A roundup of senior moves in Asia's wealth management market. There were notable changes at organisations such as UBS and Indosuez Wealth Management.

Indosuez Wealth Management, the global wealth management brand of Crédit Agricole group, appointed Romain Jérome as chief digital officer. He reports to Jacques Prost, chief executive of Indosuez Wealth Management group. The role is a new one for the firm. Jérome began his career at BNP Paribas CIB in 1995 in the Capital Markets Department as a quantitative analyst. In 2000, he became CTO of Banque Directe, BNP Paribas' online bank. He then took over as COO of BNP Paribas, CIB’s Prime Brokerage business. Jérome joined Crédit Agricole CIB in 2005 to develop the Prime Fund Services activity. In 2006, he moved to the IT Capital Markets Department to successively manage IT commodity derivatives, then IT equity derivatives in London and Paris. He was made co-head of organisation and transformation in 2010 and he has been director of Digital Transformation & Innovation at Crédit Agricole CIB since 2016.

UBS restructured its wealth management operations in the Asia-Pacific region. Amy Lo, co-head of wealth management Asia-Pacific, and August Hatecke, co-head of wealth management, Asia-Pacific, set out organisational changes. The members of the WM APAC management committee report to Lo and Hatecke:

Adeline Chien, current regional market manager (RMM) Hong Kong Domestic, became head of WM Hong Kong Domestic; David Man, current RMM Taiwan International became, head of is Taiwan International; Frank Niedermann, current RMM APAC Switzerland, became head of WM APAC Switzerland, and LH Koh, current RMM Hong Kong Domestic & Japan, became head of WM China International.

The firm also named Marina Lui as head of WM China (currently RMM China), overseeing both China Domestic and China International. LH Koh has an additional reporting line to Marina Lui in her role as Head of WM China. In addition, Lui was also appointed as WM Hong Kong location head.

Raymond Ang, current head ultra-high net worth clients for Southeast Asia, was appointed head of WM Southeast Asia. Ang was appointed as WM Singapore location head. Dino Rinaldi, current operating head for wealth management in Singapore, succeeded Ang as head of UHNW Southeast Asia and reports to Ravi Raju.

The Fry Group, which focuses on serving British expats, appointed Anna Warren as head of tax for Asia - she is based in Hong Kong.

Warren began her training at KPMG in the Channel Islands, working in the audit practice for three years prior to joining their private client tax department. She transferred to London in 2012 to specialise in providing UK tax planning advice to high net worth individuals. She is a Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) and a Chartered Accountant (ACA).  In addition, Charlie Buxton joined The Fry Group in Hong Kong as a portfolio manager. Buxton was previously an investment manager at Hurley Partners in London, having worked as an investment manager at Investec Private Bank. He started his career at Tilney Bestinvest.

Bank of Singapore appointed Richard Hu, who has more than 20 years of experience in the region, as market head for Greater China. In this newly-create role, he leads a team of relationship managers and is based in Hong Kong.

Hu reports directly to Derrick Tan, chief executive of Bank of Singapore Hong Kong branch and global market head for Greater China and North Asia. Prior to this, Hu worked at Avenue Asset Management, a firm started in 2016. In his role as MD and founding partner, he started a venture capital fund, a real estate fund and a fixed income fund. Prior to that, he was the group head of the Greater China market at Julius Baer, and the business head of North Asia and market head for the China and Taiwan onshore and offshore team at HSBC Private Banking. He has also worked at Credit Suisse, UBS Wealth Management and Citi Private Bank where he held key leadership positions in the Greater China region.

Singapore-based Tembusu Partners Pte appointed Lim Ming Yan, former chief executive of property giant Capitaland, as chairman of its China Advisory Board.

Bank of Asia (BVI), claiming to be one of the world’s first fully digital cross-border banks, appointed a permanent president, taking the helm after the interim holder of the post returned to Hong Kong. It named Dr Peter Reichenstein, who is based in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. He replaced Wayne Yang, who continues as managing director and head of wealth management at BOA Financial Group.
 
Dr Reichenstein works with Carson Wen, founder and chairman of Bank of Asia, and the board to execute the Bank’s strategy in providing core banking services to offshore companies, trusts, and high net worth individuals from around the world. He spent more than 10 years at VP Bank and Trust Company (BVI), where he was chief executive and managing director responsible for growing the bank’s operations in the BVI. Prior to this, he worked at UBS Private Bank, Financial Planning & Wealth Management International.  A former President of the BVI Bankers’ Association, he has also been a member of the Economic Advisory Committee to the Premier and Minister of Finance in the BVI.

DBS appointed Lee Woon Shiu as the regional head of wealth planning, family office and insurance solutions for its private bank. Lee reports to Sim S Lim, group head of consumer banking and wealth management, DBS Bank.

Lee was most recently head of wealth planning, trust and insurance at Bank of Singapore. Since joining the bank in 2004, he led the set-up of the trust marketing division in Asia and was instrumental in helping to penetrate new trust markets in Greater China, Brunei, India, Sri Lanka, the Middle East and Africa. He is an industry veteran with over 20 years of experience in advising numerous ultra-high net worth families in Asia-Pacific on the strategic structuring of their estate and succession concerns, and engaging multi-generational families on the establishment and implementation of family governance and philanthropy strategies.

Martin Gilbert, one of the most prominent Scottish investment industry figures, whose Aberdeen Asset Management business merged with fellow UK-listed Standard Life two years ago, stepped down as co-chief executive of the enlarged group. Gilbert became vice chairman of Standard Life Aberdeen and remained as an executive director of the board. The changes came as Standard Life Aberdeen, as the firm is now called, decided to change its CEO structure. Keith Skeoch was named CEO. Both Skeoch and Gilbert report to Sir Douglas Flint, chairman. SLA operates in regions including Asia.

Henley & Partners, the firm involved in what is dubbed the “golden visa” market, expanded into Australia, adding to its Pacific Rim presence. It opened an office in Melbourne and hired two figures: Tony Le Nevez, director of Henley & Partners Australia, and Jacky Poh, deputy head of Henley & Partners Singapore.

Le Nevez has more than 35 years’ experience in the migration services industry. Prior to his latest role, he worked for the Australian Department of Immigration in Canberra, and at Australia’s Embassies in Bangkok, Athens and Vienna where he was a senior policy advisor and First Secretary. He joined the private sector in 2006 and is a member of the Investment Migration Council. Poh spent ten years working in wealth management. At Henley & Partners, he works with the managing partner to help operations of the Singapore office. He is also focused on establishing and maintaining relationships with key clients and stakeholders to drive business growth, with an emphasis on progressive Southeast Asian markets.  

VP Bank appointed Dr Thomas R Meier as the second vice president of the board of directors. He joined the board on a three-year term in April 2018, and in his new role he became a member of the private bank’s nomination and compensation committee. Meier spent over three decades in international banking, with an emphasis on Asia, including more than 10 years as CEO Asia at Julius Baer.

Credit Suisse has appointed Josephine Kee Hong S Yap as its chief representative in the Philippines, signalling the Swiss bank’s wealth management push in the country.

Yap will be based in Manila and will report to Christian Senn, market group head for the Philippines, Credit Suisse Private Banking Asia-Pacific. The bank created the representative office for its wealth management business in April last year after winning a licence from the Securities and Exchange Commission and gaining regulatory approval from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Yap has almost three decades of experience in the Philippines financial services industry. She joined Credit Suisse from Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company where she was most recently the head of Private Wealth Countryside, financial market sector, leading a team of senior relationship managers with respective regional coverage across the Philippines. Throughout her career at Metrobank, Josephine had extensive experience in bank branch management and operations.

UBS Asset Management appointed a new head of its real estate and private equity business. It named Joseph Azelby as head of real estate and private markets. Azelby leads a platform that operates in the US, Europe and Asia. Azelby is based in New York and reports to Ulrich Koerner, president of UBS Asset Management and UBS Group EMEA. Prior to this, Azelby worked at JP Morgan where he was CEO of its real estates global assets business. And before entering finance, he was a former American footballer, playing as linebacker for the Buffalo Bills in 1984.

He took over from Thomas Wels who was named divisional vice chairman for UBS Asset Management. (Wels had been in the post from December 2012.)

The president and chief executive of Asian investments giant Nikko Asset Management, Takumi Shibata, stepped down after six years in the posts. Shibata joined the firm in July 2013 as the executive chairman. He became president and chief executive in January 2014. Hideo Abe and Junichi Sayato was appointed as representative directors and co-chief executives.  Abe also holds the title of president and Sayato the title of chairman.

Julius Baer appointed Raymond Li as group head for Greater China, a newly-created role by the Zurich-listed private banking group. Li reports to David Shick, head of private banking for Greater China. Prior to this, Li acquired more than 20 years of experience in private banking. He was most recently market head for Hong Kong at Standard Chartered Private Bank, a position held since 2007. Prior to that, he held senior wealth management posts at Barclays Private Bank and Lloyds Bank.

HSBC Private Banking named two senior figures for its Asia business. Gabriel Tam was appointed regional head of UHNW Solutions, Asia, with responsibility for connecting “sophisticated clients” with the product capability of both HSBC’s Private Banking and Global Banking and Markets product teams. Tam has more than 17 years of financial markets experience.

Tam was most recently the Asia-Pacific head of equity derivatives distribution at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong, responsible for sales of flow and structured Asian equity derivatives to institutional clients globally. Prior to that, Tam was Asia-Pacific head of convertible bonds distribution at BAML.

It also appointed Erik Bergqvist as head of UHNW segment management, to develop and deliver the private bank’s proposition. Bergqvist and a new UHNW servicing team supports UHNW clients across Asia-Pacific. Bergqvist, who was previously at Julius Baer and UBS, brings more than 17 years of financial services and wealth management experience.

AMP Capital appointed Debbie Alliston as chief investment officer in the Australia-listed firm’s multi-asset group. Reporting to Simon Warner, AMP Capital global head of public markets, Alliston is responsible for a range of teams. Alliston is the firm’s head of multi-asset portfolio management and she is portfolio manager for AMP’s default Corporate Super offerings. Prior to joining AMP Capital, she worked at Apostle Asset Management as an investment director since 2007, where she was responsible for the management of the ongoing affiliate programme, including investment due diligence and manager selection and review.

MSCI, the provider of indices and portfolio analytics, appointed Beng Eu Lim as head of South Asia client coverage. Based in Singapore, Lim is responsible for strengthening MSCI’s presence in South Asia, specifically in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region and India, while also enhancing coverage of leading asset owners and other clients. He reports to Jack Lin, head of APAC client coverage, who joined MSCI in May 2018.

Lim joined MSCI from Bento Invest, a business-to-business robo-advisor and digital wealth technology provider, where he served as the head of institutional client engagement. In previous roles, Lim managed the Asia asset owner and insurance sector sales for State Street Bank and Trust in Singapore.

Peter Lam, a former senior figure at the private banking arm of Standard Chartered, joined the Asia team of BNP Paribas. Lam was managing director and deputy market head at StanChart, a firm he joined in 2017 from HSBC Private Bank. Previously, he had worked at UBS and Citigroup.

Vistra, the trust, fund administration and corporate services provider, appointed Alan Brown as group chief executive and Geoff Weir as group chief financial officer. After former CEO Martin Crawford moved to be non-executive director last June, Vistra chairman Simon Hinshelwood was acting as interim executive chairman while the firm hunted for a successor. Hinshelwood resumed his non-executive chairman role. Geoff Weir is now Vistra’s new chief financial officer following the departure of former CFO Lawrence Tsang in 2018.

Brown and Weir are based in Hong Kong. Brown has worked in several industries and has lived and worked in the UK, Europe, and Asia, and has particularly strong China experience. Most recently, he was CEO of ASCO Group - an Aberdeen, Scotland-based global oil and gas services company. Weir has held a number of group CFO positions with global companies, including Scotts Philips Associates, Exridge, Digicel, and most recently Sinar Mas in Indonesia. He has extensive experience in strategy, planning, operations, M&A, compliance, and risk management in multiple sectors.

US-based investments house Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, aka KKR, appointed a head of strategy and business development for the Asia-Pacific region - Kate Richdale.

Richdale works with KKR’s senior leadership team in Asia to help the firm expand its platform across business and new investment strategies. She joined KKR from Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, where she was chairman of investment banking in Asia Ex-Japan. Prior to that, Richdale was the co-head of the firm’s investment banking division in Asia Ex-Japan. Previously, she worked at Morgan Stanley.

Singapore’s United Overseas Bank appointed a new senior vice president as part of its efforts to scrutinise regional funds. The appointee was Ernst Low, formerly of AXA Insurance Singapore where he had been head of investment and wealth management.