Weekly roundup of people news, Oct 3
ABN Amro installs Asia fund selection rep
Dutch bank ABN Amro relocated Clement Joly from Amsterdam to Hong Kong last month to become the Asia representative of its global fund selection unit.
Its multi-manager business, AA Advisors comprises 31 people in total, with 20 in Paris, 10 in Amsterdam and now Joly in Hong Kong covering Asia. He is responsible for selecting managers for Asian equities, supporting ABN Amro’s network in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai.
Joly has worked at ABN Amro for more than a decade, having first joined in 2003. He starting out as an equity analyst and portfolio manager with the private bank in France, and moved to the head office in Amsterdam as global product specialist for funds and discretionary portfolio management.
He joined the AA Advisors team in 2010 as head of advisory and client servicing. In that role he drew on the research of internal analysts to create fund recommendation lists for the various advisory networks at ABN Amro.
StanChart reorganises private banking team
Standard Chartered Private Bank has moved to reorganise, relocating Stephen Richards-Evans from Dubai to Singapore to develop its ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) client business in Asia in a newly created role.
Effective from October 1, Richards-Evans' title is global head of UHNW private banking clients. Previously he was regional head of private banking clients for Africa, Europe, the Middle East and South Asia.
As part of the bank’s drive to boost its UHNW business, it has also appointed Rahul Raswant as executive director of UHNW private banking clients, effective October 1.
Based in the UK, he is responsible for the formulation and delivery of the private bank’s UHNW proposition. He had previously been director of strategy.
The moves follow Richard Pattle’s appointment as vice-chairman for private banking clients based in London, effective September 15.
Credit Suisse names execution services head
Credit Suisse announced the appointment of Eugene Khaimson from Deutsche Bank as head of advanced execution services (AES) product for Asia.
Based in Hong Kong he reports to Hani Shalabi, Asia head of AES. He comes in to replace Murat Atamer, who left to join Bank of America-Merrill Lynch in May as co-head of electronic trading for Asia.
Khaimson is tasked with overseeing the development of the AES algo platform, smart-order routers and its safety and controls platform.
He joined from Deutsche Bank in New York, where he was head of global algo product for cash equities from 2012 to this June. Prior to that he worked for the bank as head of product development for Asia Pacific in Hong Kong from August 2009.
Before joining Deutsche, Khaimson held a variety of sales and development roles at equity trading services firm ITG in Hong Kong and Israel, developing algorithmic trading systems as well as quantitative prediction models for trading.
Friends Provident adds regional sales director
Friends Provident International this month appointed Toby Simpson to the newly created role of regional sales director for Southeast Asia.
Based in Singapore he reports to Chris Gill, general manager for Southeast Asia.
Simpson was head of sales and distribution at Transamerica Life from July 2012 to this month, also based in Singapore. He has also worked for Swiss Life Private Placement, Zurich Financial Services and Cambrian Advisory Services.
Fung Ling Kok joined the firm last month as regulatory reporting manager from Zurich, which she joined in August 2011 and where she was senior finance manager. She is based in Singapore.
BNP Paribas streamlines in equity derivatives
French bank BNP Paribas has moved to streamline its equity derivatives business in Asia, naming Kyoya Okazawa to lead a consolidated unit covering structured equity and flow business.
Okazawa became head of equity derivatives distribution, global equities and commodity derivatives (GECD) for Asia Pacific on September 29 in what is a newly created position.
At the same time, Okazawa retains his position as head of GECD for Japan and continues to be based there.
He told AsianInvestor that this move forms part of a global streamlining process: "We have put the two businesses of structured equity and flow business into one business under equity derivatives."
He explained that in the past the firm had been covering clients by product, but that there was increasing demand for cross-selling across the whole derivatives platform.
From here on it will cover all derivatives business for clients according to one of three segments: hedge funds; wealth management/family offices; and institutional clients, which include asset owners, life insurers, asset managers and distributors.
"There have been no changes in personnel from this streamlining, and the heads of structured equity and flow business are still with us," said Okazawa. "Under this new umbrella, all our services will be bundled together."
Okazawa joined BNP Paribas in 2011. Before that he worked at Credit Suisse, where he was most recently head of equity.
Fund administrator adds alts veteran
US financial services software firm SS&C Technologies has appointed former Credit Suisse staffer Stewart Bent to manage its fund administration business in Asia.
He will lead SS&C GlobeOp based out of Hong Kong, reporting to Nandini Sankar, head of SS&C’s alternatives business for Asia.
Bent left Credit Suisse’s prime fund services business in the region in late 2012. AsianInvestor could not ascertain what he has been doing in the interim. He had joined the prime fund services business unit in 2006, before Fortis (later ABN Amro) sold it to Credit Suisse in 2010.
Before that he had worked at Bank of Bermuda in the Cayman Islands, transferring to Hong Kong in late 2001, where he went on to work in HSBC’s alternative fund services business.
Withers expands corporate practice
Law firm Withers has appointed Jenny Hu as an associate in its corporate team in Hong Kong as part of a regional expansion.
Hu joins from Freshfields, where she was an associate in the corporate department, advising listed companies on finance and corporate transactions, including structured finance, M&A and project finance.
Before that she worked in Norton Rose for two years, where she was responsible for takeover deals, bond issuance and the setting up of a joint venture.
Earlier this year Withers appointed Matthew Egerton-Warburton as a partner and Alana Lam as a consultant.
Other people news reported by AsianInvestor this week: