Asia moves: Ex-Vanguard Asia chief joins CLSA, Man Group names equities head, and more

Chinese brokerage Citic Securities has appointed Charles Lin as vice-chairman of its Hong Kong unit, CLSA. Prior to joining CLSA, Lin spent eight years at Vanguard in Hong Kong, most recently as the firm’s Asia chief executive overseeing the whole business across Asia, including Japan.

Man GLG, the discretionary investment management engine of Man Group, has named Andrew Swan head of equities for Asia ex-Japan. Swan joins from BlackRock, where he was most recently head of Asia and global emerging market fundamental equities. Previously, he spent 17 years at JP Morgan in various Asia-Pacific equity portfolio management and research roles. Swan will start his new role in the middle of the third quarter this year. He will be based in Sydney, and will report to Man GLG chief executive Teun Johnston.

Patricia Cheung has taken over as sole chief operating officer at Hong Kong-based asset manager Value Partners. She previously held this role jointly with Roger Hepper, who retired from the co-COO role in April. Cheung has more than 20 years’ experience in the financial sector, where she has held senior management roles in banking, central counterparties and asset management.

Aberdeen Standard Investments has appointed Vishal Sharma as institutional director for Australia and New Zealand. Based in Sydney, Sharma will help the firm establish and grow relationships with institutional investors, including superannuation funds and insurance companies. He reports jointly to Andrew Hendry, head of distribution of Asia-Pacific, and Brett Jollie, managing director of Australia. Sharma joins from investment consultant bfinance, where he supported institutional investors with investment implementation.

Citi has made a number of key appointments in its Asia business. In China, Howard Yang has been hired as the bank’s treasury and trade solutions (TTS) head of China. He was previously head of TTS for Hong Kong. Based in Shanghai, Yang replaces Yigen Pei and will report to Citi China’s president and chief executive, Christine Lam. In Hong Kong, Citi has appointed Kaleem Rizvi as its new Asia-Pacific head of corporate banking, reporting to Jan Metzger, Asia-Pacific head of banking, capital markets and advisory, and Jason Rekate, global head of corporate banking. Rizvi was previously head of corporate and investment banking for parts of Latin America. Rizvi’s predecessor, Gerry Keefe, remains with the bank and will take on a new role as global head of corporate and public sector sales for TTS. The bank has also named Christie Chang as corporate banking chairman for Taiwan, a role she will undertake in addition to her existing role as head of Taiwan banking and capital markets advisory. In Australia and New Zealand, Alex Cartel becomes head of investment banking for Citi Australia and New Zealand, reporting to Tony Osmond, head of Citi’s banking, capital markets and advisory function, whilst Rob Jahrling and Hamish Whitehead become co-heads of equity capital markets in the region, reporting to John McLean, head of the bank’s regional capital markets origination function. Cartel joins from Deutsche Bank. Jahrling and Whitehead were both already with Citi, as heads of equity capital markets origination for Sydney and Melbourne, respectively.

Royal Bank of Canada’s wealth management arm, RBC Wealth Management, has added wealth planner Alvin Chiam to its Singapore team. Chiam will advise high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients on wealth planning and transfer matters. The firm has also hired Jing Hu as associate director of business development in its China team, based in Beijing. She will lead the firm’s growth efforts in the country. Chiam previously worked at Barclays Wealth Trustees, Cititrust Singapore and DBS Private Bank. Hu previously worked in foreign exchange equity trading at DBS Bank and as an investment product expert for HSBC Bank (China).

HSBC has announced the appointment of Sharon Oh as chief operating officer of private banking for Asia-Pacific. Oh replaces Gaurav Rao, who recently relocated to London to take up a new role within HSBC Private Banking. Oh will report to Siew Meng Tan and Anil Venuturupalli, Global COO of HSBC Private Banking. Oh joins from JP Morgan’s private banking unit, where she was chief of staff in the global institutional client segment, based in London.

Market infrastructure settlement group CLS has hired Keith Tippell as head of product. Tippell, who joins from Droit Financial Technologies, will be responsible for overseeing CLS’s existing product suite and all new product development in the settlement and processing business lines.