Weekly roundup of people news, June 3
RBC WM shuffles Asia leadership
RBC Wealth Management, the private banking arm of Royal Bank of Canada, has appointed Peter Corry as head of Asia, to succeed Barend Janssens, who is retiring. The bank is also putting the Asia business under the leadership of Stuart Rutledge, international head of wealth management. The changes will be effective on June 10.
Janssens is the second senior executive to leave the private bank recently. RBC said Michael Yong-Haron, head of North Asia, had resigned last month to pursue other opportunities, as reported.
Doug Guzman, group head for RBC Wealth Management and RBC Insurance, said the change in regional reporting line to Rutledge was because the group felt there was “leverage for our clients and teams to pool our leadership and expertise”.
Pictet appoints CEO for Southeast Asia
Switzerland's Pictet Group has appointed Goldman Sachs veteran Dominique Jooris as CEO of Bank Pictet & Cie (Asia), its Singapore entity, and CEO of Pictet Wealth Management South Asia. He fills the role vacated by Anuj Khanna, who left in October last year.
Claude Haberer, CEO for Asia Pacific, had been leading the private bank in Singapore and South and Southeast Asia since Khanna's departure.
Pictet has also promoted Sharon Chou to CEO for Hong Kong, in addition to her role as North Asia CEO.
At Goldman Sachs, Jooris had held several prominent positions since 2005, most recently managing director for credit capital markets for Asia, based in Hong Kong.
He has 20 years’ banking experience, including 10 in Asia. He has spent time developing solutions for clients' financing and tax-related needs at a corporate level, and gaining in-depth experience of family-run businesses. Jooris began his career at JP Morgan in mergers and acquisitions.
KKR hires head of China property
US private equity giant KKR has hired Rob Yang, previously at rival Blackstone, to head its China real estate team in what the firm says is a newly created role.
Yang took up the post on June 1, reporting to Ralph Rosenberg, global head of KKR Real Estate, and Joseph Bae, managing partner of KKR Asia, FinanceAsia reports.
Yang will work with Bryan Southergill, a managing director in the real estate team, on developing KKR’s regional property investment strategy.
Natixis hires HK head of wholesale
Natixis Global Asset Management has hired Samuel Lam from First State Investments as head of wholesale and retail fund distribution in Hong Kong.
Davy Yuen, who previously held the role since September 2013, in March joined Manulife Asset Management as managing director for partnership development in Hong Kong, according to his LinkedIn page.
Lam joined Natixis GAM on May 30 and reports to Madeline Ho, head of wholesale fund distribution for Asia Pacific. At First State, he was associate director for intermediary business.
Lam has also worked at HSBC Global Asset Management, Deutsche Asset Management, American Express Bank and Citibank.
Natixis GAM opened its Hong Kong office in 2012, the firm’s fifth branch in Asia Pacific. The multi-boutique firm sources $38 billion of its $885 billion in global AUM from Asia Pacific.
Tan joins Julius Baer from Credit Suisse
Another Credit Suisse private banker has left to join Swiss rival Julius Baer. Tan Yee Kim becomes Hong Kong-based group head for Greater China at Julius Baer, and is understood to have taken up the role in May. His role is understood to be newly created.
He reports to another recent arrival from Credit Suisse, David Shick, who was named head of private banking for Greater China in April. Both Credit Suisse and Julius Baer declined to comment.
Since Jimmy Lee joined Julius Baer as Asia CEO last August, the firm has poached a number of executives from Credit Suisse.
Bank of Singapore loses HK head
Edward Chow has tendered his resignation and is serving out his notice as managing director, and market head for Hong Kong at Bank of Singapore, the private bank has confirmed, declining to comment further.
Chow has been with BoS and its predecessor, ING, since 2004. AsianInvestor was unable to ascertain his next move by press time.
DBS Vickers names HK chief
DBS Vickers, the brokerage arm of Singapore bank DBS, has appointed Josephine Lam as CEO for Hong Kong, replacing Kevin Leung, who has retired.
Reporting to Sebastian Paredes, Hong Kong CEO of DBS, Lam will oversee DBS Vicker’s corporate and retail sales business in the city.
She was previously general manager of GuocoCapital, where she helped revamp its brokerage platform for stocks, futures, structured products, fixed income and bullion.
Prior to that, she worked for HSBC in various roles, including head of wealth management for Hong Kong and head of retail securities for Asia Pacific.
UBP replaces CIO
Switzerland’s Union Bancaire Privee has appointed Norman Villamin as chief investment officer, replacing Jean-Sylvain Perrig. Villamin was previously head of investment services, treasury and trading in Zurich at UBP, a role he will retain alongside the CIO post.
He now reports to Michaël Lok, UBP’s co-CEO of asset management.
Villamin came to UBP from UK private bank Coutts, of which UBP has just acquired the international business from UK-based RBS; the deal completed earlier this year.
He was CIO of Europe and the Middle East at Coutts for three years until October 2015, and before that Asia CIO for two years until 2012.
Perrig had been CIO at UBP for two-and-a-half years and has left to pursue other interests, according to the bank.
Kumar joins Withers to advise families and corporations
Law firm Withers has hired Mahesh Kumar as a partner in Singapore to advise high-net-worth families on financial planning, and multinational corporations and investment funds on cross-border mergers and acquisitions.
Kumar joins from Indian firm Nishith Desai Associates, where he headed the international tax and private client practice.
Other people news reported this week by AsianInvestor:
GFI hires new CIO, eyes product launches
BNY Mellon IM hires Asia co-head, rebuilding team