Kingsley Napley
Kingsley Napley has announced new partner hires into Corporate & Commercial and Dispute Resolution.

Christina Kelly and Michael Mulligan have joined the firm as partners in the Corporate & Commercial and Dispute Resolution teams respectively.

With the firm having made up eight new partners in September 2020 and three further partners joining in the autumn, the partnership now numbers 66 partners.

Christina Kelly joined the Corporate & Commercial team as a Partner on 4 January 2021 from Taylor Wessing LLP. Christina specialises in real estate finance. Her work in this sector predominantly relates to high value, complex facilities, acting for both lenders (bank and non-bank, at senior and mezzanine levels) and borrowers (including REITs and HNW family offices).

Michael Mulligan joined the Dispute Resolution team as a Partner on 18 January 2021 from Shakespeare Martineau. He is a highly experienced contentious insolvency and commercial litigation lawyer with expertise in all aspects of corporate recovery, bankruptcy, fraud and enforcement. He is instructed by insolvency practitioners, financial institutions, corporates, high net worth individuals and offshore advisers.  

James Fulforth, head of Corporate & Commercial, commented: "We are very pleased to welcome Christina to the partnership and our expanding Corporate & Commercial team. Christina's extensive experience in real estate finance enhances and complements our Corporate and Real Estate offering to clients."

IQ-EQ
IQ-EQ, a global investor services group, has announced the promotion of Frederique Meyer to deputy managing director of its Switzerland business.

Based in Zurich, Meyer joined the group's Private Wealth division as a director in 2014. She was quick to establish herself as a key member of the local leadership team and has since assumed responsibility for all Private Wealth teams across IQ-EQ's Geneva and Zurich offices. She is also a member of the IQ-EQ Switzerland board.

Having worked in close partnership with IQ-EQ's managing director for Switzerland, Serge Richard, she will now officially take on the role of Deputy MD for the jurisdiction. Together, she and Serge will ensure the smooth running and continued success of the Swiss business, which is of key strategic significance to the global IQ-EQ group, offering a comprehensive range of private wealth and corporate services to clients based worldwide.

With over 20 years' in the private wealth sector, including six years with Rothschild & Co and three years as partner of a multi-family office, she has extensive experience working with ultra-high-net-worth families and their advisers to deliver expertly tailored fiduciary solutions to meet individual requirements. 

Richard said: "She has demonstrated over the years exceptional management skills and has contributed greatly to building up the reputation of the business in Switzerland and beyond. She is very smart, personable, highly competent, driven and pragmatic. All of these attributes, combined with her business development skills, has made it an easy decision to promote her to deputy MD."


Brewin Dolphin
Brewin Dolphin has appointed Davina Rich as the new head of research and Guy Foster as chief strategist with immediate effect.

Davina Rich joined Brewin Dolphin's West End office in 2019 as investment director. She has been instrumental within the investment team for 1762 (the service for clients with more complex needs) helping with the development of innovative propositions as well as being chair of the company-wide global research forums. Davina has spent over twenty years in the investment management industry working as an analyst, institutional asset manager and private client investment manager.

She previously worked at Waverton Investment Management.  She started her career at Morgan Grenfell Investment Management and subsequently co-founded Stoneware Capital, managing a global market neutral hedge fund. 

The 17 strong in-house research team will continue to review and recommend direct equities, funds and investment trusts across equity, fixed income and alternatives to ensure investment managers are equipped with the best information when constructing bespoke portfolios for clients.

Guy moves from head of research to lead the Investment Solutions team which drives asset allocation for the firm and leverages the research team's output to build investment strategies.  The team will support growth across the company from bespoke discretionary investment management to the new Voyager fund range.

Charles Ferry, managing director of wealth and investment, Brewin Dolphin said: "I am pleased to announce that Davina Rich has been appointed as our new head of research as Guy moves into his new chapter as chief strategist. Davina was selected following an extensive internal and external hiring process involving a number of high calibre applicants. It's rare to find someone that combines the skills of analyst, asset manager and client-facing investment manager."

Crown Agents Bank
Crown Agents Bank, a UK-based transaction bank specialising in digital payments into the emerging markets, has announced the appointment of Bhairav Trivedi as CEO designate. He replaces Albert Maasland, who has successfully spearheaded the bank's activities since 2017, and now hands over to Trivedi as he retires.

Bhairav joins CAB at an exciting juncture, as the bank, established in 1833 by the British monarchy, completes its transformation into a digitally-enabled payments and FX specialist for frontier and emerging markets - serving some of the hardest-to-reach territories across the world.

He brings over 30 years' experience in financial services, with a core focus on digital payments, cross-border remittances and fintech development, having held several senior roles, including group CEO of Network International Payment Solutions, Chief Operating Officer of Sigue Global Services, and global head of remittance services at Citi's Global Transaction Services.

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