South Africa Revenue Service
The chief of business and individual taxes at the South Africa Revenue Service (Sars) has stepped down for “personal reasons”, amid allegations of tax evasion and suspicious deposits in his bank accounts.
Jonas Makwakwa’s departure was “effective immediately” from 14 March.
In his press statement, Sars commissioner Tom Moyane confirmed he had called a press conference to announce the resignation at “extremely short notice”.
Moyane said he had formally confronted Makwakwa with the allegations against him, with “the intention to suspend him in respect of the said allegations pending an investigation”.
After stating his innocence, Makwakwa “indicated to me that he had already decided to resign”, Moyane added.
A criminal investigation into Makwakwa for corruption and money laundering is ongoing.
Fidelity International
Christian Staub has been named managing director of Fidelity International’s continental European business.
He has over 20 years’ experience in the industry and joins after four years at BlackRock where he held a number of senior European distribution roles; culminating in head of institutional client business, continental Europe and country head, Switzerland.
Prior to joining BlackRock, he held several senior positions at Allianz Asset Management and Pimco, following an initial period as an investment analyst at UBS.
Staub will report to Simon Haslam, interim president. He joins on 6 August and will be based at the company’s Luxembourg office.
He succeeds Jon Skillman who is moving to a new role in the company managing global workplace investing.
Charles Stanley
Investment manager Charles Stanley is looking to boost its intermediary and charities & trusts markets with two hires.
Glenn Baker joins as a business development director to advise professional advisers; such as lawyers, accountants and trustees, on matters including financial planning, investment and inheritance tax mitigation.
He previously spent five years at Kleinwort Hambros where he was a business development director.
Robert Winterton joins as a business development executive to build relationships with trustees, consultants and professional intermediaries in the charity sector.
He previously worked at peer-to-peer share trading platform Asset Match where he was head of sales and business development. He has also worked with Morgan Grenfell, BZW, Banque Paribas and Nordic investment bank ABG Sundal Collier.
JP Morgan Asset Management
JPMAM has promoted Claude Kurzo to country head of Switzerland, replacing Patrick Beuret who has resigned after three years in the role.
In addition to his Swiss responsibilities; Kurzo will assess opportunities in the Middle East and Africa for the funds business of JPMAM.
He has been with JP Morgan since 2012, having previously worked for McKinsey & Co.
Renaissance Capital
Emerging and frontier markets investment bank Renaissance Capital has appointed Gregory Smith to lead its frontier and emerging markets sovereign debt strategy research product for fixed-income investors.
Smith brings with him several years’ experience as a frontier markets economist, having most recently served as senior economist at the World Bank from 2012.
Prior to this he was a senior consultant for international development company Crown Agents, where he, among other projects, led a team providing economic management support to the Zimbabwean Government.
