Citi has made a number of senior appointments for its Private Bank in Asia, following Bassam Salem's announcement that he will retire next year. Going forward Steven Lo (pictured) will be the bank's regional head with Rudolf Hitsch as the head of North Asia, Jyrki Rauhio as the head of South Asia, and Akbar Shah as head of business development. These newly created roles will report to Lo and are effective from February 1, 2018.
In addition, Horace Yip has also been appointed global market manager for Hong Kong, reporting to Hirsch, effective from February 1, 2018. Yip has been in the wealth management business for 20 years. He started at Citi as a relationship service officer in 1999 and following a stint at Hang Seng Bank and Hang Seng Trustee, he returned to Citi in 2005 as a senior associate banker. Yip was promoted to be a banker a year later covering Hong Kong clients and expanded his coverage to the Thai market. He returned to Citi's Platinum team starting in 2008 and continued to expand his coverage of the Hong Kong market while still managing select Thai clients due to the clients' preference to continue working with Horace. In 2015, Yip was appointed team head in the Hong Kong team.
Lo will be based in Hong Kong, and will report jointly to Peter Charrington, global head of Citi Private Bank, and Francisco Aristeguieta, CEO of Citi Asia Pacific. Lo has an extensive private banking track record covering clients in North America, Canada, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea and the Philippines. He joined Citi Private Bank 26 years ago as an ultra-high net worth banker in Vancouver, focusing on clients in North America and Asia. He later moved to New York as a banker, and then to Asia in 2001 and became the global market manager (GMM) of Thailand.
Mizuho taps Credit Suisse's global markets executive
Mizuho International, the London based securities and investment banking arm of Mizuho Financial Group, has appointed Zahra Peerbhoy as head of fixed income.
Based in London, Peerbhoy will be responsible for Mizuho International's businesses of fixed income sales, fixed income trading, structured solutions and derivatives. Acting in the capacity of senior managing director, she reports to Michiel de Jong, president & CEO of Mizuho International and is a member of the executive committee.
Peerbhoy joined Mizuho International from Credit Suisse where she was managing director in the global markets division. During her career at Credit Suisse spanning 24 years, she served as a member of various committees including the Managing Director Evaluation Committee, The Fixed Income Human Capital Committee and the Emea fixed income operating committee.
Peerbhoy will work closely with Mizuho colleagues across the corporate and investment banking businesses globally to enhance client relationships and broaden the fixed income products and solutions offering. Her focus will also include the leveraging of Mizuho International's electronic trading platforms to help build profile and access an even wider investor base for its products.
HANetf makes two senior hires as demand grows for white label ETFs
HANetf, Europe's independent white label exchange-traded fund (ETF) platform founded by Hector McNeil and Nik Bienkowski, has appointed Samir Patel as general counsel and Ignatius Faissal as director of product management.
Patel brings more than 20 years' legal and compliance experience in the investment fund sector, most recently at AllianceBernstein. Prior to that, he worked for State Street Global Advisers, Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs, Janus Capital and AXA Investment Managers. Patel will support HANetf's continued development and growth, providing product, legal and regulatory advice to HANetf and its clients.
Faissal, who worked with McNeil and Bienkowski at ETF issuer WisdomTree following the merger with the duo's second venture Boost ETP, has more than 15 years' financial product development experience. He began his career at Man Group, before moving to Credit Suisse Asset Management and later Aviva Investors. He will report to Bienkowski, leveraging his experience in building and developing UCITS ETF platforms.
Palladium makes changes at the top
Palladium Equity Partners, a private investment firm with approximately US$3bn in assets under management (AUM), has promoted Luis Zaldivar and Caleb Clark to the positions of senior managing director and managing director, respectively, and hired Chris Allen as a new principal.
Zaldivar, who joined Palladium in 2004, serves on the boards of directors of the Palladium portfolio companies Del Real, HealthSun, TransForce, DolEx, Raben Tire and Hy Cite. Zaldivar is a former vice president of corporate development and strategic investments at Univision. Prior to Univision, he worked for Lehman Brothers in the mergers and acquisitions group and for Accenture's strategic services consulting practice as a senior consultant.
Clark, who joined Palladium in 2014, serves on the boards of directors of the Palladium portfolio companies Jordan, Cannella, and GoodWest. Prior to Palladium, he was a vice president at Windjammer Capital Investors where he sourced, analyzed and structured investments in a range of industries including industrial, specialty distribution, food, aerospace & defense, and business services. Before Windjammer, Clark worked for Genstar Capital and Deutsche Banc Alex Brown.
In addition, Allen joined Palladium from Arlon Capital Partners, a private equity investment firm in middle-market food and agriculture businesses. Prior to Arlon, he was an investment professional at GenNx360 Capital Partners and Windjammer Capital Investors, where he sourced, led and structured investments in a range of industries, including food, specialty distribution, industrials and business services. Allen began his career as a consultant at Bain and Company.
Annuities provider Symetra realigns retirement sales and distribution
Symetra Life Insurance Company has made changes to its retirement sales and distribution organization. Rich LaVoice has been named executive vice president, retirement distribution strategy; Wes Severin has been promoted to senior vice president, retirement distribution; and Andrew Farrell will take on an expanded role as vice president, national sales manager. The appointments are effective January 1, 2018.
In his new role, LaVoice will focus on expanding Symetra's retirement distribution channels beyond the company's traditional bank, independent broker-dealer and wirehouse relationships, while Severin will have responsibility for the division's sales, sales operations, relationship management, product marketing and business technology teams. Both executives report to Dan Guilbert, executive vice president of Symetra's individual life and retirement divisions. Farrell, who will lead Symetra's internal and external sales teams, will report to Severin.
LaVoice joined Symetra in 2010 as executive vice president, sales and distribution. He had previously served as corporate vice president and national sales manager of retirement income at MassMutual Financial Group. He has specialized in selling life insurance and investment products throughout his 35-year career, holding sales leadership positions at UBS Financial Services, SunAmerica Retirement Markets, Inc., Bear Stearns & Co., and Shearson/Smith Barney.
Severin joined Symetra in March 2011 as western divisional sales manager for retirement products and was promoted to vice president of national sales the following year. Prior to Symetra, Severin was national sales director of financial institution markets at Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company in Denver
Farrell joined Symetra in 2010 as AVP, director of retirement sales. He was named vice president in 2011, with responsibility for retirement sales development. Farrell joined Symetra from MassMutual Financial Group, where he had most recently been director of retirement sales.
Analysis Group makes consultant promotions
Analysis Group, one of the largest private economics consulting firms, has promoted three of its consultants. Michael Holland has been appointed managing principal. Holland has over 15 years of experience applying economics and finance to problems arising in corporate and business litigation. His areas of expertise include assessing market competition, evaluating costs in the financial services industry, valuing privately held companies, and analyzing less-liquid structured products.
Holland has researched the impact of financial market disruptions on structured products and other thinly traded fixed-income securities used as collateral in secured lending arrangements. In matters related to the Lehman bankruptcy, he supported multiple experts in assignments related to collateral management, risk exposure, complex accounting topics, and the causes of Lehman's failure.
Lisa Pinheiro has also been appointed managing principal. She has an extensive background in quantitative analysis and statistical modeling, which she has applied to various practice areas, including finance, intellectual property, biostatistics, and antitrust. In finance, she focuses on cases involving allegations of market price manipulation, misleading communications, excessive mutual fund fees, and mortgage-backed securities litigation.
Samuel Weglein has been appointed principal. Weglein specializes in applying economics, statistics, and valuation to the analysis of liability issues and damages in antitrust, finance and securities, and general business litigation matters. Much of his recent antitrust work has been in health insurance and hospital markets. He has also assisted with antitrust litigation in a number of financial benchmark cases, including Libor and foreign exchange matters.