A roundup of moves for the APAC region during January. Among the firms involved were RBC, WRISE, Natixis, BlackRock and Carey Olsen.

Hong Kong-based investment firm Chartwell Capital appointed prominent emerging market investor Mark Mobius as a non-executive, independent advisor. 

Mobius, who has nearly four decades of experience investing in emerging markets, is best known for his role at Franklin Templeton Investments where he managed one of the world’s first emerging markets funds. He has also contributed to developing international policies for emerging markets. Mobius served on the World Bank's Global Corporate Governance Forum as a member of the Private Sector Advisory Group and as co-chairman of its Investor Responsibility Task Force in 1999.

GBST, a global provider of wealth management and technology advice solutions, appointed Jeff Hall as its head of Asia-Pacific. Hall, who reports to global CEO, Robert DeDominicis, leads business development and operations in the Australian region for the company’s wealth management and advice solutions products including Composer, WealthConnect and Advice Intelligence. 

Hall, who previously served as sales director for SS&C Technologies, has held C-Suite positions at Bravura Solutions and Midwinter Financial Services. His background includes senior roles in wealth management and banking at EY, Van Eyk, Macquarie Bank, and Accenture.

Japan-based Nikko Asset Management selected Seth Masters and Mark Stoeckle in the US to join its board of directors. Masters spent more than 25 years at Alliance Bernstein in New York, serving as chief investment officer across multiple asset classes, and catering to retail, institutional and high net worth clients. Stoeckle served as CEO at the Baltimore, Maryland-based investment manager Adams Funds for about 10 years since February 2013. He was also chief investment officer at BNP Paribas Investment Partners, and worked in other senior roles.

PGIM Real Estate appointed David Fassbender as country head of Japan. This added to his role as senior portfolio manager of the firm’s Asia Pacific value-add strategies. Fassbender has over two decades’ experience in real estate.

RBC Wealth Management made three senior hires in Asia:

-- Eric Kang joined in Singapore as senior advisor, Southeast Asia, working with Cynthia Jacinto, market head, SEA. Kang was previously vice chairman, private banking for SEA at Credit Suisse. 

-- Bernard Chua joined the firm in Singapore, as senior investment counsellor, reporting to Gautam Chadda, head of investment and portfolio advisory for Singapore. Chua – also formerly from Credit Suisse – was an investment consultant focused on Greater China markets. Prior to Credit Suisse, he worked in the investment advisory space at Citibank, UOB and DBS.

-- Terrence Yeung joined in Hong Kong as director, fixed income specialist, reporting to Calvin Ng, head of fixed income advisory, Hong Kong. Yeung previously worked at Credit Suisse Private Bank where he was VP, emerging markets fixed income research. Before joining Credit Suisse in 2016, Yeung worked for Standard Chartered, BNP Paribas, HSBC, and Credit Agricole.

Knight Frank has added three senior figures for its Asia-Pacific business: Ben Schubert in Australia, Simon Mathews in Singapore and Alice Crowley, also in Singapore. 

Hong Kong’s Private Wealth Management Association appointed Vivien Khoo, formerly of Goldman Sachs, as its chief investment officer.  In November, Khoo’s predecessor, Peter Stein, left to join the Asia Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association (ASIFMA).

UK-listed online trading firm CMC Markets appointed Kurt Mayell as head of CMC Markets Singapore. Mayell worked in various roles at CMC including sales, marketing, sales trading, and dealing. Before CMC, he was an investment analyst at one of Australia’s largest independent financial advisors, previously Dixon Advisory.

M&G Real Estate, part of M&G, private markets business, promoted Daniel Cho as head of Korea. He reports to Jing Dong Lai, CEO and CIO, M&G Real Estate Asia. Based in Seoul, Cho drives M&G’s growth initiatives and deal-sourcing capabilities in Korea’s real estate sector. He succeeded Ryu Hyesik, who left to pursue personal projects. Cho previously served as director of acquisitions for M&G Real Estate in Korea.

WRISE Wealth Management Singapore appointed Ranjiv Raman as managing director and head of discretionary solutions, and Agnes Goh as managing director and head of family advisory and institutional wealth. Both report to Kevin Teng, CEO of WRISE Wealth Management Singapore.

Before joining WRISE, Roman held several key positions at Schroders Wealth Management, BSI Bank Singapore, and Aberdeen Asset Management, Singapore. Goh, who has over 27 years of experience in the banking industry, has worked at Bank of Singapore, HSBC, and UBS.

Natixis Investment Managers appointed  Wassim Nasrallah as head of Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia. Nasrallah replaced Suhail Albaz, who left the business. Nasrallah is based in Dubai and reports to Andrew Benton, executive managing director, head of Northern Europe and MEACA. With 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry, Nasrallah began his career at Lehman Brothers in 1994, spending 14 years there where he ran generalist sales in the Middle East, before moving on to Gottex Fund Management. In 2011 he joined Principal Asset Management to establish the company’s presence in the region in his role as MD, head of Middle East and Africa.

BlackRock made Susan Chan its new APAC head. She took over from Rachel Lord, who relocated to London to take on the role of BlackRock’s head of International. It also named Andrew Landman and Hiroyuki Shimizu as deputy heads of Asia-Pacific. Chan is based in Hong Kong.

Chan has worked in financial services for more than 30 years, and at BlackRock for more than 10 years. Before this, Chan served as deputy head of Asia-Pacific, head of Greater China, and head of trading, liquidity and lending for APAC. She joined the firm in Hong Kong in 2013.
BlackRock also named two APAC deputy heads: Andrew Landman – head of Australasia, and Hiroyuki Shimizu – head of Asia-Pacific institutional and head of North Asia (Japan and South Korea).

Julius Baer appointed former Credit Suisse and Citi Private Bank senior figure Mun Joo Ng as team head for Southeast Asia – a newly-created role. Ng, who is based in Singapore, reports to Kevin Tay, group head for Southeast Asia. Working at Credit Suisse as a senior team leader for eight years – running the Singapore desk – Ng was previously at Citigroup for a decade.

PGIM appointed Hirotaka Kato in the newly-created role of head of portfolio solutions for Japan, based in Tokyo. Kato, who has over 20 years’ financial services experience, was most recently co-head of investment banking and a senior executive officer at Citi Japan.

PineBridge Investments named Nicolas Kopitsis as head of intermediary distribution for Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Kopitsis is based in Singapore. He has a particular focus on the UK, Switzerland, and certain Asian markets. He joined the firm in 2021 as Asia wealth management head.

Offshore law firm Harneys named Calvin Chow as a partner for its Hong Kong litigation, insolvency and restructuring group. Before joining Harneys, Chow was a partner at a Hong Kong law firm. 

East West Private Wealth (EWPW), multi-family office launched by Milltrust International, appointed former senior bank figure Edward Higgins as managing director, based in Singapore. Higgins, who has an 18-year career in private banking, has worked at Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and Julius Baer.

Carey Olsen promoted six lawyers to the status of counsel and senior associate, and they are located in the Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, Jersey and Singapore. 

Those promoted to counsel:

-- Jersey: Arindam Madhuryya (corporate); 
-- Singapore: Maggie Yan (corporate). 

Those promoted to senior associate:

-- Cayman Islands: Jason Mbakwe (dispute resolution and litigation); 
-- Hong Kong: Winnie Lo (dispute resolution and litigation); 
-- Jersey: Connor Alexander (corporate); and 
-- Singapore: Eng How Cheow (corporate).

Standard Chartered appointed Sidney Wang as managing director, marketing head – Greater China, for its private banking business. Wang, who joined the lender in Hong Kong, reports to Peter Tung, regional head, private banking, Greater China and North Asia.

With more than 20 years’ banking experience spanning commercial banking, credit and risk management, and strategy, Wang has 15 years’ experience in private banking and wealth management. Wang joined from HSBC.

Harneys, the global offshore law firm, made a round of promotions to partner and counsel level in its Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Hong Kong, and Shanghai offices. Two new partners have been appointed: Carolynn Vivian in the Cayman Islands and Jessie Xu in Shanghai.

Natixis Investment Managers appointed one of its senior figures, Nathalie Bricker, as deputy chief executive.