Woodbrook Group
International financial advice firm, Woodbrook Group, has hired industry veteran Andrew Heath as country manager for Spain.
Heath has more than 16 years of offshore market experience in helping clients manage their wealth.
As country manager, Heath will help Woodbrook develop and service its Spanish client base and continue development within the European market.
AMP
The chief risk officer of AMP’s embattled advice division, Pally Bargi, has announced his resignation from the company on LinkedIn.
Bargi, who according to LinkedIn had worked at AMP since 2014, said in a post he was leaving the company citing “insufficient capacity” to meet the demands of the role.
He reported to Jenny Fagg, AMP’s chief risk officer of the group, who in turn reports to acting chief executive Mike Wilkins.
Bargi’s decision to leave follows the resignations of chief executive Craig Meller, chairman Catherine Brenner and two board members.
AMP has been engulfed in controversy over the past month as a royal commission has exposed how the firm charged their customers without providing them with any financial services.
Arlo Associates
Mark Nutter has been appointed chairman of Arlo Associates, an asset management group based in the Middle East.
Nutter began his career in his mid-20s as an entrepreneur in the UK. In 2015, he sold the technology business that he founded in 1999 to Capita for an undisclosed amount.
In 2016, he made a multi-million dollar investment in Arlo Associates to facilitate the development of the business across the Mena region.
Neptune
Neptune has confirmed it is losing its India fund manager to a start-up emerging markets fund, the same week its hire of a high-profile fixed income veteran indicated the raft of staff exits might be coming to an end.
Kunal Desai joined Neptune in 2010, where he was promoted to head of Indian equities and has been primary manager on the India fund since December 2012.
Neptune has confirmed Tom Smith, lead manager on the Latin America fund, will take over on the India fund. Smith will also become co-head of emerging markets alongside Ewan Thompson.
Smith has been manager of the Latin America fund since July 2011.
Generali
Antonio Tedesco has joined Generali as the head of group asset liability management and strategic asset allocation within the group investments, asset and wealth management business unit.
In his new role, he reports to the head of group investment management solutions, Bruno Servant.
Tedesco has more than 20 years’ experience in the financial sector, mainly in investment banking and insurance.
He joins Generali from PosteVita SpA, where he was the head of asset management and head of capital management, and previously the head of finance.
Prior to this, he served in senior positions at JPMorgan Chase Bank in New York and London.
BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas Asset Management made two appointments to its exchange traded funds (ETF) and index solutions team, Maude Rivierre Bianchi and Chiara Solazzo.
Bianchi joined on 23 April as a product specialist. She is based in Paris and reports to Bertrand Alfandari, head of ETF development. Solazzo joined on 2 May as a member of the ETF and index solutions sales team in Milan and reports to Sabrina Principi, head of ETF sales for Italy and Spain.
Fintech Scotland
Nucleus founder and chief executive, David Ferguson, has become chair of Fintech Scotland’s board.
Ferguson was appointed by the Treasury in December 2016 as one of two regional fintech envoys for Scotland. His remit is to build regional and national networks which seek to ensure a greater level of co-ordination and collaboration between fintech companies, government, investors and regional fintech hubs.
FinTech Scotland was set up by the Scottish Government, the financial services sector and the University of Edinburgh. Its ambition is to make Scotland a top five global fintech centre by 2020.
Alongside Ferguson’s appointment, FinTech Scotland announced it is also working with five global strategic partners to support the fintech ecosystem in Scotland. These partners are professional services firm Deloitte, law firm Pinsent Masons, tech giant IBM, international digital media and marketing agency Dentsu Aegis Network, and fintech firm Sopra Steria.
Sanlam UK
Sanlam UK has expanded its portfolio management team by hiring Danial Szabo as a portfolio manager.
Szabo has more than 17 years’ experience in the wealth management industry. He joins from Oxford Capital, where he worked with high net worth private clients.
Prior to this, he was an associate director at Tilney and he held various private client roles at Nationwide Building Society, Zurich and Bradford and Bingley.
Szabo will report to Stuart McCann, head of London office at Sanlam UK.
Carey Olsen Bermuda
Offshore law firm Carey Olsen Bermuda has appointed Cheri Minors as a senior associate in its trusts and private wealth practice, reporting to partner Keith Robinson.
Minors, who joins the firm after working as in-house legal counsel and group compliance manager for an international insurance company, has more than seven years’ experience across of wide range of sectors, including private client and trusts, regulatory, property and insurance.
Called to the Bermuda Bar in 2011, Minors specialises in advising on trust and estate planning structures and compliance and regulatory matters.
At Carey Olsen Bermuda, she will also assist the dispute resolution practice with various trust and estate planning matters.
