Independent Wealth Management Forum 2015

Thanks to his father, Leonardo Drago spent his precocious childhood devising financial strategies on how to exponentially grow his pocket allowance. This challenge soon inculcated a love and appreciation of investments for him.

Leonardo made his first break into private banking at Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) Hong Kong. He then moved to Credit Suisse in Singapore, taking on the role of deputy team head in the bank’s first Senior Client Partner team, where he stayed until his co-founding of AL Wealth Partners.

At AL Wealth Partners he manages a diversified portfolio of global investments targeting absolute returns, specialising in macro-economic strategies, derivatives, foreign exchange trading, stock-picking models and multiple asset classes. 

Leonardo is also a guest lecturer for several higher learning institutions in Asia, as well as a frequent speaker in investment and banking forums, including the Singapore Management University (SMU) where he runs wealth management seminars for banking professionals.

As a Director at Avaloq (Asia Pacific), Eric is responsible for new customer acquisition across South East Asia and works closely with banks and wealth managers who are seeking to implement the Avaloq core banking system directly or to outsource operations to Avaloq’s unique Singapore based operations centre.

Eric is an experienced wealth management professional having held positions at various points along the distribution channel, including development roles at Friends Provident, a FTSE 100 UK insurer, HSBC International in Singapore and HSBC Global asset Management in Hong Kong.

After seven years in Asia, Eric joined Avaloq in 2014 to help customers to leverage the unique Avaloq proposition in order to develop, implement and manage their digital transformation strategies.

Mr. Dingley is the Head of Private Wealth and Responsible Officer for CBH Asia Limited and has been with company since the beginning of 1996. He is part of the Investment Committee and daily responsibilities include the investment management of client portfolios. Other duties include the supervision of risk management, client account operations management and overseeing the sales operations. He started his career at Deloitte & Touche in South Africa.

Lincoln has over 20 years of experience in the financial markets. Prior to joining Commerzbank, he has spent his career in areas of foreign exchange and interest rate derivatives marketing.  Lincoln has serviced both financial institutions and corporate clients in the past.

In his current role, he leads a sales team to spearhead sales efforts in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South East Asia.  Lincoln holds a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.

Dennis Wan is a Managing Director and the Head of Sales for Equity Markets & Commodities of Commerzbank. He is responsible for the distribution of investment products across equities and commodities asset classes and for providing hedging and investment solutions to financial institutions in the region. Dennis has over 30 years of experience in global markets activities across different asset classes including equities, commodities, interest rates, credit, funds, hybrids FX and fixed income; and experience in serving clients in many different sectors, banks, institutions, corporates and SWFs. Prior to joining Commerzbank in 2007, Dennis worked in JPMorgan Hong Kong for 15 years where he last was a Managing Director with dual responsibilities as the Regional Head of FX Sales for Asia ex-Japan as well as the Head of Sales for Credit and Rates Markets covering Greater China region. Dennis holds a MBA degree from UBC and a Bachelor degree in Electronic Engineering from HKU.

Geoffroy is the Head of Wealth Management, and has over 20 years of experience in financial and investment management.

Previously, he was Managing Director of Longitude (Singapore) Pte Ltd, a member of the Longitude Group.

Prior to Longitude Geoffroy set up Unionhouse Pte Ltd, as a fund manager specializing in niche products. Previously, he was the Chairman of the board and CEO of Clearinvest Asset Consulting in Geneva and was a committee member of the Swiss Association of Independent Financial Advisors. Prior to that, he was a Financial Director and founder of SAGC S.A. and CGMS S.A. in Switzerland.

Nicolas has 12 years experience in the wealth management industry. Before establishing Global Precious Metals, he was Manager of Trading & Business Development at Swiss Precious Metals Pte. Ltd. in Singapore. Nicolas began his financial career as an Assistant Private Banker with Lombard Odier & Cie. in Geneva, Switzerland, after which he worked as a relationship manager and trader at Swiss Heritage Pte Ltd, a wealth management company based in Singapore. Nicolas holds a Swiss Degree in Financial and Business Banking from Geneva.

Stephane started his career in finance with UBS - Union Bank of Switzerland - in 1992 and has held various positions in Wealth Management and Private Banking in Geneva and New York for 6 years. He moved to Singapore in 1997 to join Bank Pictet & Cie (Asia) Pte Ltd where he worked for 15 years. He became Managing Director and held various executive managerial positions.

In July 2012, he joined Urs Brutsch and Michael Foo as a Partner to strengthen the offering of HP Wealth Management (S) Pte Ltd.

Stephane is a Chartered Financial Analyst and holds a Master Degree in Finance from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Patrick is the Global Head of Wealth Solutions, Sales Strategy & Execution, for Refinitiv based in Singapore. In leading this global team, his objective is to ensure that Refinitiv’s products & services meet the needs and expectations of wealth management customers & prospects across ASEAN. Prior to this role, Patrick was Head of Proposition Sales, ASEAN from Jan 2020 to Dec 2021 and Head of Market Development for Wealth – APAC at Refinitiv until Dec 2019. Patrick joined the Financial & Risk division of Thomson Reuters in 2014, which became Refinitiv in October 2018. Previously Patrick worked within the private banking industry in Singapore as Head of the European Desk at Barclays Wealth and Head of Private Banking at VP Bank (Singapore). He moved to Singapore in 2008 from London where he was a team leader for Barclays Wealth. Patrick is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment and has a BSc in Statistics from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Outside of work his focus is on being a husband, a father, a runner and a Scotsman.

Jessica is a Founding Partner, Responsible Officer and Compliance Officer of The Capital Company Hong Kong Limited, an independent asset management firm formed in the beginning of 2017. Prior to her time at The Capital Company, Jessica co-founded EXS Capital Asia Limited in 2008, and served as a Responsible Officer and head of Operations and Compliance for the firm until the end of 2016. She and her team built a substantial asset management and financial planning practice during their time at EXS, which is part of the core of their new joint venture The Capital Company. Jessica is an expert in many areas including tax, financial, and estate planning and she specializes in serving Americans living in Asia. She and her team provide fee-based comprehensive wealth management and planning services to U.S. citizens in Asia and to persons with U.S. related planning needs. Over the last fifteen years, Jessica has built a comprehensive wealth management practice from the ground up and established an active presence across Asia-Pacific. Before she moved to Asia, Jessica worked as a Registered Representative for Charles Schwab. She continues to be licensed in the U.S. today as a Registered Investment Advisor, insurance professional, and Trust and Estate Practitioner, and serves clients in the U.S. and across Asia Pacific. While in Tokyo she completed her MBA at Temple University Japan. She also spent a year in AmeriCorps, the domestic Peace Corp, working with individuals with severe disabilities. Jessica lives in Hong Kong with her husband and two children. She is active in the American Chambers of Commerce in Hong Kong, the American Women’s Association, and supports a variety of nonprofit organizations around the region. Jessica is currently active in the Girl Scouts as an adult volunteer and an avid runner and cyclist with the Hong Kong Tritons.

David Schmid joined Leonteq (formerly EFG Financial Products AG) in 2008 and was appointed Head of Investment Solutions & Banking Solutions in 2017. From 2012 to 2016, he was responsible for Leonteq’s operations in Asia. Between 2008 and 2012 he was part of the Structured Solutions Sales team in Zurich, Switzerland. He started his career with UBS in 2006 where he had been involved in various platform projects for the private banking division. He holds a bachelor degree in Economics with a major in Banking and Finance from the University of Zurich.

With a background in many different aspects of wealth management, Steven Seow was appointed Mercer's head of wealth management in Asia in October 2013. Although based in Singapore, he travels extensively to work with the firm's financial institution client base across Asia. Prior to joining Mercer, Steven was director of banking and wealth management at Ernst & Young Advisory in Singapore for just over five years, offering private and retail banks in Asia business advisory services in investment suitability, product development and business operations controls. His has also worked in Citi Private Bank, IBM Business Consulting, PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting and Odyssey Financial Technologies.

Nadav has been living in Asia and working in the financial services industry in the region for over twenty years. The recurring theme of Nadav’s career in Asia has been the starting-up and building-out of financial services businesses in the region. As Managing Director of Sandaire Singapore he is responsible for the firm’s activities in Asia. Prior to joining Sandaire, Nadav launched and managed his own consultancy firm, focused on advising financial services companies seeking to expand their respective business presence in Asia. Other experience includes managing AIG Trading Group out of Hong Kong, a capital markets business unit of AIG, which transacted as a principal and was a provider of risk management services to its clients. Within AIG’s asset management business line, Nadav was also responsible for the expansion of its private banking presence in Southeast Asia, based out of Singapore. In the early 2000’s Nadav was a co-founder and managing partner of a fin-tech firm, ARKaccess, which was seeking to launch the first pan-Asian ECN. Nadav graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in Economics and minored in English.

A Dutch national and Singapore Permanent Resident, Cliff has been in Private Banking and Wealth Management (WM) since 1992. He commenced his career in WM with Lehman Brothers, Singapore and thereafter, Prudential-Bache, Singapore. In 2000, he co-founded KE Swan & Co Pte Ltd, a joint venture with a public listed company, Kim Eng Holdings which was successfully grown and sold to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Singapore(CBA) in 2005. He was recognized as one of the key men when Schroders bought the WM/Asset Management & Advisory business from CBA (Singapore) in March 2008 and was appointed Executive Director- Advisory of Schroder & Co. (Asia) Limited and served till end December 2010. Early 2011 started his own financial boutique, Swaen Capital Pte Ltd. Cliff has a Master of Science in Economics, a graduate of the Free University of Amsterdam, Netherlands and attended a post graduate program at the George Washington University in Washington DC, USA. Has held the position of Adjunct Professor of the Private Equity course at INSEAD Singapore and is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at INSEAD with responsibilities such as coaching and counselling INSEAD MBAs, organizing speaker series with individuals of different backgrounds who can share their valuable experience with MBA graduates and is the creator of the successful INSEAD Entrepreneurship Boot camp. He specializes in the holistic approach of WM, asset allocation and investment management for high net worth individuals, corporations and institutions and is also the Creator of the 10 F’s approach: 1) Fortune 2) Fame 3) Family 4) Friends 5) Fun 6) Focus 7) Faith 8) Forgive 9) Freedom 10) Fitness