People Moves: Amundi, Julius Baer, Tilney Smith & Williamson, Carey Olsen, GBST, Mirabaud, HSBC, M&G, JTC 

Amundi Asset Management

Amundi Asset Management has hired Hermann Pfeifer as deputy global head of sales for ETF, indexing and smart beta, effective from 1 July this year.

Pfeifer has worked at Amundi since 2016, heading up the Frankfurt office as head of sales for distribution, wealth and retail segments, as well as the aforementioned sections for parts of Europe.

In his new role, Pfeifer will be based in Paris, reporting to Gaëtan Delculée, the global head of sales for ETF, indexing and smart beta.

The passive investment space has been a growing part of Amundi's business, developing its smart beta solutions, which have been created to address what Amundi says are two of the main limits "concerning traditional market capitalisation weighted indices".

First, that the indices do not "adequately capture rewarded risk premia" and second, that risk tends to be concentrated in few stocks or sectors.

The smart beta products aim to address these issues within passive investing and provide "risk-efficient solutions and factor investing".

Prior to joining Amundi, Pfeifer was head of Lyxor ETF and worked at Deutsche Bank for several years.

Julius Baer International 

Julius Baer International has named Nick West as the newly appointed Head of Learning and Development UK and Guernsey, effective May 3, 2022. 

West has been a transformative leader in employee learning and development for over 17 years, having previously been the Head of Learning and Innovation at UK Finance and led the development of UK-wide award-winning Leadership programme at Quilter Wealth Management. 

West is the firm's first Head of Learning and Development for the UK and Guernsey. 

Based in London, he will be responsible for bringing the knowledge and experience of Julius Baer's global Academy to bear in the UK and combining this with in-country development to support the employee base, a central tenet of the firm's business strategy.

The Julius Baer Academy is the firm's unique learning and leadership department. Its central belief is that continuous learning is a powerful driver for personal development and offers a competitive advantage to the business. Over the last few years, the Academy has supported its global employee base with a deeper online learning experience, talent development and a mental health focus which has enabled our business to maintain performance and our clients to continue their own personal journeys to create value beyond wealth.

West said: "The firm's continued dedication to employee wellbeing and training showcases our commitment to our UK operations, ensuring we have a strong structure, culture, and team in place to continue delivering strong outcomes for our clients."

David Durlacher, CEO of Julius Baer International added: "As we continue to grow our business in the UK, we are committed to creating an environment where employees can evolve their skill sets and thrive and Nick's values and convictions in this area are perfectly aligned with those of the business. By ensuring that our employee's needs are met, the firm is delivering best in class talent and service to our HNW clients so that we may continue to provide tailor made investment solutions based on their individual needs." 

Tilney Smith & Williamson 
 
Tilney Smith & Williamson, the wealth management and professional services group which is shortly to re-brand to Evelyn Partners, has appointed Adrian Lowcock as investment communications director and Sally Macdonald as an independent non-executive director.  

In this newly created internal and client communications role, he will work closely with the Investment Strategy team to keep the group's financial planners informed about the group's central investment propositions and support the delivery of investment communications to clients.  
 
Lowcock was most recently head of personal investing at Wills Owen where, as a member of the Executive group, he helped to raise the company's profile and develop its proposition.  

Prior to that he held the positions of Investment Director at Architas, Head of Investing at AXA Wealth and Senior Research Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. He also previously spent nine years working for Bestinvest, the digital investment service, which now is part of Tilney Smith & Williamson.  
 
Ben Seager-Scott, Head of Multi Asset Funds at Tilney Smith & Williamson,said: "I am delighted to welcome Adrian to Tilney Smith & Williamson. As we re-brand to Evelyn Partners, Adrian will help ensure we continue to provide high quality communications to financial planners to help them navigate their clients through these turbulent times. Adrian brings extensive experience gained at a number of financial services firms and I'm confident he'll be a great asset to the business." 

The group also appointed Sally Macdonald as an Independent Non-Executive Director of Smith & Williamson Fund Administration, its host ACD and fund administration business. She will also be a member of our Investment Committee where she will enhance and strengthen the overall governance in this important area.  

She is an experienced Non-Executive Director and a former portfolio manager. She has been a Non-Executive Director of the JP Morgan Japanese Investment Trust since December 2018 and joined the board of Fidelity Asian Values in late 2021. 
 

Carey Olsen 

Carey Olsen Bermuda has announced that Matthew Grigg will shortly join its corporate practice as partner - the second partner hire for the corporate team in the past year as it continues to expand and broaden its capabilities and offering.

He joins Carey Olsen after 25 years with Clifford Chance LLP in London, the past 17 of which have been as a partner. Grigg has particular expertise in structured finance and financial products, structured debt, derivatives and offshore corporate structuring.

In addition to advising global investment banks, funds, retail banks, end users and service providers on all forms of structured finance transactions, he also advises clients on regulatory change, collateral arrangements, restructuring and all forms of sales and trading documentation.

Michael Hanson, managing partner of Carey Olsen Bermuda, said: "A partner of Matthew's calibre and international reputation is required for the next phase of our strategy, which is to both solidify our place as a leading law firm and expand the breadth of Bermuda legal services to enable us to compete with other offshore jurisdictions in relation to legal products not historically seen in Bermuda. 

"Further, with almost two decades as a leading partner in one of the world's top law firms, Matthew will be a huge benefit to our staff in terms of mentoring and strategic guidance. Together with Steven, Mary and Gavin, the appointment of Matthew reinforces the considerable experience and significant strength in depth that exists in our corporate team."

GBST 

GBST has appointed Bryan Beeston to accelerate UK business development. Reporting to David Simpson, Head of EMEA at GBST, and working closely with the executive team, he will be responsible for driving new client sales within the region. 

Beeston has 30 years' financial services sector experience in sales, business development and leadership roles, having worked with wealth managers, life companies and pension providers throughout the UK.

Before joining GBST, he spent six years at Dunstan Thomas as Business Development Director, where he was responsible for new client acquisition and supporting product innovation. 

Prior to that, he was CEO of Informed Decisions (previously Legacy Asset Systems Ltd) for seven years, providing technology and administration services to retail financial services intermediaries.

David Simpson, Head of EMEA at GBST, said: "Over the last two years we have significantly transformed the underlying technology stack of Composer, our wealth management administration platform. We've created a market-leading, cloud-based solution, which offers exceptional user experience and built additional functionality to improve operational efficiency, support scale, and drive automation for our clients and their customers. 

"With his strong track record in both business development within financial services and working with innovative technology, Bryan will play a key role in supporting our current pipeline of opportunities and bringing our award-winning solutions to an expanding customer base."

Mirabaud 

Mirabaud Group - the Swiss banking and financial group established in 1819 - continues to develop its presence in the UK market with the hiring of senior private banker William Ladenburg for its Private Banking and Wealth Management business.

The addition of Ladenburg, who joins Mirabaud & Cie (Europe) as director, further supports the company's UK High and Ultra-High Net Worth team. The hire represents the latest part of Mirabaud Group's expansion strategy and provides a strong commitment to its UK Wealth Management Clients.

Ladenburg has more than a decade of experience in the private banking space, having held senior positions at large groups including Credit Suisse and Close Brothers Asset Management. He reports to Stuart Bates, the CEO of UK wealth management at Mirabaud, who joined the company in May 2021.

Stuart Bates, CEO of the Mirabaud UK wealth management branch, said: "William's wealth of experience operating in the constantly evolving UK private banking sector will be paramount to Mirabaud's continued success in the space moving forward. His expertise in building and maintaining strong relationships with such a wide variety of clients over the last decade will undoubtedly prove a major asset to the team." 

HSBC

HSBC has appointed Jeffrey Yap as head of investments and wealth solutions, Southeast Asia (IWS SEA), with immediate effect. 

The Bank has also further made six key appointments to support investment needs of clients from across the wealth continuum.
Based in Singapore, Yap will be responsible for bringing differentiated wealth solutions, platforms and insights to HSBC's Singapore and Southeast Asia clients across the full continuum - from mass affluent to ultra-high net worth. 

He reports to Stefan Lecher, Regional Head of Investments and Wealth Solutions, Asia Pacific, on a functional basis and Anurag Mathur, Head of Wealth and Personal Banking Singapore, on an entity basis.

Yap has over 25 years of experience working in global financial markets. He joined HSBC in 2017 as Global Private Banking's Regional Head of Fixed Income, before taking on the role of Regional Head of Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities. Subsequently, Mr Yap was appointed Head of Investments and Products Group - Singapore in 2020, before assuming the role of Interim Head of IWS SEA in November 2021. 

M&G 

M&G, the £370bn international savings and investments business, has named Guan Yi Low as Head of Fixed Income in Asia Pacific and the firm's intention to build out a Fixed Income investment team in the region.

Guan Yi Low, who will join on 25 July from Eastspring Investments where she was Head of Fixed Income, will be responsible for developing M&G's capabilities by expanding the team and, over time, launch new strategies for the firm's clients.  

The new investment team will be based in Singapore and Guan Yi, who has over 20 years of experience in the Asian fixed income markets, will jointly report to Jim Leaviss, Chief Investment Officer of M&G's Public Fixed Income division, and Loretta Ng, Head of Asia Pacific. 

The new team will provide regional coverage to both the global and emerging market credit fund management and in-house research teams to support sovereign, investment grade and high-yield credit investment, as well as enable the firm to offer dedicated Asia Pacific strategies for the first time.

Jack Daniels, managing director for Asset Management & Chief Investment Officer, M&G, said:"M&G has a track record in developing innovative public and private fixed income strategies. The build out of an Asia Pacific fixed income capability will enhance our global public debt platform and demonstrates our commitment to the region which has exciting long-term growth opportunities."

JTC

JTC has announced that Naro Zimmerman will be assuming the role of Deputy Head of Caribbean - Private Client Services, while Alia Haskouri has been promoted to the role of Director - Head of UAE as part of the firm's growth strategy across the two regions.

Naro will be moving from Dubai to the Cayman Islands to take up his new responsibilities, which will include working closely with JTC's Caribbean Head, Michael Halsey, and other members of the regional team to deliver a series of specific projects and support the growth of the offices in Cayman and the BVI. 

Prior to moving into this new role, Naro was Head of JTC's Dubai and Abu Dhabi offices, having originally joined JTC in 2020 as an Associate Director based in Guernsey. Naro has worked in the fiduciary industry for over 15 years and has experience in both independent and bank owned fiduciary companies. 

Much of his work has focused on looking after Middle Eastern clients, with a particular focus on structures holding real estate. He is a member of STEP and a Chartered Manager through the CMI. 

Replacing Naro in the Middle East, Alia will be responsible for the running of JTC's Dubai and Abu Dhabi offices. 

She joined JTC's Dubai office in 2020, having previously worked for an administration services firm. 

With a strong track record in maintaining and managing key client relationships, Alia has deep knowledge of the UAE and wider GCC market and considerable expertise in the management of corporate structures. She has a degree in Law from Edinburgh University.