Wealth and asset management house Noah Holdings appointed Shang-yan Chuang as chief financial officer, taking over from Ching Tao, who is now chief executive of Noah US, the firm’s first US subsidiary.Chuang has more than 13 years of experience in financial services. In March 2011, he joined Noah as a director of investment relations and corporate development. In 2012, he founded Noah Holdings (Hong Kong) and served as its executive director and CEO until January 2016. Prior to joining Noah, Chuang was a senior executive at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in the investment banking division and Asia private equity from 2003 to 2011, based in Hong Kong.

Legg Mason appointed John Besley in Australia as part of its drive to bring out “next generation” offerings to run alongside its traditional fund proposition.Besley took on the role of product management director, Australia, to bolster product strategy and development in the region. His appointment followed that of Andy Sowerby as head of Australia in August. Besley originally joined Legg Mason in June 2013 as client service and distribution support manager. Based in Legg Mason’s Melbourne office, he reports to Jaspal Sagger, head of international products, who is based in London.

Asia-based Cedrus Investments, which operates in the private wealth and institutional space, appointed Wenjia Liang as senior legal counsel. She joined from the Shanghai office of Jingtian & Gongcheng, the law firm, where she was a senior associate.Liang is qualified to practice People's Republic of China law and has global legal working experience.

David Chong, president of Portcullis Group, was re-elected as president of the Singapore Trustees Association for a term of two years, running to 2018. In other roles, Chong, a prominent figure in the industry, is executive chairman of Fusang, the Asian family office, which is owned by his family. He is also a director of David Chong Law Corporation, Singapore. He is a qualified barrister.

Julius Baer made a number of key hires in Hong Kong and Singapore as part of its growth drive in the Philippines. In Hong Kong, Dominik Fuerst joined as team head, focusing on the Philippine market. He serves as an executive director, having previously spent nearly 6 years at Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch. Prior to that, he worked at UBS. Trina Louey joined as a senior RM.

Mike Locsin joined the Singapore team after eight years with Credit Suisse. He was also appointed as a senior relationship manager, focusing on the Philippine market.

 

Julius Baer added to its private banking coverage of the Philippines. Christian Cappelli relocated to Singapore from Hong Kong to lead the Zurich-listed lender's Philippines operations, continuing in his present role as market group head for the country and reporting to Angela Bow, head of emerging Asia.

 

Ivan Guidi was appointed deputy sub-regional head for emerging Asia and senior client advisor for UHNW Philippines, also reporting to Bow. Guidi was previously head of offshore markets ex-Greater China at Julius Baer. He is based in Hong Kong. Custom House Global Fund Services, an international hedge fund administration specialist, opened an office in Shanghai and hired former UBS manager Sunny Huang to develop the business. Huang is a relationship manager.

 

In her previous role at UBS, Huang was a client advisor assistant in Hong Kong, responsible for the day-to-day administration of onboarding clients and providing updates on their portfolios.

Knight Frank made four appointments across its project management, international capital markets and international project marketing teams in China. In Beijing, Bernard Ong was appointed to the dual role of managing director of Beijing and China head of project management. He has over 15 years of project management experience in Asia, including China, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. He previously worked at Colliers International and Cushman & Wakefield.
In Shanghai, Bunny Wang was appointed to the dual role of China head of international capital markets and international project marketing. She has over 13 years of commercial real estate experience and also previously worked at Colliers International, where she helped private and state-owned large Chinese conglomerates with outbound property requirements.

Supporting Wang will be Yi Cheng, who joined Knight Frank as associate director, international project marketing, China, and Ken Wu, who was appointed as senior manager, international capital markets, China.
Cheng, who was previously general manager, business development at Vistra Group, oversees international residential project sales and marketing activities in China. He manages the division’s expansion throughout the country. He is also be responsible for managing the sales and channel teams, while coordinating exhibitions and events for international property launches.

 

Wu previously held senior management roles at Colliers International and Cushman & Wakefield. He helps Wang manage the international capital markets team in China. His specialties include real estate investment, financial modelling, project valuation, leasing and integrated consulting.

 

HSBC appointed Anurag Mathur as head of its retail banking and wealth management business in Singapore, taking over from Matthew Colebrook, who was appointed to lead HSBC’s RBWM business in the Middle East.
Mathur, who joined HSBC in Hong Kong in 2009, was most recently head of international markets for RBWM in Asia, overseeing growth strategies and transformation agendas for HSBC in Bangladesh, Brunei, Macau, Mauritius, New Zealand, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. He has held senior roles for RBWM, covering product management, strategic planning and business performance management. Mathur has 20 years of industry experience. He reports to HSBC Singapore’s chief executive, Guy Harvey-Samuel, and HSBC’s head of RBWM of Asia-Pacific, Kevin Martin.

Old Mutual Global Investors hired Diego Parrilla as managing director, commodities, a newly-created role in Singapore. Parrilla joined from Dymon Asia Capital, where he worked from August 2015, having previously spent a year as a portfolio manager at BlueCrest Capital Management. His previous roles include managing director and head of commodities, Asia Pacific at Merrill Lynch and managing director and global head of commodity sales at Merrill Lynch.

Eastspring Investments appointed Phil Stockwell as the new chief executive of its Singapore business. Stockwell joined Eastspring in 2014 and has been the firm’s chief operating officer. He succeeded Jackie Chew, who took on a global role within Prudential’s internal audit team. Before Eastspring, Stockwell was COO at BT Investment Management in Australia. He has also held consulting roles with McKinsey & Company and KPMG Consulting.

Bank of Singapore expanded its Philippines team with the appointments of Arthur Ooi as managing director and team head, and Brandon Ho as executive director and senior relationship manager. Ooi was most recently team head with Credit Suisse Private Bank’s Philippines business. Previously, he worked at UBS and Citigroup. Ooi has advised ultra-high net worth private clients, family offices and institutional clients, both as a lawyer and banker, for the last 19 years. He is an advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore.

Silverdale Capital appointed Bank of Singapore’s Aseem Arora to the newly-created role of president. Arora previously spent five years as managing director and head of strategic initiatives and new markets at Bank of Singapore. There, he was responsible for the turnaround of the bank’s UK franchise, covering external asset manager and family office business across Europe and Asia. Before that, he was global head of NRI business at Merrill Lynch, where he doubled both the client base and assets under management, taking the latter to over $4 billion in under two years. Arora has also worked at Citibank as an area director. Based in Singapore, Arora leads Silverdale’s strategic business development and build on its fund offering for private banks, external asset managers, family offices, institutional and ultra-high net worth clients across Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

EFG Asset Management appointed Rebekah Chuan as chief executive and head of investments in Singapore. Chuan joined from DBS, where she spent five years building the bank’s discretionary portfolio management platform. Previously, she was head of discretionary at HSBC (Suisse) Private Bank, based in Singapore, for 10 years. Before that, she held senior roles at Newton Investment Management, AXA Asset Management and Aviva Investors. She brings 27 years of industry experience. Based in Singapore, Chuan leads the business regionally and will drive the investment solutions offering, supported by a locally-based investment team. She took over from Andrew Lee, who used to cover both Hong Kong and Singapore. He now focuses exclusively on his role as CEO of EFGAM, Hong Kong.

Trident Trust Group appointed Victor Ho as executive director, head of business development of its Hong Kong office. Ho most recently worked at Bedell Group as head of Asia-Pacific, business development and trust administration. He has expertise in serving Chinese corporates and high net worth families and their professional advisors in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK. He reports to Terry Wong, head of Trident Trust’s office in Hong Kong.

Australia’s Commonwealth Bank hired Ivan Jaya as head of wealth management and customer segments in Indonesia. Jaya was previously senior vice president, head of wealth management at Citibank Indonesia. He has also worked at ANZ and Standard Chartered.

National Australia Bank appointed Michelle Toy as head of marketing and corporate affairs for its international branches. Toy joined from BNP Paribas, where she was head of marketing and communications for the bank's securities services business. She has over 10 years' marketing experience in the banking industry, having also worked at JP Morgan, Nomura Securities and State Street. She replaced Amy Johnson, who has moved back to Australia. Based in Hong Kong, Toy oversees NAB's marketing and corporate affairs teams in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Australia, with overall responsibility for its international branches in Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Japan, India, the UK and the US as well as representative offices in Vietnam and Indonesia.

Crossbridge Capital appointed Charlie O’Flaherty to the newly-created role of head of digital strategy and distribution. O’Flaherty has been a partner with the firm since 2015 and has 24 years of experience across banking, capital markets and wealth management. He has previously worked at Bank of Ireland Global Markets, ABN AMRO and Incapital in the US. He is based in Singapore.

Manulife Asset Management appointed Murray Collis as managing director, head of fixed income in Singapore. Collis was most recently head of Asian fixed income at Standish Mellon Asset Management, based in Singapore.

Morningstar, the fund research firm, appointed Chris Douglas as director of manager research ratings for Asia-Pacific, reporting to Grant Kenaway, who is global practice leader, manager research, at the company. He replaceed Kathryn Young, who is leaving Morningstar. The appointment saw Douglas return to the Asia market after two years working as a senior leader in Morningstar’s North American data business.

Chubb appointed Jason Keen as head of property and casualty for the Asia-Pacific region. He took over from Paul McNamee, who assumed a new role as regional president. Keen has overall management responsibility for Chubb's commercial property and casualty business across the region. This includes property and terrorism, energy, construction, casualty, financial lines, surety, environmental, small and medium sized enterprises, marine and custom industry solutions. In his new capacity, he reports to McNamee. Keen was formerly head of property for Chubb in the region, a position he retained after ACE's acquisition of Chubb in January 2016.

Old Mutual Global Investors hired Richard Mo in the newly created position of head of China business. Mo joined after 16 years with JP Morgan Asset Management, where he was most recently head of the China retail business, responsible for wealth management and client development in retail markets in China, dealing with both Chinese and foreign banks. He held a number of other distribution and client relationship-focused roles at the firm across Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. He was also a member of the JP Morgan Asset Management China executive committee. Based in OMGI’s Hong Kong office, Mo reports to Carol Wong, managing director, Asia-Pacific.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group appointed Raymond Yeung as chief economist, Greater China, reporting to ANZ chief economist Richard Yetsenga. Yeung joined ANZ in 2010 as senior economist, Greater China. He has been acting chief economist, Greater China, since March. He leads ANZ’s research team providing macroeconomic analysis on the Chinese economy as well as for Hong Kong and Taiwan, with a particular focus on monetary policy and the financial liberalisation of China. Prior to joining ANZ, Yeung was deputy head of economic research for Asia at Swiss Re in Hong Kong.

BNP Paribas Wealth Management appointed a Japan desk head, based out of Singapore. Takeshi Fujimoto, the new desk head, previously worked at Sumitomo Mitsui Bank Corporation for three years. His latest role was that of deputy general manager, head of wealth management. He also worked for Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi's personal wealth division.

Vontobel Asset Management appointed Naohiko Tabei as executive director, institutional clients and consultant relations. He is based in Hong Kong. Tabei, who has more than 25 years of industry experience, previously worked at Pine Bridge Investments, where he held the post of head of institutional business. Prior to that, he was head of institutional fund sales at Schroders Investment Management.

RBC Wealth Management promoted Ignatius Chong, its market head for Greater China, to the new role of managing director, head of private wealth for Greater China. Chong is responsible for building out the firm's private wealth offering in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. In his new role, Chong reports to Peter Corry, head of wealth management for Asia.

Julius Baer appointed former UBS senior manager Yves Klenk as head of markets and advisory solutions for Hong Kong, a new role at the firm. Klenk reports to Luigi Vignola, head of markets and advisory solutions for Asia-Pacific. Vignola is based in Singapore. At UBS, Klenk was most recently head of active advisory for Asia-Pacific. He worked for the Zurich-listed lender for 18 years, including time in Asia and Switzerland.
Trident Trust appointed Sean Coughlan as managing director of its Singapore office. oughlan has held a number of senior positions within the trust industry in Singapore and Europe at both independent and institutional trust companies. In his new role, Coughlan reports to Markus Grossmann, regional manager for Trident Trust’s offices in Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore and Zurich and the Trident Fiduciaries (Middle East) office in Cyprus.

Grossman was made the MD for Singapore at Trident when that firm opened the office in the Asian city, later becoming Asia regional manager. Coughlan's arrival means Grossman moved out of the MD role in Singapore to focus on his regional responsibilities.

Zurich Insurance Group appointed Jack Howell to be its chief executive officer for the Asia-Pacific region. Howell reports to Mario Greco, group CEO, and is based out of Hong Kong. Stuart Spencer, who holds the position of regional CEO of Zurich in Asia-Pacific on an interim basis, remains in the region and work with Howell. Previoiusly, Howell worked at Generali, where he held the role of regional officer for Asia since early 2015. He has more than 20 years of experience in Asia's insurance sector, holding CEO positions in the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia at AIG and Prudential.

Singapore-based independent asset manager firm TriLake brought in senior relationship manager Dean Elder, formerly a senior figure at Standard Chartered’s private bank.

 

Standard Chartered Private Bank hired two senior managers, based out of Hong Kong. Michael Yong-Haron joined the private bank of the UK-listed firm as head of relationship management, private banking in Hong Kong. Previously, he was North Asia head of wealth management at Royal Bank of Canada. Alex Tse was appointed managing director, senior team leader of client advisory, private banking. He was most recently managing director and sector head at Credit Suisse. The pair report to Desmond Liu, regional head of Greater China Private Banking.

Manulife appointed Gretchen Garrigues as executive vice president and global chief marketing officer. Garrigues was previously global chief marketing officer at First Data where she led marketing efforts to deliver on the firm’s initial public offering last year. Before that, she spent 16 years in various marketing leadership positions at GE Capital.

The chief operating officer of Australia-headquartered Westpac, John Arthur, retired from the lender. The roles of group general counsel and chief compliance officer being elevated to the executive team, meanwhile. Arthur had been at Westpac since 2008, joining as group executive, counsel and secretariat. He was made COO in September 2011. His most recent responsibilities included contact centres, procurement, property, banking operations, enterprise investments, compliance, legal and secretariat services.

As part of the changes, Rebecca Lim, group general counsel and chief compliance officer, joined the executive team, reporting to chief executive, Brian Hartzer. Gary Thursby took on the expanded role of group executive, strategy, transformation and business services.

Withers appointed Marcus Hinkley as special counsel in its Singapore office. Hinkley previously worked at Collas Crill, where he was formerly head of the trust group practice in the Channel Islands, and since 2012, head of the firm’s Singapore office. He advises trust companies, banks, family offices and wealthy families on all aspects of private wealth structuring, with an emphasis on the Southeast Asian region.

 

Bank of America hired Izumi Devalier, formerly of HSBC, as its chief economist for Japan. Devalier, who worked as a Hong Kong-based economist at HSBC covering Japan and other Asian economies, joined Merrill Lynch Japan Securities Co. as head of Japan economics.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group appointed Richard Yetsenga to the post of chief economist, reporting to its managing director for markets, Shayne Collins. Yetsenga joined the bank in 2011 and has been acting chief economist since March this year. Prior to this, he was the head of financial markets research at ANZ. He has held senior economic research roles at HSBC, Deutsche Bank and the Australian government.

Eight Roads Ventures, formerly known as Fidelity Growth Partners, appointed Joe Chang as a partner in its China ventures team. The team focuses on enterprise technology, consumer IT, fintech and services investments. Chang is based in the Shanghai office. Previously, Chang worked at SoftBank China Venture Capital, where he was a partner. Before that, Chang was head of corporate development at Cisco Greater China. Before this, he held various senior sales and general management roles at Microsoft China, having spent the first 10 years of his career in consulting in China and the US, first with Coopers & Lybrand then McKinsey & Co.

 

PricewaterhouseCoopers admitted 58 new partners across its firms in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, taking the total to around 800 partners. Of the new partners, 33 are based in mainland China, nine in Hong Kong, eight in Taiwan and eight in Singapore. Some 27 new partners are with the assurance practice; there are 15 in tax and 16 in advisory. Out of the total, 18 of the new partners are women, equal to 31 per cent of the new intake, it said. These 58 partners are newly promoted.

Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission appointed Christina Choi as executive director of investment products for a three-year term. Choi was appointed acting head of the investment products division after Julia Leung was appointed as executive director of the intermediaries division in June.

Australia’s financial watchdog appointed a new chairman of its markets disciplinary panel for a two-year term. The new chairman is Simon Gray. He took the helm from Lisa Gray, who has led the panel for the past six years.

 

Union Bancaire Privee brought in two senior bankers for its Singapore business. Prashant Tandon, one of the joiners, previously worked at Barclays, where he was a managing director covering non-resident Indian markets and based out of Dubai. He carried out that role for more than five years. Formerly, he was a director at Merrill Lynch. The second joiner is Jane Maund, who is to cover North Asian clients. Maund previously worked at Goldman Sachs. They are based in Singapore.

Savills Investment Management, part of the Savills real estate group, appointed Tammy Kuan as chief financial officer for the Asia-Pacific region. Kuan leads the finance and operations teams in the region and have overall responsibility for fund finance, covering financial reporting and control, and financial due diligence on new deals, working with the Savills IM group teams on tax structuring, tax compliance, debt origination and treasury management. Also, Kuan took on an operations responsibility, principally in areas such as risk and compliance across Asia-Pacific.

Northern Trust hired Sarah Boddey as chief diversity officer for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific. The previous holder of the role was Pamela Hutchinson, who now works for Bloomberg, the news and information service. Based in London, Boddey is responsible for leading the Chicago-headquartered bank’s diversity and inclusion strategy in this region, and reports to Connie Lindsey, head of corporate social responsibility and global diversity and inclusion.