Kingswood 

Kingswood Holdings, the international, fully integrated wealth and investment management group, has appointed Christopher Calvocoressi as technology transformation lead. 

In his role, Calvocoressi will be responsible for leading Kingswood's technology transformation agenda and will also head up the further development of Kingswood Go, a recently launched online portal which allows clients to access their investments and hold all of their financial information online and in one place.

Prior to joining Kingswood, he was a programme manager focussing on technology transformation at Schroders Personal Wealth. Before this, he was part of the Wealth and Asset Management Advisory team at EY for nearly a decade, working across a range of consulting and transaction advisory engagements.

Over the past few years, Kingswood has evolved into a growing international vertically integrated wealth and investment management group with £9.1 billion of Assets under Advice and Management and over 19,300 clients. 

So far this year, the firm has made four acquisitions in the UK, acquiring Allotts Financial Services Limited, a high quality, long established financial advisory firm based in Rotherham; D.J. Cooke (Life & Pensions) Limited based in Conisbrough, South Yorkshire; Joseph R Lamb Independent Financial Advisers, an advisory business based in Essex, and Aim Independent Limited, an independent financial advice business serving clients throughout Hampshire. 

The firm also acquired Metnor, the holding company for IBOSS Asset Management Limited and Novus Financial Services Limited, late last year.

David Lawrence, chief executive of Kingswood Holdings Limited., said: "Christopher's extensive skills and knowledge of leading best-in-class technology initiatives will help us to build propositions that help more people access financial advice and to enhance their experience, particularly in an increasingly digitised world. We're delighted to have him on board.

"As a firm, Kingswood has completely transformed itself within the space of just a few years creating a highly successful, fast growing international vertically integrated wealth and investment management group. The UK business has significantly increased its acquisition activity, coupled with a strong integration capability, organic growth credentials and focussed investment in client centricity.

"There is a significant pipeline of further acquisition opportunities with four transactions in exclusive due diligence fuelling the ambition to grow UK AUM to over £10bn."

Harriet Griffin, chief operating officer at Kingswood, said: "Technology continues to significantly transform the wealth management industry, both on the advisory and client side. Christopher's background experience in developing and leading a technological offering in wealth management makes him a real asset to the team.  We very much look forward to working with him on delivering our strategy and fully embracing the digital age." 

Stonehage Fleming

Stonehage Fleming, one of the world's leading international Family Offices, announces the appointment of Richard Stride as head of family office Jersey, and Bruce Sinclair as trustee director in the Jersey Family Office Division.  

Stride acts as a Trusted Adviser to wealthy international families and for the past 14 years has assisted with their day-to-day challenges regarding succession, governance and complex wealth requirements. 

He joined the Stonehage Fleming Group in 2007 and was head of the Family Office Division in Johannesburg before moving to the Jersey office in 2017. 

He succeeds Ana Ventura who will now serve as a Trustee and Key Adviser to a number of Stonehage Fleming's high net worth international families. 

Sinclair has 12 years' legal experience and joins from Standard Bank, where he served as Head of Legal for the Trust and Fiduciary Services Offshore Division, joining in 2017.

He led the Fiduciary Legal unit to provide fiduciary and risk related legal advice and support to its front office in relation to the administration of trusts and company structures.  He has held various roles including working as a lawyer at Carey Olsen, qualifying from Dickson Minto W.S. 

Bruce will work closely with clients, advisors, co-trustees and other divisions and business units within the Stonehage Fleming Group and acts on Stonehage Fleming's Board of the Jersey and British Virgin Islands Corporate Directors and Trustees. He is based in Jersey and reports to Richard Stride, Head of Family Office Jersey.

His appointment is effective immediately. 

Ian Crosby, Chairman of Stonehage Fleming Jersey, said: "It is a pleasure to welcome Bruce to Stonehage Fleming. His extensive technical and commercial experience will be invaluable to our existing talented and dedicated team. His appointment reflects the importance of our continued role as trusted advisers to leading families of the future and wealth creators." 

"We look forward to Richard's continued work in his new role as Head of Family Office Jersey, and thank Ana for her years of dedication and commitment. Both are extremely valued members of Stonehage Fleming's Jersey office."

Wedlake Bell

City law firm Wedlake Bell, has expanded its corporate team with the addition of the highly ranked senior M&A/corporate team from Bates Wells including two new partners, Mark Tasker and Stephen Callender along with Associates David Duhig and Tom Boersma. All join with immediate effect.

Mark has more than 30 years' experience of advising clients on corporate transactional work in a variety of sectors including technology, financial services and the impact economy. His focus is advising on both cross-border and domestic private company transactions including M&A, venture capital and private equity deals. Mark also works extensively on corporate fundraising including equity capital markets work, in particular on AIM. He joins from City firm Bates Wells, where he was head of M&A and Corporate Finance having previously founded and led the Corporate and Commercial department from 2010. 

Stephen  has a successful practice advising corporate clients, including in the construction materials sector, the technology sector, and the natural resources industry. He has a particular focus on UK capital markets (advising issuers, nomads, brokers and financial advisers on private placings, IPOs, secondary fundraises and dual listings) and M&A (acting for both public and private companies). He also joins from Bates Wells, where he became a partner in 2016.

Mark Tasker said: "I am delighted to join Wedlake Bell as part of the firm's growing, talented and busy corporate team. I look forward to helping to continue to drive forward the firm's corporate transactional offering, advising clients both in the UK and internationally." 

Stephen Callender added: "I am pleased to be joining Wedlake Bell alongside Mark and our previous team. Wedlake Bell's corporate offering is growing fast and I am excited to be a part of that story."

Martin Arnold, Managing Partner at Wedlake Bell, comments: "We are incredibly pleased to welcome Mark and Stephen into the corporate team. Their arrival will further strengthen our offering within the corporate M&A sector by contributing invaluable expertise to the department. Their experience and prior work for both domestic and international clients will add to our already well-established team, demonstrating once again the firm's growth in this area."

JTC 

JTC, the global professional services provider, has appointed Elize Botha as managing director - South Africa.

Botha will be responsible for overseeing JTC's Cape Town office which employs over 180 professionals to provide support services to institutional clients in the global asset management industry. The office was established in 2007 and became part of the JTC Group in 2015. She will work closely with JTC's global teams to ensure continued high levels of service excellence.

She brings over 25 years' experience in financial services to the role, most recently as managing director of Old Mutual Unit Trusts where she was responsible for all strategic, commercial and operational aspects of the business.

Previously, Elize led the Global Distribution and Marketing function for Ashburton Investments across local and international channels including the UK and Channel Islands. She has also worked at some of the largest financial institutions in South Africa including Alexander Forbes and Momentum.

Jonathan Jennings, Group Head of Institutional Client Services at JTC, said:"We are very pleased that Elize has joined us in South Africa and we look forward to her considerable experience of global financial services adding to our successful service offering from Cape Town.

"As a global professional services provider, our team need to have the knowledge and expertise to deliver exceptional standards at all times and Elize is clearly an excellent addition."

Amati Global Investors

Specialist asset management boutique, Amati Global Investors, is pleased to announce the appointment of Graeme Bencke as Fund Manager. Bencke, who boasts more than 25 years' experience in asset management, will work alongside Mikhail Zverev and Dr Gareth Blades on a new global equity strategy.

Bencke began his investment career as an Equity Portfolio Manager with F&C Asset Management (now BMO Asset Management) in 1997, investing in UK and European smaller companies. 

He moved to PineBridge Investments (previously AIG Investments) in 2005 to head the European Equity team, and after a successful period managing its European funds suite, assumed responsibility for the Global Equity team and funds, including the Group's flagship high conviction Global Focus Equity Fund; he delivered top quartile performance over multiple time periods with the Fund. Since 2017 his career has seen him investing in innovative, high growth small and mid-sized companies, with Gresham House, and subsequently, Columbus Investments. 

Bencke has been working most recently with Torvius Capital, an advisory and consulting firm, advising early stage, start-up businesses in emerging technology sectors on strategy, development, and investor relations.

Ninety One

Ninety One has announced the appointment of Pat Sanderson as head of business development, UK and Leanne Barnham as head of UK Marketing to the 30 strong UK Client Group. 

In this newly created role, Sanderson will have overall responsibility for sales, client management and consultant relations for Ninety One's UK business across the adviser and institutional landscape.  

As a member of the UK Client Group's leadership team, Sanderson will look to drive the UK business development agenda and ensure alignment on strategy and execution for all client-facing activity in the region.

Sanderson joins Ninety One from RBC, where he was responsible for sales, relationship management and marketing for the UK and Ireland, as well as the European Proposal Management Team within the firm's Investor & Treasury Services group. 

Prior to RBC, he worked in Investor Services Sales at J.P. Morgan where he was responsible for the origination of new client relationships in the UK Insurance sector. Additionally, he worked at Citi Bank in Investor Services Sales, where he led the creation of the Nordic sales strategy. A former professional rugby player, he has worked as a television presenter and motivational speaker before joining the financial services industry.

Leanne Barnham joined Ninety One as Head of UK Marketing in January 2022, and is responsible for driving the marketing strategy and execution across institutional and adviser channels in the UK.  Underscoring Ninety One's ambitious growth targets in the UK, the role is highly focused on servicing existing clients; driving revenue growth through profitable new business; supporting commercial, client-facing activity; and driving awareness of the Ninety One brand and breadth of product to all UK audiences. 

Barnham joined from Architas Multi-Manager, an Axa Group Company, where she was Global Head of Marketing and managed the structural and strategic transformation of the firm's UK marketing team to a global marketing team. In addition, she led the marketing strategy across independent intermediary and tied distribution throughout Europe and Asia. Prior to Architas, Barnham held marketing roles at several investment management houses, inclusive of BNYM Asset Management, F&C Investments and Skylight Capital.

BennBridge 

BennBridge has appointed Robert McKillop as chief executive officer for UK and Europe, starting 4 May.

McKillop has almost 30 years of experience in asset management leadership across investment, distribution and product functions, spanning geographic regions and client channels. He has a diverse skillset and a proven history of building high performance teams, driving business growth and client-focused innovation. 

Based in London, Mr McKillop will report to the global CEO of the BFM Group, Craig Bingham. The BFM Group operates as BennBridge in the UK and US, and Bennelong Funds Management in Australia.

Prior to joining BennBridge, Mr McKillop spent over a decade as global head of product and client solutions at Aberdeen Standard Investments (formerly Standard Life Investments and recently rebranded Arbdn). He joined Standard Life in 1997 working in a range of senior roles including head of Europe, Australasia and the Far East (EAFE) Funds in the global equities team, and head of Japanese equities.

GBST 

GBST has appointed its new chief commercial officer, Kirsty Worgan. Joining the executive team and reporting to global CEO Robert DeDominicis, she will contribute to delivering the organisation's ambitious global growth strategy and lead the development and delivery of its wealth management commercial plans working closely with the CEO and Board. 

She has worked in senior management and executive positions in financial services and fintech for three decades, including seven years at GBST previously as its head of Business Development. Her former roles also include Director of Business Development EMEA at Bravura Solutions, where she was responsible for client acquisition in the UK and South Africa, and Chief Commercial Officer at Smart Pensions.

In her newly established role at GBST, she will manage commercial growth opportunities, mergers and acquisitions, and assist with sales and product expansion.

She will support regionally based leaders to drive adoption of GBST's market-leading and award-winning wealth management solutions, including back-office administration technology, Composer; tools and services for tax aware investing and intelligent reporting, TaxIntell and Tax Analyser; digital wealth platform, Catalyst; and a growing range of interactive financial tools and calculators.