November 2022 was a busy month for moves, featuring banks and wealth managers such as Bank J Safra Sarasin, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Citi Private Bank and Schroders.

First Sentier Investors, the Japan-owned organisation, appointed Kate Turner as global head of responsible investment. Sydney-based Turner raplaced Will Oulton, who retired from the business.

First Sentier also made four other RI appointments:
-- Finian Power, head of ESG policy and regulation. Power was previously head of investment management in FSI’s Dublin office.

-- Bjorn De Smedt, RI specialist. Sydney-based De Smedt is a corporate governance, climate change and sustainability specialist with over 18 years of experience in the financial services industry with a deep knowledge of ESG data and analytics. 

-- Rhys Foulkes, RI specialist. Foulkes has spent the past 15 years in investment management focused on fixed income, most recently as senior credit analyst at FSI, developing a special interest in ESG. Foulkes is based in London.

-- Belinda White, RI specialist. Sydney-based White has long been an advocate for increasing gender diversity in the workplace and championing financial gender equality. She has spent the past 20 years working in external stakeholder engagement. For the past three years, she was senior communications manager at FSI.

Bank J Safra Sarasin appointed a group of former Julius Baer bankers, with a number working in its Singapore-based advisory unit. It named Michael Leutwyler as managing director, client advisory. Leutwyler, who spent eight years at Zurich-listed Julius Baer, also carried out stints at Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch and UBS.

Other appointees included Rupesh Singh as a managing director in the advisory unit – he is also a former Julius Baer senior advisory, who worked at ANZ, HSBC, Citi and ABN AMRO.

Other former Julius Baer figures joining J Safra Sarasin included Ashvin Kumar as executive director and Nitin Sachdeva as director in Singapore. 

Morgan Stanley in Australia appointed new co-heads for its wealth management business after former head figure Ian Chambers retired earlier in November 2022. The new heads, Matthew Nicholls and Rebecca Hill, have been with the bank for 15 and five years, respectively.

Hill is a managing director and heads Morgan Stanley at Work for Asia-Pacific, its employee solutions unit. She previously headed corporate development and investor relations for the once-listed engineering services business UGL, which was acquired by CIMIC in 2016. Nicholls is an executive director and head of investment solutions.

Deutsche Bank appointed former JP Morgan senior figure Esther Wong in the newly-formed role of managing director and group head of a wealth management team in Southeast Asia. Based in Singapore, she reports to Anurag Mahesh, vice chairman and interim head, IPB Southeast Asia. Before this, Wong spent more than 10 years at JP Morgan where she focused on the UHNW client segment. Prior to that, she spent five years at UBS.

HSBC appointed Ashmita Acharya as head of wealth and personal banking, Singapore. She replaced  Anurag Mathur who pursued external opportunities. Acharya joined from Citibank where she built 20 years of international banking experience. 

Singlife appointed Dr Allen Kuo as its group deputy chief investment officer. Kuo oversees the implementation of Singlife’s sustainable investment strategy. He has two decades of investment and risk management experience across multiple asset classes – specialising in quantitative finance and investment risk – accumulated from senior stints in the US, China and Hong Kong. Prior to joining Singlife, Kuo was the director and deputy chief risk officer of University of California’s Regents Chief Investment Office, the pension and endowment arm of the institution.

Citi Private Bank appointed Milton Yau, a team leader in its high net worth team in Hong Kong. (The HNW head for Hong Kong is Keith Lee.) Prior to this, he worked for 11 years at UBS, where he was a client advisor.

Vontobel’s Asia wealth management chief executive, Georg von Wattenwyl, relocated to the Alpine state as part of a change in how it operates structured products in Asia. Von Wattenwyl was appointed head of structured solutions financial institutions, adding to his role as Asia wealth management CEO and Singapore CEO. He was due to return to Switzerland towards the latter part of last year. Von Wattenwyl was based in Asia for four years; he worked for Vontobel for 24 years.

Manoj Ramarao, managing director and head of global South Asia at EFG Bank, left the Switzerland-listed business after a stint of three years. He is based in Singapore. For more than 11 years Ramarao was executive director, and team head for sub-continent and NRI Southeast Asia at Bank of Singapore. Before this, he was an RM in the NRI space for ABN AMRO, in Singapore, and spent a year before that at Citibank in India.

A former senior Credit Suisse and Willis Towers Watson figure, Peter Ryan-Kane, joined CEO advisory business Teneo as senior advisor in its Asia-Pacific practice which focuses on the financial sector.

Ryan-Kane, who is based in Hong Kong, is the founder of PeRK Advisory and was formerly head of portfolio advisory, Asia-Pacific at Willis Towers Watson. Before that, he served as head of distribution and product management, Asia-Pacific at Credit Suisse. 

Schroders unveiled senior leadership appointments in its Asia-Pacific business. CEO Susan Soh retired at the end of 2022 after a 17-year period at the UK-listed firm.

Amy Cho, chief executive for Hong Kong and deputy head for Asia-Pacific, left the firm after a period of four years. She pursued interests outside the firm. Chris Durack took over from Soh. Durack rejoined Schroders after having previously worked there in various roles for 10 years. He was CEO for Hong Kong, chief executive for the firm in Australia and most recently, Asia-Pacific co-head. Durack is based in Singapore. Gopi Mirchandani, CEO and head of the Asia client group at NN Investment Partners, was appointed CEO, Hong Kong, reporting to Durack, She also took on the newly-created role of head of strategy, Asia-Pacific. 

BNY Mellon Investment Management appointed former senior Invesco figure Sharon Ko as head of intermediary business for its Hong Kong retail distribution channel. She reports to Dominic Wong, head of intermediary, Greater China. Ko has more than 15 years of financial services industry experience. She was most recently head of retail distribution, Hong Kong at Invesco. Prior to this, she was associate director of intermediary business at Fidelity International, associate vice president at BlackRock and sales manager at Allianz Global Investors.

Law firm Karas in association with Mishcon de Reya appointed new partner Jonathan Mok and his team to its Hong Kong office. Mok is an established senior lawyer, known for his work in high-profile family disputes, criminal defence and regulatory compliance practices. Mok was joined by Carmen Cheng as special counsel, along with associate Sarah Wong and legal assistant Angela Li.
 

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Credit Suisse in Asia made a number of senior management changes. Even so, Benjamin Cavalli remained as chief executive for Hong Kong in addition to his role as Asia-Pacific wealth management head and APAC sustainability leader. 

Balakrishnan Kunnambath, market group head NRI, was appointed vice chairman and strategic client lead for Southeast Asia and India, to focus on strategic clients' coverage for SEA and India.

Puneet Matta was named market group head of wealth management India and NRI. Based in Singapore, he reports to Matta to ensure connectivity and collaboration between the offshore and onshore business.

Dominique Boer, market group head for Singapore, took on an expanded role to oversee and manage the Singapore booking centre which covers the account management team, customer care centre and small client unit. 

Marcus Slöör, market group head for the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, took on the additional responsibility of managing key strategic initiatives for WM APAC.

Johanes Oeni, market group head for Indonesia, took on an expanded role to oversee and manages the Malaysia market. Joyce Low, market leader for Malaysia, reports to Oeni.

In addition to his role of market group head of Hong Kong, Rickie Chan became CEO of the Credit Suisse Hong Kong branch. Chan oversees and manages the APAC Switzerland teams (direct and shared relationships). Christian Frie, market leader APAC Switzerland, reports to Chan.

Martin Loh, market group head for China II, took on an expanded role to oversee and manages the Shanghai branch as it consolidates oversight of the Greater China bank branch and rep offices under one leadership. Rick Meng, Shanghai branch manager, reports to Loh. In addition to his role as co-head of advisory and sales, Claude Harbonn is leading a new function called “Core Clients.”

Jacky Ang was appointed head of WM Singapore location and the senior manager for wealth management under the MAS Individual Accountability and Conduct regime. 

Julius Baer added to its onshore India team and brought in Akul Juneja as managing director and senior advisor, who is based in New Delhi. It also made a number of other hires who report to Juneja. Juneja reports to Vrinda Mahadevia, head of wealth management, Julius Baer India. The other hires – senior relationship managers – included Dhanmesh Tripathi, Abhishek Chopra, Munish Kumar and Sourabh Aggarwal. 

Ranjit Khanna, the head of South Asia and chief executive of the Singapore branch at Union Bancaire Privée, stepped down from the group.
 
UBP has made two senior leadership appointments in Asia: Ivan Wong joined UBP as region head for North Asia and CEO of the Hong Kong branch. Wong has 35 years of experience in the financial services industry. 

Eric Morin was appointed as Southeast Asia region head and CEO of the Singapore branch. Morin has 10 years of experience in Southeast Asia leadership roles.

Chris Cummings, chief executive of the UK Investment Association (IA) and Sally Wong, chief executive officer of the Hong Kong Investment Funds Association, were elected as chair and deputy chair, respectively, of the International Investment Funds Association board.

Sun Life Hong Kong Limited, part of Sun Life, appointed Eleonore Chow as general manager for its agency business. Chow brought almost 30 years of experience in the insurance industry to her new role. Prior to joining the firm, she was chief partnership distribution officer at AXA. Chow also worked in various senior positions at major insurance companies.

RBC Wealth Management appointed Kamran (Kam) Azim as chief operating officer for the Asia wealth management business. He is based in Singapore. The role is a new one at the bank. Azim reports to Terence Chow, CEO, RBC Wealth Management Asia. Since joining the bank in 2008, Azim has worked in various capacities with RBC – in finance, capital markets, private banking, products and strategy. Prior to his new role, Azim was vice president and head of global credit and cash management, based in Toronto, Canada. 

A media report said that three Pakistan-focused bankers, based in Singapore, had left Credit Suisse. They are executive director Rai-Rummaan Kharal – the team head, director Haroon Tufail and vice president Shahid Qazi.

M&G Real Estate, part of M&G Investments, appointed Regina Lim as director, head of property research for Asia. Lim works with Jing Dong (JD) Lai, chief executive and chief investment officer of M&G Real Estate Asia, Jose Pellicer, global head of investment strategy and Richard Gwilliam, global head of research. Lim joined from JLL, where she was head of strategic advisory and capital market research in Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asia. 

Capital Group appointed Scott Steele in the newly-created role of head of fixed income business development for Asia and Europe. Steel reports to Alexandra Haggard, head of product and investment services for Asia and Europe. Carrying more than 30 years’ industry experience, Steele has been global head of fixed income client portfolio management at Janus Henderson Investors. 

Hang Seng Bank in Hong Kong elevated Saw Say Pin, chief financial officer, to be an executive director at the lender.

Comgest, a Paris-based asset manager focused on long-term responsible investment in quality-growth equities, appointed Heyang Ping as an analyst, based in Tokyo. The move adds to the team involved with the Comgest Growth Japan fund. Ping, with more than 10 years’ experience covering Japanese stocks, is based in the firm’s Tokyo office alongside Comgest’s 13-strong local employee base. Ping was previously an equity analyst with Sparx Asset Management’s Tokyo team, where she contributed to their SMID oriented, bottom-up sustainable growth portfolios.

LaSalle Investment Management appointed Matthew Jianguo Yao, an investment manager in the Greater China market, as head of RMB strategy. He joined from PGIM.

Integral, a tech provider in the foreign exchange market, appointed Judy Goh as managing director and head of sales for Asia-Pacific. Based in Singapore, Goh brings 16 years’ experience in the foreign exchange market. Most recently, Goh was vice president of KX’s Trading Solutions in Asia.