Credit Suisse
Group chief executive Tidjane Thiam has handed in his resignation in the wake of a spying scandal which saw at least two former members of staff followed.
Credit Suisse’s board of directors unanimously accepted his decision, which will be effective from 14 February 2020.
He has served in the top job since 2015.
Thomas Gottstein, who has been at the Swiss bank for over 20 years and was, most recently, chief executive of its Swiss operations, will become group chief executive after Thiam’s departure.
Openwork
Th UK-based financial advice network has hired Richard Houghton as interim chief financial officer, subject to regulatory approval.
He joins from Hyperion Insurance Group where he worked as group chief financial officer since 2018.
Houghton replaces Kevin Chidwick; who, after two years in the c-suite job, decided to pursue other career opportunities.
St James’s Place
Two women have been named non-executive directors at St James’s Place.
Emma Griffin and Lesley-Ann Nash join LGIM veteran Helena Morrissey, who took on a similar role at the beginning of the year.
Griffin will also become chair of SJP’s trust business, as she already holds several non-executive directorships in other firms; including Canada’s Industrial Alliance Financial Group and private investment firm Claridge and Solotech.
Nash left behind a career in politics to take on the role at the wealth management company, as she worked as a director in the cabinet office for the last six years.
Foresters Friendly Society
The UK mutual has promoted Rachel Hardy to chief executive.
She has worked alongside the firm since 2006, when she was part of the external audit team.
Hardy then took on the role of head of finance at the firm in 2015 and, after briefly going back to consulting, re-joined as finance director in 2017.
She was elected to Foresters’ board in 2018.
HSBC Global Asset Management
Thorsten Michalik has been recruited to fill the newly created role of global head of external wholesale.
He will be responsible for the global asset management arm’s distribution to discretionary wealth managers, IFAs, platforms, banks and asset managers.
He was previously at Deutsche Bank where he spent 19 years, and was most recently global co-head of distribution for DWS.
Mercer
Dan Melley has re-joined the consulting firm as UK commercial leader of investment solutions.
He will focus on the creation of bespoke investment solutions for clients; while overseeing Mercer’s strategy, distribution and growth.
He started his career with the firm in New York in 1997 and then transferred to London in 2000.
For the last three years, Melley served as head of Emea at Putnam Investments.
Brown Shipley
Michelle Coulson has been hired as client director in the wealth management firm’s London office.
She will be responsible for developing client relationships, as well as leading the advisory team.
Coulson was previously a director and wealth manager at Coutts.
JTC
The Jersey-headquartered provider of trust and private client services has named Greg Kok as head of group JTC Management Company (ManCo).
Based in Luxembourg, he will oversee the delivery, growth and evolution of the firm’s global platform.
He joins from Maitland Group where he was global head of alternative investment fund management (AIFM).
JTC has had a ManCo platform in the European country since 2016 and in Guernsey since 2017.
IQ-EQ
Bram Eijsbouts has been appointed head of business development at the global investor services provider.
In his newly created role, based in Luxembourg, he will oversee the firm’s growth in the market.
In his latest role, Eijsbouts was commercial director and head of sales at Intertrust Group, also based in Luxembourg.
EFG
The private bank has made four senior hires, all joining from Standard Chartered.
John Hennessy will become an associate director, while Omar Omari, Mital Shah and Saionton Basu have been appointed directors.
Hennessy and Omari will work together in the Mena team focusing on clients in the greater Middle East and North African regions.
Shah and Basu will join the global south Asia community (GSAC) team to serve clients in India, Pakistan and the non-resident Indian (NRI) client base.
