June proved to be a busy period for departures and arrivals in the wealth management market in Asia-Pacific.

June was a brisk month for moves in the Asia-Pacific wealth management jobs industry – this publication also provided a number of exclusives on high-level appointments and departures. In particular, it was a busy month for stories about Australia and New Zealand Banking Group.

The private banking head for Southeast Asia at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group left ANZ, this publication exclusively reported.

Kevin Ong, head of the private bank for Southeast Asia, left the banking industry and ANZ. Amresh Acharya took over as acting head of the private bank, Southeast Asia; a permanent replacement is being sought.

ANZ also secured a full banking licence in Thailand, adding to a presence in the Greater Mekong region that already includes operations in Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. Panadda Manoleehakul was appointed chief executive of ANZ Thai. Manoleehakul has more than 25 years' corporate and institutional banking experience and was previously CEO for ANZ Philippines. Prior to joining ANZ in 2008, she held senior banking roles across Asia with HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, Chase Manhattan Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.

ANZ appointed one of its senior economists as co-head of Australian economics, reporting to the bank’s chief economist, Warren Hogan. Cherelle Murphy has worked at ANZ for the last decade. She now works alongside fellow co-head of Australian economics Felicity Emmett to lead the bank’s analysis of the Australian economy and policy issues affecting the outlook.

ANZ appointed Mark Hand as managing director for its corporate and commercial banking business arm in Australia. Hand was previously MD for retail distribution in the country. He reports to Australia CEO Mark Whelan, who was promoted to his current post in February.

Citigroup named Christine Lam as its new head of operations and technology for the Asia-Pacific region, and at the same time appointed Angel Ng to the position of Citibank business manager for Hong Kong, taking over from Lam. Both of the appointees have worked for the US-listed banking giant in various roles. Since joining Citi, Lam has held several management positions in retail banking, operations and technology, transaction services, corporate and investment banking in both Hong Kong and in a regional capacity. Ng first joined Citibank in 1998 and has held roles including those of director of marketing for banking and Diners Club Card, director of wealth management, and director of its cards business. She rejoined Citibank in August 2014 as head of retail banking and before that she held a number of senior roles in brand management at Procter & Gamble and CLP Power Hong Kong.

Executive search firm Sheffield Haworth added a legal practice desk with the hire of Sarah Leighton in Singapore. Leighton, who joins from Charterhouse, works alongside the firm's wealth team, while liaising with its global corporate officers’ practice.

Citi appointed Anand Selvakesari as head of consumer banking for Asia-Pacific, a role covering the wealth management sector (excluding the private bank, which caters to ultra high net worth clients). During his 23-year Citi career, Selvakesari led Citi’s consumer bank in China and India and was most recently Southeast Asia cluster head for consumer banking. Selvakesari took over from Jonathan Larsen, who moved to focus on his role as global retail banking and mortgage head with additional responsibilities for the US retail banking and mortgage market.

Dominique Boer, managing director and head of relationship management for Singapore, Southeast Asia and ultra high net worth at Standard Chartered Private Bank, resigned. Prior to her previous role at Standard Chartered, Boer was head of business development and strategic implementation (SEA Private Bank) where she managed strategic implementation for business development programmes. Before this role, Boer was the regional centre head and head of priority banking Singapore, responsible for management of the bank’s priority banking business, branches and treasury specialists.

Willis Group, the global risk advisory, re/insurance broker and human capital firm which also deals with high net worth individuals, appointed Simon Weaver as chief executive for its Singapore office. He filled a spot left by Matthew Hooker, who was due to leave this position in September to focus entirely on his new role as Asia leader for human resources. Weaver moved from Miller, where he spent two years as head of Asia, responsible for business development strategy and operational management. Weaver reports to Adam Garrard, who is Willis Asia chief executive.

AXA Investment Managers unveiled a raft of changes to its emerging markets fixed income team and merged its debt teams in Paris and London with the Asian team based in Hong Kong. This creates a single group of six portfolio managers, two credit analysts and a research assistant. Meanwhile, Damien Buchet, head of emerging markets fixed income, decided to leave AXA IM in order to pursue a new opportunity.

The firm appointed Sailesh Lad and Olga Fedotova to the London-based group. Lad was named a senior portfolio manager within AXA IM’s GEM fixed income team. He previously worked at Ignis Asset Management where he was an emerging markets debt fund manager with responsibility for managing both the external and local currency debt positions within the team’s portfolios – representing assets of close to $1 billion prior to the acquisition of Ignis by Standard Life.

Fedotova was appointed head of emerging market credit and joins AXA IM in August. She previously worked at UniCredit where she managed a team of credit analysts covering emerging market corporate and financial issuers from 2012.

As a result of Buchet’s departure, Lad took over as lead portfolio manager on AWF Emerging Market Short Duration and AWF Global Emerging Market Bonds, working with Buchet until his departure in September. Jim Veneau, head of the Asian fixed income team, and Chris Iggo, CIO of fixed income, have joint responsibility for the management of the new GEM team until a successor for Buchet is appointed.

Nomura appointed 12 directors to its board of directors, including seven outside directors and seven executive officers. Those persons are:

Nobuyuki Koga, chairman;

Koji Nagai, director;

Atsushi Yoshikawa, director;

Hiroyuki Suzuki, director;

David Benson, director;

Masahiro Sakane, outside director (councillor of Komatsu);

Takao Kusakari, outside director (senior advisor of NYK Line);

Tsuguoki Fujinuma, outside director (former chairman of Japanese Institute of Certified Public Accountants);

Toshiniori Kanemoto, outside director (former president of ICPO-Interpol);

Hiroshi Kumura, outside director (special advisor of Japan Tobacco);

Dame Clara Furse, outside director (former CEO of London Stock Exchange);

Michael Lim Choo San (former chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers).

HSBC Private Bank appointed co-heads of global private banking, North Asia in the persons of Chingyee Yau and Kevin Herbert.

Yau joined HSBC Private Bank in 2004, prior to which she worked with Citigroup Private Bank after returning to Hong Kong in 1997. Before 1997, she worked in finance in Australia for more than a decade with experience in corporate, structured and syndication finance. Most recently, Yau was co-market head of the Hong Kong team, the bank told this publication in a statement.

Herbert joined the HSBC Group in 1987 in the UK and has worked across various offices in HSBC’s commercial banking and retail banking divisions. Based in Asia-Pacific since 2002, Herbert worked in both Malaysia, as head of HSBC’s domestic private banking office, and most recently in Hong Kong, leading the international private wealth and Philippines teams.

The duo have joint responsibility for the North Asia private banking business and continue to report to Bernard Rennell, regional head of global private banking, Asia and global head, family governance and family enterprise succession.

Meanwhile, Philip Wong was appointed China market head, North Asia, HSBC Private Bank, reporting to Yau and Herbert.

Separately, Richard Hu, regional market head of China, HSBC Private Bank, stepped down.

The National University of Singapore and the Monetary Authority of Singapore jointly appointed prominent macroeconomist Professor Lawrence Christiano, holding the post of MAS term professor in economics and finance. Professor Christiano, who is the Alfred W Chase chair in business institutions and professor of economics at Northwestern University in the US, is hosted by the NUS faculty of arts and social sciences at the department of economics during the term of the professorship.

Mirae Asset Global Investments Group, or Mirae Asset, the Asia-based emerging market equity firm, named Frederic Niamkey as head of sales for French-speaking Europe. Niamkey previously worked at Aberdeen Asset Management, where he headed the firm’s Geneva office, holding the post of senior business development manager from 2009. Prior to this, he held positions at Credit Suisse Asset Management, NICO Sarl, UBS Wealth Management and OVB (Suisse).

Law firm Appleby boosted the size of its dispute resolution service in Mauritius, adding a senior associate and senior clerk, and promoting another member of the group to the position of counsel. The Mauritius dispute resolution team expanded to seven at the beginning of the year with the arrival of senior associate Dushyant Ramdhur and senior clerk Goolam Calloo. Additionally, Sharmilla Bhima has been promoted to counsel.

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Financial services group Manulife promoted three employees to new roles in Hong Kong, spanning a number of business sectors.

Calvin Chiu was named vice president, pensions for Greater China at Manulife Asia. He is responsible for developing a pension market entry and expansion strategy in mainland China and Taiwan, as well as advising other Asian markets on pension-related matters. Previously he was responsible for executive compensation at Manulife and compensation programmes for Manulife’s investment division.

Chiu joined Manulife in 2010 as vice president, global pensions and benefits, to oversee the pension and benefits plans of employees, agents and retirees globally.

Edgar Chan was promoted to assistant vice president, projects, distribution operations for Manulife Hong Kong. His prime focus is on implementing strategic distribution projects. Chan joined Manulife’s regional office in 2008 as part of its Asia product risk management team.

Ji-Ye Hwang was appointed assistant vice president, innovation and customer experience for Manulife Hong Kong. She joined Manulife Asia’s human resources department in 2008.

BOC Hong Kong said Li Zaohang retired as a non-executive director and ceased to be chairman of the strategy and budget committee, as well as a member of its remuneration committee. Li retired for age reasons.

Friends Provident International appointed Chris Wei as chairman and Khor Hock Seng as chief executive. The appointments extended both men’s responsibilities at Aviva (owner of FPI) and followed the announcement in April that John Van Der Wielen, chairman of FPI, will step down at the end of this month, while remaining on the board as a non-executive director.

Wei took overall responsibility for FPI in April 2015, as part of Aviva’s acquisition of Friends Life Group. Joining Aviva last year, Wei held a number of senior roles across the savings, pensions and insurance industry, including CEO of Great Eastern Holdings, the listed Asian life insurer. Khor was appointed CEO of Aviva Asia in 2013. Before joining Aviva, he held a number of senior roles including that of CEO of AIA’s Malaysian business. Khor will continue to report to Wei.

Continuing in their roles at FPI were James Tan, managing director Asia; Marcus Gent, managing director Middle East and rest of world, and Chris Gill, general manager Singapore. Tan and Gent will now report to Khor.

BNP Paribas Wealth Management appointed Harjeet Singh as managing director, team head and senior banker for non-resident Indian clients in Singapore and Southeast Asia. Singh reports to Masroor Batin, head of NRI clients at the wealth manager. Based in Singapore, Singh is responsible for building and managing a team of relationship managers serving the wealthy NRI segment in Southeast Asia, with a core focus on Singapore.

Mark Steward, the chief enforcer at Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission, is due to leave his post in September for a similar role with the UK's Financial Conduct Authority as part of a major reshuffle. Steward, who is an Australia-qualified lawyer, joined the SFC in 2006 as its executive director of enforcement. He is also a non-executive director of the Financial Dispute Resolution Centre. His contract with the SFC expires on 24 September 2015. Before joining the SFC, Steward held several senior positions with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and rose to become its deputy executive director of enforcement.

A banking industry-backed messaging network for equity-linked structured products has appointed a head of operations. Contineo, which is headqartered in Hong Kong, appointed Julie Chen to the post. She was most recently a senior consultant for Kurt Salmon, the management consultancy, in Paris and Hong Kong, leading financial technology projects for large financial institutions.

Offshore law firm Mourant Ozannes appointed litigation partner Shaun Folpp to be head of its Hong Kong office and establish a contentious restructuring and litigation offering to Asia-based clients. The role was newly created. Folpp practices BVI and Cayman law.

Singapore’s stock exchange appointed a new chief executive, Loh Boon Chye. He took the helm from Magnus Böcker, who stepped down after more than five years in the post. From December 2012 to early this year, Loh was deputy president and head of global markets, Asia-Pacific, at Merrill Lynch.

Sotheby’s appointed Adam Bilbey as head of its wine segment in the Asia region. He took over from Robert Sleigh, who is taking on a new role in Sotheby’s management team in Asia. He is based in Hong Kong and previously worked for 12 years at Berry Bros & Rudd, most recently holding the post of sales director in Hong Kong.

Withers, the law firm, opened a tax practice in Tokyo, operating under the name of "Withers Japan, Zeirishi Houjin" (Withers Japan). It also hired partner Eric Roose from Morrison & Foerster to head Withers' international corporate tax practice in Asia. Corporate tax advisors ('Zeirishi') Chizuko Tomita and Takeo Mizutani head Withers Japan, continuing their longstanding relationship with Roose as historic members of the Tokyo corporate tax team at Morrison & Foerster.

The Asia chief executive at Crédit Agricole (Suisse) left the Europe-headquartered firm after 18 months in the post in Asia. Sen Sui and Antoine Candiotti, respectively heads of the Singapore and Hong Kong branches, continued to develop the bank’s business in the region. Both individuals report directly to Patrick Ramsey, head of private banking in Switzerland.

The chief executive for Hong Kong and Singapore at Standard Life resigned and returned to the UK. The firm also made a number of top-ranking changes in the Asia-Pacific region. Neal Armstrong left the firm for personal reasons. Alan Armitage, CEO for Asia and emerging markets, took on responsibility as controller of Standard Life (Asia) in Hong Kong.

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Standard Life created several new roles in its Asia operations to help the business best capitalise on opportunities in the region. Sean Deehan, chief risk officer and chief actuary with Heng An Standard Life, was appointed to the role of head of strategy and business development, based in Hong Kong from August. Deehan has been based in Tianjin, China for almost three years.

Angela Yeung was appointed as chief marketing officer, Asia and emerging markets, responsible for Standard Life’s China and Hong Kong marketing strategy. She has experience with PIMCO, BlackRock and Zurich. Eric Bruce moved from his strategy and business development focus to help re-position Standard Life Asia’s distribution capability going forward, in the role of senior business and distribution development manager.

One of the most senior investment managers at Australia-headquartered AMP Capital, Ella Brown, retired from the company, drawing a close to a 26-year career that included four years at the firm.

Citi appointed veteran senior manager Aftab Ahmed as country officer in the Philippines. Previously chief country officer for Hungary, he replaced Batara Sianturi, who is moving to Citi Indonesia to serve as country head. He reports to Michael Zink, head of ASEAN and Citi country officer for Singapore. This was Ahmed’s third CCO and country head appointment in his nearly four-decade international career with Citi.

One of the most renowned figures in Asia’s investment world, Lee Shau-kee, stepped down as the chairman and managing director of Henderson Investment. His younger son, Martin Lee-Ka-shing, took up the roles he vacates. Martin Lee, a billionaire, was previously vice chairman of the group; he took over as chairman of Miramar Hotel and Investment last year.

M&G Investments made a number of changes to its equities team, affecting the management of European, Asian and other portfolios. In its Japan equities segment, management of the M&G Japan and the M&G Japan Smaller Companies funds returned from Eastspring Investments to M&G, following consultation with Eastspring, the Asian asset management business of Prudential. Johan Du Preez, a 20-year financial industry veteran, returned to M&G with a view to managing the two Japan equities funds, subject to regulatory approval. He joined from Eastspring Investments, where he was part of a team that has been running Japan equities mandates for over a decade.

Japan Post Holdings, the banking, insurance and postal services business that is to be privatised, appointed Katsunori Sago, a former Goldman Sachs executive in the country, as head of asset management at its banking unit. Sago oversees the bank’s assets as it reduces holdings of government bonds to increase returns in preparation for an initial public offering scheduled for later this year. Sago worked in Japan at Goldman Sachs for about 22 years.