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Executive Moves August 2006

Stephen Harris

4 September 2006

August has not been a quiet month for wealth management executive moves. This has been especially true in the UK and at the top level. UBS, HSBC and Coutts have all seen major management changes during the month. Merrill has been particularly active in the Middle East where it has hired a team of nine for the non-resident Indian market, and a new global head of NRI. UK Jeremy Palmer, head of UBS Wealth Management UK, Northern and Eastern Europe has been appointed chief executive officer of UBS Investment Bank in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Matthew Brumsen will take over as head of UBS Wealth Management UK, Northern and Eastern Europe, replacing Mr Palmer. Mr Brumsen joined UBS in 2001 from Goldman Sachs and was appointed business sector head UK Domestic in October 2004. The UK wealth management business has expanded significantly both in size and profitability under Mr Brumsen’s leadership, according to a statement from the bank. Mr Brumsen will report to Raoul Weil, Head of UBS Wealth Management International. John Pottage, currently product head for the UK and Jersey, will become chief executive officer of UK Wealth Management. He will also be responsible for leading the UK Management Committee. Emmanuel Fievet, who joined UBS from Citibank a year ago as head of sales management, will now take on the role of head of UK domestic for UBS Wealth Management. Both will report to Matthew Brumsen. HSBC confirmed the departure of the chief executive of the private bank, Clive Bannister and his replacement Chris Meares. Mr Bannister becomes group managing director of the bank’s insurance business and a member of the group management board, although he will continue in his current position until November 1. Mark McCombe is to take over Chris Meares' position as chief executive of HSBC Private Bank’s UK, Channel Island and Luxembourg operation at the beginning of November. Mr McCombe is currently head of the private bank’s UK business, which he took over from Marcus Gregson last September. He will continue in this role with his new added responsibilities, according to an internal memo from HSBC. John Williams, head of UK private banking at Coutts has been suspended according to sources close to the Royal Bank of Scotland-owned private bank. A spokeswoman for Coutts confirmed to WealthBriefing that Mr Williams is away from the office at the moment, saying that it was “an internal matter”. Elsewhere in Coutts, Nigel Humphrey and Martin Brown, both private bankers from the Hampshire office, have left to join SG Hambros. Coutts has recruited Fiona Fenn Smith as head of strategic marketing. She joins from Anglo-Dutch investment bank Insinger de Beaufort. Ms Fenn Smith was formerly head of communications at Insinger. Merrill Lynch Global Private Client has recruited Laura Morales from Barclays Private Bank to sell structured products both internally and externally. Ms Morales’ remit will include FX, income and equity-linked structured products. She will be London-based and will report to Paul Sarosy, head of marketing and sales for Merrill Lynch Global Private Client, EMEA. Richard Charnock, chief executive of Williams de Broë, the London-based stockbroker, has left the company. He has been replaced by Andrew Butler-Cassar. Mr Charnock was appointed to the post of chief executive following accounting irregularities at the broker, which had led to former parent ING putting the company up for sale Royal Bank of Canada’s Global Private Banking operations has hired David Wild to head risk and compliance for the private client services division in the UK. Mr Wild joins from Jersey Finance where he was technical director and a board director. He joined Jersey Finance in July 2004 from Deloitte in Jersey. Aspect Capital, the UK hedge fund manager, has appointed John Parkin as director of distribution, to pursue the firm's global strategy and to focus on its UK institutional investor base. He will report to John Wareham, Aspect’s chief commercial officer. Mr Parkin joins from Schroders where he was chief investment officer of the fund of hedge funds team and responsible for the development of the fund of hedge funds business. Rothschild Private Management in London has hired Alison Barnes as marketing director. Ms Barnes joins from Barclays Wealth Management, where she was business director of investment services. She will report to Noland Carter, responsible for the group’s UK and Channel Islands investment management capability. Mr Carter worked with Ms Barnes when he was chief executive of Barclays Investment Services. Mellon Financial, the Pittsburgh-based wealth manager, is to expand its family office services to the UK and has appointed Jim McEleney to lead the business in London. Mellon said London will be the first overseas site for its private wealth management group and the third location, after Pittsburgh and Boston, for its family office practice. Stonehage Investment Partners, the UK wealth management firm established in 1976, has appointed Ronnie Armist as a director in its London office. Mr Armist Joins Stonehage from IPGL, a subsidiary of Icap, the interdealer broker headed by Michael Spencer, one of the City of London's most high profile figures. At Stonehage, Mr Armist will lead a team of five investment officers and will be responsible for some of the firm's top clients, according to a report by Financial News. Before working for IPGL, Mr Armist was managing director of Lombard Odier in London. Switzerland Russell Harless has left Barclays International Private Bank where he was head of the African business based in Geneva. He is now rumoured to be setting up as an independent manager. A spokeswoman for Barclays told WealthBriefing that Mr Harless is presently on gardening leave and could not confirm the reason for his departure. Mr Harless joined Barclays in 2003 from HSBC where he was head of the sub-Saharan African team. He started his career in 1986 at UBP. Europe Riitta Pyhälä has been appointed Nordea's new head of savings and wealth management in Finland from 1 January 2007. She will replace Kari Virta who is retiring. Ms Pyhälä has been head of Nordea Private Bank in Helsinki since 2003. She was previously the head of Southern Helsinki branch region. In her new role she will report to Eira Palin-Lehtinen, head of savings and wealth management for Nordea. Change at the top at Belgian private bank Degroof. On 1 October 2006 Regnier Haegelsteen takes over as chief executive officer from Alain Siaens, who will move up to be chairman. Merrill Lynch Global Private Client has appointed Massimo Fortuzzi as chief operating officer of its Italian operation. Mr Fortuzzi joins from Antonveneta ABN Amro, the Milan-based private bank and asset manager, where he was chief executive officer and managing director whilst managing a team of 140. Gianluca Bussolati, head of Merrill GPC Italy’s discretionary business, will take the lead in developing its portfolio management offering to private clients. Both will report to José María Ortega, head of ML GPC Southern Europe. Merrill Lynch Investment Managers has appointed Sarah Melvin as its director of strategy and business development in Europe, Middle East and Africa. She joins MLIM from Gartmore Investment Management where she was strategy manager and delivered a range of strategic projects including reviews of their hedge fund and Japanese businesses. Middle East and Africa HSBC Private Bank has appointed Jamil Zubairi as head of South Africa. Mr Zubairi was previously with Bank Hofmann and will be based in London. Merrill Lynch Global Private Clients has hired Rahul Malhotra as head of its Indian private client business. Mr Malhotra will head both the onshore and offshore business in India. He joins from Citigroup, where he was global head of the non-resident Indian business for the US bank. Merrill has hugely beefed up its Dubai and Bahrain operations by tapping major international rivals HSBC, ABN Amro and Citigroup as well as local player Habib Bank for nine new financial advisors. The nine will focus on the development of the high net worth non-resident Indian business in the Middle East. Manish Agrawal, Rajiv Sodhi, Inderpal Singh and Sameer Baig join from ABN Amro, Dubai. Mr Agrawal was a senior derivatives trader and has 13 years banking experience, the past 10 of which were spent in Dubai. Mr Baig and Mr Sodhi were both relationship managers with ABN Amro’s preferred banking division with strong track records in new business development. Mr Singh was head of NRI business development and previously worked with DSP Merrill Lynch in India. Also joining Merrill is Pratap Chaubal, who will be based in Dubai. He was previously a senior private banker at Citigroup in Mumbai. Manisha Malik joins from HSBC Dubai where she was a senior premier relationship manager in NRI services. Yuven Hora joins from Habib Bank, Dubai, where he was head of consumer sales. Subhash Rajan joins from Citibank, Dubai, where he was a manager in NRI investment services. Finally, Sujit Pillai joins from Citibank, Bahrain, where he was a relationship officer. Julius Baer has appointed Kenneth Ho as head of products Asia Pacific. He is based in Hong Kong and reports to Andrea Benenati, head of North Asia. Mr Ho will be responsible for building the bank's product platform that includes portfolio management, sales and advisory products and services, wealth engineering, and trust and family services. He was previously head of products North Asia for Credit Suisse Private Banking in Hong Kong having also worked at Salomon Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch. Singapore-headquartered financial services group DBS has announced that Amy Yip, currently managing director, will take up a new post as chief executive officer of DBS Bank (Hong Kong) on 1 October 2006. She joined DBS in February this year to lead its regional wealth management business, which comprises asset management and private banking. Prior to joining DBS, she was executive director of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Perpetual of Australia has appointed Trudy Heins a former St George Bank financial planner, to the role of senior manager private clients in Canberra. She will oversee a team of five, three of whom are financial advisors, and replaces Mario Kardum who left in January. Northern Trust Global Investments, the asset management arm of Chicago-based Northern Trust Corporation, has added to its team in Tokyo with the appointments of Shoji Yamada as executive adviser and Osamu Hattori as head of investment management. Mr Yamada will work closely with Northern Trust senior management on business development opportunities in Japan. He comes to NTGI with over 40 years' experience in the banking and pensions industry. He joined from the Mizuho Pension Research Institute where he was chairman from 2001. Mr Hattori joined NTGI from Mizuho Trust and Banking, where he was senior fund manager and chief of the International Bond Team within the Passive/Quantitative Investment Management Office in Tokyo. Singapore-based bank Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation has appointed Olivier Denis as its new head of private banking. Mr Denis, who joins from American Express in Singapore where he was the former head of financial advisory services, replaces Daniel Chiam, who left last month to join Julius Baer in Singapore. UBS in Australia has hired seven wealth management advisors from Citigroup, according to reports in the local press. The seven will report to Liz Cacciottolo, chief executive of wealth management at UBS. Ms Cacciottolo was formerly head of UBS’s wealth management business in the UK. A report in The Australian also said two other wealth mangers have left Citigroup to join Macquarie Bank. Earlier this year, UBS hired Dean Surkitt, the former head of Citigroup Wealth Advisors in Australia. Australian press reports have linked the departures to problems at Citigroup’s Australian wealth management business, which led to the departure of Wayne Yang, head of the overall wealth management business for the US bank in Australia, late last year. Credit Suisse in Australia has hired James Gore from Deutsche Bank to head up its hedge fund sales. Mr Gore will be based in Sydney and report to Andrew Norman, head of equity sales and sales trading in Australia for Credit Suisse. Before Deutsche, where he worked for three years, Mr Gore was at UBS in Australia and New Zealand for five years as both a sales trader and research analyst. The Americas Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management has opened a new office in Miami to target wealthy Latin Americans. The bank has also appointed Ernesto De La Fe as head of Latin America. He joins from Lehman Brothers, where he was a managing director in the investment management division and head of business development for Latin America. Morgan Stanley PWM plans to use the new office as a spring board into the Latin American high net worth market and will be looking to expand the team in Miami, according to sources close to the bank. US Trust has hired Charles Swindells, the former US ambassador to New Zealand, to be vice chairman of its Western region, which comprises California, Oregon, Texas and Washington. Mr Swindells previously worked for the New York-based wealth management firm before being appointed to the ambassador’s role. He had previously worked as managing director in US Trust's Portland office. Mr Swindells is a founder of Capital Trust Co in 1981, which was acquired by US Trust in 1993. US Trust has also appointed Kim Garcia national head of financial planning succeeding Robert Stolar who moves to a new post as head of UST Consulting Group. Ms Garcia was managing director and division president of US Trust's Greensboro, North Carolina office. Steven Frost, who was managing director and head of a US Trust regional private-banking division, succeeds her in that role. Deutsche Bank’s US private wealth management business has appointed Mark Chiappara as a managing director and senior private banker. He will focus on serving ultra-high net worth clients. Mr Chiappara joins Deutsche from Bank of America Private Bank, where he was a senior vice president. Prior to joining Bank of America, Mr Chiappara was an investment banker at Lehman Brothers. Previously, he worked as a derivatives specialist with Goldman Sachs. Deutsche Bank has also appointed Terri Sohrab to a new position as a managing director and private banker to handle high net worth individuals, families and institutions at the bank’s private banking business in New York. Ms Sohrab previously worked as a managing director at US Trust's personal wealth management group. Deutsche has also appointed Michael Mullin as a vice president and private banker, another new position. He also previously worked at US Trust. Mark Peters, the former head of Deutsche Bank’s wealth management business in the US, has been appointed head of SunTrust Private Wealth Management in Atlanta. Mr Peters left Deutsche in mysterious circumstances late last year after being with the bank for less than six months. He joined Deutsche from Citigroup Private Bank where he was head of the US high net worth group. Mr Peters joined Deutsche with a considerable amount of fanfare and during his short stay at the German bank was in the process of recruiting a team of major private client managers throughout the US. At SunTrust, Mr Peters will oversee private wealth management, including international wealth management, the sports & entertainment banking group, personal asset management and SunTrust investment services, including SunTrust insurance group. Washington Trust Bank has hired Linda Williams as senior vice president and private banking team leader fro the bank’s Oregon office. Ms Williams joins from US Trust, where she was regional private banking manager with US Trust in Portland. Citigroup’s Smith Barney unit has hired two brokers from UBS Wealth Management in the US. The two – Robert Jacobs and Philip Byrne – reputedly manage more than $400 million in client assets for ultra-high net worth individuals, according to a Dow Jones Newswires report. Both will be based in California and will join a team of 40 financial advisors. Mr Jacobs joins as a member of the director's council, Smith Barney's recognition club for high-producing brokers. Morgan Stanley has hired two portfolio managers to strengthen its wealth/asset management operations in the US. Kathy O’Connor and Jeff Sanders join from New York Life Investment Management. According to an internal memo from Morgan Stanley, which was reported by Dow Jones, the two managed small, mid and large cap opportunity funds for high net worth individuals, retail investors and institutions.