Old Mutual
Aviva UK Life’s former chief executive David Barral has been named as Old Mutual Wealth’s new independent customer champion, the insurance giant has revealed.
As independent customer champion, Barral will be tasked with helping promote “customer-centric behaviours”, said Old Mutual, including the UK Platform, Intrinsic, Quilter Cheviot, Old Mutual Global Investors and Old Mutual International
During his five-year tenure at Aviva, Barral was credited with leading a significant financial, people and customer transformation across the business.
Prior to that he has held various roles including distribution director, marketing director and chief operating officer over a 37-year career in financial services. He is currently a non-executive director at LV=, chairman of Vantage Finance and chairman of Virgin Wines.
Investec W&I
Investec Wealth & Investment (IW&I) has appointed Louise Hall as the new head of its London office.
She has taken over from David Bulteel, who has become head of IW&I’s international division.
Hall joined the wealth manager as a graduate trainee in 1989 and has led its charities division since 2004, taking its assets under management to £2.8bn ($3.6bn, €3.2bn) on behalf of nearly 1,200 charitable organisations.
She will continue to provide dedicated investment management and strategic advice to her existing charity and not-for-profit clients.
Axa Investment Managers
Eric Lhomond, global head of the alternative solutions team, has resigned following Axa Investment Managers announcement that it will combine its alternative solutions and structured finance teams to create a single alternative credit platform.
The merged teams consist of 100 professionals across Paris, London and Greenwich (Connecticut) in the US, providing management and advisory services to over €31bn of assets and will be brought together under the leadership of Deborah Shire, head of structured finance at Axa IM.
Lhomond will stay on until the merger is “bedded in working closely with the team to ensure as smooth a transition as possible,” said the investment house in a statement.
Neptune
Lead manager of the Neptune US Income and the Neptune US Opportunities funds James Hackman is leaving the firm to pursue other opportunities.
George Boyd-Bowman has been promoted from assistant manager to lead on the Neptune US Income Fund with immediate effect. Boyd-Bowman, who has been assistant manager of the fund since earlier this year, will adopt the same dividend-growth strategy favoured by Hackman.
Neptune chief executive Geffen will join Boyd-Bowman as co-manager of the Neptune Global Income Fund. Boyd-Bowman will focus on the US portion of the fund, to complement his new responsibilities.
Robin Milway will assume the lead manager position on the Neptune US Opportunities Fund with Pat Close and Ali Unwin’s roles on the fund unchanged.
Milway joined Neptune earlier this year as head of stock strategy from EFGAM. The investment process and philosophy of the Neptune US Opportunities Fund will remain unchanged.
Standard Chartered
Stephen Richards-Evans, global head of ulta-high net worth (UHNW) and market head of Indonesia at Standard Chartered Private Bank, is leaving the firm.
He has decided to “pursue another opportunity externally,” according to a bank spokesperson.
There will be no replacement for Richards-Evan’s global role, but his position as Indonesia market head will be taken by Andrew Ho.
Ho joins from UBS where he worked for 15 years, most recently as Indonesia country team chief.
Separately, a new position has been created for the non-resident Indian (NRI) business.
Vishal Jain is appointed managing director and head of the Asian team for the bank’s global South Asia community (Gsac), “a key cornerstone for building out the global NRI strategy,” said the spokesperson.
He will assume the leadership of the NRI Singapore team from David Koay and the NRI Hong Kong team from Wellington Ng. Koay and Ng will remain at the bank and “continue their primary roles,” the spokesperson noted.
Jain was most recently managing director at Barclays Wealth Management, where he spent eight years and helped set up the onshore business in India.
He will report to Srinivas Siripurapu, who joined StanChart from Barclays in July to become regional head of Asean and South Asia as well as global head of Gsac. Both Jain and Ho will start their new Singapore-based jobs in November.
