WealthBriefing provides a round-up of all the major people moves and employment trends in the global wealth management sector for the month ...

WealthBriefing provides a round-up of all the major people moves and employment trends in the global wealth management sector for the month of January 2006.

Trends
WealthBriefing earlier in January carried out an interview poll with executive recruitment firms, which showed that the current healthy environment for demand for private bankers will remain in 2006 and even improve on the strong growth in 2005.

We asked the question: Do you think the market will continue to see an increased demand for private bankers/wealth managers in 2006? Every response back gave an emphatic "Yes" to the question.

“I have so many requests for private bankers that I’m no longer working on institutional asset management placements,” said one of the respondents.

Demand for private bankers is partly being driven by a number of major firms building up wealth management businesses. WealthBriefing has heard of a number of major banks that are building up their wealth management businesses in Europe in a similar fashion to what UBS has done since 2000.

“UBS pretty much underpinned the recruitment market for private bankers throughout Europe during the lean years of 2002/2003. But now you have a number of institutions building up their staff levels in a similar way,” said one of the respondents.

But demand is causing bottlenecks to develop in the supply of qualified candidates.

“The problem is that there are a finite number of them (private bankers) to go around so it will be musical chairs again unless institutions are prepared to hire individuals from outside the sector with an appropriate skill set but no clients! With a few exceptions they are usually averse to doing this,” said one respondent.

Executive Moves

Europe
Sameer Sain, head of Goldman Sachs’ private wealth management business for Europe, has resigned and is to head a new financial services firm based in Mumbai. The new firm is to be called Future Capital Holdings, which be the financial services arm of Indian retailer Pantaloon Retail. The new firm will be looking to hire up to 50 staff.

Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch, the Geneva-based private bank, has appointed Hubert Keller as a managing partner. Mr Keller joined LODH at the beginning of the year. He was previously global co-head of equity capital markets at Deutsche Bank. LODH also announced the retirement of Eric Demole and Jacques Rossier, as managing partners at the bank, and the appointment of Stefan Bichsel, who joins from Robeco Group in Rotterdam, where he was on the management board.

Rothschild Bank in Zurich has appointed Veit de Maddalena as its new chief executive. He replaces Guy Wais, who is retiring after 13 years with the bank. Mr de Maddalena joins from Credit Suisse, where he was most recently chief executive of the CS Trust Group. Previous to that he headed up Credit Suisse’s business in Monaco. Rothschild Bank is the main Swiss business of London-based NM Rothschild, although the Rothschild family own more than 20 per cent of the bank and Banque Privee Edmond de Rothschild have a 9.5 per cent stake in the bank.

Barclays Wealth Management has hired Ian Ewart, the former global head of marketing and communications at HSBC Private Bank. Mr Ewart, who was not available for comment, is believed to have been hired in a similar role at Barclays and will report to the bank’s wealth management head, Thomas Kalaris. The move comes as Barclays, under the direction of Mr Kalaris, looks set to build up a much bigger profile in wealth management, both in the UK and various markets in continental Europe. Other senior hires are expected to be announced soon. A marketing expert in the field of wealth management, Mr Ewart previously worked at Union Bancaire Privée and Lloyds Bank in Geneva.

Seprately, Barclays announced in January that Ray Greenshields, managing director of the bank’s wealth solutions, has retired after three years in the position. The head of Barclays Wealth Management, Mr Kalaris, will take direct responsibility for Mr Greenshields' position, according to a statement from the bank. Mr Greenshields was responsible for Barclays Financial Planning, Gerrard, Barclays Stockbrokers, Barclays Life and Barclays Investment Services.

Pierre-Mathieu Duhamel, the director of budget at the French ministry of economy and finance, is to join the French bank Caisses d'Epargne as head of the firm’s private asset management business, according to reports in the French press. Mr Duhamel will be heading up a unit which includes the group's new private bank, La Compagnie 1818 - Banquiers Privés.

Charles Hoare-Nairne has been appointed investment director of C. Hoare & Co. He joins from Rathbones where he had been in a similar position for five years and before that Mr Hoare-Nairne worked for Kleinwort Benson Private Bank. The position is a new one. In a statement from the London-based bank, Mr Hoare-Nairne’s position was created to "relieve Alexander Hoare, the chief executive, of direct oversight of the firm’s investment activities". Mr Hoare-Nairne is related to the Hoare family, which has controlled the bank since it was founded in 1672.

Merrill Lynch’s global private clients division has made a number of senior appoints to its London-based business as part of its ongoing expansion plans. Ken Chapman has been appointed to the newly created role of head of UK wealth structuring. He joins from UBS Wealth Management, where he was a director. Mr Chapman will be joined by Irena Klivanskaya, who joined Merrill from Andersen Charnley, a UK-based wealth management firm. Also joining GPC in London are Toby Thomson and Adam Gray, both from ABN Amro. Mr Thomson is the former head of ABN’s London-based operations and Mr Gray was head of UK private client discretionary portfolio management. Merrill’s UK business now has a professional staff of around 82, with 55 on the advisory side, 25 on the discretionary side, and two in wealth structuring.

LGT, the financial services firm of the Princely House of Liechtenstein, has recruited a team of up to five private bankers specializing in the Eastern Europe and Russian high net worth markets from UBS in Zurich, according to sources close to both banks. The team is expected to be based in LGT’s Zurich office. The names of the bankers have yet to be made public by LGT.

Valerie Desmouceaux has been hired by HSBC Private Bank in Paris to be head of tax and estate planning. Ms Desmouceaux joins from BNP Paribas Private Bank in Paris. Meanwhile, Ms Desmouceaux’s position at BNP has been replaced by Lila Vaisson-Bethune, who was promoted from her previous position of head of estate planning at the Paris-based bank.

Dorothée Noël has been hired by Dexia Private Bank in Paris to be head of estate planning. Ms Noël joins from Meespierson, where she had a similar position.

AIG Private Bank, which has recently announced a major global wealth management initiative to be spearheaded by its parent company, American International Group, has appointed Peter Wild as its new chief executive. Mr Wild replaces Eduardo Leemann, who will head up the new initiative. Mr Wild was previously chief operating officer at AIG Private Bank in Zurich. Mr Leemann will also become chairman of the board of directors of AIG Private Bank. Juergen Luethi, currently chairman of the board of directors, will continue to serve on the board as a member. Win Neuger, chief investment officer of American International Group, and chief executive of AIG Global Investment Group will join as a new member of the board of AIG Private Bank.

UBS Global Asset Management has appointed Peter Beckett as head of UK retail marketing. Mr Beckett, who joins from Schroders where he was UK Retail marketing manager, will be responsible for all marketing and communication initiatives to intermediaries in the UK.

Vontobel’s recently acquired hedge fund group Harcourt Partners has been re-branded as Peak Partners and has appointed former Harcourt Investment Consulting executive director Ernesto Prado to the position of chief investment officer and investment committee member from April. This is a new position at the firm. Other recent recruitments include former Ferrier Lullin’s (now part of Julius Baer) chief investment officer Nikhil Jhangiani as administrator and investment committee member, and operations manager Thierry Fragnière, formerly senior middle office officer at fund of hedge funds group EIM.

SG Hambros, the London-based private banking operations of Société Générale, has hired three new private bankers in an effort to bolster its regional UK business. James Richards joins from Coutts, where he was a senior private banker responsible for setting up the bank’s office in the regional town of Tunbridge Wells. At SG Hambros he will be responsible for clients in Kent and Sussex. William Quantrill also joins from Coutts where, where he was a senior client partner. He set up Coutts’s Cambridge office. He will be responsible for clients in Cambridge and East Anglia, according to SG Hambros. Philip Doe also joins from Coutts and will support Mr Quantrill at SG Hambros.

Paris-based Quilvest Private Bank has appointed Serge de Ganay as president of its board. The appointment is an internal promotion. Mr de Ganay joins the other board members: Louis James de Viel Castel, Jean-Yves Durance and Alec de Lézardière, as well as the bank’s chief executive, Christian Baillet and its general manager, Henri de Termont. Also appointed to the board are Guillaume Dozinel, head of Quilvest’s family office business, and Christophe Tadie, director of marketing.

Bank Leu has appointed Raoul-Philip Bachmann to a new unit that combines the Zurich-based bank’s investment products business with its portfolio management group. Mr Bachmann has also joined the executive board of Bank Leu. He was previously a consultant for Odey Asset Management in London.

BGP Banca di Gestioni Patrimoniale, Credit Suisse’s Lugano private banking subsidiary, has appointed Pierluigi Abbondio as the new chief executive. He replaced Franco Muller, who has been appointed the head of private banking onshore and offshore in Italy and Monaco for Credit Suisse. Mr Abbondio has been a long-term employee of Credit Suisse Private Banking.

Swiss banking group Syz & Co have appointed Alexandre Rampa as portfolio manager and senior analyst at 3A (Alternative Asset Advisors), the group’s alternative investment division. Prior to joining 3A in January 2006, Mr Rampa was a senior analyst and portfolio manager at Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild in Geneva, where he was responsible for arbitrage and event-driven strategies.

Sarasin Chiswell, a London-based private client group owned by Bank Sarasin, has appointed two new fund managers: Graham Ashby joins the firm from Deutsche Asset Management; and Ashley Reid joins from Russell Investment Group.

Investec Asset Management has appointed Robert Hau as senior salesperson in Germany as part of its drive into the institutional and private client market in Europe’s biggest economy. Mr Hau was formerly head of Bank of Ireland Asset Management Europe. Investec Asset Management has around $45.3 billion worth of assets under management globally.

Newton Investment Management has appointed Oliver Larminie to its private investment management division. Mr Larminie will focus on managing segregated portfolios in addition to working with investors in the Global Growth and Income Fund for Charities. He will report to Jamie Korner, head of the charities team. Mr Larminie joins from Deutsche Asset Management where he ran the private client and charities businesses.

Frederic Gautier, manager of the Fidelity UK growth fund, has left “to pursue other investment opportunities”, according to Fidelity. He will be replaced by Carlos Moreno, who has been promoted within Fidelity. The UK growth fund has $1.45 billion under management at the end of last year. Mr Moreno’s position will be his first as manager of a UK onshore retail fund.

UK-based PSigma Investments has appointed Rod Juniper to the newly-created role of chief operations officer. Mr Juniper joins from HSBC Investments where he managed the 60-strong operations department. Mr Juniper will manage both the private client investment management specialist PSigma Investment Management, and the institutional solution provider PSolve Asset Solutions.

Rory Landman, chief operating officer at the London-based asset management firm, Thames River Capital, has left, according to reports in the local press. Mr Landman was also co-head of emerging market equities at Thames River Capital. He was part of the Baring Asset Management emerging markets team that joined Thames River Capital in 2000. According to the firm, Mr Landman will not be replaced, but will continue to work on a consultancy basis.

Adveq, the Zurich-based fund of funds investment manager, has appointed three new members to its team. Rainer Ender and Tom Eriksson have been appointed managing directors and Nils Rode has been appointed executive director. Mr Ender came to Adveq in 2001 after working as an underwriter for alternative risk transfer at Zurich Reinsurance Company. Previously, he was a manager in the Financial Risk Management practice at Arthur Andersen. Mr Eriksson joined Adveq in 2004. Prior to that, he held several management positions at Wärtsilä Corporation (Finland). And Mr Rode came to Adveq in early 2005 from his position as vice president of a US-based private equity-backed IT and telecommunications company.

UK-based Ansbacher Group has hired Lorraine Wheeler as head of fiduciary client services in Jersey. Ms Wheeler joins the firm from Equity Trust where she was a director. She is also secretary of the Society of Trusts and Estates Practitioners in Jersey. At Ansbacher Ms Wheeler will have overall responsibility for the client servicing team working in the firm’s trust department.

The former head of marketing at Credit Suisse in the UK, Zoe Couper, has launched a marketing and communications consultancy specialising in the asset and wealth management industry. Called Carte Blanche the firm will be based in the heart of London’s West End in St James’s Street. The firm will also be providing advisory services to the North American market from an affiliate office in New York, headed by Liz Nickles of Black Label Financial Brand Development. Ms Nickles was formerly global head of branding, marketing and communications at Credit Suisse First Boston.

The Americas
Credit Suisse Private Banking is currently looking to appoint a head of the Americas, according to sources close to the Swiss bank. The position will be a new one and report directly to Walter Berchtold , the bank’s global head of private banking. Currently Credit Suisse divides the position into two: Gary Neuser, is the head of private bank in the US; and Alexander Siegenthaler is head of the North American offshore business. These positions will be unaffected by the change and report directly into the new head of the Americas, according to the sources.

Separately, David Walker, the former head of communications at UBS for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, has joined Credit Suisse as the bank’s head of communications for the private bank in the Americas. Mr Walker had moved back to the US more than six months ago after leaving UBS and has only recently taken up the Credit Suisse position.

Mellon Financial has named David Misch as the group’s director of private banking for the US. The Pittsburgh-based financial services firm said Mr Misch will report to David Lamere, Mellon vice chairman and president of its private wealth management group. Mr Misch will be responsible for all private banking activities, including the provision of lending and deposit services to high net worth individuals and their businesses and operational support of Mellon's 60 wealth management offices in the US.

Multi-family office Veritable has appointed veteran wealth management consulting executive, John Scuteri , as a partner. Mr Scuteri will focus on the continued development and execution of Veritable's business strategy, as well as general management of the firm, which manages more than $7 billion. Mr Scuteri joins from US Trust Company where he was a managing director. Previously, he was a managing director at Bear Stearns Asset Management and earlier was national sales manager at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

William Rankin, chief executive of Atlantic Trust Stein Roe Investment Counsel, has resigned. No further details have been released on the departure. AMVESCAP, which owns Atlantic Trust, bought Stein Roe Investment Counsel in November 2003. Mr Rankin has been chief executive of Stein Roe Investment Counsel for six years.

Six Morgan Stanley private client brokers in the US have moved to rival firms Credit Suisse and Wachovia Securities. A team of two (William Allen Winget and Robert Benton) based in Charlotte, North Carolina, apparently managing as much as $400 million in client assets, have moved to Wachovia. The other four have moved to Credit Suisse’s offices in New York City. Javier Naselli, Pedro Davila, Bill Lembesis and Adriana Arizmendy joined Credit Suisse in mid-December.

Deutsche Bank Alex Brown, the US private client services division of Deutsche Bank Securities and Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management, is expanding its private client offering with two new hires. Eric Behr has been named a director and client advisor in its Palm Beach office. The position is a new one and he will report to James Zahringer , managing director and Palm Beach Branch office manager. Mr Behr joins the firm from Lebenthal, where he was a senior vice president. Previously he was at Salomon Smith Barney. Mr Behr is the fifth client advisor to join Deutsche Bank Alex Brown's Palm Beach office in recent weeks. And Marc Richman has been named a director and client advisor in the wealth manager's Philadelphia office.

Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management has appointed Domenick Bellusci as director and head, banking products. He will reports to Thomas Bowers, head of Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management in the US. Mr Bellusci joins from JP Morgan Private Bank where he was sales director of the banking products group, responsible for distribution of banking products.

Wachovia Wealth Management has appointed Maria Juantorena Trafton to oversee its activities in Texas. She transfers to the firm's Texas offices from Wachovia's Philadelphia office where she was a managing director. Ms Trafton joined Wachovia in 1993 as a relationship manager in the wealth management division in Philadelphia. She was promoted to managing director in 2000 where she led a team of more than 50 people. Prior to joining Wachovia, she was a senior underwriter with BankOne, now part of JP Morgan.

Wilmington Trust has appointed Philip Cave as president of Wilmington Trust FSB Georgia. Mr Cave will lead business development and client account management for Wilmington Trust’s wealth advisory business in Atlanta and the surrounding Southeast region. He joins from Bessemer Trust where he headed the Atlanta office. Mr Cave, who has held senior private banking positions with JP Morgan and Wachovia, will report to Peter Atwater, who leads Wilmington Trust’s national wealth advisory offices. He replaces Jeffrey Adams, who has retired.

RBC Dain Rauscher, a US-based brokerage firm, has named Jim Chapman and Karl Leaverton as joint presidents of the group’s private client division. Mr Chapman is to be president of the group’s east division, which includes 88 branch offices in 27 states in the East, Southeast and Midwest regions of the US. And Mr Leaverton is to be president of the west division, which includes 63 branch offices in 14 states in the Northwest, Southwest and South regions of the US. Both appointments are internal promotions.

PrivateBancorp, a Chicago-based private banking business, has appointed Tom Olivieri as its new director of operations. The position is a newly created one and Mr Olivieri was promoted from his current position as a managing director at the bank. He will report to Dennis Klaeser, PrivateBancorp's chief financial officer.

Buenos Aires-based hedge fund manager Copernico Capital Partners has hired Andre Caldas Oliveira to assess investment opportunities in Brazil. Mr Oliveira joins from Bassini, Playfair, where he was a portfolio manager. In his new role, he will evaluate equity market and special situation investments across the region, but mainly in Brazil for Copernico's event-driven Copernico Latin America Strategic Fund.

Asia-Pacific
Todd Thomson, the head of Citigroup’s global wealth management business, has had to apologise to more than 200 Australian-based staff who threatened to walk out because of dissatisfaction over management practices. The controversy has led to the departure of Wayne Yang, managing director and head of Citigroup global wealth management for Australia and New Zealand. Mr Yang was in the position for just six months, although he had been a private banker for Citigroup for more than 15 years. He was appointed to the new position following the formation of the new business group that includes the Citigroup Private Bank and Citigroup Wealth Advisors and as a result, the re-branding of the retail brokerage business outside the US from Smith Barney to Citigroup Wealth Advisors.

Middle East
Credit Suisse in Dubai has hired a team of private bankers specialising in the non-resident Indian market from Dubai Bank, according to sources close to the individuals involved. The team, believed to be three private bankers, is headed by Deepak Nehra.