A number of banks such as Credit Suisse, Citigroup and Nomura were busy hiring during August which is usually a fairly quiet vacation month.

Asia-Pacific
UBS appointed Nicola Pantone and Rodolphe Larqué as the new co-heads of UBS Global Wealth Management Capital Markets in Asia-Pacific. They succeeded Conrad Huber who took on the role of business sector head for GWM Greater China SG, Indonesia and Japan International.

With more than 20 years of experience in capital markets and derivatives, Pantone joined from HSBC where he was head of wealth sales for Asia-Pacific. He has experience in equity derivatives in his previous roles of leading equity derivatives sales teams for Asia at HSBC, for Hong Kong at Société Générale and for London and Hong Kong at Deutsche Bank.

Larqué came from Credit Suisse Private Banking APAC where he was head of managed solutions for Asia-Pacific and head of products in Singapore. Prior to that, he was head of fund solutions for Asia-Pacific, responsible for fund selection and advisory, and head of structured products advisory, APAC, spending 10 years in structuring and advising on structured products. 

The duo report functionally to Patrick Grob, co-head of distribution IB [investment banking] Global Markets. Pantone is based in Hong Kong and reports locally to Dan Murphy, co-head of Distribution, IB Global Markets APAC. Larqué is based in Singapore and reports locally to Eric Lafon, co-head of Distribution IB Global Markets.

Indosuez Wealth Management in Asia appointed Ian Koo as head of asset management for the bank’s Hong Kong branch. Functionally, Koo reports to Grizelda Lee, head of asset management Asia of the firm’s public markets solutions business. Koo has 15 years’ experience advising bespoke investment solutions and growing portfolios for ultra-high net worth clients across Asia.

Credit Suisse hired Matthew Peh as a managing director and team head of emerging Asia and ultra-high net worth investment consulting - a newly-created role. Peh is based in Singapore and reports to Claude Harbonn, head of investment consulting, private banking for South Asia. Peh has more than 14 years of wealth management experience. Previously, he worked at Deutsche Bank Wealth Management seven years, most recently as team head Southeast Asia investment management group. Prior to that, he served as a client advisor for the UHNW team at UBS. Before UBS, he was with JP Morgan Private Bank as an investment specialist, focusing on UHNW clients.

Additionally, Lucas Hong and Suzanne Yeo, both investment consultants, started with Credit Suisse. Hong has nine years of investment advisory experience with various private banks. Most recently, he was an investment advisor at Deutsche Bank Wealth Management for six years. Prior to that, he had a similar role at UBS with the active portfolio advisory team for three years. Yeo joined from Deutsche Bank where she spent six years as an investment consultant with the Southeast Asia team, serving clients in Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Benjamin Tan was named interim head of managed solutions, Asia-Pacific at Credit Suisse. His predecessor, Rodolphe Larqué, left the bank to pursue other opportunities. Tan, who re-joined Credit Suisse in 2004 as a foreign exchange (FX) sales dealer, has more than 20 years’ experience in the products space. Over the years, he has served in several managerial roles across the private banking sales and execution teams for FX, equities, structured products and fixed income. 

United Overseas Bank set up a group focused on developing products and services for high net worth clients. UOB also hired Chew Mun Yew. Chew has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry in Asia, serving in senior roles in fields that included strategy, risk management and wealth management. He was also a senior banking and insurance regulator for more than five years. Most recently, he was Greater China Group head, Julius Baer, in Singapore. Chew, who will be joining UOB in December, will report to Eddie Khoo, head of UOB’s group retail business.

Sock Leng Ang, who had been head of credit advisory, Southeast Asia for HSBC Private Banking, left the bank. 

Taipei-based XREX, a fintech using distributed ledger technology, appointed former Standard Chartered figure Christopher Chye as managing director of its Singapore business and director of product. In this dual role, he is responsible for overseeing XREX's businesses and operations in Singapore and bringing new value propositions to its clients. Prior to this, Chye worked in commercial banking, consumer banking, wealth management and financial crime compliance at Standard Chartered. Before joining Standard Chartered, Chye was a management consultant with KPMG.

Matrixport, the Asian digital assets financial services platform, appointed Justin Buitendam and Omid Zadeh as directors of business development and sales. Based in Australia, Buitendam was a senior addition to the business development team in Asia, while Zadeh leads business development in Europe, Middle East and Africa, based in the UK.

Deutsche Bank Wealth Management named former Credit Suisse senior figure Alania Hsu Concepcion as investment management team head for South-East Asia. She is based in Singapore. Hsu Concepcion reports to Coo-Way Law, managing director, head of Southeast Asia investment management. She recently returned to Singapore, after spending four and a half years in Europe running her own company and pursuing her interests in environmental, social and governance investment and the fintech industry. She was previously head of investment consulting for the Singapore and Malaysia markets for Credit Suisse. Prior to that, she was co-head of private banking sales for Barclays Bank, managing a team responsible for the structuring, sales and trading of capital markets products for private banks and family offices in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Lawrence Goh joined Standard Chartered Private Bank as managing director, deputy market head for its private banking business, for the ASEAN and South Asia region. Based in Singapore, Goh reports to Cedric Lizin, regional head, private banking ASEAN and South Asia, and global head of global South Asian community. With more than 20 years in financial services, and 15 years in private wealth management in the ASEAN region, Goh was formerly at Bank of Singapore for 12 years. Goh started his tenure in private wealth in investment consulting with Citi Private Bank covering ultra-high net worth individuals and families in Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Australasia. 

Hywin Holdings approved the appointment of Wai Lok (Lawrence) as chief financial officer. Zhou Huichuan, the previous CFO, assumed the role of vice president of strategic projects. Prior to joining Hywin, Lok was a senior investment banker at Citigroup, where ge led IPOs, private fundraising, mergers and acquisitions and other major transactions for technology, media and telecom companies and financial service groups in China and other parts of Asia. He has had over 15 years of professional investment banking experience working in the US and Hong Kong.  

State Street appointed Taro Kuryuzawa as country head for Japan, with immediate effect. Based in Tokyo, Kuryuzawa reports to Mostapha Tahiri, chief executive officer for Asia-Pacific. Kuryuzawa joined State Street in May from Deloitte Tohmatsu group where he was most recently head of institutional investor coverage in Japan and global lead client service partner, overseeing large insurers and global institutional investor accounts in Japan. Prior to Deloitte, he held several senior positions at Citigroup, including its global private equity fund, CVC International, for almost a decade.
 

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Nomura hired more than 25 private bankers and investment advisors in Singapore and Hong Kong for its international wealth management business over the past six months. Some of the senior hires include:

Client coverage
Richard Hu, managing director, group head for Greater China relationship management. He joined from Bank of Singapore where he was MD and market head for Greater China. He has more than 20 years of experience in wealth management, having worked at Julius Baer, and the private banking divisions of HSBC, Credit Suisse, UBS and Citi in previous roles, focusing on Chinese and Taiwanese high net worth clients. 

Melani Hoesada, MD and team lead for Southeast Asia. She has more than 30 years of experience in private banking and has had several prominent roles as team head and senior relationship manager across institutions. Before joining Nomura, Hoesada was a client advisor and desk head at UBS Wealth Management. Prior to that, she was team head at Deutsche Wealth Management.

Kapil Poply, MD and team lead to cover the Southeast Asia and non-resident Indian markets. He has more than 20 years’ experience managing ultra-high net worth clients and joined from Standard Chartered where he was a managing director in private banking.

Jeanna Chan, executive director, team lead for Greater China. She has more than 25 years of private banking, investment banking and asset management experience. These include her positions as executive director and team head for the Greater China region at Bank of Singapore and director and senior relationship manager for the same region at Credit Suisse.

Sarah Lee, executive director, team lead covering the Greater China market. She joined from Deutsche Bank where she had a similar role serving HNW clients from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. 

Andrew Au, executive director, relationship manager in the Greater China team. Prior to Nomura, he was an advisor for about a year with Hong Kong-based Maxco, which provides business advisory services to corporates and individuals.

David Huang, executive director and RM for Greater China. He moved from Bank of Singapore where he was an executive director focused on ultra-HNW clients from China. He has been in Hong Kong since 2006, when he joined UBS’s private bank and has also worked in the private banking divisions of BNP Paribas and Bank of China in the city. 

Gaurav Gupta, appointed executive director and RM for Southeast Asia and NRI markets. He joined from Standard Chartered’s private bank where he was an executive director in the division focusing on the global South Asian community. He has over 16 years’ experience in managing UHNW non-resident Indian and global client relationships across Southeast Asia and the Middle East. His previous stints in private banking include UOB and ANZ in Singapore, and HSBC and ING in Mumbai, India.

Sharon Bahl, named executive director, RM covering the NRI market, brings over 30 years of experience in wealth management. She moved from BNP Paribas where she worked for almost nine years in Singapore in various capacities, starting as director and RM within the key client group and later as director and team leader for the UAE desk within the NRI team. Before that, she worked at Barclays Private Bank in Singapore and Credit Suisse in London. 

Gautam Sareen was named executive director and RM to cover the Southeast Asia and NRI markets. He has over 18 years of experience as a relationship manager covering Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. He joined from BNP Paribas.

Nishant Chugh, made executive director and RM focusing on Southeast Asia. Prior to Nomura, he was a director in private banking at BNP Paribas in Singapore. He has 15 years’ industry experience.

Gareth Nicholson, made  executive director, chief investment officer and head of discretionary portfolio management. He joined from Bank of Singapore where he was executive director, head of fixed income discretionary portfolio management. Previously, he spent 12 years with Aberdeen Standard Investments as a senior portfolio manager.

Symon Tilberis, who has spent 19 years in international wealth and asset management, was appointed as executive director and head of family office services. Prior to Nomura, he was an executive director at BNP Paribas, where he headed the key client group, working with Asian single-family offices and UHNW clients. He also worked for UBS.

Olaf van Duijnhoven was named executive director and team lead, investment advisory. He moved from Standard Chartered Private Bank where he worked for 10 years. He also worked at Deutsche Bank. 

Albert Wong, who has been in the banking industry for 20 years, was appointed as executive director, investment advisors. Before Nomura, he was an investment counsellor at HSBC Private Bank, and before that, global investment specialist at JP Morgan Private Bank. He has also held multiple positions across products structuring and client servicing at Citi Private Bank and Merrill Lynch.

Philippe May, appointed managing director for its Arton Capital’s Singapore business and head of Asia-Pacific, left the organisation for personal reasons. May worked at Arton Capital, which advises wealthy individuals on citizenship/residency-by-investment programmes, for five years. After stepping down, May’s responsibilities were taken up by Miloš Stojanovi and Lora Georgieva.

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Schroders appointed Susan Soh as head of the firm's Asia Pacific business. In April 2020, Soh and Chris Durack were appointed as co-heads in the Singapore-based role. Durack decided to leave Schroders citing “a change in family health circumstances” preventing his planned relocation to Asia to continue leadership responsibilities. He was a senior figure at Schroders for more than a decade. 

Harneys law firm named Yucheng Fan as a partner in its Investment Funds practice, based in Hong Kong. Fluent in four languages, including Japanese, Yucheng Fan, who joined from another Hong Kong offshore law firm, specialises in Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands fund business. He advises on creating and maintaining private equity funds, venture capital funds, corporate capital funds, hedge funds and unit trusts.

BOC Hong Kong (Holdings) appointed Liu Jin as vice chairman, non-executive director and member of the nomination and remuneration committee and the strategy and budget committee.
 
Former Credit Suisse managing director Lillian Liao joined Citi Private Bank in a new Singapore-based role as global marketing manager for China. Liao is responsible for managing a team of private bankers serving Mainland Chinese entrepreneurs based in the financial hub. Liao reports to Rudolf Hitsch, Citi Private Bank North Asia head and Lee Lung-Nien, chairman and South Asia head. During 20 years in wealth management, she has worked for HSBC, UBS and Deutsche, and was most recently as a senior client partner serving clients from China at Credit Suisse.

Saffery Champness Registered Fiduciaries appointed Dr Yumei Zhang as a client director in the firm’s Geneva office. Dr Zhang has almost 20 years’ experience in the private client, trusts and wider finance industry, specialising in advising clients originating from Asia-Pacific with complex multi-jurisdictional requirements including either assets or beneficiaries in the US and Europe.

VP Bank announced several changes to its Asia business:

Esther Fung joined as a senior wealth planning specialist with the rank of executive director. Fung supports development and broadening of VP Bank's wealth and succession planning solutions in Asia. Fung has more than two decades’ experience serving ultra-high net worth individuals and families. Prior to joining VP Bank, she worked for DBS, Equity Trust and BNP Paribas, and is a full member of the Society of Trusts and Estate Practitioners. 

Thomas Jost left the bank from his role as head of intermediaries for Singapore to pursue other opportunities. Markus Wolf stepped in to take over the role ad interim. Wolf, who joined VP Bank Singapore in 2019, has more than 15 years of Asia private banking experience in strategy development and business management. He reports to the interim head of Singapore, Thomas Rupf. 

Luca Kast assumed the newly-created role of business manager Asia, reporting to chief of staff for Asia, Heline Lam. Deputy head of operations for Singapore, Kast has been with VP Bank for four years; in his new capacity, he works with Lam to drive the strategic business initiatives for the region. 

Karen Tan, head of private banking in Singapore, continues to lead the private banking business, reporting to Rupf. 

The VP Wealth Management (Hong Kong) business said that after a 15-year career with the bank, Clare Lam retired from her role as chief representative/head of Hong Kong. She assumed the role of senior advisor.

Reto Marx moved from being head of intermediaries and private banking for Singapore. He relocated to take on the role of chief representative/head of Hong Kong. Marx reports to CEO for Asia, Pamela Hsu Phua.