Abacus Horizons
Abacus (Gibraltar), which opened an office in Hong Kong in July 2017, has named Ian Godfrey to lead its subsidiary Abacus Horizons.
Abacus Horizons will initially focus on UK Tier 1 Investor and Entrepreneur visas, in addition to attracting business within the crypto space to Gibraltar.
Chief executive Christopher Pitaluga said: “Ian brings both technical and local knowledge to the Abacus brand and allows us to expand into a developing region.”
A Mandarin language graduate of Beijing Normal University, Godfrey is a former insurance broker who most recently consulted on Gibraltar’s relations with China’s government and nationals.
Abacus Gibraltar offers wealth management, structuring, tax, legal and accounting services for private and corporate clients.
Sanne
Trust and fiduciary provider Sanne has named Jonathan Ferrara as managing director of its Jersey client services business.
Prior to joining Sanna, Ferrara held a range of senior positions in Jersey, Switzerland and the UK, at Bank of America and UBS.
Ferrara will be responsible for providing expert guidance and support to the local client service leadership teams based on the island.
Pensionsync
Former pensions minister Ros Altman has become chair of Pensionsync, a fintech firm that focuses on auto enrolment administration.
She will work with chief executive and co-founder Will Lovegrove, with an aim to reduce costs, improve data accuracy and upgrade efficiency of data input.
Altmann was raised to the peerage of Baroness in May 2015.
Ogier
Senior litigator advocate Rebecca McNulty has joined Ogier from Bedell Cristin.
She specialises in commercial litigation, contentious trust, regulatory work, property related disputes and insurance litigation including high value personal injury and professional indemnity claims in particular.
McNulty joins Ogier’s dispute resolution team which is headed by partner Nick Williams.
Bluebay
Fixed income manager BlueBay Asset Management has appointed Gautam Kalani to the newly created role of emerging market FX Strategist.
Based in London, Kalani will join the five-strong EM strategist team, reporting to senior sovereign strategists Timothy Ash and Graham Stock, and will be responsible for analysing and shaping global FX positioning across BlueBay’s emerging markets investment strategies.
Kalani was most recently a strategist in the emerging markets research team at Deutsche Bank.
HANetf
Hanetf has hired Alistair Currie as manager, product research & strategy, from Invesco where he managed market analysis, investor reporting and forecasting for its range of ETF products.
Reporting to Nik Bienkowski, co-chief executive of Hanetf, Currie will oversee fund research, financial market analysis and strategy as part of the company’s comprehensive ETF product development, distribution and marketing solution.
Withers
International law firm Withers has promoted 14 new partners across its Asian, European and US offices. The appointees’ new roles take effect from 1 July 2018.
- Joy Chang, based in San Francisco, advises on estate and gift planning, probate and trust administration, and charitable giving. Chang frequently advises on cross-border matters.
- Chua Yee Hoong, based in Singapore, advises on tax matters, including litigation, as well as matters involving wills and succession, probate, estate administration, immigration and charities.
- Stefano Cignozzi, based in Milan, advises on M&A and corporate finance transactions, representing private equity, multinationals and privately held companies.
- Lara Crompton, based in London, advises on tax and succession planning, including trust structuring. Crompton frequently advises international families on multi-jurisdictional planning.
- Billy Ko, based in Hong Kong, advises on family law, civil litigation and media law matters. His family cases often involve complex asset holding structures and trusts, and his experience in media and reputation management complements this work.
- Leong Chuo Ming, based in Singapore, advises on corporate transactions, with a particular focus on equity capital markets work and M&A. Leong’s experience includes regulatory and compliance work for clients.
- Xanthe Lok, based in London, advises on banking and finance matters, working with borrowers and lenders on bilateral and syndicated secured and unsecured corporate borrowing/lending and real estate finance transactions.
- Joseph Morales, based in Connecticut, advises on M&A, commercial real estate and corporate finance transactions. His clients include private clients, family offices, privately held companies, emerging companies and entrepreneurs.
- Alessia Paoletto, based in London, is a dual qualified Italian lawyer and English solicitor, advising on international succession and trust planning, and cross-border UK-European inheritance disputes.
- Alana Petraske, based in London, advises charities and donors on issues including tax-efficient, the structuring of philanthropic giving vehicles, the terms of direct funding, venture philanthropy and social investment.
- Matilde Rota, based in Milan, advises on commercial and banking litigation matters. She also regularly advises on issues such as product liability, contract and credit recovery.
- Lesley Timms, based in London, has a broad commercial litigation and arbitration practice with a focus on complex contractual disputes, and frequently works on disputes with Italian elements.
- Jocelyn Tsao, based in Hong Kong, advises on all aspects of matrimonial law including divorce, prenuptial agreements, child care and custody and financial disputes, and acts as an advocate.
- Sharon Whitehouse, based in Milan, advises on a range of corporate and commercial matters, including M&A for private companies, international joint ventures and equity investments. She additionally advises on equity and debt private placements and real estate financing.
