WealthBriefing covers all the major people moves in the global wealth management sector and also in this section is a round up of the major ...

WealthBriefing covers all the major people moves in the global wealth management sector and also in this section is a round up of the major trends in hiring within the sector.

Demand is strong for wealth managers in the major wealth management centres and the emerging centres in Asia and Eastern Europe.

“Generally demand is very robust across the board – obviously some markets are performing even better, but it’s a good time to be a private banker,” said Harry Pilkington, a partner at Armstrong International, a London-based executive search firm.

UBS plans to hire up to a thousand private bankers and related staff in Asia during the next few years. Demand has never been higher for the region’s wealth managers, and private banks are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit quality candidates.

Credit Suisse is also looking to significantly boost headcount in Asia. Indeed, there would appear to be few banks that aren’t looking for talented private bankers and those wanting to be trained up.

Deutsche Bank is looking to hire at least 20 new staff for its operations in Russia.

Fortis has created a new wealth management unit called Fortis House. Launching the service first in France, the Belgian-Dutch financial firm plans to roll out the service in much of Europe, and is looking to bolster headcount.

Executive Moves

Europe

Banca del Gottardo has appointed Rolf Aeberli as its new chief executive. He replaces Marco Netzer. Mr Aeberli joins from Julius Baer where he was chief financial officer.

Franco Muller has been appointed the head of private banking onshore and offshore in Italy and Monaco for Credit Suisse. The position is a new one. Mr Muller will take up his new position at the beginning of next year and is currently chief executive of Banca di Gestione Patrimoniale, a Lugano-based private bank which is owned by Credit Suisse. Mr Muller’s successor at BGP will be announced at the end of the year, according to a statement from Credit Suisse. Claudio Ferrari , head of Credit Suisse’s offshore business Italy will report to Mr Muller, as will Tino Rampazzi, executive manager for Credit Suisse in Italy, and Alain Ucari, head of Credit Suisse’s business in Monaco.

René Kaselitz has been appointed the new head of private banking at Commerzbank. He replaces Sebastian Klein, who has been appointed chairman of the management board of Commerzbank’s subsidiary, Cominvest Asset Management.

Mr Kaselitz was previously head of private & business customer activities at Commerzbank's Frankfurt main branch. Commerzbank's asset management business will be headed by a management board of five. Apart from Dr Klein, these will be: Detlev Dietz, who is taking over the job of chief operating officer in addition to his role as general manager of the Commerz Grundbesitz group, Frank Pörschke, responsible for the management of real-estate funds, and Friedrich Schmitz, who will take charge of the bank's international asset management business. These four will report directly to Achim Kassow, who will be chairman of the board.

Icelandic bank, Kaupthing, has appointed Armann Thorvaldsson as the new chief executive of UK-based Singer & Friedlander. The move sees the departure of Tony Shearer, the current chief executive, and Warwick Jones, the chief operating officer and finance director, who will leave in March next year. Mr Thorvaldsson is currently Kaupthing’s head of investment banking. Mr Shearer joined the S&F board in 2003, having previously been deputy chief executive and finance director at Old Mutual International. Mr Jones joined the board on January 1. He was previously finance director at Bank Leopold Joseph, which was bought by Bank Butterfield in 2003.

Julius Baer has appointed Boris Collardi as its chief operating officer; the position is a new one. Mr Collardi will take up his new position at the beginning of the New Year. Mr Collardi worked for 12 years at Credit Suisse, where he had a number of senior positions including chief financial officer and head of corporate centre, Credit Suisse Private Banking.

Glyn Jones, the former chief executive of Coutts and Gartmore Investment Management, has been appointed chief executive of Thames River Capital, one of London’s most successful hedge fund groups. A statement from Thames River said the move had been instigated by the firm’s founding executives Charlie Porter and Jonathan Hughes-Morgan with the objective of strengthening the company’s management team. Mr Hughes-Morgan remains managing director at Thames River, whereas Mr Porter has been given the title of president.

Barclays Global Investors in London has recruited Dan Draper from UBS, according to sources close to BGI. Mr Draper was a director and UK sales manager at UBS’ wealth management business in London. The former UBS manager is expected to use his contacts in private banking in order to sell BGI products, according to one source.

State Street has hired Michael Walsh to head its business in Scotland. Mr Walsh takes over from John Corcoran, who is returning to Boston to take up a role in State Street’s mutual fund administration group. Mr Walsh is currently head of WM Performance Services, which State Street acquired in January 2003 in conjunction with a substantial portion of Deutsche Bank’s Global Securities Services business. He will continue to retain his role with WM.

Separately, Steve Wisson has been appointed to a new role as senior vice president responsible for client integration within State Street’s investment operations outsourcing group. Mr Wisson joins State Street having served for three years as the global head of operations for AXA Investment Managers, a role in which he worked very closely with State Street in forming their outsourcing partnership.

Northern Trust has appointed Ian Castledine as senior risk consultant to lead the firm’s London-based predictive risk capabilities for asset servicing clients in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Although the Chicago-based bank has been providing global predictive risk analytics services since 1997, Mr Castledine’s appointment means that Northern Trust will be able to offer this service from London for the first time. Mr Castledine joins Northern Trust from Merrill Lynch Investment Managers in London, where he spent almost eight years.

Portuguese bank Banco Espirito Santo has appointed to its board of directors Manuel Guerrero Peman, the former chairman and managing director of Spanish butane firm Repsol Butano, a subsidiary of Spanish petrochemicals group Repsol YPF. The appointment of Mr Guerrero marks the beginning of the creation of an advisory committee designed to boost its operations in Spain following the restructuring within BES in recent weeks. The Portuguese bank has made Spain a priority market for expansion, in particular in the private banking and asset management segment. The bank said it plans to appoint other prominent Spanish entrepreneurs and executives in the coming weeks.

Mellon Global Investments has appointed a sales director for Austria and Switzerland. Rainer Lenzin will promote Mellon's offshore fund range to multi-manager platforms, and develop the distribution of Mellon funds through the private banking businesses of local financial services organisations. He will report to Neal Kutner, head of sales. The position is a new one. Mr Lenzin joins from Lehman Brothers in Zurich where he was responsible for institutional equity sales in Switzerland, Holland and Germany.

New Star Asset Management has appointed Stephen Whittaker as joint chief investment officer to work alongside Alan Miller. Mr Whittaker is manager of the New Star UK Growth Fund. The appointment has been driven by the need to continue the focus on delivering superior investment returns with an increased volume of assets under management, according to the company. Mr Whittaker will continue to manage the New Star UK Growth Fund, which has returned 63.75 per cent since he took it over the fund in July 2002.

Bespoke discretionary investment manager, PSigma Investment Management, formerly Hichens Investment Management, has beefed up its fund management team with four new appointments. Jeremy Matthews joins as an investment director with over 30 years experience in investment management. Keith Horstead joins as a business development director with nearly 40 years experience in the industry. Andrew Cantouris and Rowland Flower both join from HSBC Investment Management. Mr Cantouris was a private client investment manager at HSBC and joins PIM as an investment manager. Mr Flower joins as an investment director and is due to start working for PSigma Investment Management at the end of November. These new appointments expand the size of the investment team to 11 people.

Butterfield Private Bank has recruited three new members to its asset management team. James Best, formerly with UBS London, joins Butterfield as senior investment manager, and Iain Little, formerly with Edinburgh Fund Managers and Pictet London Private Client Management, joins as private client advisor. They will be working with Bruce Albrecht who joined the Butterfield Group in July 2005 as a senior vice president in the bank’s asset management department.

Standard Bank has appointed David Bushe to develop new business opportunities in Hong Kong, Dubai, Moscow and Buenos Aires. He will also be concentrating on Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and parts of Africa. The position is a new one. Mr Bushe will be based in the Isle of Man and will be also be spending his time developing business on the island for Standard Bank's offshore operations.

IXIS Asset Management, which manages both institutional and high net worth money, has appointed Véronique Leroux as its new chief investment officer. Ms Leroux will supervise investment, research and trading teams, IXIS said in a statement. She was head of asset management at SCOR, the French reinsurer, since 2000. Before that Ms Leroux was a former chief executive of Dresdner RCM Management, Dresdner Bank’s French asset management subsidiary.

Chris Carter, the former chairman of global corporate and investment banking at Credit Suisse First Boston is to become chairman of CQS, a large London-based hedge fund. CQS, (convertible and quantitative strategies), has $5 billion in assets under management and employs around 150 staff. It was founded by Michael Hintze, a former Goldman Sachs and CSFB trader in 1999. Mr Carter will be in charge of formalising the business's management structure, and marketing and product innovation at CQS. His departure from CSFB was announced in September.

PrivatewaterhouseCoopers has hired Frank Canosa, the former managing director of Julius Baer International, to act as an advisor on private banking deals. Mr Canosa, known for his interest in Cuba – he wrote and presented the BBC Radio 4 series Cuba Cuba – has extensive connections among Europe’s private banks.

London-based law firm Speechly Bircham has appointed Alison Broadberry to its private client group. Ms Broadberry joins the firm’s bespoke tax planning group to develop its relationships with financial advisors to high net worth individuals. Ms Broadberry, who is a barrister, joins from St James’s Place, where she was divisional director and head of tax and trusts. She previously headed Schroders UK trust company for two years.

Separately, the Speechly has also appointed appointed contentious trusts specialist, Henrietta Sargant, to its private client practice. Ms Sargant joins from Charles Russell where she is currently head of trusts, probate and fiduciary disputes. In her new role she will work alongside Alison Meek and Andrea Zavos. Ms Sargant has particular expertise in contentious issues relating to sharia law. She is trained as a solicitor advocate and is a member of the Association of Contentious Trusts and Probate Specialists. Speechly has recently been building its contentious trusts capability. The recruitment of the highly-regarded Alison Meek from Boodle Hatfield in January was seen as a particular coup.

Independent fiduciary services provider, Walbrook Group, has appointed barrister David Ibbotson as group in-house lawyer. He will provide advice and support for Walbrook clients as well as acting as in-house legal representative for the group’s operations in Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.

North America

Morgan Stanley private client services has hired Frank Inman from UBS in the US. Mr Inman had $77 million in client assets under management with 12-month gross revenue of $528,000, a spokeswoman for UBS was quoted in the article. Mr Inman will work with Laurance Birnbaum. He had worked with UBS for more than seven years. Previously, he worked for five years at Smith Barney.

Deutsche Bank has hired Michael Davis to its private wealth management division in Los Angeles. The hire follows the recruitment of Clinton Hodges and Kyle Dunphy to its Los Angeles private wealth business earlier this month. Mr Davis will be Deutsche’s west coast regional market manager. He will be responsible for managing sales strategy, recruitment, and marketing initiatives for the west coast region and will serve on the US private wealth management executive committee. He joins from Citigroup Private Bank where he was global market manager for the Western US region.

Edward Feigeles, the former head of Lehman Private Client Group, has joined US-based managed accounts specialist, WR Capital, as a principal. Mr Feigeles will join both executive management and investment committees at WR, and will lead the marketing of the firm’s recently launched WR Managed Account Fund, which now manages $72 million and has been placed with 31 underlying managers.

Bear Stearns has hired Jonathan Jaffe, a financial advisor, from Credit Suisse First Boston. Mr Jaffe will work in Bear Stearn’s San Francisco office. Last year Mr Jaffe generated commissions worth $1.4 million. He is one of more than 45 brokers who have left CSFB this year. Separately, Bear Stearns has hired four account executives for its private client services in the US as part of its current recruitment drive within wealth management. Bill Fry joins the Dallas office as a managing director from Legg Mason. David Mizrahi joins in Los Angles, also as a managing director, and he joins from Wachovia. Bob Venzor joins in Chicago also as a managing director; he comes from Merrill Lynch. Finally, Chad Reibman joins the Seattle office from Oppenheimer.

Tom Hughes, former global head of Deutsche Asset Management, is expected to join Clinton Group, one of the world's biggest hedge funds, in the newly created position of chief operating officer. The appointment is seen as part of the rehabilitation of Clinton, which suffered from heavy fund outflows and a lengthy inquiry by the US regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission two years ago.

Merrill Lynch has named two new branch managers for its New York office. Thomas Fickinger will run the global private client group's Fifth Avenue office and Linda Houston will run its downtown office in New York. Mr Fickinger will now be in charge of Merrill's largest US branch, with more than 200 brokers. Ms Houston will now reports to Rick Skae, the head for Manhattan branches. Mr Fickinger formerly ran the Morristown, New Jersey branch and replaces Selden Martin, who has moved up to be a regional head of Kansas. Ms Houston replaces Marcia Jones who now runs the Long Island region.

Separately, Michael Botte, the regional managing director for the Mid-Atlantic division of Merrill Lynch’s private client business, is leaving the firm at the end of the month.. Mr Botte has been with Merrill for 33 years and is apparently retiring from the firm. His departure might have been influenced by recent changes at Merrill’s US private client business. Earlier this year, Merrill named five new divisional heads who will run the Central, Northeast, Southeast, Western, and Latin America divisions. Prior to the reorganisation, Merrill had 11 regional heads and about 130 managers reporting to them. The new structure has five divisional chiefs with 30 regional heads reporting to them.

Deutsche Bank has appointed Patrick Campion to its private wealth management unit in New York. Mr Campion joins as sales manager and will be a member of the US PWM executive committee. The position is a new one. He joins from Citigroup Private Bank, where he was a managing director and the Manhattan region head. At Citigroup, he managed 72 employees and was credited with implementing a sales model designed to drive growth of ultra-high-net-worth clients.

JP Morgan has appointed Alex Cook chief financial officer for the banking/leanding products of its private banking and private client services division in the US. The position is a new one and Mr Cook will report to Laura Barre, chief financial officer of private client services and to Richard Ham, chief financial officer of private banking. Mr Cook was previously head of the firm’s asset and wealth management within the finance and strategic development group.

Russell Investment Group has appointed J Nicholas Georgis to the newly created position of managing director, wealth management, in its US Individual Investor Services group. Mr Georgis will be responsible for building and managing Russell's relationships with individual wealth managers, including independent registered investment advisors across the US. He will also advise the company on business, marketing, products and industry-relations issues, and will report to Greg Stark, managing director, Individual Investor Services. With more than 20 years experience, Mr Georgis joins Russell from Schwab Institutional were he was senior vice president and national sales manager.

Fortis Investments, the asset management arm of Dutch financial conglomerate, Fortis, has hired Saker Nusseibeh as chief investment officer of its global equity investment centre in Boston. Mr Nusseibeh joins from Soc Gen Asset Management UK where he was CIO global equities and head of business development. He will report directly to Fortis Investments’ Global CIO, William De Vijlder.

Jefferies & Company has appointed Charles Baber as its new head of private client services. Mr Baber joins from Bear Stearns, where he was co-branch manager of the New York office of the firm's private client services group.

Gottex Fund Management, a Swiss-based hedge fund group with $5 billion of assets under management, has appointed a general counsel and compliance officer for its Boston-based office. Richard Leibovitch joins as general counsel and was previously managing director and general counsel at Putman Investments. He will be based in the hedge fund’s Boston office. Alexis Kaiser joins as Gottex’s legal and compliance officer and was previously at Avendis Capital; he will be based in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Baker & McKenzie has hired a team of private banking specialist lawyers for its New York office. The announcement was made with Baker & McKenzie’s acquisition of a major part of Coudert Brothers’ New York office. Partners Ken Page and Dean Berry, as well as associate Kathleen Johnson, will join Baker & McKenzie as part of the acquisition. Mr Page was previously head of the trust and estates practice at Coudert and focused his practice on estate planning, estate and trust administration and multi-jurisdictional estate planning. He also represents charitable foundations and other entities for US citizens and residents. Mr Berry focuses his practice on tax and estate planning for US and non-US individuals, including the use of domestic and foreign trusts, companies, partnerships and other arrangements to accumulate, preserve and transfer wealth; charitable organizations, including private foundations and public charities; and estate and trust administration.

Bingham McCutchen has hired a team of nine lawyers from Bryan Cave’s New York office to launch a hedge fund practice in New York. A team of nine lawyers, including partners Robert Leonard and Michael Mavrides, will set up the new office, which will support Bingham’s existing hedge fund practices in London and Boston. The hires now give Bingham McCutchen 19 global hedge fund lawyers, and follow the hires of partners Richard Goldman and Steven Giordano in the Boston office last year.

David Barrett, a well-known executive search specialist in wealth and fund management, who was previously head of the global asset and wealth management practice at Heidrick & Struggles, is setting up on his own, with David Barrett Partners.
The new executive search firm will focus on investment and wealth management. Mr Barrett has recruited four additional staff: Darryl Adachi, Danit Ben-Zvi and Anne Keyser whom he knew at Heidrick & Struggles, and Ted Kister who first recruited Mr Barrett into the executive search profession at Russell Reynolds Associates in 1986.

Middle East

Deutsche Asset Management has appointed Daniel Smalleras head of its Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan operations. He will be based in Dubai. Mr Smaller will set up an asset management business in the Middle East, which would eventually develop some locally managed funds, according to a statement from the bank. Mr Smaller joined Deutsche Bank in 1998 as head of emerging market equity sales and was most recently head of global equity sales in Asia.

Asia-Pacific

Emerging markets investment specialist Charlemagne Capital, has appointed KC Reddy as senior portfolio manager for Asia. Mr Reddy will report to Stefan Böttcher, director of portfolio management. He joins from Thames River Capital in London where he was part of the emerging markets fund management team with special emphasis on Korea, Taiwan and India. Prior to that he was with Quantum Capital in California and Credit Agricole Asset Management in Hong Kong.