People Moves
Summary Of Senior Moves In Asia-Pacific Wealth Management - August 2017

A roundup of moves in the Asian wealth management sector during August.
Northern Trust appointed one of its senior figures, Yen Leng Ong, as country head for Singapore and head of Southeast Asia. She replaced Rohan Singh, who recently left the company. In her new role, effective from 1 December, Ong is responsible for leading the US-headquartered firm’s asset servicing business activities and driving growth of business lines including asset management and capital markets across the region. Most recently, Ong was chief administrative officer for Northern Trust in Asia-Pacific and head of product management, where she was responsible for regional business and product strategy and facilitating regional growth opportunities. Ong reports to William Mak, head of APAC, Northern Trust.
Deutsche Bank appointed Anand Rengarajan as head of securities services, Asia-Pacific. He replaced Ying-Ying Tan in the position. Rengarajan globally reports to Satvinder Singh, global head of securities services, and regionally report to Lisa Robins, APAC head of global transaction banking. He has over 24 years of experience and has been with Deutsche Bank since 2000.
PricewaterhouseCoopers admitted 53 new partners across its firms in Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore, taking the total partnership headcount to more than 850. Among the new intake, 31 were based in mainland China, eight in Hong Kong, six in Taiwan and eight in Singapore. Some 23 new partners are with the assurance practice, 16 in tax, 12 in advisory and two from the “One Firm Services” division.
Australia and New Zealand Banking group, which over the past 12 months has shed its Asia private banking and retail arms, signalled a move to bolster its image and ability to influence lawmakers by hiring a general manager for communications and public affairs. Tony Warren joined the bank after spending a decade at Telstra, the Australian telecoms firm, where he was most recently group executive for corporate affairs. He reports to Shayne Elliott, group chief executive.
Ayaltis, a Swiss fund of hedge fund boutique, moved Zurich-based senior investment research and portfolio manager Hao Shao to Hong Kong to open a family office. Since July 2017, he has been general manager based in greater China.
AxiomSL, a provider of risk and regulatory reporting solutions, appointed David Wormald as its Asia-Pacific regional sales director, as part of an expansion in the region. He reports to APAC chief executive Peter Tierney. Wormald is based in Hong Kong. With more than 25 years’ experience in sales and business development, Wormald was most recently with Thomson Reuters Financial and Risk division in Asia-Pacific, where he headed up the sales of the firm’s Enterprise Content & Capabilities area. Before that, he was regional sales manager for NYSE Technologies and was APAC head of business development for Broadridge in Hong Kong.
Savills Investment Management, an international real estate investment manager, appointed Benedict Lai as Asia research manager. Lai has over 10 years of experience in property research. Prior to this, he held various positions at PGIM Real Estate (previously known as Pramerica Real Estate Investors), Capital Malls Asia Limited, and Jones Lang LaSalle.
Natixis Global Asset Management appointed Tony Huang as general manager and head of institutional business development for Taiwan. He has more than 20 years' experience in the country, and most recently served as senior vice president and head of business development at Neuberger Berman. He reports to Kinji Kato, executive managing director and head of Japan for Natixis Global.
State Street Global Advisors appointed Mark Hui as head of global equity beta solutions for Asia ex-Japan. Based in Hong Kong, Hui oversees SSGA’s Asian equity index portfolios, which are managed from Hong Kong. He reports to Susan Darroch, head of global equity beta solutions for Asia-Pacific ex-Japan. Hui has over 19 years of industry experience. He re-joined SSGA in 2015 as senior portfolio manager responsible for indexing investment management in Asia ex-Japan. Prior to this, he was head of indexation and exchange-traded funds at HSBC Global Asset Management (UK) and was a global asset allocation portfolio manager at Legg Mason Asset Management. Hui first joined SSGA as a portfolio manager managing passive portfolios and ETFs in 2003.
Johannes Gschossmann was appointed by Chubb as head of financial lines in Singapore. He joined the company on 12 July and reports to Liam Burrell, division head of property & casualty (P&C). Gschossmann has more than 10 years of industry experience. Prior to joining Chubb, he was at Allianz overseeing the financial lines operations in Singapore and Southeast Asia.
FTSE 250 firm SANNE hired Mark Law to fill the newly-created role of managing director, alternative assets to lead its Asia-Pacific and Mauritius regional business. Based in Hong Kong, his main focus is on expanding SANNE's alternative asset capabilities across the APAC region and Mauritian networks.
International law firm Simmons & Simmons appointed Matthew Durham as a partner, working in its China employment practice in Shanghai. Durham qualified as a solicitor in 1998. He previously worked in the group's Shanghai office for “many years”, and became a consultant in 2009. He re-joined from Winston & Strawn, where he was a partner in the firm's Shanghai and Beijing offices.
Insight Investment appointed Angus Woolhouse as global head of distribution. Woolhouse has more than 20 years’ experience within the asset management industry and was most recently global head of distribution at Baring Asset Management (Asia) Limited. In Australia, Adam Kibble joined the team as product specialist, covering currency, multi-asset and fixed income. Located in Sydney, Kibble has a portfolio management background of over 15 years with Macquarie Funds Management focusing on fixed income, currency and commodities. Kibble reports to Bruce Murphy, director Australia and New Zealand, Insight Investment.
BNY Mellon Investment Management selected former Mercer executive Deborah Bannon as its head of consultant relationships and client services, Asia-Pacific. Bannon manages the company’s relationships with consulting firms and is based in Hong Kong. Earlier in her career, she spent stints with Mercer and Pioneer Investments, and for the latter headed up its Asian institutional business.
Waterfield Advisors, an Indian boutique firm that advises family offices and ultra-high net worth families, appointed Kartik Kini as chief operating officer. Kini joined the firm from Avendus, where he co-founded its wealth management practice. During his 20 years in the industry, he has also held managerial roles at Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch.
Singapore-headquartered Thirdrock brought over five wealth professionals, including two senior private bankers, to its client advisory team. It hired Arthur Fong as senior client advisor. With nearly three decades of banking experience, most of which were spent in private banking, he was most recently managing director, Greater China market as well as the deputy Singapore location head for the Greater China business at Bank of Singapore. Thirdrock also appointed senior private banking professional Martin Lim as senior client advisor. Limn joined from Standard Chartered Private Bank where he was executive director and head of the Malaysia team. Prior to that, he was executive director and desk head of the Malaysia team at UBS and has held similar roles in various banks such as Barclays Private Bank and UOB.
Other additions to the team included Richard Lewis, Rainer Teo and Nikhil Niyogi, all of whom are career private bankers with international experience in private banking and wealth management in leading financial institutions.
BNY Mellon Investment Management appointed Deborah Bannon as Asia-Pacific head of consultant relationships and head of client services. In this newly created role, she is responsible for managing BNY Mellon Investment Management’s relationships with global consulting firms. Based out of Hong Kong, Bannon reports to Lindsay Wright, head of distribution and co-head of BNY Mellon Investment Management, APAC.
BNP Paribas appointed Lemuel Lee to its wealth management division as its deputy head of investment services, Asia-Pacific, and head of investment services for Hong Kong. Based in Hong Kong, Lee reports to Arnaud Tellier, head of investment services, APAC. He succeeded Maggie Tsui who remains as a special advisor. With a career in investment banking and wealth management lasting for more than 14 years, Lee was previously head of equities, Asia for JP Morgan Private Bank.
Willis Towers Watson appointed Fabien Conderanne as deputy head of financial solutions for the Asia-Pacific region. The role was newly-created. Conderanne reports to Stuart Ashworth, managing director, financial solutions, Asia-Pacific.
Value Partners launched a new quantitative investment solutions team and appointed David Quah as co-managing director of quantitative investments solutions to lead the team with Kai Mak, co-managing director of quantitative investment solutions and senior fund manager. Quah, who has over 20 years of experience in exchange-traded funds and quantitative products, joined Value Partners in early August 2017 and is responsible on business development and management of the newly-created team.
GAM appointed Shizu Kishimoto to lead its sales and to oversee business operations in Japan. Kishimoto is based in Tokyo. She took up the role as representative director, reporting to Rossen Djounov, who was appointed head of Asia and relocated to Hong Kong in May 2017. Kishimoto has 20 years of experience covering the Japanese market. Kishimoto previously worked at Schroder Investment Management Japan, where she was head of intermediary business.
An Indonesia-focused senior private banker who left Credit Suisse earlier this year resurfaced at Bank of Singapore. Simon Kastono joined Bank of Singapore at the start of June, holding the role of team head with the Indonesia team in Singapore. At his former bank, he had been managing director and market leader of Indonesia. In 2015, Kastono was promoted to sector co-head of Indonesia, at the time working alongside Torsten Linke.
State Street Global Advisors appointed Rakhi Kumar as head of environmental, social and governance (ESG) and asset stewardship, reporting to Lynn Blake, chief investment officer for SSGA’s global equity beta solutions. In this expanded role, Kumar and her team are responsible for providing socially responsible investment strategies and steward the firm's clients’ assets globally. Rakhi leads a team across SSGA’s ESG investments and asset stewardship groups, including Chris McKnett, head of ESG strategists. The firm added that a search is underway for a head of asset stewardship for the Asia-Pacific region.
JP Morgan appointed Shantanu Jain as market leader for the NRI business, based in Singapore. He holds the title of managing director. The move came after the departure from the post of Sundaar Rumani. Previously, Jain was an executive director at JP Morgan from January 2014 – April 2017.
Intertrust, the trust, corporate and fund services provider, named John Ma general manager of its Shanghai office. Prior to this appointment, he was head of corporate services for the firm's Shanghai and Guangzhou offices. This saw him head up the corporate secreterial services, and he was responsible for exploring new business opportunities for other offices in the region.
Julius Baer appointed Rajesh Manwani as head of markets and advisory solutions in Asia with immediate effect. He is based in Singapore, reporting on a functional basis to Peter Gerlach, head of markets and Philipp Rickenbacher, head of advisory solutions, and regionally to Jimmy Lee, Asia-Pacific head. In over 19 years in the industry, Manwani has held global, regional and country roles in UBS, Standard Chartered and the last nine years in Credit Suisse, where he was managing director, head of investment solutions and products for Asia-Pacific. Manwani succeeded Luigi Vignola, who has taken on a new role as global head for structured products in Switzerland.
VP Bank, the Liechtenstein-headquartered lender, made senior hires in its Singapore office. It appointed Christian Christow, former head of intermediaries business at Deutsche Bank in Singapore, as head of business development. Christow has been based in Asia for 10 years. He reports to Sylvain Gysler, head of intermediaries at VP Bank (Singapore) Ltd. VP Bank (Singapore) Ltd also hired Claude Chevroulet as chief operating officer.
St James's Place Wealth Management Singapore Asia, part of UK-listed St James’s Place, appointed Chris Gill as development director to the international business. In his new role, Gill oversees proposition development. Gill has over a decade of international experience having previously held senior wealth management roles in Hong Kong and Singapore, including managing director of Friends Provident International (Singapore Branch) as well as serving as the deputy president of the Life Insurance Association in Singapore.
Kroll, the global security and risk control firm, appointed a veteran figure from Hong Kong law enforcement and the world of cyber-security to take on a new Asia leadership role. Paul Jackson was named Asia-Pacific leader for its cyber-security and investigations practice, based in Hong Kong.
A member of the Hong Kong Police Force for more than 22 years, rising to the rank of Chief Inspector and head of IT Forensics Practice, Investigations Team, Jackson led teams of cyber investigators, computer forensics examiners, and police college trainers, and was policy manager for digital evidence for the entire police force of 27,000 members. After leaving the HKPF in 2010, Jackson became APAC head of fraud and high tech investigations for JP Morgan and from 2012-2014, he relocated to New York where he served as the bank’s global head of high-tech/cyber investigations. Most recently, he was APAC managing director for Stroz Friedberg, a cyber-security firm.
The Australia-based Myer Family Company parted ways with its chief executive Danielle Press after completing its due diligence for its proposed A$3 billion ($2.39 billion) merger with rival Mutual Trust and appointing former Ernst & Young partner Phil Harkness to lead the merged group.
HSBC's private banking business named Desiree Lam as regional head of credit advisory, global private banking, Asia-Pacific. In this role, she is responsible for managing the firm's regional Asia credit advisory teams, and overseeing the private bank's credit propositions and lending products. She joined one of HSBC's Hong Kong branches from UBS, the world's largest wealth manager, where she was head of structured credit, North Asia.
Australia & New Zealand Banking Group appointed Rufus Pinto as chief executive for its business in Laos, reporting to Dennis Hussey, CEO Vietnam and head of Greater Mekong Region. Pinto is currently regional country head for ANZ in Vanuatu, Kiribati & New Caledonia. 0Prior to this, he held senior roles with ANZ across businesses including corporate and institutional banking, small- to medium- sized business banking and private wealth.
Julius Baer appointed Nelson Ip to its operation in Hong Kong. Ip was previously director products and services at UBS in Hong Kong. He worked with UBS in Hong Kong for over nine years working with ultra-high net worth clients. Prior to that role, Ip was vice president of investment products for three years at Bank Sarasin in Hong Kong.
Asset manager Robeco appointed Shiro Tsubota as president & representative director of Japan, effective immediately. Tsubota succeeded Kikuo Kuroiwa, who left the firm after a transition.
Crestone Wealth Management appointed Peter Hawkins as independent director. Hawkins has served on the board of Westpac Banking Corporation and is chair of the Technology Committee for the WBC board. He also serves on the boards of Mirvac Group and Liberty Financial. He spent 34 years with Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, where he held various senior executive and directorship positions, including group managing director, group strategy.