A roundup of moves in the Asia-Pacific industry during May.

Moody's appointed Jeremy Schwartz as regional head of Oceania, based in its Sydney, Australia office. Schwartz joined Moody’s in 2018 in Chicago, holding various positions across its corporate and professional services divisions. He most recently led Moody’s global commercial strategy to maximise revenue through partnerships with the Big Four accounting firms, namely Deloittes, PwC, Ernst & Young and KPMG.

HSBC appointed a new head of global banking for Singapore, Gilbert Ng. Ng succeeded Priya Kini who took on a new role early this year as head of commercial banking for Singapore. Prior to joining HSBC, Ng was corporate banking head in Singapore for Citigroup.

Marcuard Heritage (Singapore) Pte, part of the Marcuard Heritage group, appointed Michel Keiser as its new chief executive. He took over from Sinan Bodmerm who stepped down from the position. Bodmerm remains as executive director and an active client advisor at the business.

Keiser – a Swiss national – has served in managerial roles at Credit Suisse, among other positions. He was desk head for the wealth management market for Malaysia, and head of international private banking and wealth management in Singapore and the Singapore booking centre.

Julius Baer appointed former Singapore-based wealth management figure Serena Wong as a senior relationship manager, working from Zurich. Wong, who reports to Christian Cappelli, head of Asia Switzerland, has worked in financial hubs including New York, Paris and Singapore. In her previous job, Wong was at Kamet Capital Partners in Singapore. Prior to this, she was at JP Morgan Private Bank, the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) and Société Générale.

Value Partners, listed in Hong Kong, appointed former Amundi senior figure Clare Zhao as head of institutional business for Asia-Pacific, as well as head of the China business and ETF operations. Based in Hong Kong, Zhao reports to the firm’s leadership committee. Before joining Value Partners, Zhao was managing director, head of China business at Amundi. Previously, she held various senior management positions at Vanguard, notably as managing director, head of distribution, mainland China and Hong Kong. Earlier in her career, Zhao was ETF sales manager at Value Partners.

Charles River Development, part of State Street, appointed Vinayak Bhat as senior vice president, head of Asia-Pacific. Bhat previously worked at FactSet Research Systems where he was head of the APAC business.

M&G appointed Lesley Lo as institutional distribution head for Asia-Pacific. Ho, based in Hong Kong, previously served as managing director, head of institutional sales, North Asia at Principal Asset Management.

New York-listed Blue Owl Capital hired Johann Santer as a managing director and head of Asia-Pacific private wealth. He is based in Hong Kong, reporting to Sean Connor, president and chief executive of the firm’s global private wealth business. Most recently, Santer served as Fidelity International's regional lead for wholesale business alongside his position as head of private banking, wealth and strategic clients.

The chief executive of Liechtenstein-headquartered VP Bank, Paul Arni, left after a five-year spell at the lender. VP Bank named Urs Monstein, chief operating officer, as interim CEO. Arni, at the group since 1 October 2019, was central to driving its Strategy 2026 series of changes.

HSBC Asset Management made a number of senior appointments.

Masayuki Kaneko, CEO, HSBC Asset Management (Japan) (AMJP), took additional responsibilities: He was appointed as head of institutional sales, North Asia. He remains based in Japan, and his reporting line is also unchanged. Locally, Kaneko reports to Edward Weeks, president and CEO, HSBC Japan, and functionally to Daisy Ho, CEO Asia-Pacific, HSBC Asset Management.

HSBC created a new role, namely CEO, HSBC Global Asset Management (Hong Kong) (AMHK), to enable Ho to focus on her Asia-Pacific CEO role. Jasmine Hung, head of pensions strategic partnerships, Hong Kong, AMHK, took on additional responsibilities and was appointed as acting CEO, AMHK. Hung continues to report to Ho on a functional basis, and to Maggie Ng, general manager and head of wealth and personal banking Hong Kong, HSBC, on an entity basis. Hung currently leads AMHK’s pensions strategic partnerships team, focusing on the pensions and retirement business in Hong Kong. She joined AMHK in 2017 to lead the private bank sales team in Hong Kong.

Hsin Chiao, general manager and CEO of HSBC Global Asset Management (Taiwan) (AMTW), left the firm. Chris Lin, EVP and head of client coverage, AMTW, was appointed as acting general manager and CEO, AMTW.

DBS, which has been sorting out a series of recent technology outages, appointed a new chief information officer, Eugene Huang. He succeeded Han Kwee Juan, who had been double-hatting as DBS acting CIO and Singapore country head from November 2023. From 1 June, Han Kwee Juan returned as full-time Singapore country head. With more than 36 years’ experience under his belt in technology and banking, Huang joined from Ping An Group. At that Asian firm, he led a team of 22,000 employees providing IT offerings including infrastructure, cybersecurity, middleware and customer-facing applications. He was concurrently chairman and CEO of Ping An Technology, the technology arm of Ping An Group. A US citizen, Huang has worked in financial centres, startups and multinational corporations.

BlackRock appointed Will Thomson as managing director and as a portfolio manager in the climate infrastructure team in New Zealand. Based in Auckland, Thomson sources climate infrastructure investment opportunities and manages the diligence, structuring, and closing of transactions in New Zealand.

Singapore-headquartered WRISE Group appointed Poly Cheung as market head for Greater China at WRISE Private Hong Kong. Cheung, who leads the team in the Hong Kong office, reports to Joel Tan, chief executive of WRISE Private Hong Kong. Prior to this role, Cheung was head of branch banking at China CITIC Bank International. Earlier, she started as a management trainee at HSBC.

Knight Frank, the global real estate consultancy, appointed Jackie Cheung as director of ESG for Asia-Pacific and Singapore. Based in Singapore, Cheung has worked at the firm since April 2022. He reports to Tim Armstrong, global head of occupier strategy and solutions and to Low Kin Hon, deputy chief executive officer and head, valuation and advisory, Knight Frank Singapore.

JLL, aka Jones Lang LaSalle the real estate group, appointed Mike Pyke as its co-head of equity advisory for Australia and New Zealand. Pyke works with long-term leader Luke Prokuda (co-head of equity advisory). Prior to this, Pyke worked for 11 years at MA Financial (formerly Moelis), with six of those years in the group’s investment banking business and the corporate executive group.

Puneesh Nayar, a team head, left Julius Baer.

Citibank Indonesia appointed Edwin Pribadi as head of Citi Commercial Bank (CCB) for Indonesia. Pribadi, who oversees Citi’s CCB business and operations in Indonesia, is responsible for managing business strategy and financial performance, including deepening client relationships.

T Rowe Price hired Camilla Banasiak as relationship manager to grow and serve its financial advisor clients in Sydney and across New South Wales. Banasiak reports to Jonathon Ross, head of intermediaries for Australia and New Zealand.

Raffles Family Office promoted its co-founder and managing partner, Kendrick Lee, to chief executive for Singapore. Singapore serves as the firm’s dual headquarters alongside Hong Kong.

Chi-man Kwan, group CEO and co-founder of Raffles Family Office, founded the business with Lee, as did Ray Tam. In his previous role, Lee led RFO’s growth in Singapore and Southeast Asia, overseeing its growth across its main business lines of independent asset management, bespoke wealth solutions, investment structure advisory, and risk and resilience services.

Kroll, the global risk management and financial advisory solutions firm, appointed Jon Rowell as head of its Asia-Pacific business. The role was newly created.

Prior to this, Rowell – who has more than 30 years’ industry experience in APAC, the Caribbean and Europe – was head of Asia and Caribbean for FTI Consulting, and leader of its forensic and litigation consulting business in Asia. Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Rowell was a partner at McGrathNicol, a specialist advisory and restructuring firm in Australia and New Zealand, where he co-founded and led the forensic business.

DWS appointed one of its senior figures, Matthias Naumann, as chief investment officer, real estate for Asia-Pacific. He moved to Sydney from DWS’ Frankfurt headquarters. Naumann reports to Christopher Kimm, head of real estate, APAC (based in Singapore).

International law firm, Simmons & Simmons, appointed Richard Li as a partner in the corporate and commercial team and as head of healthcare and life sciences, greater China. Li, who has more than 15 years of industry experience, in particular focusing on the healthcare and life sciences sector, is based in the firm’s Hong Kong office.