As 2024 begins, SRP looks back at the most relevant people moves stories in 2023 highlighting new hires and exits at the main issuers of structured products across markets.

Standard Chartered

Olivier Pierlot (right) was promoted to global head of structured products & fixed income product management within the capital market products & solutions (CMPS) division at Standard Chartered Bank (SCB). 

Based in Singapore, Pierlot continued to report to Nicolas Rigois, managing director, global head of CMPS at SCB. His mandate has been expanded to fixed income and credit in addition to the management of the structured products business.

SCB promoted Vinay Gandhi (below right) to global head of South Asian community and regional head of Emea, private banking, effective from 1 January 2024. In this expanded role, Gandhi is responsible for an increased mandate to spearhead one of SCB’s largest businesses. 

In addition, Foo Tian Ong was appointed regional head, Southeast Asia and Singapore location head, private banking. Ong is based in Singapore and joined SCB in December from UBS where he was most recently business sector head for Thailand and the Philippines and was also responsible for non-resident Indian and Vietnam.

The appointments followed the hire of Mike Tan who joined SCB as global head, wealth planning & family advisory in September, and Fred Leung who joined as head, solutions partners, to lead the delivery of one-bank corporate solutions for ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) clients globally.

Paul Crowe (right) parted ways with SCB following 12 years with the bank. His last role was executive director, head of derivatives and fixed income technology & innovation based in Hong Kong SAR.

Crowe led the digital transformation of SCB’s fixed income, equity and FX derivative products for affluent clients in Asia, including driving adoption of cloud, DevOps, application programming interface (API) and microservice strategies.

David Kua (right), ex-head of CMPS for China also left after spending a decade at SCB. Based in Shanghai, Kua most recently reported to Nicolas Rigois, global head of CMPS, based in Singapore.  

UBS

Following the acquisition of Credit Suisse, UBS announced in May a new operating model and leadership team with both banks continuing to operate independently for the foreseeable future.

The combined firm is operating with five business divisions, seven functions and four regions, and in addition Credit Suisse. Each is represented by a group executive board member, all of whom report to UBS Group CEO Sergio P. Ermotti (right).

Under the new divisional structure Iqbal Khan remained president global wealth management; Rob Karofsky remained president of the investment bank; and Sabine Keller-Busse  remained president personal & corporate banking and president, Switzerland.

In addition, Suni Harford retained her role as president asset management and lead for sustainability & impact while Beatriz Martin Jimenez became head non-core and legacy and president Emea.

UBS also hired Tricia Hazelwood from MUFG Securities to lead the firm’s markets division in the Americas and bolster its US trading business. Hazelwood joined UBS’s New York office in August, reporting to George Athanasopoulos and Jason Barron, co-heads of UBS' global markets division.

The move was designed to give Derek Capanna (right) more time to focus on his new role as co-head of global markets distribution (together with Ian Slatter and Eric Lafon). Capanna joined UBS in 2015 as global head of equities distribution, based in New York. In October 2019, he was appointed as the co-head of advisory and execution sales for global markets. Capanna became head of global markets Americas in December 2020. 

Capanna is a member of the global markets management committee and chairs the global markets Americas management committee. He also serves as president of UBS Securities.

In July, UBS unveiled a team of senior executives to lead the global markets business throughout the integration phase. The new team included Patrick Grob (right), who was appointed head of global wealth management (GWM) unified global markets (UGM) and Dushyant Chadha as head of derivatives & solutions.

Some of the appointments for the global markets team confirmed by UBS included Brent Johnson, head of execution services; Natalie Horton, head of financing; Chris Purves, head of digital platforms; David Innerdale, head of GM risk & trading; Thomas de Garidel and Tim Wannenmacher, co-heads of GM Apac; Paolo Croce, head of GM Emea.

UBS also named Grob’s GWM UGM coverage team which includes Elaine Sam, as head of UGM Americas; Rodolphe Larque, head of UGM integration; Nicola Pantone and Emmanuel Triomphe, as co-head of UGM Asia Pacific (Apac); Kristian Ceko, as head of UGM, Emea; Mark Goodman, as head of UGM execution hub; Philipp Grossgasteiger, as head of shelf management & digital distribution and Luca Lodi-Rizzini, head of global family and institutional wealth (GFIW) GM. 

The appointments were part of the third reshuffle of the UBS senior management team following the Credit Suisse takeover.

Earlier, in the second round of changes, UBS appointed Michael Ebert (right) from Credit Suisse to lead its investment banking division across the Americas and chair a new committee comprising by 15 representatives which will spearhead the integration of Credit Suisse’s markets unit to UBS.

UBS has shown little appetite for Credit Suisse’s’ investment bank since the government-brokered takeover was announced in March – only two other Credit Suisse bankers, including Olivier Charhon, who was named operating officer for risk and resource management for UBS investment bank, and Neil Hosie, formerly head of global equities at Credit Suisse, who was appointed to co-head GM distribution, have secured their position in the new entity.

In November, there was another raft of appointments as UBS announced a new set up for its structuring organisation.

According to the bank’s global head of derivatives and solutions structuring, Spyros Mesomeris (right), structuring will continue to be organised vertically by global product pillars and horizontally by streams and regions, working in a fully interlinked manner to ensure seamless delivery of products and solutions to our clients.

Four of the bankers assuming senior management roles came from Credit Suisse and joined eight other appointments set to lead vertical global product pillars and horizontal streams.

Julien Bieren, former global head of EQD exotic structuring in London at Credit Suisse, is heading equity structured solutions globally with Ramzi Issa leading structured credit & sustainable credit products, also globally.

Adrian Bracher, head of macro structured solutions (rates & FX) and Romain Barba also joined from Credit Suisse. The latter shares responsibilities for Apac structuring with Ahmad Chaudry who has an expanded role in charge of the wrapping solutions horizontal streams.

The remaining vertical global product pillars including QIS structuring and fund derivatives and structured finance solutions are led by Giulio Alfinito and Richard Walters, respectively.

In addition, the new structure of the horizontal and regional streams saw Chris Cook taking charge of Americas structuring; Erica Yeu as head of wealth management solutions; Hannah Vinci as head of strategic projects; and Mesomeris as head of Emea structuring in addition to his global responsibilities.  

Ben Teo (right) was promoted to managing director, head of global markets financing China & chairman of UBS Futures. Teo is based in Shanghai and reports to Tim Lock, Apac head of global markets financing at the Swiss bank.

He is responsible for overall China onshore global markets financing business, covering prime brokerage, margin financing, stock borrow & lending, synthetic and listed futures and options, and market leading the qualified foreign institutional investor service across futures brokerages.

Image: Bluraz/Adobe Stock.