The month of July was a busy one for hiring at banks such as Credit Suisse and Standard Chartered in Asia. A number of independent asset managers were also active.

Standard Chartered appointed a top International Monetary Fund executive, José Viñals, as its new chairman. He replaces Sir John Peace, who will step down on 1 December. Viñals is the financial counsellor and director of the monetary and capital markets department of the IMF. His role includes oversight and direction of its monetary and financial sector work. He is the IMF’s chief spokesperson on financial matters, including global financial stability. He was a member of the plenary and steering committee of the Financial Stability Board for seven years. Viñals started his career as an economist before spending 25 years at the Central Bank of Spain, where he rose to be the deputy governor.

Lawrence Lua was promoted to the role of deputy head of DBS Private Bank. Lua was previously head of South and Southeast Asia at DBS Private Bank and will continue to report to Tan Su Shan, the group head of consumer banking and wealth management. Lua joined DBS Private Bank in 2011.  

Standard Chartered also hired former senior Barclays manager Srinivas Siripurapu as regional head, private banking, ASEAN and South Asia and as global head, non-resident Indian clients. He took over the regional leadership for ASA from Peter Kok. Kok was most recently the MD and regional market manager at UBS, where he led the wealth management business in Singapore and Malaysia, as well as the external asset management in Singapore and Hong Kong. 

Standard Chartered added to its advisory team in the ASEAN market region. Doreen Tan was appointed as an associate director and investment advisory for ASEAN International. She covers managed investments and capital markets products for the bank’s non-resident India and global India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and international clients. She spent the bulk of her career in Citi Smith Barney and Citicorp Investment Bank, starting as a management associate in research advisory in 2008. Alfred Foo joined as associate director, investment advisory for ASEAN International. In this role, he covers managed investments and capital markets products for NRI/global India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and international clients. He was most recently with the Vanguard Group in Pennsylvania.

In other moves, the head of India private banking at Standard Chartered, Sandeep Das, left the bank.

DBS hired Joseph Poon, former head of UBS UHNW segment in Singapore. Poon left UBS in May this year after a restructuring of the Swiss bank's Singapore management. Poon had been at UBS since May 2012, having previously served as managing director at Julius Baer, where he was a member of the firm's Asia executive committee. Prior to this, he was chief executive of Macquarie Private Wealth Asia in Singapore and responsible for building up the UHNW segment in Asia.

Societe Generale announced new country heads for Japan and Switzerland. Raphael Cheminat was appointed group country head for Japan, with effect from 1 September 2016, subject to regulatory approval. He replaced Guillaume Burtschell who took on a new role within the group. 

Hugues de la Marnierre was appointed group country head for Switzerland, in addition to his existing roles as head of corporate and investment banking in Switzerland as well as senior banker covering Swiss financial institutions. He replaced Yves Thieffry who was recently appointed chairman of the board of directors of Societe Generale Private Banking Switzerland.

UBS Asset Management appointed Hayden Briscoe to the new role of head of fixed income, Asia-Pacific. Briscoe joined from Alliance Bernstein, bringing over 24 years of fixed income and currency experience. Based in Hong Kong, he oversees all fixed income portfolio management and business activities in the region. He reports to John Dugenske, global head of fixed income at UBS Asset Management. He also joined the firm's asset management APAC executive committee.

Another of Singapore's cluster of independent asset managers added to its team. River Valley Asset Management appointed Anand Ramachandran as partner and fund manager. Ramachandran was previously a senior portfolio manager with Legg Mason International Equities, firstly in Singapore and then in London for nine years.

Arnulfo de Pala was appointed chief investment officer at TriLake Partners, the Singapore-based firm. A Filipino and US national raised in the Philippines, de Pala joined in July. He has a financial sector career spanning more than 25 years.

Mumbai, India-based banking group IDFC appointed Vishal Kapoor as chief executive of IDFC Asset Management Company. His most recent role was at Standard Chartered Bank as managing director, head of wealth management, India.

Withers appointed seven new partners across its offices in Europe, the US and Asia. In Asia, Laurence Ho was promoted in the wealth planning and tax team in Hong Kong, as were Samantha Gershon within the family team in Hong Kong and Lim Hui Ying within the litigation and arbitration team in Singapore.

National Australia Bank unveiled top-level management changes. Senior figures Michaela Healey, group executive, governance and reputation; Renee Roberts, group executive, enterprise services and transformation; and Gavin Slater, group executive, personal banking, left the bank. The business and private banking arm is led by Angela Mentis. A newly created customer-facing business unit was created, Corporate & Institutional Banking, and Cathryn Carver will hold the role of chief customer officer, CIB, while an “internal and external executive search is conducted”. Andrew Hagger is to lead consumer banking and wealth management, a segment also changed by NAB.

Al Rajhi Bank Malaysia, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the world’s largest Islamic bank, Al Rajhi Bank, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, appointed Datuk Dr Nik Norzrul Thani Bin Nik Hassan Thani as its new chairman. Datuk Dr Nik has more than 35 years of local and international experience in the legal, academic and Islamic banking sectors. 

Credit Suisse’s private banking operation in Asia recruited Stella Kong and Edwin Lim as market group heads for China and Taiwan, respectively. Kong and Lim, who are based in Hong Kong, joined existing market group heads Alex Ng and Orchid Yuan in leading the bank's China and Taiwan franchises respectively. The newly-appointed duo have more than 30 years’ experience in senior frontline leadership roles covering Greater China markets with major financial institutions. 

Kong previously worked at Standard Chartered, where she was the deputy regional head of private banking, Greater China and North Asia. Prior to that role, she was vice chairman of China at Sarasin Rabo Investment Management, head of private banking for China and North Asia at ABN AMRO, and head of the Taiwan market at both Deutsche Bank and UBS. Edwin Lin previously was head of Northeast Asia for HNW at JP Morgan Private Bank. That role is not being replaced by JP Morgan. 

Credit Suisse appointed Marcel Schuler as chief operating officer of international wealth management. Schuler replaced Romeo Lacher, who held the COO position at the IWM business since November last year. He has in the past served as head of operations for Credit Suisse’s private bank. 

Teddy Chu was appointed as head of Credit Suisse trust and estate advisory, Hong Kong. Eleanor Yuen formerly held the role. Based in Hong Kong, Chu leads a specialised team providing wealth planning services. He reports to Stefan Aegerter, global head of trust and estate advisory, and locally to Rajesh Manwani, head of investment solutions and products, Asia-Pacific. 

KPMG Australia appointed Craig Wishart to the post of chief information officer. He took over the role from Anthony Stevens, who led the firm’s digital services team in the newly-created role of chief digital officer. Wishart is a technology and operations executive who has led the delivery of large-scale business transformations, cloud services implementation, and service operations change programmes. He previously worked at UXC, where he was chief information officer and chief technology officer. Prior to this he was CIO and executive general manager for customer services at Service Stream. He has also held various executive IT roles at ANZ Bank, Telstra, Rio Tinto and Sensis. 
 

Thirdrock Group appointed Suanjin Tan as senior portfolio manager and Yi-Lin Lee as senior fixed income strategist, portfolio manager. The pair co-manage a discretionary fixed income strategy. Previously, Tan was lead portfolio manager for China credit and head of Asian private credit for BlackRock, co-managing fixed income portfolios in excess of $8 billion. In addition to his portfolio management responsibilities, Tan was also a senior credit analyst with a particular focus on Chinese corporates and oversaw the firm’s China research efforts. Before that, he was investment director and head of Southeast Asia at Citi Venture Capital International.

Lee brings over 15 years of investment banking experience in global credit and interest rate markets to Thirdrock. She has worked for the fixed income trading businesses of Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Haitong International, with management responsibility in the last two roles. 

Former HSBC Private Bank employee Michael Hua, who left his Singapore-based role three months ago, resurfaced at Liechtenstein-headquartered LGT. Hua was in charge of HSBC’s private bank relationship groups serving the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. He joined the bank in 2004, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to this, he worked at Coutts for around six years.

Mercer, the consultancy, expanded its delegated investment solutions offering to Singapore, led by Soon Kian Lee, a principal at the firm and head of investments for the ASEAN region. The move followed Mercer’s launch late year of the business in Japan. Soon joined the firm in 2006 and reports to Jeffery Schutes, Mercer’s growth markets investments business leader and global leader for alternatives. Soon will also work with Amit Popat, a partner and business leader for the delegated solutions business, growth markets, who is based in Singapore.

Commonwealth Bank’s wealth management unit, Commonwealth Private, named Marianne Perkovic as a new executive general manager, based in Sydney. Perkovic joined Commonwealth Bank in January 2010 as Colonial First State general manager for distribution and she was in charge of the organisation’s wealth management advice business for the past four years. 

Australia-listed ClearView Wealth appointed three new business development managers. James Blanton was appointed to the role for New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. He has worked in the financial services sector for 15 years. He was previously a senior business development manager for the Asteron NSW team. Meanwhile, Nick Dowling took up the same role for Victoria and Tasmania. He has worked in the sector since 2000. Before joining ClearView, he worked for five years at Macquarie. Richard Monroe was named business development manager for Queensland. He has worked in financial services for 16 years, spending time as both a financial advisor and a life insurance business development manager. 

Deutsche Asset Management, part of the Frankfurt-headquartered bank, appointed Victoria Sharpe as managing director and head of real estate for the Asia-Pacific region. Sharpe is based out of Singapore and reports to Pierre Cherki, head of alternatives. Sharpe has more than 30 years of experience developing and executing global real estate strategies, working in London, New York, Singapore and Munich.

The head of India private banking at Standard Chartered, Sandeep Das, left the bank. As part of the change, Aman Rajoria, who is executive director and market head, West, took over in the interim.

Nerine Trust Company in Hong Kong appointed Michelle Sng as wealth and estate planning manager. Singapore-born Sng is a qualified Australian lawyer and has worked in private client practice advising clients on matrimonial issues and assisting in international arbitration matters. She later joined a trust and corporate service provider as a wealth and estate planning manager, advising high net worth individuals for succession and estate planning. 

TriLake Partners, which is headquartered in Singapore, appointed a former Credit Suisse executive, Dr Daniel Brunner, as executive director, senior client relationship manager. Prior to joining TriLake Partners, Dr Brunner was MD at Credit Suisse in the private banking and wealth management division, based in the Zurich head office. He has held a number of other roles in different parts of the Credit Suisse group. He has also been a board member of the Swiss-Asian Chamber of Commerce since 2011 and is co-chair of the Philippines chapter. 

Old Mutual Global Investors, part of Old Mutual Wealth, appointed Gerard Clancy to the post of head of sales for Southeast Asia, based in Singapore. The role was a newly-created position. Clancy reports to Carol Wong, managing director, Asia-Pacific, who is based in Hong Kong. Previously, Clancy worked at Columbia Threadneedle Investments. There, he was executive director, wholesale distribution, for two years. 

Data protection and information management firm Commvault appointed Matthew Johnston as area vice president for the ASEAN region and South Korea. Prior to Commvault, Johnston held a number of software leadership roles at Dell, including managing director for Greater China and general manager of solution sales in Asia-Pacific and Japan.

Jersey Finance appointed An Kelles as business development director for Greater China, replacing Yumei Zhang, who left the organisation. Kelles joined from Intertrust Group’s Hong Kong office, where she was business unit director for the European and private equity teams. Before that, she was a corporate lawyer and business unit manager at ATC Corporate Services in Luxembourg, which later merged with Intertrust. She has also worked in the international business team of law firm Matheson in Dublin, Ireland.