Australia

Australia and New Zealand Bank named David Gonski to replace outgoing group chairman John Morschel with effect from 1 May 2014. Morschel steps down after serving as ANZ director since 2004 and four years as chairman. Gonski was previously the chairman of the Future Fund and will be replaced by Peter Costello as acting chairman until a replacement is named.

JP Morgan Asset Management appointed Mark Carlile as head of Australia strategic relationships for the funds business. Based in Melbourne, he reports to David Halifax, head of Australia funds. He was previously a national manager for key accounts research and platform at Vanguard Investments, and also worked for Goldman Sachs JBWere and ANZ. Also appointed was Katie Babatsikos as business manager for the division. Babatsikos previously held a similar role with Perpetual Investments.

The Financial Planning Association, the Australian association for the financial planning profession, named former NAB Wealth executive Tom Reddacliff to the newly-created role of general manager for member growth and marketing. He joined the group in 2 June 2014. By this appointment, the role of national sales manager has been abolished and Paul Barsby will be leading the FPA.

Asteron Life, the advisory and insurance arm of Suncorp Group, named Daniel Waller as national key accounts and group risk manager, reporting to Mark Vilo, the executive manager, with effect from 1 July 2014. This is a newly-created role. Prior to the appointment, Waller held various sales leadership roles within AXA, ING, ING Bank and OnePath.

Bennelong Funds Management announced that it is looking for a new chief executive following the departure of Jarrod Brown, whose reasons for leaving were not specified. Since 23 May, his duties had been jointly handled by Jeff Phillips, the chief financial officer, and Andrew Aitken, head of distribution, and will remain so until a replacement is named. Brown's leaving comes at the same time as the retirement of Bruce Loveday, the compay's executive chairman. Loveday has been replaced by Mike Pratt, a member of the board who will also become a non-executive chairman as a result of this change. Loveday will stay until late in 2014 and will assist Philips and Aitken in their interim CEO duties.

Franklin Templeton Investments added two new senior bond managers, Chris Siniakov and Andrew Canobi, as managing director of fixed income and director of fixed income, respectively. Siniakov was previously the head of fixed income, Asia-Pacific at Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management, while Canobi also joins from the same company , where he was a director and senior portfolio manager for global fixed income.

Equity Trustees appointed Catherine Elversson to the Sydney office to focus on providing legal advice to high net worth individuals and their families on personal and corporate succession. She previously worked as an associate solicitor for estate planning at Matthews Folbigg Lawyers in Sydney. Meanwhile, Andrew Woods joined the Melbourne branch to assume a similar position as Elversson. Woods was previously a lawyer for Minter Ellison and McKean Park. Both will report Anna Hacker, the national manager for estate planning.

Earlier in May, Equity Trustees named Lance Pupelis to the role of head of cash and fixed income. Pupelis was previously the head of fixed income at ANZ Trustees and, prior to that, was the head of fixed income at Aviva Investors Australia.

MetLife Australia named former senior manager at BT Financial Group Deanne Stewart to be its new chief executive with effect from mid-July 2014. Stewart takes over from Damien Green, the head of employee benefits in Asia who has been serving as interim CEO since February after Marc Lieberman left. She reports to Dr Nirmala Menon, the senior vice president and head of designated markets and health in Asia.

Swiss banking giant UBS named promoted Gary head, its Australi co-head of equities, to global head of cash equities in London. Head relocates from Sydney for this new role, in addition to being a member of the global equities management committee. Succeeding him in Australia are Chris Williams and Steve Boxall, who have been named co-heads of Australasian equities. Other new appointments in the country include Robbie Vanderzall for the new role of chairman of capital markets for Australasia, reporting to Mike Hanning, who is also the new head of corporate client solutions for Asia-Pacific. Hanning replaces Matthew Grounds, who has been named chief executive for Australasia.

Hong Kong
International law firm Withers expanded its Hong Kong family practice with two hires. Ruben Sinha and Charmaine Leung join the company as a registered foreign lawyer and associate, respectively. Sinha joined from the family law firm Vardags in London, where he was a senior associate and advised high and ultra high net worth clients. Leung steps in from Hong Kong-based law firm Haldanes, where she was an assistant solicitor for the matrimonial practice and worked on high profile family cases.

Legal & General Investment Management appointed Paul So in the newly-created role of head of index funds, Asia Pacific. Based in Hong Kong, So will build a team of index portfolio managers and traders in the region, reporting to Ali Toutounchi, global head of index funds, and Alan Flynn, head of LGIM Asia Pacific. So joined LGIM from Enhanced Investment Products, where he was head of beta products for four years.

ANZ named Farhan Faruqui as chief executive for international banking, based in Hong Kong, effective August 2014. This is a new role that was created in 2013. In this post, he will be responsible for supporting the bank's "super regional" strategy by helping improve the links between ANZ's 33 markets with a diverse set of customers. Faruqui was previously the head of corporate and investment banking for Asia-Pacific at Citigroup. The heads of international banking in both Australia and New Zealand, as well as country CEOs in Asia, the Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and America, will report to Faruqui. He, in turn, reports to Andrew Geczy, CEO for international and institutional banking.

Coutts appointed former JP Morgan wealth management senior executive Shun-Tak Pang as managing director and head of the Hong Kong market. Pang took over from Ignatius (Iggy) Chong, who has been Coutts' market head for Hong Kong over the past eight years. Chong turns his focus to his role as Chairman of the Coutts Institute, Asia, a spokesperson told this publication.

US-based investment manager Capital Group hired Andrew Economos to take up the newly-created role of senior vice president for strategic solutions. In this post, he becomes responsible for institutional, private wealth and retail distribution for the firm's Asia arm. Economos joined Capital Group from JP Morgan Asset Management, where, for the past four years, he served as managing director of asset management and head of sovereign and institutional strategy for Asia.

UK banking giant Barclays named two executives to the newly split role of head of equities for Asia-Pacific. Vikesh Kotecha continues in his previous role as head of equities trading, but now also co-leads the entire regional equities business. In this Hong Kong-based role, he oversees the risk management and financial resource management arm and reports to Conor Brown, head of markets for Asia-Pacific. The other appointment involves John Chang as head of equities distribution for Asia-Pacific and will move in the summer to Hong Kong from Seoul. He was previously the Korea country manager. He reports to Mike di Iorio, the head of equities distribution who is based in London. Kotecha and Chang replace Nick Wright, who retired in March 2014.

The Private Wealth Management Association named former Deutsche Bank executive Joanne Leung to be its managing director, succeeding James Hong. Leung was previously the chief operating officer for private wealth management, North Asia at Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management. It is not yet known why Hong had vacated the post, as he had only been appointed to it in April this year from Credit Suisse to replace Nancy Cheung.

Neuberger Berman Asia bolstered its marketing and sales team with six appointments. The hires include Marco Tang, to join the Hong Kong office from Baring Asset Management as head of retail distribution for Mainland China and Hong Kong, Katherine Low as head of retail distribution in Singapore, from BlackRock, Elina Choy as head of Asia-Pacific product and marketing in Hong Kong, from First State, Kay So as marketing director in Hong Kong, from AllianceBernstein, Anny Wang as channel sales executive in Taipei, from Baring AM, and David Huang as channel sales executive in Taipei, from Allianz Global Investors.

BOC Hong Kong named Zhu Shumin and Yue Yi as non-executive directors to its board effective 22 May 2014. Both become members of each of the strategy and budget committee and risk committee of the company and its principal, Bank of China. With these appointments, the board now has 12 members, led by Tian Guoli as chairman.

BNP Paribas appointed Sean Chen in Hong Kong as a managing director. Chen reports to Alfred Tsai, head of the China market. He previously worked at Standard Chartered.

Hang Seng Bank, added a new director to its board with effect from 26 May 2014. Dr Henry K S Cheng, chairman and executive director of New World Development Company and Chow Tai Fong Jewellery Group, joined the board as an independent non-executive director. His tenure will cease at the end of the 2015 Annual General Meeting, upon which time and subject to shareholder elections, he will serve for another three years. This will then expire at the end of the AGM in 2018.

Earlier in May, Hang Seng also named Irene YL Lee as a non-executive director and a member of the risk committee. According to the firm's articles of association, she will stay on this post until the conclusion of the 2015 Annual General Meeting, upon which time and subject to shareholder election, she will stay as INED for the three years, to expire at the end of the AGM in 2018.

Eastspring Investments announced that Andy Yang will assume the newly-created role of head of insurance relationship effective June 2014. In this post, he will be working closely with the CEOs and leadership teams of the firm's insurance businesses in the region. He reports to Michele Bang, deputy chief executive of Eastspring Investments. Prior to this post, Yang was the group head of investments and asset liability management at FWD Group.

HSBC Global Asset Management named Pedro Bastos as its new chief executive for Hong Kong and regional head of Asia-Pacific. Bastos relocates to Hong Kong, from the Latin America bureau. He is currently the CEO for HSBC Global AM in Brazil and regional head for Latin America. It is not yet known who will replace him in his old role. He succeeds Joanna Munro, who has been appointed global head of fiduciary governance at HSBC Global AM, following the completion of her secondment to Hong Kong and subject to regulatory approval. Bastos will report to Sridhar Chandrasekharan, the global CEO for HSBC Global AM, and locally to Kevin Martin, the regional head of retail banking and wealth management for Asia-Pacific.

Singapore
Bank of Singapore announced the appointment of veteran banker Low Wei Ling to become executive director, senior relationship manager effective 5 May 2014. Low Wei Ling joined as Bank of Singapore OCBC group executive director, with the remit to hire bankers and grow the business in Singapore and international markets for private banking. She reports to Jeffrey Tan, managing director and Singapore market head.

ABN AMRO, the Dutch bank, named Jacqueline Chang to the newly-created position of regional head of commodities Asia, as part of an expansion of the bank's global commodities activities with the energy, commodities and transportation business. Chang was previously the head of commodities in Singapore and in this new post will report to Jan-Maarten Mulder, the global head of commodities, and regionally to Maureen DeRooij, chief executive for Asia large corporates and merchant banking. In this capacity, she will also oversee the bank's Hong Kong commodities desk led by Ben Cheung, as well as the recently established regional structured inventory product desk in Singapore led by Julien Moreau-Pernet.

Rhone, a Swiss-headquartered wealth management firm that partners with Pictet, announced that Mark Jackman is joining its Singapore office in 4 August as the head of business development in Asia. Jackman, former head of global trusts and fiduciary at Standard Chartered, will be based in Singapore but will spend a significant amount of time in Hong Kong to support the business development needs for Rhone in Northeast Asia.

US investment management firm T Rowe Price named Scott Keller as head of global investment services, Asia-Pacific, based in Singapore. Keller joined from UBS, where he was head of Pan Asia, accountable for building the institutional and intermediary business. He replaced Flemming Madsen, who has been head of GIS, Asia-Pacific for the last eight years. Madsen will transition to a new role as head of global financial intermediaries for GIS, based in the US.
 
Bank J Safra Sarasin named Hena Hoda as managing director, client advisory for Southeast Asia. She took over from Geraldine Low who, according to her LinkedIn profile, is now the founding partner of Berioza Associates, a provider of corporate advisory services in Singapore. Hoda was previously a managing director and market head of the India subcontinent desk and Southeast Asia at Bank of Singapore.

OCBC Bank, the Singapore bank that also owns Bank of Singapore, appointed Vincent Choo Nyen Fui as executive vice president and chief risk officer with effect from 1 August 2014. he took over from Gilbert Kohnke who has helmed the group risk management division since September 2005. Kohnke will remain with the bank until 30 September to ensure a smooth transition.

The International Integrated Reporting Council appointed Chng Sok Hui, the chief financial officer of DBS, as its first South East Asia council member. Hui's appointment is significant because she is the first member from a South East Asia corporate and one of the first from a listed company to get in.

Boston-based Natixis Global Asset Management announced three appointments in Singapore for its regional wholesale business. Brenda Leow joined as associate director for wholesale and retail sales, reporting to Madeline Ho, managing director and head of wholesale fund distribution for Asia-Pacific. Shae Kuek, who joined in January 2014 from Fidelity as senior sales manager for wholesale and retail sales, also reports to Ho. The third hire is Jean Tan, who joined in April 2014 also from Fidelity as regional head of marketing for Singapore and Hong Kong, also reporting to Ho.

Societe Generale Private Banking appointed Alan Mudie as its head of investment strategy, replacing Antoine Blouin, who will focus on his role as head of wealth management solutions, Switzerland. Based in Geneva, Mudie is also chief investment officer of Societe Generale Private Banking (Suisse) and will be the entity’s spokesman on investment strategy issues. He joined from UBP in Switzerland, where he was CIO of private banking.

Manulife Singapore named Naveed Irshad as president and chief executive, with effect from 26 May 2014. He took over from Annette King, who has been named vice president for client centricity, brand and communications in Asia. Irshad previously served as senior vice president for global accounts for the Reinsurance Group of America in Canada. In his new post, he covers three key business segments: life insurance, wealth management and retirement solutions.