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Executive Moves In The Americas: December 2013

Eliane Chavagnon

6 January 2014

Perella Weinberg Partners, which provides advisory and asset management services to clients globally, elected four individuals in New York to join the firm’s partnership.

Michael Grace and Kevin Stahl will serve in an advisory capacity, while Frances Ni and Vladimir Shendelman focus on asset management and firm administration respectively.

Prior to joining Perella Weinberg Partners in 2006, Grace was with Citigroup, Salomon Smith Barney and its predecessor firms. Grace has specialized in mergers and acquisitions across a number of industry sectors, including financial technology, media and telecommunications, and consumer products.

Ni is chief accounting officer of Perella Weinberg Partners and co-head of operations for its asset management business. Prior to joining the firm in 2006, Ni was chief financial officer at ReachCapital and the accounting manager at FrontPoint Partners, an alternative asset management firm. Earlier still, Ni was a portfolio analyst at SAC Capital, having previously worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Shendelman is deputy general counsel of Perella Weinberg Partners, providing legal counsel to the advisory and asset management businesses. Prior to joining the firm, he was an attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell within its mergers and acquisitions group.

Lastly, prior to joining Perella Weinberg Partners in January 2012, Stahl was a managing director and co-head of US real estate investment banking at RBC Capital Markets. Before that, he was with GE Real Estate, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley.

Philadelphia, PA-headquartered Janney Montgomery Scott appointed Seth Diamond in Glastonbury, CT, as vice president of investments.

Diamond spent the past eight years at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, having started his career as a commodity research analyst at Shearson Lehman Brothers.

After the latter role, he was a futures trading strategist for Advest, and then joined M&T Bank as an executive associate.

Last month, Janney hired Douglas Velnoskey as senior vice president of wealth management in Baltimore, MD, while also appointing John Goles as senior vice president and manager of the Bel Air, MD, branch.

Alquity Investment Management, which operates in markets such as Africa, took a tilt at the Latin American market by hiring Roberto Lampl as head of investment in the region.

Lampl previously worked at Baring Asset Management, where he spent three years heading its emerging market and Latin American equity teams. Prior to this, he was a senior investment manager at ING Investment Management, where he was portfolio manager of the ING L Invest Latin America Equity Fund, as well as co-portfolio manager of several other funds.

Dynasty Financial Partners moved to new headquarters in New York City while making two senior hires.

Rebecca Knauss was appointed as vice president of transition and advisor services, and Jim DiPisa joined as vice president of investments. Ed Friedman was also recently hired as director of strategic relationships.

Reporting to Ed Swenson, chief operating officer of Dynasty, Knauss will support the firm’s divisions that are focused on the transition of new advisor teams and the ongoing practice development of existing network firms.

Between 2008 and 2012, Knauss held client service and transition management roles – while also providing operations support to RIAs – at Chicago’s HighTower. Most recently, she was an investment associate at Harris MyCFO.

Meanwhile, DiPisa will report to Michael Moriarty, director of Dynasty’s investment platform, and support all activities and initiatives related to the build out, development, marketing and implementation of the firm’s investment products.

Additionally, he will work with Tom Petrone, director of capital markets, in expanding the capital markets platform, which includes structured solutions, private placements, hedging needs and equity syndicate opportunities. DiPisa began his career at Goldman Sachs, spending almost six years within the firm’s equities division.    

OppenheimerFunds named Arthur Steinmetz as chief executive, replacing William Glavin who will remain chairman of OppenheimerFunds, alongside other leadership changes.

In his new role, effective July 1, 2014, Steinmetz will assume direct management of investments, distribution and marketing.

Meanwhile, chief investment officer Krishna Memani will replace Steinmetz as CIO of OppenheimerFunds. Memani’s fixed income investment team will continue reporting to him.

Director of national sales John McDonough has been promoted to the role of head of distribution, replacing Philipp Hensler, who the firm said will pursue another executive position at a global financial services organization.

Memani, McDonough and chief marketing officer Martha Willis will report directly to Steinmetz.

Chief investment officer of equities, George Evans, and CIO of asset allocation, Mark Hamilton, and their respective investment teams, will also report to Memani.

France's Crédit Agricole Private Banking named Olivier Livenais as chief executive in Miami, FL, succeeding Mathieu Ferragut, who was appointed as head of the Americas region, based in Miami.

Livenais joined Société Générale in 1998 as organizational project manager before moving to the Crédit Agricole Group in 2000 within the firm's General Inspectorate unit.

In 2007, he moved to Crédit Agricole Private Banking as a finance, risk and strategy manager. Since the holding company was set up in November 2011, he has served as the finance and supervision director.

Meanwhile, in his new role, Ferragut will manage and coordinate Crédit Agricole's private banking business in South America. He began his career with Crédit Lyonnais Singapore in 1996 as information systems project leader and two years later was appointed as chief operating officer of Crédit Lyonnais Private Banking Asia.

In 2000, he joined the Miami branch of Crédit Lyonnais, spending seven years there as COO and chief compliance officer. He was appointed deputy CEO of Crédit Agricole Miami Private Banking in 2007, and then CEO in 2008.

Stifel hired financial advisor Joshua Bledsoe as senior vice president of investments at its broker-dealer subsidiary, Stifel, Nicolaus & Co.

Based in the firm’s private client group office in St Louis, MO, Bledsoe will provide wealth management and investment advisory services to high net worth investors.

He joined Stifel after spending 11 years at Merrill Lynch, where he was a senior vice president and past chairman of the firm’s advisory council to management.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority added Dr Brigitte Madrian and Dr Luis Viceira to its board of governors, while creating a new committee to tackle investor issues.

The committee will advise senior staff at FINRA on proposed rulemaking, policy initiatives and other issues that impact both retail and institutional investors. It will also help inform FINRA's economic analysis from the perspective of investors, the authority said.

Dr Madrian, the Aetna Professor of public policy and corporate management at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Dr Viceira, the George Bates Professor at the Harvard Business School, have joined the board.

Dr Madrian's current research focuses on behavioral economics and household finance, with a focus on household saving and investment behavior. 

Dr Viceira, FINRA said, is interested in the study of asset allocation strategies for long-term investors (both individuals and institutions), capital markets (with an emphasis on the Treasury bond market and the term structure of interest rates), and household finance. 

Other members on the new committee include: Brandon Becker, executive vice president and chief legal officer, TIAA-CREF; James Choi, associate professor of finance, Yale School of Management; Roger Ganser, chairman, BetterInvesting; founder and managing director, Venture Investors; Lawrence Greenberg, chief legal officer, The Motley Fool; Catherine Heron, former senior vice president and senior counsel, Fund Business Management Group, Capital Research and Management Company; and Mark Ready, department chair for finance, investments and banking and academic director of the Hawk Center for Applied Security Analysis, University of Wisconsin School of Business.

As well as: Barbara Roper, Director of Investor Protection, Consumer Federation of America; Paul Roye, senior vice president, Fund Business Management Group, Capital Research and Management Company; Nancy Smith, corporate secretary and chief integration officer, AARP; Elisse Walter, former chairman, US Securities and Exchange Commission; and Stephen Williams, former senior special advisor to the director, trading and markets, US Securities and Exchange Commission.

US Bank Wealth Management hired Chady AlAhmar as head of business development, having previously been head of strategy and finance for US Bank’s high net worth business, the Private Client Reserve.

In his new role, US Bank said AlAhmar will link up with external strategic business partners in delivering wealth management products to clients. He will report to Mark Jordahl, president of US Bank Wealth Management, and become a member of the firm’s wealth management executive committee.

AlAhmar joined US Bank in 2010 as a member of the enterprise revenue office, having latterly held a number of strategy, finance and management positions in various firms in New York City.

Aberdeen Asset Management appointed David Steyn as head of Americas.

Steyn replaced Gary Marshall, who will return to the UK after four years of running and developing Aberdeen's business in the Americas.

Steyn has more than 30 years of experience in the investment industry, based in both the UK and US.

He joined AllianceBernstein Holding in 1999 and served as its chief operating officer from 2009 to 2012. 

He has previously run both fixed income and equity investment teams in the UK and the US with firms such as Quaestor, Lazard and Montagu. Before this, he was a fixed income portfolio manager at Montagu. 

Marshall has been with the Aberdeen Group since 1997 and is a member of Aberdeen's group management board. He was appointed head of Americas in January 2010 and is also chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management in the US and president of Aberdeen's US mutual fund range, Aberdeen Funds.

He began his career in 1983, working in marketing and product development at Scottish Provident. After becoming development director there, he joined Aberdeen via the acquisition of Prolific Financial Management in 1997.

Convergent Wealth Advisors hired Richard Wells as a managing director working for Independence, a division of the firm which serves clients with $1 million and more in investable assets.

Specifically, Wells will help expand that unit’s presence outside of the firm’s traditional Washington, DC, New York and Los Angeles markets, starting with Atlanta, GA.

New York-headquartered Tiedemann Wealth Management opened an office in San Francisco, CA, to serve its growing West Coast client base.

The team at the new California branch will report to Michael Yelverton, principal and managing director of Tiedemann Wealth Management.

Yelverton is returning to San Francisco having spent the past ten years at the firm's New York office. He will oversee client management on the West Coast while continuing his role as a senior member of the firm's investment team.

Altegris, a provider of alternative investments, named Jack Rivkin as chief investment officer.

Rivkin took over the CIO role from Allen Cheng, who will remain a portfolio manager to the Altegris funds and a member of the Altegris Investment Committe.

Rivkin will oversee the firm's research and investments group as well as serving as a member of the Altegris Investment Committee. He will also have overall responsibility for identifying, selecting and monitoring fund managers across multiple investment disciplines while overseeing asset allocation and research for Altegris products. 

The Hedge Fund Association appointed Christina Bodden and Colin Nicholson as co-directors of its Cayman Islands chapter.

Bodden is a partner in the investment funds group of international law firm Maples and Calder, with a focus on the structuring of private equity funds and the related transactions. She also works with institutions and hedge fund managers, as well as their onshore counsel, advising on the structuring and ongoing operation of all aspects of investment funds.

Nicholson is a partner with the alternative investments practice of KPMG in the Cayman Islands and is the head of learning and development for the firm. He serves on the Cayman Islands Society of Professional Accountants Executive Council and Public Practice Committee and was also a member of the board of directors of the CFA Society of the Cayman Islands. HFA said Nicholson has 15 years of professional experience with offshore alternative investment and private wealth management clients. 

Baird hired Kevin Cross as a senior vice president and financial advisor at its Denver, CO, wealth management office.

Cross began his career as a financial advisor in 1998 with Prudential Securities and was most recently a financial consultant with Charles Schwab.

Cushman & Wakefield, the global real estate firm that frequently makes predictions on market trends, appointed Edward Forst as president and chief executive.

Forst joined Cushman & Wakefield having previously worked at Goldman Sachs as global co-head of the investment management division. Most recently, he served as an advisor to Fenway Partners, a private investment firm.

He was also, during the crisis period of 2008-2009, selected to be the first executive vice president and principal operating officer of Harvard University, leading its non-academic affairs. He also served as advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury of the US.

The role of president and CEO was held on an interim basis for the past five months by Carlo Barel di Sant’Albano.

People's United Bank appointed Galan Daukas as a senior executive vice president, responsible for the firm’s wealth management business.

Daukas was most recently executive vice president at Washington Trust Wealth Management in Providence, RI, where he was in charge for the investment management, trust, financial planning, mutual fund management and insurance units.

Prior to that, Daukas was chief operating officer at Harbor Capital Management, having previously been COO at Fleet Investment Advisors.

Merrill Lynch hired three advisors from UBS, Credit Suisse and Wells Fargo.

Rodney Woodley joined from UBS Financial Services in Davenport, IA, with $130,612,000 in assets under management and $987,766 in production.

In Coral Gables, FL, Daniel Rodriguez is latterly of Wells Fargo and has $1,069,636 in production, while Jeffrey Klinger joined Merrill's private banking and investment group from Credit Suisse First Boston.

Deborah McWhinney, chief operating officer of global enterprise payments at Citi, is retiring from the firm at the end of January 2014.

McWhinney joined Citi in 2009 as head of the then newly-created Citi Personal Wealth Management organization, which provides investment services to clients with varying levels of personal assets.

McWhinney was previously president of Schwab Institutional, a division of Charles Schwab & Co, where she worked with independent investment advisors and spent six years overall. Earlier in her career, McWhinney spent 17 years at Bank of America, working in corporate and retail banking. She was also appointed by former President George Bush to the board of directors of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation in 2002. 

“She is now turning her vision into action and has been asked to join the board of a Fortune 250 company,” Citi said in a memo. “Over the coming weeks McWhinney will work with John Gerspach and senior partners in the GCB and ICG to ensure a successful transition for the CEP organization. In addition, she and Suni are helping identify the next generation of leadership for Citi Women.”

Raymond James added financial advisors John Quello and Nathan Quello to the Loft Advisors team at First Dakota National Bank in Sioux Falls, SD.

John Quello and his son joined from UBS Financial Services, where they had $325 million in assets under administration and annual fees and commissions of more than $1.6 million.

John Quello has been in the industry for 34 years, while his son joined him in 2000.

BNY Mellon added a business development director, portfolio manager and family wealth advisor to its growing wealth management team in Chicago, IL.

Senior director for business development, Paul Goodrich, and senior director for portfolio management, Edward Costello, joined the firm in November 2013 and report to Chicago regional president, Mike DiMedio. Managing director Robert Mitchell joined last month as part of the firm’s national family wealth advisor team, reporting to team leader Ridgway Powell.

Prior to joining BNY Mellon, Goodrich was a private client advisor and team leader at US Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management. He previously served as vice president at National City Bank from 2005 to 2008 in a business development role.

Costello was formerly a senior vice president and senior portfolio manager at US Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management. In addition to managing multi-asset class portfolios for high net worth and institutional client segments there, he was the lead proprietary fixed income portfolio manager for the 14-state central division.

Lastly, Mitchell joined BNY Mellon from Northern Trust, where he held several investment management roles over a 25-year period. Most recently, he was a senior portfolio manager and team leader within the firm’s global family and private office group and oversaw $5 billion in assets.

The Paris-based asset manager TOBAM opened an office in New York, led by two new managing directors from Amundi, as the firm expands in North America.

Stephane Detobel and Francis Verpoucke will be responsible for business development and relationship management with US investors.

Detobel joined TOBAM after 12 years with Amundi in Europe and North America. He began his career in 1993 as a senior auditor at Deloitte Belgium, subsequently joining State Street Global Advisors in Brussels as head of client servicing for Continental Europe. In 2001, he joined Amundi Benelux and then in 2008 created Amundi USA to start and run the firm's activities in the US.

Verpoucke also joined TOBAM after 12 years with Amundi in Europe and North America. He began his career in 1996 as an auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers Belgium, and then, like Detobel, moved to State Street Global Advisors (Brussels) as a client service officer. He then started working at Amundi to cover the Dutch, Belgian and Luxembourg markets, before joining Amundi USA in 2008 to take charge of business development and client servicing for US investors.

Carne Group, which provides independent governance services to the global asset management industry, added Michelle Wilson-Clarke to its team of Cayman Islands fund directors.

Wilson-Clarke joined from Intertrust Fund Services, having previously worked at Walkers Fund Services, a division of offshore law firm Walkers which was acquired in 2012 by Intertrust Group.

She began her financial services career with Wellington Management Company in Boston, MA, where she was a vice president and relationship analyst for several large mutual fund sponsors, endowments and foundations.

US multi-family office Bessemer Trust named Kenneth Handy as vice president and wealth advisor, reporting to Eric Gies, co-head of the Northeast US region.

Based at Bessemer’s New York headquarters, Handy is responsible for introducing the firm’s investment and wealth management services to ultra high net worth families in the mid-Atlantic region.

Handy was latterly director of the New York office at Convergent Wealth Advisors.

US Wealth Management, a network of wealth managers, added Robert Crawford to its Los Angeles, CA, office, which is led by Michael Velazquez.

Prior to his appointment as a wealth manager, Crawford spent 20 years as a financial advisor in LA. 

Courtney Liddy joined UBS’ San Diego, CA, office as a senior vice president of wealth management with some $327 million in assets under management.

Liddy was named a Barron’s top 100 women nationally in 2011 and 2012, UBS said. 

She reports to branch manager Scott Hollaender and joins from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Her team comprises: Bill Garber, senior registered client services associate; Maggie Sangalang, registered client service associate; and Josh Stein, registered client service associate.

Courtney has been providing financial and wealth management services to high net worth clients for some 20 years.

Karl Schade, managing director and head of private equity at Presidio Group, was promoted to chief executive.

Schade replaced Brodie Cobb, who founded the firm in 1997. He was named interim CEO earlier last year when Cobb took a six-month medical leave to recover from injuries sustained in a cycling accident in 2012.

Schade joined the firm in 2007 to launch its first private equity fund, which focuses on mid-market technology-enabled services, gaming and financial services companies. Schade also served as interim CEO for one of the fund’s investments, Hattrick Sports Group, a sports-gaming enterprise in central Europe.

Before starting at Presidio, Schade was a private equity investor with Blum Capital Partners, Silver Lake Partners and The Blackstone Group.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management hired Christopher McDermott as senior director for business development in Palm Beach Gardens, FL.

McDermott reports to managing director Tim Goering, who is head of sales in Florida.

He was latterly a financial advisor at AllianceBernstein in West Palm Beach, before which he was a co-founder and senior managing director at Bond Street Holdings, a bank holding company that created Florida Community Bank. Previously, he worked on Wall Street in a variety of investment and credit analysis roles.

St Louis, MO-headquartered Stifel hired Michael Sullivan as managing director of the private client group and eastern region director of its broker-dealer subsidiary, Stifel, Nicolaus & Co.

Sullivan joined Stifel from Merrill Lynch, where he began his career in 1984 as a financial advisor.

At Merrill Lynch, he helped establish the firm’s high net worth private client segment and was co-founder and head of a private banking and investment group called Private Executive Services. He also served as managing director and head of the firm’s cross-organizational client coverage group/global client coverage.

Sullivan will be based in Stifel’s private client group office in Garden City, New York, but he will also have an office in Midtown Manhattan.

The Bank of Nashville, a division of Synovus Bank, appointed David Mulrooney as senior director of private client services - a role in which he will be in charge of all private banking and wealth management activities for the division.

Mulrooney previously held senior banking and wealth management positions at Wachovia and SunTrust Banks (the latter firm recently sold its asset management unit).

Meanwhile, Dawn Edwards also transferred to the private client services team as a relationship manager, having formerly served as manager of The Bank of Nashville’s Green Hills office.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management hired Thomas Ryan as senior director for business development in Seattle, where he reports to regional president Jim Barnyak.

Ryan was latterly a financial advisor with UBS Financial Services in Tacoma, WA. Prior to that, he held sales and client service roles at Russell Investments – most recently as regional director of the Russell Indexes.

Baltimore, MD-headquartered investment firm T Rowe Price appointed Mark Bartlett as an independent director.

Prior to his retirement in 2012, Bartlett was a partner at Ernst & Young, serving as managing partner of the firm's Baltimore office and senior client service partner for the mid-Atlantic region.

Bartlett serves on the board of directors of Rexnord Corporation and is director of The Baltimore Life Companies and Algeco Scotsman, which are privately-held.

RBC Wealth Management recruited The Weigel Dimino Group in Midtown New York.

The Weigel Dimino Group is comprised of David Weigel, senior vice president and financial advisor, and Steven Dimino, vice president and financial advisor.

Weigel and Dimino joined RBC with 18 and 13 years of industry experience, respectively, from Morgan Stanley.

At RBC, the team - which has $170 million in AuM and close to $1.2 million in production - will serve high net worth individuals and families.

LLBH Private Wealth Management, a Connecticut-based independent wealth management firm, promoted Michael Kazakewich to partner.

Kazakewich will serve on the LLBH investment committee and continue to lead the firm’s financial planning efforts, with a focus on asset management, concentrated stock hedging, lending, cash management, alternative investment due diligence and family office services.

He has worked with LLBH’s founding partners - Kevin Burns, Jim Pratt-Heaney, Bill Lomas and Bill Loftus - for 15 years and was a key participant in establishing the independent practice in 2008. Prior to establishing LLBH, the founding partners worked together at Merrill Lynch for over a decade.

Financial advisors Jason Taraszki and Jay Arbetter joined UBS Wealth Management Americas at the firm’s North Dallas office in Addison, TX.

Taraszki and Arbetter have $100 million and $175 million in assets under management, respectively, and report to Chris Gerrish, managing director.

They joined UBS along with Victoria Stoker, senior registered client service associate, and CSA Amanda Edwards. All four are latterly of Merrill Lynch and specialize in private portfolio asset management and family consulting.

US Bank appointed Benton Reichenau as head of wealth management product services, reporting to Gailyn Johnson, chief operating officer for US Bank Wealth Management.

Based in St Louis, MO, Reichenau is in charge of all product management for banking, wealth planning, investment management and trust across US Bank Wealth Management’s three business lines: the Private Client Group, the Private Client Reserve and Ascent Private Capital Management.

Reichenau and his team will manage product research/competitive analysis, product development, pricing, profitability, ongoing product management and distribution channels, as well as overseeing client experience efforts connected to these products.

Reichenau joined US Bank from Ernst & Young, where he was a principal and leader of the West Coast financial services office performance improvement consulting practice, based in San Francisco, CA.

Before that, Reichenau was a senior vice president and head of investment management and trust products/services for the wealth management group at Wells Fargo. Earlier still, he was a managing director within the financial services practice of Bearing Point, having also previously worked with Merrill Lynch as a financial advisor.

Greenwich, CT-headquartered Tradex Global Advisors, an alternative asset management company, hired K Daniel Libby as a senior portfolio manager.

Libby will have a role across all of Tradex's internally-managed hedge funds and fund-of-hedge-fund portfolios.

Libby has around 30 years of investment experience working at firms such as Goldman Sachs, Nomura, IBM Pension and BlackRock. 

Raymond James added financial advisors Doug Noble, Greg Bowden and Rod Dahl to Advisor Select, the independent employee channel of Raymond James & Associates, a subsidiary of Raymond James Financial.

The team operates as Goodwater Wealth Management Group of Raymond James and joined from Wells Fargo Advisors, where they managed some $220 million in client assets and had $1.3 million in annual fees and commissions. Also on the team are registered client associates Jaynie Guerrero and Angie Spinner.

Goodwater Wealth Management Group serves individuals and families, business professionals and retirees in Georgetown, TX.

Noble, Bowden and Dahl all started their careers in the financial services industry with AG Edwards in 2005, 2006 and 2000 respectively.

Royal Bank of Canada's chief executive Gordon Nixon is to retire this year after a period of 13 years in the job.

Nixon will be replaced by Dave McKay, group head of personal and commercial banking. McKay will be appointed as president at the annual meeting on February 26, 2014, and president and CEO as of August 1, 2014.

When McKay assumes the role of president, all business segments - personal and commercial banking, wealth management, insurance, investor and treasury services, and capital markets - will report to him.

Meanwhile, RBC also announced that Mark Standish, co-group head of capital markets and investor and treasury services, will be leaving the firm next year.

Fiduciary Trust Company International, a global investment management firm, appointed Viraj Patel as director of asset allocation.

Patel will lead the firm’s work on global capital market return and risk expectations across asset classes. He will also focus on the modeling and positioning of client portfolios.

Previously, Patel spent 10 years at Northern Trust in various asset management roles but with an emphasis on asset allocation. Most recently, he was a portfolio strategist for clients with multi-manager exposures.

Chicago, IL-headquartered global investment firm Calamos Asset Management announced that Nick Calamos is leaving the company’s board of directors.

The move follows Calamos' decision to step away from his day-to-day role with the firm in August 2012 and his agreement to sell his private interest in Calamos Family Partners. Calamos has left the firm to pursue his interests in education and philanthropy, according to a company statement.

The separation agreement includes non-compete and non-solicitation provisions spanning four years following Calamos’ departure.

Meanwhile, John Calamos, chief executive, announced his intention to form Calamos Partners to allow senior portfolio management and executives of the firm to participate in the private ownership of Calamos Investments.

Global Sage, the international executive search firm, formed a new global wealth management and family offices team, adding two senior consultants in New York and Hong Kong as well as unveiling a new office in Zurich.

John Meeks was appointed as managing director and head of the firm's wealth management and family offices practice, while Geoffrey Bevan was named a director at Global Sage’s office in Hong Kong, covering North Asia and ASEAN private banking.

Meeks was latterly a partner at a boutique executive search firm, where he opened the New York office and launched a practice dedicated to private wealth management. He was formerly a senior executive in private wealth management recruitment at Goldman Sachs, working across 12 offices in the US and Latin America. Earlier still, Meeks was senior vice president of Latin America for global executive recruitment firm Randstad Professionals. There, he spearheaded the firm's executive search practices in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico.

Bevan started his career working on the financial institutions team at RBS before moving into corporate banking at Barclays, which gave him significant exposure to Asian clients. Since moving to Asia, he has been responsible for a number of senior placements and team moves within the private wealth management space. He focuses on the Asia-Pacific region, Global Sage said, while his search practice is focused on relationship managers, investment advisory professionals and product specialists.

Scorpio Partnership, the wealth management consultancy regularly quoted by this publication, is to be acquired by McLagan, an Aon Hewitt company.

The business will become part of the global wealth management practice at McLagan that is led by Peter Keuls, who leads that part of the business. Scorpio Partnership’s two founders, Sebastian Dovey and Catherine Tillotson, alongside the team of 10 employees, will continue to operate in London. The move put Scorpio into a business that has offices in New York, Stamford, Chicago, Geneva, Singapore, Hong Kong and London.

The chairman and chief executive of UBS Global Asset Management for the past 11 years, John Fraser, retired from his CEO post.

Holding his posts since 2001, Fraser’s career at UBS dated back to when he joined Swiss Bank Corporation in Australia in 1993; he began his career in finance at the Australian government’s Treasury department.

Ulrich Koerner, the group chief operating officer, has taken over Fraser’s CEO slot, in addition to his role as CEO Europe Middle East and Africa.

Tom Naratil is now group COO – a function which will include group technology, group operations, corporate services and the firm's industrialization program. In addition, the corporate development function will move to the CFO area.

UBS this month is also making several other changes to its corporate center organization. Group human resources, communications and banding and group regulatory relations and strategic initiatives will report directly to Sergio Ermotti, UBS’s chief executive.

To manage UBS's compliance, conduct and operational risks in a more integrated and effective way, compliance and operational risk control will be merged to form a new function reporting to Philip Lofts, group chief risk officer.

The new function will continue to work closely with Legal, led by general counsel Markus Diethelm. In addition, UBS's group security services function will also move to the group chief risk officer area.

BNY Mellon hired Trevor Hunt as vice president for business development for BNY Mellon Wealth Management's Advisory Services business in Toronto.

Prior to joining BNY Mellon, Hunt worked at Stanhope Capital in London as senior director of client advisory services, with additional responsibility for portfolio management and client relationship management for private and institutional clients globally.

In his new role, he will report to Anthony Messina, president of BNY Mellon Wealth Management - Advisory Services.

Convergent Wealth Advisors, a subsidiary of Convergent Capital Management, appointed Charles Winn as managing director of strategic relationships.

Splitting his time between New York and Los Angeles, Winn will be responsible for supporting and broadening relationships with clients and "centers of influence," the company said in a statement. He is also charged with overseeing the firm’s national business development efforts.

Previously with Goldman Sachs, Winn has over 20 years experience in the financial services industry.

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management made two senior private equity hires to support the growth of its alternatives business in the Americas and globally.

Joshua Glaser was named director and global head of private equity for the global client group, while Brian Chiappinelli joined as director and North American product specialist for private equity.

Chiappinelli is based in Boston, MA, and reports to Glaser. Meanwhile, Glaser – based in New York - reports to Pascal Botteron, global head of alternative investments for the global client group.

Glaser most recently served as the director of investor relations for Paul Capital Partners, a firm focused on secondary private equity investing. Chiappinelli joins from global private equity firm HarbourVest Partners, where he was responsible for business development and client relations and their investment consultants and advisors.

US Bank Wealth Management appointed Kenneth Palattao as vice president and healthcare banking specialist for The Private Client Reserve of US Bank.

Palattao's 30-year experience in the healthcare industry includes acquisitions and consulting, strategic leadership and management within medical practices - from small primary care clinics to large multi-specialty practices and surgical facilities with multi-million dollar operating budgets.

Previously, Palattao worked at the Mayo Clinic Health System as vice president of operations and surgical services. Before that, he was executive director of Pediatric Surgical Associates and regional director at Park Nicollet Clinic Health Services.

Dynasty Financial Partners appointed Ed Friedman as director of strategic relationships, reporting jointly to Shirl Penney, president and chief executive, and Ed Swenson, chief operating officer.

Based in New York, Friedman's responsibilities include business development, management of key client relationships and delivering practice management programs, working with Dynasty’s network of advisors.

Since leaving HighTower Advisors in 2011, Friedman has served as a consultant to the financial services industry. He started working at HighTower in 2008 as part of the firm’s founding management team and was most recently director of advisor development.

Freidman has also had a long career in wealth management, having previously held branch management positions and senior roles at Morgan Stanley. He started his career at Morgan Stanley in 1985 as a financial advisor and was named executive director and complex manager at Morgan Stanley Global Wealth management from 2004-2008.  

United Capital Financial Advisers named Fargo, ND-based financial advisor Paul Jarvis as a managing director of the firm.  

Jarvis joined with $160 million in assets under management from Bell State Bank & Trust, where he was a financial planner and portfolio manager.

Meanwhile, United Capital also hired Stacey Robinson as a relationship manager for the Fargo office. Robinson has some 20 years of experience in the financial services industry.

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, part of Deutsche Bank, hired Brian Binder as a managing director and president of the DWS Funds business and head of fund administration in the US.

Binder will represent Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management to the DWS mutual fund board, which oversees more than 70 retail funds with approximately $59 billion in assets.

Binder joined the firm with 19 years of industry experience in mutual fund operations, strategic planning and implementation, product development, marketing and board relations. Most recently, he was head of business management and consulting at Invesco. Prior to that, Binder served as chief administrative officer for Van Kampen Investments, where he led the development and execution of strategic plan initiatives.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management hired Kathleen Stewart as a wealth strategist, serving high net worth individuals and families, primarily in Western Pennsylvania.

Stewart reports to Don Heberle, executive director of international wealth management and client segments. Based in Pittsburgh, she will also provide some support for BNY Mellon Wealth Management’s offices in Cleveland and Chicago.

Stewart was latterly vice president for fiduciary research with fi360 in Pittsburgh, having previously served for two years as a trust and fiduciary specialist at Wells Fargo Private Bank. Earlier in her career, she was a wealth and estate planning counselor.

Michael Wilson joined First Citizens Bank in Raleigh, NC, to oversee and manage the firm’s wealth management division, which includes investor services, the private wealth group, trust and investment management.

Wilson was latterly chief operating officer of the wealth management unit at Dallas, TX-headquartered Comerica Bank. In that role, he was responsible for strategic planning, technology, marketing, sales, compensation and product development.

Prior to this, Wilson was Comerica’s director of national sales and marketing for wealth management, and, earlier in his career, held wealth management roles at Wells Fargo, First Union National Bank, Bank Boston and Bank of New England.

Marianne Harris - formerly managing director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and president of corporate and investment Banking at Merrill Lynch Canada - joined Sun Life Financial’s board of directors.

Harris has worked in the financial industry for 29 years and prior to joining Merrill Lynch was head of the financial institutions group at RBC Capital Markets.

Vanguard’s Jeffrey Johnson relocated from the US to Australia in early 2014 to oversee a team of four senior investment analysts and economists focused on the Asia-Pacific region.

Johnson joined the US investment management firm in 2000 as senior investment analyst in the portfolio review department, responsible for fund and manager oversight, product management and development and institutional client service.