A brisk month for moves in October, with firms such as Standard Chartered, BNP Paribas and Golden Equator among the highlights.

Cult Wines, the fine wine investment manager, appointed Kazuaki Takabatake as commercial and strategy director for Asia-Pacific. He is based in Singapore and has almost 30 years of senior management experience covering strategy, mergers and acquisitions, business-development, sales and marketing at a number of banks and technology firms. Takabatake has worked in London and across the Asia-Pacific region. Takabatake’s previous employers included Yamaichi, Industrial Bank of Japan, Patsystems. He was chief executive of Saxo Capital Markets-Asia Pacific for seven years. Prior to joining Cult Wines he was managing director of Oanda Asia Pacific.

Cult Wines also appointed Eddie Kir as head of business development, North Asia. He operates from Hong Kong. Kir has more than 20 years of business development, sales and marketing experience at asset management firms, having worked in both New York and Hong Kong. He was most recently head of asset management, Asia at Commerzbank.

SANNE, the alternative asset and corporate business services provider, appointed Wendy Cheng as country head for Hong Kong. Cheng has more than 11 years of industry experience.

Tokio Marine Life Insurance Singapore, which provides services including wealth management, appointed Gilbert Pak and Michael Kuek as chief marketing officer and chief and appointed actuary respectively. Prior to this, Pak was regional head of product management at Allianz Asia Pacific for eight years. He brought over 27 years of marketing, product development, actuarial and financial management experience across Asia. Kuek has almost 24 years of experience in the insurance industry. Prior positions held were as chief actuary, China Life Insurance Co (Singapore) and Great Eastern Life Indonesia. Besides possessing the Actuary Fellowship qualification, he is also a Certified Enterprise Risk Analyst.

Citigroup named Peter Babej as chief executive in its Asia-Pacific region. He took over from Tim Monger who acted as interim CEO. Monger focuses now on his chief financial officer function. Babej has been at Citigroup since 2010 when he joined as co-head of the financial institutions group in ICG. He became the sole head of the group in 2017. Prior to joining Citigroup, Babej had senior banking roles at Deutsche Bank and Lazard.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the private equity and investments titan, promoted Hiro Hirano and Ashish Shastry to co-head the PE business in that region, running daily operations, and reporting to Ming Lu who oversees KKR’s activities in Asia-Pacific. KKR also promoted figures in other regions.

M&G Investments appointed Lorretta Ng as head its Asian business. Ng replaced Alex Jeffrey. Prior to this, she was CEO of Eastspring Investments Taiwan from 2011 and before that, was chief marketing officer at the same business. Previously, she was head of product, marketing and business operations at Eastspring Singapore.

Natixis appointed Joseph Pinto in the  newly-created role of chief operating officer of Natixis Investment Managers and Philippe Setbon as chief executive of Ostrum Asset Management. Pinto reports to Jean Raby, CEO of Natixis Investment Managers, a member of the senior management committee of Natixis in charge of asset and wealth management. Setbon replaces Matthieu Duncan, who resigned as CEO of Ostrum Asset Management to pursue other interests.

Lombard Odier appointed Valerie d’Argembeau as head of private clients in Singapore. Previously, she had been executive director at the Swiss bank since October 2012. Before working at Lombard Odier, d’Argembeau was regional head of strategy and market development, Asia, at Societe Generale Private Banking from July 2008 to September 2012. From September 2006 to July 2008 she was at Barclays Wealth, and earlier in her career she was a senior engagement manager at Mercer Oliver Wyman.

Refinitiv, the data provider which is the subject of a $27 billion takeover by the London Stock Exchange Group, hired Cornelia Andersson as global head of M&A and capital-raising. Andersson, a member of the I&A proposition leadership team, is based in London. She reports to Pradeep Menon, managing director of investing and advisory. She joined from Blackstone, where she was senior vice president, global head of research and market data, leading the firm’s market data and business intelligence functions globally.

Golden Equator Capital, the Singapore-based investment house, appointed Pooja Gurbani, a figure involved in creating family offices in the region, as a partner in its venture investments team. Pooja Gurbani’s responsibilities include mentoring portfolio companies and maintaining strategic partnerships across the innovation and investment communities. Gurbani has more than 20 years of experience managing different types of investments in financial centres in London, New York, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Prior to joining Golden Equator, she was most recently managing her family office where she oversaw investments in various asset classes and developed a keen interest in investing in new innovative businesses.

BNP Paribas appointed a number of senior figures to join its wealth management operations across Asia. It named Andy Chai, who has been head of wealth management for Greater China Markets, and Arnaud Tellier, head of wealth management Singapore and Southeast Asia, as co-chief executives of wealth management across Asia-Pacific. Chai and Tellier assumed joint responsibility for the strategic direction and operations of BNP Paribas’ Wealth Management business in the region.

Chai oversees Greater China markets, including mainland China, Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan and leads the strategic client segment across Asia. Tellier covers the Southeast Asia, India and international markets, while investment services and key support functions report to him.

Both men will report hierarchically to co-CEO of BNP Paribas Wealth Management, Vincent Lecomte, and functionally to CEO Asia-Pacific of BNP Paribas Group, Eric Raynaud.

Separately, David Lim, a market head for Southeast Asia, was appointed head of wealth management Singapore and Southeast Asia, reporting to Tellier. Pierre Vrielinck, who had been CEO Asia-Pacific since 2017, returned to a senior leadership role within BNP Paribas Wealth Management in France. Veteran BNP Paribas banker, Mignonne Cheng, retained her role as Asia chairman for wealth management.

Standard Chartered Private Bank appointed Cedric Lizin as regional head, ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations and South Asia) private banking. Srinivas Siripurapu, who left to spend more time with his family in India, had been at the bank for three years.

Prior to this move, Lizin was head of wealth management and senior executive officer for Dubai at UBS. His roles included those of chief operating officer, and building platforms in Asia and an onshore Japan business. Lizin is based in Singapore and report to Didier von Daeniken, global head, private banking and wealth management.

EFG Bank appointed Manoj Ramarao as head of global for South Asia and managing director. He is based in Singapore and reports to EFG deputy chief executive officer and head of private banking in Singapore, Oliver Balmelli. Ramarao joined after having been in a number of senior posts at Bank of Singapore, where he was most recently team head for subcontinent and NRI South East Asia.

MSCI, the global provider of indices used as benchmarks for investment funds, appointed Doug Walls as Asia-Pacific head of index products. He replaced Ted Niggli, who moved to a newly-created global role within the company as head of OneMSCI Commercial Programs, to focus on commercial innovation at MSCI.

Based in Hong Kong, Walls reports to Diana Tidd, global head of index, and collaborates with Jack Lin, head of APAC client coverage, and the index and APAC leadership teams to deliver solutions for MSCI clients. Walls previously served as the head of Asia-Pacific product development and management for Fidelity International. He has also held other key senior positions during a 20-plus-year tenure in the Asia-Pacific region, including APAC head of product and strategy and innovation and head of product development at various global asset management companies, such as BlackRock. Niggli continues to be based in Shanghai.

BIL Suisse, a private banking subsidiary of Banque Internationale à Luxembourg, hired Roger Groebli as market head for China. Groebli is based in Zurich, reporting to Marco Schaller, head of private banking, BIL Suisse. He joined from Credit Suisse, where he was head of private banking North Asia, APAC and Switzerland. Prior to Credit Suisse, Groebli was CEO for Reyl Overseas from 2012 to 2015.

PwC Singapore appointed Paul Pak as the new leader of its asset and wealth management practice. He succeeded Justin Ong, who had led the practice since 2006. Since 2012, Pak has led the risk, regulations and compliance team within PwC Singapore’s AWM practice. He has more than 22 years of experience working with and helping asset management, asset servicing and wealth management businesses in Asia-Pacific, the UK and the US.