Summary Of Asia-Pacific Senior Wealth Management Moves – May 2024

A roundup of moves in the Asia-Pacific industry during May.

Moody”s appointed Jeremy Schwartz as regional head of Oceania,
based in its Sydney, Australia office. Schwartz joined
Moody’s in 2018 in Chicago, holding various positions across its
corporate and professional services divisions. He most recently
led Moody’s global commercial strategy to maximise revenue
through partnerships with the Big Four accounting firms, namely
Deloittes, PwC, Ernst & Young and KPMG.

HSBC appointed a new head of global banking for Singapore,
Gilbert Ng. Ng succeeded Priya Kini who took on a new role early
this year as head of commercial banking for Singapore. Prior to
joining HSBC, Ng was corporate banking head in Singapore for
Citigroup.

Marcuard Heritage (Singapore) Pte, part of the Marcuard Heritage
group, appointed Michel Keiser as its new chief executive. He
took over from Sinan Bodmerm who stepped down from the position.
Bodmerm remains as executive director and an active client
advisor at the business.

Keiser – a Swiss national – has served in managerial roles at
Credit Suisse, among other positions. He was desk head for the
wealth management market for Malaysia, and head of international
private banking and wealth management in Singapore and the
Singapore booking centre.

Julius Baer appointed former Singapore-based wealth management
figure Serena Wong as a senior relationship manager, working from
Zurich. Wong, who reports to Christian Cappelli, head of
Asia Switzerland, has worked in financial hubs including New
York, Paris and Singapore. In her previous job, Wong was at Kamet
Capital Partners in Singapore. Prior to this, she was at JP
Morgan Private Bank, the Government of Singapore Investment
Corporation (GIC) and Société Générale.

Value Partners, listed in Hong Kong, appointed former Amundi
senior figure Clare Zhao as head of institutional business for
Asia-Pacific, as well as head of the China business and ETF
operations. Based in Hong Kong, Zhao reports to the firm’s
leadership committee. Before joining Value Partners, Zhao was
managing director, head of China business at Amundi. Previously,
she held various senior management positions at Vanguard, notably
as managing director, head of distribution, mainland China and
Hong Kong. Earlier in her career, Zhao was ETF sales manager at
Value Partners.

Charles River Development, part of State Street, appointed
Vinayak Bhat as senior vice president, head of Asia-Pacific. Bhat
previously worked at FactSet Research Systems where he was head
of the APAC business.

M&G appointed Lesley Lo as institutional distribution head
for Asia-Pacific. Ho, based in Hong Kong, previously served as
managing director, head of institutional sales, North Asia at
Principal Asset Management.

New York-listed Blue Owl Capital hired Johann Santer as a
managing director and head of Asia-Pacific private wealth. He is
based in Hong Kong, reporting to Sean Connor, president and chief
executive of the firm’s global private wealth business. Most
recently, Santer served as Fidelity International’s regional lead
for wholesale business alongside his position as head of private
banking, wealth and strategic clients.

The chief executive of Liechtenstein-headquartered VP Bank, Paul
Arni, left after a five-year spell at the lender. VP Bank named
Urs Monstein, chief operating officer, as interim CEO. Arni, at
the group since 1 October 2019, was central to driving its
Strategy 2026 series of changes.

HSBC Asset Management made a number of senior appointments.

Masayuki Kaneko, CEO, HSBC Asset Management (Japan) (AMJP), took
additional responsibilities: He was appointed as head of
institutional sales, North Asia. He remains based in Japan, and
his reporting line is also unchanged. Locally, Kaneko
reports to Edward Weeks, president and CEO, HSBC Japan, and
functionally to Daisy Ho, CEO Asia-Pacific, HSBC Asset
Management.

HSBC created a new role, namely CEO, HSBC Global Asset Management
(Hong Kong) (AMHK), to enable Ho to focus on her Asia-Pacific CEO
role. Jasmine Hung, head of pensions strategic partnerships, Hong
Kong, AMHK, took on additional responsibilities and
was appointed as acting CEO, AMHK. Hung continues to report
to Ho on a functional basis, and to Maggie Ng, general manager
and head of wealth and personal banking Hong Kong, HSBC, on an
entity basis. Hung currently leads AMHK’s pensions strategic
partnerships team, focusing on the pensions and retirement
business in Hong Kong. She joined AMHK in…