Advisory Solutions and Alternative Investments and Managed Solutions (based in Singapore) and locally to Ranjit Khana, global head, Middle East chief executive, DIFC branch, for alignment of the Middle East strategy and governance. Previously, Sahai worked at BNP Paribas in Singapore.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation appointed Sandeep Chopra as head of corporate coverage in India. Chopra is based in Mumbai. He reports to Rakesh Garg, chief business officer of SMBC India. Chopra has worked at firms including DBS Bank India and Royal Bank of Scotland (now NatWest Group).

Allianz Global Investors named Anand Gupta as lead portfolio manager. Based in Singapore, Gupta reports to Raymond Chan, chief investment officer for equity, Asia-Pacific. Before this role, Gupta led Eastspring Investments’ India Growth Equity team for more than 10 years. 

Bank of Singapore appointed former Credit Suisse figure Rickie Chan as private banking head for Greater China. BoS also named Teresa Lee, who is head of Greater of China, Hong Kong branch, as vice chair for Greater China. 

Sun Life appointed Patrick Wei as chief distribution officer, Asia. Wei has more than 30 years of experience in insurance distribution in Asia.