September was busy for executive moves in Asia, with a number of senior hires and departures across a number of large banks as well as other institutions.

Asia moves for September, 2017
The private banking arm of Standard Chartered appointed Abhijit Shetty, a former senior banker at Singapore-headquartered DBS, as a senior relationship manager. The banker had been at DBS for about five years and joined the UK-listed lender early in September. He is based in Singapore. Prior to joining DBS in 2012, he previously worked at ANZ.

Philip Kunz, wealth management operating head for Southeast Asia, stepped down to pursue an opportunity elsewhere in Singapore. Kunz was previously the Indonesia market head, a role he held for seven years and had only been in his new role since July. He returned to HSBC as global head of private banking for Southeast Asia. In his new role, Kunz is responsible for driving and executing HSBC’s strategy for private banking across Southeast Asia. Based in Singapore, he reports locally to HSBC Singapore’s chief executive, Tony Cripps and functionally to the regional head of global private banking, Asia-Pacific, Tan Siew Meng.

Prudential Corporation Asia, the life insurer, appointed Raghu Hariharan as chief financial officer, succeeding Adrian O’Connor, who is left the firm. Hariharan has been group director of strategy and capital markets at Prudential and a member of its group executive committee. In his new role, he has responsibility for finance, actuarial, cpital markets, strategy and investor relations across the region. With more than 20 years of experience in financial services in Asia, the US and the UK, Hariharan joined Prudential in 2012 as investor relations director. He has held a number of senior roles with large multi-national companies including Citibank, General Electric and Fox-Pitt Kelton. Prior to joining Prudential, he was MD at Citibank, in charge of its global insurance sector equity research programme.

The financial authority of Labuan, the offshore jurisdiction off the coast of eastern Malaysia, appointed Encik Danial Mah bin Abdullah as its new director-general for a three-year term. Encik Danial Mah took up the role at the Labuan Financial Services Authority  after the completion of Datuk Ahmad Hizzad bin Baharuddin’s secondment to Labuan FSA. Encik Danial Mah has been deputy DG of Labuan FSA, a position he has held since 2007. He is also the chairman of the credit risk, investment and risk management committee, asset management committee and talent management committee of Labuan FSA. He is also the secretary to the Authority of Labuan FSA. He joined that organisation in 1997.

Manulife Real Estate, part of Toronto-headquartered Manulife, appointed Kenny Lam as managing director, head of Asia Real Estate Investments. In this new, Hong Kong-based role, Lam sources and executes acquisitions in Asia and assists with the growth of Manulife Real Estate’s acquisition platform into new markets. Lam is based at Manulife’s Lee Garden office. Previously, Lam held progressively senior roles at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Ping An Real Estate and JP Morgan Asset Management.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia said the chief executive of its wealth management unit was leaving the group in December. Annabel Spring “has decided to leave”, CBA said following the bank's announcement that it will sell off its Australian and New Zealand life insurance business to Asia-focused insurer AIA Group for A$3.8 billion ($3.1 billion), the bank said, but failed to provide a reason. The chief executive of Australia's largest lender, Ian Narev, was also due to retire at the end of the year. The announcement of Spring's departure came after financial intelligence and regulatory agency Austrac launched civil penalty proceedings against the bank for “serious and systemic non-compliance” with rules to stop money laundering and terrorism financing. The scandal has already shaved billions off CBA's market value. Spring continues to lead CBA's wealth management business and the divestiture of its insurance business until the end of this year. 

Michael Venter, currently chief financial officer of International Financial Services, was appointed chief operating officer of CBA's wealth management arm. 

Comgest, the independent asset management group focused, appointed Jimmy Chen as an analyst specialising in Asian equities, with a focus on the Chinese market. Chen is responsible for research and analysis of companies that offer long-term investment opportunities in the region. He is based in Hong Kong and he work with lead portfolio manager David Raper, who heads up the firm’s Asian research team, as well as Baijing Yu and Jasmine Kang, analysts and portfolio managers. Prior to joining Comgest, Chen worked for Sanford C Bernstein as a senior research associate specialising in Asian regional telecoms. 

Singapore-based specialist wealth management headhunter, Huddleston Jones, expanded its Asia operation. Jack Booth, a director at the firm, now leads the company’s expansion into Hong Kong, with regional coverage including China and Taiwan. Appointed by Huddleston Jones in 2016, Booth has over 10 years of Asian wealth management experience. 

Standard Chartered Private Bank appointed Michelle Ho as managing director of Greater China  and North Asia. In this role, she is be based in Singapore, and reports to Teddy Kwong, market head, Greater China  and North Asia, and Andrew Ho, market head, South & South East Asia. Ho has 25 years of banking experience, with a keen focus on private banking in the North Asia region for the past 18 years, including leadership roles in DBS Private Bank, and team head at HSBC Private Bank and Barclays. She was most recently managing director, team leader at Bank of Singapore.

Manulife Asset Management appointed Emmanuel Bucaille as senior managing director and head of wealth solutions of its wealth and asset management operation in Asia. In this newly-created position based in Hong Kong, Bucaille has regional oversight in formulating, articulating and implementing wealth solutions as well as product strategies for Manulife.

Bacaille reports to Michael Dommermuth, executive vice President and head of wealth and asset management, Asia. Bucaille has over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, with the majority of his career spent with UBS in Europe and Asia.

Westpac appointed Frances Cheung as head of macro strategy, Asia, to further expand its financial markets capability. Cheung joined from Société Générale where she was head of rates strategy, Asia ex-Japan. She has 17 years of experience as an economist and rates strategist covering Asian economies and markets. She was previously head of Asian rates strategy with Credit Agricole, and also spent five years with Standard Chartered Bank. In her new role she is based in Singapore, reporting to Sneha Sanghvi, head of financial markets, Asia in Singapore and David Goodman, head of macro strategy in Sydney.

Franklin Templeton Investments appointed Avinash Satwalekar as country head of Malaysia and chief executive of Franklin Templeton Asset Management (Malaysia) Sdn. Satwalekar relocated to Kuala Lumpur from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to take responsibility for leading the firm’s retail and institutional distribution efforts across Malaysia, and reports to Adam Quaife, regional head for Southeast Asia. He replaced Sandeep Singh who moved to Dubai to become senior director and regional head, Central Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa. In addition to his new role, Satwalekar continues his involvement with the company’s business in Vietnam by serving as chairman of the board for Vietcombank Fund Management, a joint venture between Franklin Templeton and Vietcombank in Vietnam. Satwalekar was previously the CEO and chief investment officer for VCBF based in Ho Chi Minh City, and oversaw the combined business and investment activities of the group. 

RBC Wealth Management unveiled a number of senior hires. 

Tho Gea Hong, managing director, head of WM for Southeast Asia, was appointed chief executive for the Singapore Branch. In this role, Tho continues to lead the Singapore-based private banking team, in addition to heading up the business from a regulatory standpoint. 

Mike Reed joined as MD, head of distribution strategy, RBC Wealth Management in Asia. He  develops geographic and client segment strategies and drives sales and wealth planning initiatives. Throughout his 18-year tenure with the firm, Reed has held leadership roles in Canada, the US and, most recently, the UK, where he was MD, head of multi-family offices.

Chen Yang joined as MD, head of business strategy, RBC Wealth Management in Asia. In this role, Yang has seven years of  leadership experience with RBC; he also has worked for several years as a senior management consultant.

Reed and Yang relocated to Hong Kong from London and Toronto, respectively, and report to Peter Corry, head of RBC Wealth Management, Asia. Corry is located in Singapore.

Stefan Mueller joined RBC Global Asset Management, the asset management division of Royal Bank of Canada, as MD, Next Generation Asset Management. In his new role, Mueller examines and pursues the asset management implications of blockchain technology. Mueller reports to Damon Williams, chief executive, RBC GAM, and continues to be based in Singapore. Prior to this, Mueller served as chief operating officer of RBC Wealth Management, Asia and led its investment team since 2014.

RBC Wealth Management also recently welcomed five individuals to its private banking teams in Hong Kong and Singapore:

-- Derek Leung joined as director, relationship manager, from ANZ, where he was director, private banking, international team, serving sophisticated high net worth individuals and ultra-high net worth individual clients in North Asia;
-- Rita Yeung joined as Director, Relationship Manager, from EFG Bank, where she focused on HNW and UHNW clients throughout Greater China;
-- Cherry Lee joined as director, Greater China, from RBC Personal & Commercial Banking in Toronto, in a new role developing deeper relationships between Greater China and North America;
-- Timothy Cheng joined as associate director, relationship manager from Westpac, where he held management and client relationship roles; and
Irene Ng joined the Singapore office as associate director, relationship manager from ANZ, where she was a private banker.

T Rowe Price appointed Thomas Poullaouec as head of multi-asset solutions for Asia-Pacific (APAC). Poullaouec is based in Hong Kong and reports to Baltimore-based Peter Austin, global head of multi-asset solutions and a member of T Rowe Price’s multi-asset investment team. He has nearly 20 years of experience providing targeted and research-based asset allocation solutions for clients in Asia and Europe.

Standard Chartered Private Bank announced a series of strategic appointments; the appointments meant the UK-listed bank has hired more than 50 bankers and advisors since the fourth quarter of last year. 
Jack Wu and Pauline Ko were named as managing directors, market heads and based in Hong Kong. Both reports to Vivian Chan, regional head, private banking, Greater China & North Asia. Wu has over 27 years of private and commercial banking experience from global financial institutions including UBS, Credit Suisse and HSBC. Prior to the appointment, he was MD and team head for Greater China at HSBC Private Bank.

Ko was most recently managing director, group head of Greater China at Deutsche Bank. She has held a number of leadership roles in other global banking institutions over the last 22 years, including Merrill Lynch and Julius Baer.

Other leadership roles added to the private banking team include Pitman Lau, MD and team leader, who joined from BNP Paribas, and Reggie Cheung, executive director and team leader, who was most recently with HSBC. The regional front office team took on ten additional relationship managers, including Bell Wong and Fredric Leung, both appointed as executive directors. The bank's investment advisory team saw the appointments of Chris Tang, Kwok-On Fung and Chris Tong, as executive directors.

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Asian markets specialist Harvest Global Investments, which oversees $114 billion in client assets, appointed three senior figures as part of its Hong Kong expansion. Winnie Wong, fixed income portfolio Manager, is responsible for managing fixed income portfolios run by Harvest. She has over 12 years of experience working as an investment analyst and portfolio manager covering Asian companies. She has previously held roles at Royal Bank of Canada, Warburg Pincus, and Credit Suisse. Kathy Zhang, China equity strategist, is responsible for equity strategy research on both Hong Kong and A-Share stock markets. Previously, she worked for Credit Suisse, focusing on Chinese industrials. Kenn An, head of product, oversees product development at Harvest Global Investments. Kenn was previously head of product and marketing at UBS Asset Management in Hong Kong. He has also worked for several investment banks, including Haitong International Securities, Barclays Capital, Société Généraleand Calyon.

DBS hired a former senior Standard Chartered manager to be regional head for wealth advisory enablement and order management architecture - Daniel Li. Li had previously been at Standard Chartered for two years, where he run the wealth management transformation programme focused on private and retail banking. In his new role, he reports to Lim Soon Chong, regional head of investment products and advisory.

Anil Wadhwani was appointed president and CEO of Manulife Asia. Wadhwani is a global financial services leader who has spent his 25-year career with Citi, primarily in growth roles across consumer banking in Asia, with a focus on customer experience and digitisation. He has extensive wealth management and insurance distribution experience, and most recently served as the global head of operations for Citi's consumer bank, based in New York. He has lived and worked in Asia, Europe and the US.

Singapore-headquartered Kamet Capital Partners, a single family office that was launched recently, appointed former Morgan Stanley man Derek Tay as its chief operating officer. Tay had been executive director, head of Southeast Asia equity sales trading, for four years, spending a total of 11 years at the US-listed firm. Kamet Capital was founded by former Julius Baer senior banker Kerry Goh, who holds the titles of chief investment officer and chief executive. At Julius Baer, he was head of portfolio management for Asia from May 2010 to February 2017. Before that, Goh was a senior portfolio manager at UBS.

T Rowe Price appointed Thomas Poullaouec as head of multi-asset solutions Asia-Pacific. Poullaouec is based in Hong Kong and reports to Baltimore-based Peter Austin, global head of multi-asset solutions.
He has nearly 20 years of experience providing targeted and research-based asset allocation solutions for clients in Asia and Europe.

Goldman Sachs reportedly confirmed it has a new chief executive, taking the helm from a predecessor who continues at the US firm as a retired partner, advisory director. The firm said that Jason Moo has been appointed CEO of Goldman Sachs Singapore Pte, a legal entity in Singapore. Moo kept his role as the regional manager for Southeast Asia and Australia at Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management. He has worked at Goldman Sachs for 19 years. 

EightStone, an international private investment office based out of Singapore, appointed a former head of investment funds at Indosuez Wealth Management. Hakim Naji joined as a portfolio manager, and reports to Olivier Destandau, chief investment officer. 

T Rowe Price Group appointed two new members to its Japan businesses. Kuniaki Doi was made head of retail business, and Yasuo Miyajima became head of institutional investors business.
Doi leads the retail business in the market. He was previously with Goldman Sachs, where he last held the position of managing director and head of the third-party distribution team, and before that, he served in investment management roles at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

Miyajima engages with institutional investors in Japan. He has more than 20 years of professional experience through various roles in the financial industry. Most recently, he was with Prudential Investment Management Japan, where he oversaw the full integration of that company’s sales division. 

Bank of Singapore added Angel Wu to its Hong Kong team, taking up the role of head of the product management group. She formerly worked for ABN AMRO. Wu joined ABN AMRO in Hong Kong in 2006. Prior to that she worked with Dah Sing Bank, Citi, Bank of East Asia and Mees Pierson in Hong Kong.

Pictet Wealth Management appointed David Gaud as chief investment officer for Asia. Based in Singapore, Gaud reports to Cesar Perez Ruiz, chief investment officer of Pictet Wealth Management. Gaud replaces Bhaskar Laxminarayan who was CIO in Asia. Gaud has over 20 years’ experience in the banking industry, mostly in Asia, including 11 years managing investment strategies. He joined Pictet from Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management, where he started working in 2006, first in France and then in Hong Kong, as an Asian equities fund manager. 

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group appointed Opher Yom-Tov as its first chief design officer, reporting to the group executive for digital banking, Maile Carnegie. Yom-Tov spent a decade working at global design and innovation firm IDEO in California's Silicon Valley. He also led the organisation in Shanghai, China. During his time with IDEO he helped design products for companies such as Apple, Microsoft, General Electric, Procter & Gamble and McDonald’s.

Sandeep Sharma, who was made head of global private banking for Southeast Asia at HSBC in April last year, left the Hong Kong/London-listed group to pursue other opportunities. Prior to his latest appointment, Sharma served as co-head of global private banking for Southeast Asia, a role he had held since 2014.

BNP Paribas Asset Management appointed Rakesh Vengayil as deputy chief executive for the Asia-Pacific region. He reports to Hong Kong-based Ligia Torres, CEO for Asia-Pacific at BNP Paribas Asset Management. As part of his move, Vengayil also took over as CEO for Hong Kong, BNP Paribas Asset Management from Tino Moorrees, who decided to pursue other interests and opportunities outside the company. 

Union Bancaire Privée appointed a senior figure from Standard Chartered, HSBC Private Bank and DBS to be its market head for Hong Kong. Ushe Koh joined the Geneva-headquartered firm. In his new role Koh reports to Eric Morin, head of North Asia for UBP. From November 2012, Koh had held various roles at Standard Chartered Bank, most recently as managing director, head of relationship management, China – private banking. From 2007 to 2012 he was a relationship manager at HSBC Private Bank, and prior to this, was a vice president, private banking (Southeast Asia) at DBS. 

Singapore-based independent asset management firm Crossinvest appointed Gary Tiernan as investments head, having most recently held senior management roles at the private banking arm of Standard Chartered. Tiernan is responsible for the suite of investment services. With three decades of experience in financial markets, Tiernan has been based in Singapore since 2004. During that time he has led teams working with clients from Asia, Middle East, Europe, Africa and Latin America. Most recently, he held a number of senior leadership roles at Standard Chartered Private Bank including global Head of the investment advisory, fiduciary and sales management functions.

Tiernan was also a member of Standard Chartered's global management and investment committees. From 2000 to 2008, he worked with Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management firstly in Switzerland and then in Asia. When he left he was the Asia regional head of global investments and sales and a member of the Asia management committee.

Equiom, the professional services provider, named Richard Sayers managing director for its fiduciary services division in Singapore, replacing Angelo Venardos who left the role to become chairman of the board. Sayers is responsible for the overall performance of the business and ensuring activity is in line with group strategy. He joined from Enhance Group, which he co-founded in 2005.