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UBS names sector heads, reorganises Asia leadership in major WM redesign

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Following plans to cut 500 wealth management jobs globally, UBS Global Wealth Management has reorganised its reporting structure and shuffled its senior ranks in Asia, in a bid to streamline decision-making and bring clients closer to its leadership.

Henceforth, UBS GWM in Asia will use the “sector head” designation, replacing the “regional market manager (RMM)” and “country team head” titles that front office executives had been given.

The individuals with the new sector head title serving APAC clients mostly remain responsible for the markets that they were already in charge of, with a few exceptions.

The sector heads are as follows:

  • Patricia Quek, market head Singapore, is now sector head for Singapore and Malaysia
  • Tian-Ong Foo, market head Thailand, is now sector head for Thailand and the Philippines
  • Raymond Ang, head of Southeast Asia and Singapore location head, is now sector head for Indonesia, Greater China (Singapore), and Japan international
  • Adeline Chien, head of Hong Kong domestic, is now sector head for Hong Kong and Southeast Asia (Hong Kong)
  • Marina Lui, head of WM China overseeing both China international and China domestic markets, is now sector head for China
  • Francis Liu, before UHNW RMM for Greater China, is now sector head for Taiwan international

The firm has also promoted veteran Taiwan banker, David Man, to regional vice chairman WM for Greater China. Man was previously head of WM Taiwan international and has been a key part in building UBS GWM’s Taiwan offshore business since joining the bank in 1996.

Leadership changes have not been made to UBS’s Taiwan domestic, Japan domestic, and APAC Switzerland markets and they will respectively be led by Dennis Chen, sector head, Taiwan domestic; Victor Chang, sector head, Japan domestic; and Frank Niedermann, sector head, APAC Switzerland.

LH Koh, previously head of China international, will lead UBS Global Family Office (GFO) APAC alongside Anurag Mahesh, who has been APAC head of GFO since joining the firm in 2017.

Both Koh and Mahesh will report to global UHNW head Joseph Stadler and APAC wealth management co-heads Amy Lo and August Hatecke, while the remaining sector heads report solely to Lo and Hatecke.

The changes come into effect on 1 February 2020. A spokesperson confirmed the changes.

This marks the first major change for UBS GWM’s APAC business since co-president Iqbal Khan’s official arrival last October, and the second one since the beginning of 2019, when the firm promoted a series of senior executives — many of whom are included in the list above — and dropped the RMM designation from their titles.

In related news, the SFC gave UBS Securities Hong Kong its Type 6 (advising on corporate finance) licence back earlier this week, bringing to an early close the 12-month sanctions that it imposed on the firm for failures to discharge obligations as a joint sponsor in three separate listings and conduct proper due diligence on listing applicants.

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