Asian Wealth Management Forum 2017

An early adopter of bitcoins, Ville has been an advisor and investor for several cryptocurrency companies and a private broker for HNWIs and Family Offices in Europe, Asia, Middle-East and Africa. Ville has been involved in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry long before any regulatory discussions had begun and has been in active dialogue with authorities and regulators internationally. Ville has also coached several Financial Institutions about crypto investments and advised in the development of several tokenized ownership models of assets, currently termed ICOs.

Self-taught and highly motivated, Stéphan started his first company in the financial realm back in 2003. After the crisis of 2008, however, he decided to leave the world of stocks and shares and dedicate himself to opportunities closer to his heart and personal interests. A nature lover, Stéphan has always had a keen appreciation for flora, fauna, and the environment, and has helped organisations and programmes dedicated to addressing the plight of endangered species.

It was this interest that drew him to the ancient and time-honoured techniques of Oud production currently practiced by Asia Plantation Capital, and enabled him to engage in pursuits that satisfied his environmental consciousness as well as his desire to encourage stakeholders to diversify their portfolios. Stéphan is firmly of the belief that capital can be secured and grown sustainably year on year by protecting nature and embracing the concept of social and environmental responsibility.

Andrew joined Westoun Advisors in 2016 as Managing Director. In his role he advises asset managers and hedge funds on strategic expansion and asset gathering. PReviously as Head of M&G Investments Asia, he launched the business in the region. Prior to this he was at The Capital Group Companies, during which time he worked in various groups including private equity, institutional client relations and global financial institution distribution. During his career he has worked in Los Angeles, London, Geneva, Singapore and Hong Kong. He has 21 years of experience in the investment management industry. Andrew graduated with an MBA from INSEAD and an MA in Economics and French from the University of St. Andrews is also a CFA charter holder.

Sameer has over 25 years of experience in the Asset Management industry. He has advised and worked with some of the largest institutions, central banks, SWFs and Distributors in Asia and the Middle East, across multiple asset classes namely, Public Markets, Alternatives and Real Estate.

Sameer joined ASK Capital Management in 2016 and spearheads, business development, client management and strategic product development for ASK international market offerings. Additionally, Mr. Dev serves as a Member of the Board for ASK Capital Management Pte Limited and ASK Indian Real Estate Special Opportunities Fund Pte Limited.

Most recently, Sameer was the Head of Institutional Sales at Deutsche Asset Management for South East Asia. Prior to that, he has held senior business development leadership positions with some of the world's most reputed global asset managers. Sameer started his asset management career with Franklin Templeton Asset Management, Hong Kong in 1993 and is a frequent speaker at industry events across the region.

Sameer has Bachelor’s Degree in Advanced Accountancy & Economics from Pune University.

Kripa Sethuraman has recently joined Accuro as Head of Family Office and will be based in a representative office in Zurich, developing the broader strategic offering for wealth owners and their advisors.  Prior to that, Kripa was Executive Director at Quilvest Family Office, working with families based across the globe, and most recently, conducted a series of seminars for new wealth owners based in Australia. She has more than 15 years of relevant experience in family office strategy, consulting and business development,

Kripa holds a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, Washington D.C. and a Master of Science in Economics from the London School of Economics.

As a fully-qualified lawyer with a Master’s degree in Business Law, Thomas Henze started his career as a legal counsel. In 2005, he moved to the insurance sector, joining a Liechtenstein-based insurer as the Director of Product Management. Two years later, he joined Swiss Life International, developing local partner accounts and products in Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. 

From 2009 onwards, Thomas was based in Singapore and was appointed CEO of the Asian subsidiary in 2012. Responsible for transforming the Singapore entity’s operations, he managed significant change in the business model and market approach.

Today, Thomas Henze is the Head of Global Private Wealth, developing private client business for Swiss Life Global Solutions. He is now based in Europe.

Mark is responsible for Financial Planning globally within the Wealth Management team at HSBC.

He has over 20 years’ experience in the Wealth Management sector, starting out at the insurer Skandia providing planning solutions to private clients across the globe. At Skandia Mark helped international wealth managers develop client centric offerings in Europe, the Americas and Asia. 

At UBS in London Mark was responsible for the commercial aspects of financial planning solutions, primarily focused on increased front office penetration, product innovation and development, technical sales training and management of sales campaigns. UBS had significant market shares in these solutions during this time.

Following UBS Mark led the global insurance proposition at Barclays Wealth, creating and executing the international insurance strategy. Developing this HNW insurance offering to complement their existing services allowed Barclays Wealth to provide an award winning holistic Wealth Advisory service throughout their global network.

Mark is a graduate of the CASS Business School, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments and a qualified financial planner.

When not working Mark spends time with family, tries to keep fit by cycling and swimming.

With 15 years’ experience in FinTech and WealthTech, Loïc is now driving the growth of his new company New Wealth (SG) to support Asian financial institutions and Wealth businesses in their Digital Transformation regarding all client-facing interactions. He specialises in converting new and existing clients to Digital Wealth leveraging cutting-edge Do-It-Yourself (DIY) or RM-assisted services, offering conversational experience on smartphones and highly personalized client experience.

Peter acts for private clients in a wide range of areas, including international business development and structuring, and tax and estate planning. He has been practicing in Monaco since 1988 and now shares his time between Monaco and Asia. Peter is managing director of the Rosemont International group, which provides an all-round multi-disciplinary service to individuals and their families, and assists in structuring and administering a client's financial world covering the important areas of interest to clients including:

• Tax, estate and business planning
• Onshore and offshore corporate and fiduciary activities

Peter is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales and has been a member of STEP since 1998. He is a member of the Institute of Directors, the ITPA (International Tax Planning Association), AMCO (Association Monégasque des Compliance Officers), and Secretary of the Monaco Association of Trust and Company Service Providers - AMPA (Association Monégasque des Professionnels en Administration de Structures Etrangères).

Urs has been in the private banking industry for 34 years, and since 1986 in Asia. After expanding the private banking businesses of Credit Suisse, ABN AMRO and Clariden/Clariden Leu in Singapore and throughout Asia, he decided to go independent. In 2009, Urs founded HP Wealth Management Singapore Pte Ltd, with Michael Foo, the former Head of Clariden Leu's Portfolio Management unit, as the Chief Investment Officer. The company's focus is exclusively on looking after private clients, acting as an Independent Asset Manager. Over the years, the firm has added a well-developed Family Office capability, which includes expertise in Private Markets. Urs believes that an Independent Asset Manager can offer a client the best of both worlds: a custodian of choice coupled with truly independent investment advice. Urs is also a founding member of the Association of Independent Asset Managers (Singapore). Urs continues to believe that private banking is and remains a people's business and that the key aspect of building a successful business is the ability to listen to the client and to build strong relationships. Relationships last longer than products!

As Executive Director, Marc is responsible for the index client coverage team in Western Europe. He joined MSCI in 2003 and has worked closely with European Asset Managers, Banks, Pension funds and Insurances in the fields of benchmark selection, risk management, portfolio construction and performance attribution.

Prior to joining MSCI, Marc worked at ADIG, the asset management division of Commerzbank as fixed income portfolio manager. Before that, he was at DWS, the mutual fund arm of Deutsche Bank in Luxembourg.

Marc holds a degree in business administration and finance from the University of Trier (Germany) and has supplemented his education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro through an academic scholarship by the German Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation.

Ray founded MilleniumAssociates, an independent firm specialised in M&A and strategic advice for the global financial services industry with particular focus on wealth management. Based in Switzerland, he takes a strategic advisory role supporting the operational team. MilleniumAssociates has a broad network of senior contacts with financial services companies, investors, institutions and sovereign funds in Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Asia, Japan, and the US.

Ray has a long background in global financial services. From 1970-1984, he held various senior positions within Citigroup, lastly head of Asia Pacific Treasury and capital markets. From 1984-1992, he worked for Midland Montagu Investment Banking as CEO of Hong Kong, CEO of Japan, head of global capital markets office (London) and head of FIG, and MD/CEO of Midland Montagu Securities. From 1992-1994, Ray was chief investment officer for the National Bank of Bahrain including Head of International Banking and Private Banking. From 1994-1998, he became chief investment officer and chief financial officer and member of the Executive Board of Cedel Bank (created same)/renamed Clearstream. Subsequently from May 1998 to April 2000 Ray was a managing director and member of the private banking management Board for SBC/UBS AG. There he created and led the corporate strategic acquisition and development team in asset/wealth management and private banking acting on a global basis.

Ray is a Harvard Business School & INSEAD Alumnus. He has multicultural, multilingual wealth management and private banking/investment banking expertise. Ray is a patron of the British Swiss Chamber of Commerce. He speaks English, French, Greek and Japanese.

Mr. Gallagher joined ASK Group in 2015 and is responsible for the International operations of ASK Group entities including leading the strategic direction for funds management and fund raising across global (non Indian) capital markets. He holds international regulatory authority responsibilities for ASK Group, leading the attainment and adherence of ASK Capital Management's full Capital Markets Services License under the authority of the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Mr. Gallagher brings with him extensive international experience in funds management, fund raising and public markets issuances as well as the management and monitoring of investments across private equity, real estate and infrastructure. He has been involved with and led the raising and subsequent management of over USD2.5 Billion of funds in his career to date.

Prior to ASK, from 2009 through 2015, he was the CEO of IDFC Capital (Singapore) Pte. Limited and was the head of the Investor Management Group for IDFC Limited’s Alternatives Business. During his circa 15 years in the funds management business in Asia he has held numerous board positions and membership of multiple investment committees. Mr. Gallagher was a founding board member of the Investor Relations Professional Association of Singapore and has spoken at numerous industry and educational events.

Mr. Gallagher holds a Bachelor of Science from Australia's Macquarie University, and Post Graduate qualifications from Macquarie Graduate School of Management in Applied Finance & Management. He has further post graduate education with Said Business School at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom.

Belal Mohammed Khan holds the role of Director, Head of Investment Strategy for HSBC Private Bank CEMEA region, effective February 2016.  Based in Geneva, he is part of a five member global team at HSBC Private Bank responsible for creating and communicating the global macro economic view and outlook, the asset allocation strategy and thematic investment strategies.  Belal joined HSBC Private Bank, Suisse at the Geneva office in 2006.  Prior roles included foreign exchange and commodity strategy and advisory.  In his current role he work includes helping clients with portfolio construction and asset allocation.  

Belal is a industry veteran with nearly 30 years of financial market experience in foreign exchange trading, sales, advisory and central bank foreign exchange reserve management advisory.  Prior to joining HSBC Private Bank, he was with an investment bank in New York where he held several roles in foreign exchange institutional sales. In addition he has worked for several large international banks based in New York.

Irene is responsible for developing and maximising Equiom's new business opportunities across the Group's multiple jurisdictions. 

Working closely with her extensive network of contacts and constantly developing new ones, Irene's role is to expand Equiom's Singapore business and relationships with Wealth Practitioners and Professionals in the region.  Irene supports Angelo and the wider business development team to grow the business through provision of comprehensive advisory services and structures to key strategic partners and clients.

She has over 15 years' experience in financial services, with expertise in wealth management. 

Irene joined Equiom in 2016 following the acquisition of Heritage Trust Company.

Irene holds an MBA from Oxford Brookes University. She was named 'Professional of the Year 2015-16' by Worldwide branding for her contributions to the field of wealth management and financial services. In addition, Irene is a Board Member of the 'Private Wealth Association-Singapore.'

She is fluent in English, Mandarin, Cantonese and Hokkien and is proficient in Malay and Japanese.

Dharshi heads the international trust practice in the Zurich office of Anaford.

She advises Banks and Trust companies as well as private individuals on all aspects of wealth planning, with a focus on trust solutions for clients with a connection to Asia.  She has a wealth of international experience, having worked previously in a large Swiss private bank and international law firm.  As part of her role she relocated from Switzerland to Singapore to focus on UHNW clients. Prior to that, Dharshi was a Senior Associate at an international law firm, working in both the Singapore and Zurich offices. In this role she regularly advised Banks and Trust companies as well as private individuals on all aspects of wealth planning, with a focus on Asia.

A founding partner of SilkroadFinance Corp, a merchant bank headquartered in HK. He has over 25 years of management consulting experience working with clients in North America, Europe and more than 10 countries in Asia. His clients include governments, large SOEs, SMEs, banks, private equity companies, sovereign wealth funds, asset management companies, securities companies, insurance companies, stock exchanges, regulators and government covering topics from the development and implementation of: Corporate and business unit growth and repositioning strategies; Private banking and wealth management; SME banking; International growth strategy, inbound and outbound; Organization re-structuring, turnaround; Risk Appetite design and implementation; Shareholder value creation; Basel II and Corp governance; Performance improvement and cost reduction programs; Sales force effectiveness programs; Branch innovation and transformation; Talent development and management; Merger and acquisition strategies and post merger integration; Strategic alliances and joint ventures; Pre-acqdue diligence

Ralph Mogicato has over 25 years of experience in the financial industry in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Singapore. He is co-founder and used to be CEO at the Swiss consultancy Synpulse (formerly known as Solution Providers) with over 250 employees mainly focusing on banking and insurance. He has expertise in strategy building, defining business plans and cases, make-or-buy decisions, evaluation support of packaged software, quality assurance for large projects and composition of „greenfield units“. He is now angel investor, professional board member and/or advisor for start-up companies in the fintech and technology field (e.g. Starmind, unblu, Contovista, Fundbase, Coresystems, Quartal Financial Solutions) and guest lecturer at several universities of applied sciences as well as lecturer at the University of Zurich. He's also member of the investment clubs - Investnet AG and Swiss ICT Investors Club (SICTIC).

Mahesh Bulchandani is the chief executive officer of Asia Pacific for FinIQ.

Prior to this, Mahesh spent 20-plus years in banking, in various roles at Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan. In his last role at JPMorgan, he was managing director, head of sales, for Asia.

Mahesh has an Engineering degree and an MBA.

René Müller is CEO and CIO of Ecamos Capital. Developing systematic trading tools since the age of 16, he started his career in 1989 at Credit Suisse before leaving the bank at the age of 24 to study economics and finance at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.

While still at university, he developed an equity trading program with which he advised assets for two Swiss pension funds. Subsequently he was the advisor of two equity funds of the Liechtensteinische Landesbank LLB. In 2004 he then founded Ecamos, initially focusing on advisory mandates only, before launching the ecamos Core Fund in 2011.

Michael has an extensive background in financial services in Asia, Europe and North America. He has been in Asia-Pacific since 1995 – first in Hong Kong for six years, then in Sydney and Singapore, returning to Hong Kong in 2007. Before setting up Hubbis in early 2009, Michael founded Pacific Prospect in 2002 and sold it to global business-to-business publisher Incisive Media in 2006, continuing to serve as Chief Executive Officer until October 2008. Prior to Pacific Prospect, Michael worked for nine years in financial markets publishing. He joined Euromoney Publications in 1993 as the publisher of a quarterly magazine, International Bond Investor. In 1995, Michael joined Thomson Financial Services (now Thomson Reuters) to conceive and launch Finance Asia magazine. While he was Managing Director of Finance Asia, Michael also started the Asian Debt Review, Asian Private Capital Magazine and started the Finance Asia Conference Business. In 1997, Michael founded FIA Limited. Born in North Wales, Michael was head boy of St David’s College Llandudno. He has a degree in Business Administration from Cardiff University. And is married with three children - Reanna, Garett and Tarryn.

As a fully-qualified lawyer with a Master’s degree in Business Law, Thomas Henze started his career as a legal counsel. In 2005, he moved to the insurance sector, joining a Liechtenstein-based insurer as the Director of Product Management. Two years later, he joined Swiss Life International, developing local partner accounts and products in Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. 

From 2009 onwards, Thomas was based in Singapore and was appointed CEO of the Asian subsidiary in 2012. Responsible for transforming the Singapore entity’s operations, he managed significant change in the business model and market approach.

Today, Thomas Henze is the Head of Global Private Wealth, developing private client business for Swiss Life Global Solutions. He is now based in Europe.

Peter acts for private clients in a wide range of areas, including international business development and structuring, and tax and estate planning. He has been practicing in Monaco since 1988 and now shares his time between Monaco and Asia. Peter is managing director of the Rosemont International group, which provides an all-round multi-disciplinary service to individuals and their families, and assists in structuring and administering a client's financial world covering the important areas of interest to clients including:

• Tax, estate and business planning
• Onshore and offshore corporate and fiduciary activities

Peter is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales and has been a member of STEP since 1998. He is a member of the Institute of Directors, the ITPA (International Tax Planning Association), AMCO (Association Monégasque des Compliance Officers), and Secretary of the Monaco Association of Trust and Company Service Providers - AMPA (Association Monégasque des Professionnels en Administration de Structures Etrangères).

Mahesh Bulchandani is the chief executive officer of Asia Pacific for FinIQ.

Prior to this, Mahesh spent 20-plus years in banking, in various roles at Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan. In his last role at JPMorgan, he was managing director, head of sales, for Asia.

Mahesh has an Engineering degree and an MBA.

Ray founded MilleniumAssociates, an independent firm specialised in M&A and strategic advice for the global financial services industry with particular focus on wealth management. Based in Switzerland, he takes a strategic advisory role supporting the operational team. MilleniumAssociates has a broad network of senior contacts with financial services companies, investors, institutions and sovereign funds in Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Asia, Japan, and the US.

Ray has a long background in global financial services. From 1970-1984, he held various senior positions within Citigroup, lastly head of Asia Pacific Treasury and capital markets. From 1984-1992, he worked for Midland Montagu Investment Banking as CEO of Hong Kong, CEO of Japan, head of global capital markets office (London) and head of FIG, and MD/CEO of Midland Montagu Securities. From 1992-1994, Ray was chief investment officer for the National Bank of Bahrain including Head of International Banking and Private Banking. From 1994-1998, he became chief investment officer and chief financial officer and member of the Executive Board of Cedel Bank (created same)/renamed Clearstream. Subsequently from May 1998 to April 2000 Ray was a managing director and member of the private banking management Board for SBC/UBS AG. There he created and led the corporate strategic acquisition and development team in asset/wealth management and private banking acting on a global basis.

Ray is a Harvard Business School & INSEAD Alumnus. He has multicultural, multilingual wealth management and private banking/investment banking expertise. Ray is a patron of the British Swiss Chamber of Commerce. He speaks English, French, Greek and Japanese.

Mark is responsible for Financial Planning globally within the Wealth Management team at HSBC.

He has over 20 years’ experience in the Wealth Management sector, starting out at the insurer Skandia providing planning solutions to private clients across the globe. At Skandia Mark helped international wealth managers develop client centric offerings in Europe, the Americas and Asia. 

At UBS in London Mark was responsible for the commercial aspects of financial planning solutions, primarily focused on increased front office penetration, product innovation and development, technical sales training and management of sales campaigns. UBS had significant market shares in these solutions during this time.

Following UBS Mark led the global insurance proposition at Barclays Wealth, creating and executing the international insurance strategy. Developing this HNW insurance offering to complement their existing services allowed Barclays Wealth to provide an award winning holistic Wealth Advisory service throughout their global network.

Mark is a graduate of the CASS Business School, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments and a qualified financial planner.

When not working Mark spends time with family, tries to keep fit by cycling and swimming.

As Executive Director, Marc is responsible for the index client coverage team in Western Europe. He joined MSCI in 2003 and has worked closely with European Asset Managers, Banks, Pension funds and Insurances in the fields of benchmark selection, risk management, portfolio construction and performance attribution.

Prior to joining MSCI, Marc worked at ADIG, the asset management division of Commerzbank as fixed income portfolio manager. Before that, he was at DWS, the mutual fund arm of Deutsche Bank in Luxembourg.

Marc holds a degree in business administration and finance from the University of Trier (Germany) and has supplemented his education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro through an academic scholarship by the German Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation.

René Müller is CEO and CIO of Ecamos Capital. Developing systematic trading tools since the age of 16, he started his career in 1989 at Credit Suisse before leaving the bank at the age of 24 to study economics and finance at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.

While still at university, he developed an equity trading program with which he advised assets for two Swiss pension funds. Subsequently he was the advisor of two equity funds of the Liechtensteinische Landesbank LLB. In 2004 he then founded Ecamos, initially focusing on advisory mandates only, before launching the ecamos Core Fund in 2011.