Friends Provident International
David Gervais has been named as chief executive of the life insurer’s Singapore branch.
Also, FPI has named Angeline Huang as deputy chief executive of the branch.
Huang was previously business manager in Singapore.
Manulife
The life insurer has appointed Pankaj Banerjee as its chief distribution officer for Asia.
Banerjee joins Manulife from AIA, where he most recently served as chief executive of group partnership distribution.
GSB Capital
The UAE wealth firm has hired Jason Woodley as client relationship director and associate partner.
Woodley was previously a premier banker at HSBC Retail Banking and Wealth Management in Dubai.
Gam
The asset manager is planning to make 17 employees from its Lugano-based equities team, including several fund managers, redundant as it shutters five funds worth €285m (£220m, $334m).
Following a review of its team structure, the Swiss manager decided to liquidate a quintet of funds deemed either to be too small to be managed efficiently or have limited growth prospects.
Among the funds to wind up on the chopping block are the Gam Star European Alpha, Gam Absolute Return Europe Equity and Gam Star European Momentum funds run by Gianmarco Mondani and Paolo Longinotti.
The Gam Star Global Alpha fund, run by Davide Marchesin and Aldo Meroni, and the GAM Star Convertible Alpha fund, managed by Jonathan Stanford, will also be wound down.
Gam said it intends to close the funds and return money to clients in a matter of weeks.
Mondani, who is head of the non-directional equity team in Lugano, will leave the business, along with 16 other employees, including the managers on the strategies Gam has decided to close and those in various support and operations roles.
The job cuts and fund closures come amid a reshuffle of Gam’s global equities desk.
Jian Shi Cortesi, who manages the Gam Asia Focus and Gam China Evolution strategies, and Gam Star Merger Arbitrage manager Roberto Bottoli have transferred into the global equities team, headed up by Mark Hawtin. Swetha Ramachandran, who runs Gam’s Luxury Brands Equity Strategy, will also come onboard.
BNP Paribas Asset Management
Maya Bhandari has joined the firm as global head of multi-asset.
She joins from Columbia Threadneedle Investments, where she was executive director of the multi-asset portfolio business.
Highvern
The financial services firm has appointed Ava Gallagher as associate client director in London.
She was previously associate director at Ocorian.
Mirabaud Asset Management
The investment arm of the Mirabaud Group has strengthened its UK relationship management team with the addition of Benjamin Carter as head of UK wholesale.
Carter joins Mirabaud from Aviva Investors, where he spent the last six years as a director within its business development team.
The firm has also welcomed Michael Wang and Elena Bignami to the company.
Wang joins their Global Emerging Market (GEM) Equities team as a senior analyst / deputy portfolio manager, working under the leadership of Charles Walsh on both the GEM and Asian ex-Japan Equities strategies, and Bignami joins the responsible investment team as an ESG analyst.
Schroders
The global asset manager had expanded its European equities footprint with the appointments of two experienced fund managers based in the Nordics.
Nordic equity investors Jan Brännback and Janne Lähdesmäki, who specialise in small and micro caps, will join Schroders from Aktia Asset Management in 2022.
Interactive Investor
The investment platform has hired Victoria Scholar as head of investment and Tracy Zhao as senior fund analyst.
Scholar has joined from IG Group, where she was a financial journalist and presented the business news at the firm’s IGTV broadcast channel.
Zhao joins from The Share Centre, where she worked on fund research, analysis and MI reporting.
