Holborn Assets
Holborn Assets is to open six new offices across the Middle East and Asia over the next 12 months to strengthen its client proposition.
To support the firm’s expansion plans, Holborn has recruited Riyad Adamou as chief commercial officer. He was formerly senior vice president and senior board member of Globaleye for eight years.
Adamou will take a leading role in Holborn’s global operations and will work closely with chief operations officer Simon Parker.
Schroders
Schroders has appointed Nisarg Trivedi to the newly-created role of sales director, Middle East. Trivedi will be responsible for managing and developing relationships with existing and prospective clients in the region, as Schroders continues to focus on building its business in the Middle East.
He joins from Baring Asset Management where he spent seven years as a senior client director responsible for business development in the Middle East and South Asia. He has over 17 years’ experience in the industry with expertise in customer relationship management and business development. Trivedi has worked in the region for the last 10 years.
He will be based in Dubai and report to William Wells, head of intermediary business Middle East.
Manulife
A Manulife life insurances salesman has been awarded a Guinness World Record for having the longest career as a corporate salesperson. After 62 years and 238 days with Manulife Hong Kong, 91-year-old Sun Yung Tsu received an official certificate and entry into the Guinness Book of World Records in July.
Originally from Shanghai, Sun was among only seven candidates chosen from some 400 applicants who joined Manulife in Hong Kong in 1954. The branch had just 20 staff at that time.
Sun said: “I am very honoured to have set a new world record with my lifelong career as an insurance agent. I would like to thank Manulife for making it possible for me to do the work I love and to make the friends I hold most dear. I have enjoyed every moment of my first six decades with the company, and I am not planning for retirement yet.
“In work and in life, it is important to always look forward and be passionate.”
Monetary Authority of Singapore
The first managing director of Mas, Michael Wong Pakshong, has died at the age of 86. He headed up the financial regulator from 1971 to 1981 and “laid the foundations for Mas as a central bank and integrated financial regulatory”, Mas said.
After leaving the regulatory body, Pakshong served as managing director of Straits Trading, a multi-faceted company with financial investment and hotel and property management businesses, until 1986. During his long career, Pakshong was also chairman of the Great Eastern Life Assurance Company and the Overseas Assurance Corporation.
Waverton Investment Management
Waverton IM has appointed Bill Dinning as a head of investment strategy and communications, with immediate effect. He joins Waverton’s Asset Allocation Committee and will direct the external communication of the firm’s investment views to both existing and potential clients.
Dinning has over 30 years’ City experience having worked for firms including UBS Warburg, Merrill Lynch and Kames Capital across London, Hong Kong, Edinburgh and New York. Most recently, he was head of investment strategy at Coal Pension Trustees.
Intertrust
Trust, corporate and fund services provider Intertrust has named John Ma as general manager for its Shanghai office. In his new role, Ma will be responsible for continuing to strengthen client relationships and driving business growth in the city.
Ma joined Intertrust in 2007 and was previously head of corporate services for the company’s Shanghai and Guangzhou offices. In this role, he oversaw the corporate secretarial services, a core service area for Intertrust in China. He was also responsible for exploring new business opportunities for other offices in the region.
US Securities and Exchange Commission
The SEC announced that David Grim, director of the division of investment management, will leave the agency next month after more than 20 years.
Grim joined the SEC straight from law school in 1995 as a staff attorney in the division’s office of investment company regulation.
In 1998, he moved to the division’s office of chief counsel, where he served in a number of positions, including being named assistant chief counsel in 2007. Grim was appointed deputy director in 2013, and director in 2015.
