The month of May witnessed a large number of moves, arrivals, and some departures at major houses such as Credit Suisse, BNP Paribas, and Citigroup, among others.

Capital Group appointed Angela Jin as head of financial intermediaries, Hong Kong. This is a newly-created role. Jin reports to Toby Chan, head of client group, Hong Kong and Greater China. She previously served as head of private banking, Hong Kong, at PIMCO, where she spent eight years building the firm's wealth management business in North Asia. Prior to that, she led MSCI’s ESG business with institutional clients for the Asia ex-Japan region.

BlackRock appointed Masato Sunaga as co-head of Japan client business. Having two decades of senior leadership experience in the Japanese market, Masato was most recently co-head of sales at Morgan Stanley Investment Management in Japan. He also served other large international and Japanese financial institutions including Goldman Sachs, Societe Generale and Daiwa Securities.

Matthews Asia, the San Francisco-based asset manager which focuses on Asia, appointed Beonca Yip as head of Asia-Pacific. Yip is responsible for overseeing the firm’s business in the Asia-Pacific region as well as leading its distribution activities, with a particular focus on the firm’s growing institutional business. Yip has over 28 years of experience in senior distribution leadership roles where she served both sophisticated institutional asset owners and advisory channel clients across the APAC region. Previously, as managing director, head of global client group based in Beijing, she led the distribution and client service teams at China Asset Management. 

Credit Suisse appointed Matt Jin as executive director and relationship manager, based in Hong Kong, reporting to Shin-Yi Jeng, team leader for the China market. Jin, who has over 20 years’ investment banking experience, is switching to the private banking side. Jin headed up the investment and financing team in CMBC International Holdings Ltd for five years. Before that, he worked at Mirae Asset Securities for over 10 years as the team head of Greater China coverage in investment banking.

Tishman Speyer, an owner, developer, operator and investment manager of real estate which is present in 33 key markets across the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America, appointed real estate investment professional Jerry Hyunjae Park as senior director of acquisitions for its recently-established office in Seoul, South Korea. Park reports to managing director, Graham Mackie, who was appointed in June 2022 to spearhead Tishman Speyer’s Asia Pacific expansion beyond its operations in China and India.

HSBC appointed Kai Zhang as head of wealth and personal banking, South Asia. Based in Singapore, Zhang. Greg Hingston was in the role ad interim until it was filled. Before this, Zhang was chief executive at Manulife-Sinochem Life Insurance Company from 2016. She has more than 25 years of financial services experience in North America and Asia where she has held leadership posts at Citigroup and McKinsey & Company. Zhang reports to Nuno Matos, CEO, WPB, and Surendra Rosha, co-CEO, Asia-Pacific.

Hong Kong-listed Sun Hung Kai & Co appointed Gary Chan as managing director in its investment management business. Chan, who joined the firm in April 2023, has more than 25 years in alternative investment and investment banking experience. Prior to this, Chan led the investments and banking team at Mirae Asset (Hong Kong), investing across a number of sectors including healthcare, technology, new energy, new consumer and real estate. Previously, he worked at Barclays, Macquarie and ICBC International.

Franklin Templeton appointed Nicholas Chui as senior vice president, portfolio manager within Franklin Templeton Emerging Markets Equity’s China investment team. Chui takes a leading role in managing China equity strategies, and took over from Michael Lai, portfolio manager at Franklin Templeton Emerging Markets Equity, who retired. Based in Hong Kong, Chui reports to Sukumar Rajah, senior managing director, director of portfolio management for Franklin Templeton Emerging Markets Equity.

Chui was previously at BlackRock, where he had been a portfolio manager of its China equity strategy since 2020. Prior to that, he spent 10 years at abrdn, most recently serving as deputy head of its Hong Kong/China Equity team and lead manager of its China A shares equity strategy.

Citigroup appointed Sharad Mohan as head of international personal bank for Singapore, reporting to Shyam Sambamurthy, international head of Citigold and Citigold private client, and Tibor Pandi, Citi country officer for Singapore. Mohan, with almost 30 years of experience in consumer banking and wealth management at Citi to his new role, served in consumer banking and wealth management roles across Singapore and India. He joined Citi as a management associate and was most recently head of retail banking for Citi India. 

BNP Paribas Wealth Management appointed Marc Kermaidic as its new chief operating officer for its Asian wealth arm. He succeeded Long Doan who took up a new role within the bank. Based in Singapore, Kermaidic reports directly to Arnaud Tellier, Asia CEO of BNP Paribas Wealth Management, and functionally to Pierre Vincent, COO and chief transformation officer of BNP Paribas Wealth Management.

Law firm Sullivan & Cromwell appointed Jacqueline Wenchen Tang as a partner to strengthen the firm’s financing and restructuring capabilities for clients across the Asia-Pacific region and around the world. Tang is based in the firm’s Hong Kong office, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary.

Tang advises corporate, credit fund, private equity and financial institution clients on a broad range of restructuring and financing matters. As a strategist for distressed situations in China and elsewhere in Asia, Tang has experience of navigating complex, cross-border debt restructurings and liability management transactions.  

Alpadis Group, the Switzerland-based fiduciary services group, appointed former Ocorian senior figure John Tan as new managing director of its business in Singapore. With 19 years of experience in trust and fiduciary planning and administration, Tan was previously managing director at Ocorian’s Singapore office, and started his career at HSBC Trustee Singapore in 2004, subsequently working with an international French bank and a Swiss private bank.

abrdn made Rene Buehlmann the sole CEO of abrdn’s investments business. He is supported by Peter Branner, the firm’s new chief investment officer who joined in May, and Xavier Meyer, the firm’s chief client officer who oversees strategy in the UK and EMEA region. Buehlmann joined abrdn in 2021 as CEO of APAC and became the co-CEO of the group’s investment business in 2021 June. He continues to lead abrdn’s APAC business and be based in Asia.
 

ThomasLloyd, an independent impact investment solutions provider, advisor and asset manager, appointed Duncan Black as its new head of portfolio and asset management. Based in Singapore, Black reports directly to the recently-appointed CIO, Nadir Maruf.

In his previous role as managing director for Asia Infrastructure Investors, Black advised renewable energy businesses in Asia on greenfield development, M&A, financing, and asset management. In previous roles, Black was co-head of infrastructure at Eastspring Investments (Prudential Corporation’s asset management business in Asia); a founding partner of Daestrum Capital (a Singapore-based infrastructure funds manager); head of acquisitions, infrastructure at Deutsche Asset Management Asia; and CFO of CLP Holdings’ Australian vertically-integrated utility business (now EnergyAustralia), among other senior management positions in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.

Citi Global Wealth Investments in Singapore appointed Amanda Lee as Asia-Pacific head of third-party manager solutions. Lee reports to Julie Koo, global head of third-party manager solutions, Citi Global Wealth Investments. Prior to this, Lee worked at JP Morgan Private Bank where she was most recently Asia managed solutions specialist. She has served in various roles at JP Morgan Private Bank including investment marketing, mutual fund specialist and managed fixed income specialist. Before JP Morgan, Lee worked at Eastspring Asset Management for seven years where her roles included leading distribution sales for Malaysia, investment marketing and regional business development in Singapore. She also worked at HSBC in Malaysia, as well as Citi in Malaysia.

Global investment manager Cohen & Steers appointed Abhi Shroff as senior vice president and head of institutional distribution, Asia-Pacific. Shroff reports to Marc Haynes, senior vice president and head of international institutional distribution. Shroff, who has more than 20 years of financial services experience, most recently served as head of the institutional business, Asia ex-Japan, at Dimensional Fund Advisors. Prior to joining Dimensional Fund Advisors in 2019, he was executive vice president, head of South Asia at PIMCO.

Muzinich & Co, the privately owned investment firm specialising in public and private corporate credit, named Akihiro Hayashi as country head, Japan and Tokio Morita as senior advisor. Hayashi joined from Barings Japan where he spent eight years as a member of institutional sales. He has more than 25 years’ industry experience with a strong focus on servicing, planning and business development for pension funds (corporate and public) and financial institutions. Morita spent over 36 years at the Ministry of Finance and the Japanese Financial Services Agency in a variety of roles, most recently as Vice Minister for International Affairs, Financial Services Agency.
 
Union Bancaire PrivĂ©e appointed Andrew Chin as team head, North Asia. Based in Hong Kong, Chin reports to Ivan Wong, region head North Asia and chief executive Hong Kong. Chin was most recently desk head - UHNW Hong Kong at HSBC Global Private Banking, where he managed a team of senior relationship managers and worked closely with institutional family offices in Asia. Prior to that, he was head of investment counselling, also at HSBC Global Private Banking, covering Hong Kong, the Philippines and international markets. 

Julius Baer appointed Aline Pacheco as team head, South East Asia. She reports to Yang Vi Sun, group head of South East Asia. Pacheco is a veteran wealth management and investment advisory professional with more than 25 years of experience. She joined from UBS where she led client teams focusing on the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia markets. At UBS, she was also head of investment advisory teams in Singapore and Hong Kong, and head of capital markets equities.

M&G Real Estate appointed Jason Leong as deputy fund manager of its flagship core Asia Pacific property strategy. Based in Singapore, Leong reports to Richard van den Berg, manager of the strategy. Leong has more than 25 years of real estate investment and management experience in Asia Pacific, including markets such as Australia, Japan and Singapore where he worked for various multinational organisations. Most recently, he was group executive and head of investment management at Investa in Sydney, responsible for the group’s fund management, separate mandates and asset management businesses. 

Law firm Harneys appointed one of its senior figures, Paul Sephton, as a managing partner in Hong Kong. Sephton, who joined Harneys in 2016, heads the firm’s global banking and finance and corporate groups. He advises onshore law firms, major international financial institutions, and listed and private companies. After taking on the role of Asia managing partner in 2018, Ian Mann stepped down to focus on his practice as a partner within the firm’s litigation, insolvency and restructuring team in Hong Kong.

Morningstar Sustainalytics, which provides ESG research, ratings and data, appointed Sylviane Carot as the head of Asia-Pacific ESG Alliances & Redistribution. With more than 19 years of experience in the financial services space, Carot has experience in the ESG industry, having previously worked for 13 years at MSCI.