Among the most prominent moves of this typically vacation month were appointments at BNP Paribas, Royal Bank of Canada, and Bank of Singapore.

Prudential has appointed Bill Maldonado as chief executive officer of its asset management business, Eastspring Investments. Based in Singapore, Maldonado reports to Prudential’s CEO Anil Wadhwani. Maldonado had been serving as interim CEO since April, following Wai-Kwong Seck’s decision to retire from the firm after four years as CEO. Maldonado has 30 years of asset management experience and a track record of leading investment teams globally. Prior to joining Eastspring, he served as the Asia Pacific CIO and global CIO, equities at HSBC Global Asset Management.

FWD Singapore entered the high net worth insurance market and named its first chief HNW officer, Jason Tsui. It also launched its first product aimed at accredited investors.

Tsui, who took on the chief HNW officer role, was previously managing director at the Asian brokerage arm of a global wealth solutions provider in Singapore and Hong Kong.

RBC Wealth Management appointed Rod Ireland as the interim head of its Asia business, who filled a slot left by Terence Chow who left the Canadian bank. Ireland, who is based in Singapore, retained his existing job as head of global markets Asia-Pacific for RBC Capital Markets.

Bank of Singapore appointed former UBS senior figure Jan Boes as a team head for its BOS Wealth Management Europe business. Boes, based in Luxembourg, reports to Lionel Dormann, chief executive, BOS Wealth Management Europe. Previously, Boes worked at UBS from 2004 in a variety of roles: head of UHNW positioning for Asia-Pacific, based in Singapore (January 2016 to July 2018); head of client strategy, global family office, APAC, also in Singapore (July 2018 to July 2022); and family office advisor, in Singapore (August 2022 to June 2023).

Bank of Singapore appointed former Credit Suisse senior figure Jacky Ang as global chief operating officer to succeed Sonjoy Phukan who left the bank to pursue other interests. Ang reports to chief executive officer Jason Moo. A Singaporean, Ang was previously Southeast Asia COO at Credit Suisse. Concurrently, he was the Singapore branch manager and head of wealth management. Ang has worked in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. From 2006 to 2011, he helped Credit Suisse expand its regional footprint and product offerings across Asia as the head of new business, Asia-Pacific. This included establishing its branch in Mumbai, India, as well as its China onshore joint venture with Founder Securities. Ang was then responsible for the day-to-day operation of the Singapore branch at the Swiss bank. 

Barings appointed Aaron Thirukumar and Sabrina Kwek as director for institutional sales and senior director for wealth distribution respectively. Thirukumar and Kwek are responsible for developing and managing client relationships and raising capital across the institutional channel in Australia and wealth channel in Southeast Asia, respectively. Thirukumar is based in Sydney and reports to Michael Gaffney, head of distribution for Australia and New Zealand; while Kwek is based in Singapore and reports to Lydia Wu, head of distribution for Greater China and Southeast Asia.

Thirukumar has more than a decade of experience from Dimensional Fund Advisors in Sydney, where he was regional director and vice president for the institutional business. Kwek, with over 20 years of experience, joined from Allianz Global Investors in Singapore, where she was director in the private banking business for Greater China and Southeast Asia. Kwek previously worked at Mirae Asset Global Investments, Robeco and Credit Suisse in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Farro Ventures, parent company of Singapore-headquartered multi-family office Farro Capital, created a new subsidiary – Farro & Co – to focus on international mobility and immigration solutions for ultra-high net worth clients. The new organisation is led by CEO Nirbhay Handa. Prior to founding Farro & Co, Handa served in leadership roles at Henley & Partners, a firm specialising in the citizenship/residency-by investment sector. At Henley & Partners, he was group head of business development and Asia head of private clients.

GuarantCo Management Company, a subsidiary of Netherlands-based Cardano Development, appointed Chinmay Naralkar as chief risk officer. GMC is GuarantoCo’s fund manager. Naralkar joined GuarantCo from ICICI Bank where he managed teams in India and the UK. During his career, he has also been responsible for credit underwriting and business development in corporate banking. 
 

BMS Group, an independent specialist insurance and reinsurance broker, appointed Tim Hewitt as head of BMS in Japan. A long-term resident of Japan and bilingual in Japanese and English, Hewitt has more than two decades of legal industry experience. Prior to joining BMS, he was associate general counsel for a global private equity firm portfolio company, after several years there in legal leadership roles. 

BNP Paribas made wealth management leadership changes in Singapore and the wider Asia region. The French bank appointed Garth Bregman as head of wealth management Singapore and Southeast Asia. Based in Singapore, Bregman, who is head of investment services for Asia, reports to APAC chief executive Arnaud Tellier and functionally to Joris Dierckx, regional head of Southeast Asia.

Alison Lim, meanwhile, was appointed market head for Southeast Asia. In this expanded role, she focuses on building BNP Paribas’ market share in the region, and reports to Bregman. 

The bank named David Lim as executive vice chairman for Southeast Asia. In this newly-created role, Lim is in charge of supporting growth of strategic clients and family office relations and “wallet share” in Southeast Asia. Lim continues to report to Tellier.

Shafali Sachdev, appointed head of investment services for Asia, is head of fixed income, currencies, and commodities (FICC) for Asia, based in Singapore. Prior to joining BNP Paribas Wealth Management in 2017, Sachdev served in senior FICC roles in Citigroup and Bank of America across global markets and wealth management. Sachdev reports to Tellier and functionally to Anne-Cecile Lugagne Delpon, head of investment services, BNP Paribas Wealth Management.

M&G Investments appointed Peter Kim as the head of Korea to expand its business pursuits in South Korea. The role is newly created. Based in Seoul, South Korea, he reports to Berny Lin, head of distribution Asia (ex-Japan) for M&G. Kim joined M&G Investments from Lazard Korea Asset Management where he served for more than a decade as the institutional and regional marketing representative.

Citigroup appointed Gunjan Kalra as Asia Pacific head of Citi Commercial Bank. She replaced Rajat Madhok who was named global head of Citi Commercial Bank Credit Risk earlier this year. Based in Singapore, Kalra reports to global head of Citi Commercial Bank, Tasnim Ghiawadwala, and Citi Asia Pacific chief executive officer, Peter Babej. Kalra joined Citi Commercial Bank from the firm’s markets business, where she was most recently Asia-Pacific head of corporate sales and solutions. In this role, she was responsible for the delivery of market products to Citi’s corporate and commercial banking clients in the region. Prior to that, Kalra, who has worked for City for 21 years, was the Asia Pacific head for the Corporate Solutions Group from 2015 to 2021.

Binance, the global blockchain ecosystem facing regulatory pressure in the US, appointed its former global compliance head, Kristen Hecht, as new deputy chief compliance officer and global money laundering reporting officer. Hecht has 17 years of experience, including nearly a decade supporting the US government's efforts to combat terrorism and illicit financial activity as a senior policy advisor in the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes in the US Department of the Treasury. Before Binance, Kristen served as the CCO at Meta's first crypto digital asset wallet project, Novi Financial. 

Alger Management appointed Stephen King as head of Asia-Pacific business development. Based in Singapore, King works with institutional investors, consultants, high net worth individuals, wealth managers, private banks and family offices across Asia. He reports to Stephen Hearle, head of EMEA business development. King has 23 years of financial services experience. Prior to joining Alger, he served as the head of institutional sales APAC at Fiera Capital, where he led business development and managed key client accounts within the APAC institutional markets.