Asia moves: LCH appoints new head of Asia, BNY Mellon picks treasury services chief, and more

LCH has appointed Rohit Verma as head of Asia. Based in Singapore, Verma will report to chief executive officer, Isabelle Girolami. Verma’s appointment follows Kate Birchall’s move to London earlier this year, to assume the role of head of sales for the company. 

Verma has 20 years’ experience in derivatives and risk management. He joins LCH from Citi, where he held a number of senior roles in the bank’s futures, over-the-counter clearing and foreign exchange prime brokerage business, most recently serving as Asia-Pacific (Apac) head of OTC clearing and FX prime brokerage. 

Prior to joining Citi in 2012, Verma held various risk management roles at Deutsche Bank, Landesbank-Baden Württemberg and Credit Suisse. He began his career at Siemens in India. 

BNY Mellon has appointed Winnie Chen as head of treasury services for Asia-Pacific. Based in Singapore, Chen will report directly to Eric Boughner, global head of treasury services relationship management and business development, and will also have a regional reporting line into Fangfang Chen, Apac chair and Apac head of asset servicing and digital. 

She will partner with senior leaders in the treasury services business and throughout Asia-Pacific to ensure functional strategies deliver business objectives. She is also a member of BNY Mellon’s treasury services leadership team. 

Chen has previously held senior sales roles at leading institutions including JP Morgan, Bank of America and ANZ. Most recently, Winnie was head of financial institutional sales for United Overseas Bank in Singapore. Prior to that, she was head of financial institutions sales, North Asia, for ANZ in Hong Kong.

BNP Paribas has appointed Jason Yates to the newly-created position of head of cash equities for Asia. Yates spent more than 25 years at Morgan Stanley in various cash equities roles. He ran their Asia-Pacific execution platform from 2016, and was previously based in Singapore managing South-east Asian equities. 

Yates is based in Hong Kong and will report jointly to Benjamin Dufour, head of prime solutions and financing for Apac, and Vincent Desmarest, head of equity derivatives.

HSBC has appointed Stefan Lecher as regional head of investments and wealth solutions for Asia-Pacific. Based in Hong Kong, Lecher will report to Lavanya Chari, global head of investments and wealth solutions. 

Lecher joins from UBS, where he held a number of key product and investment roles within global wealth management and asset management over the past 17 years. He was most recently head chief investment officer for global investment management in Asia-Pacific. 

Previously, Lecher worked at UBS Asset Management, where he held a variety of roles, including global head strategist and head of global investment solutions for Asia-Pacific.

State Street has made a number of key appointments. Jeslyn Tan joins as head of product management for Asia. Taro Kuryuzawa is named head of Japan, a newly-created role. Sam Edwards becomes head of collateral management for Asia. 

Based in Singapore, Tan will report globally to Brenda Lyons, global head of asset servicing product, and regionally to Mostapha Tahiri, chief executive officer for Asia-Pacific. 

Tan joins State Street from Deutsche Bank, where she was most recently the global head of product management. 

Kuryuzawa will report to Tahiri. He joined State Street in May this year from Deloitte Tohmatsu group, where he was most recently head of institutional investor coverage in Japan and global lead client service partner. 

Prior to Deloitte, Kuryuzawa spent nearly 10 years at Citigroup in a variety of senior roles. 

Edwards will report globally to Staffan Ahlner, global head of collateral management, and regionally to Michele Hardeman, head of global markets. Edwards joins from Credit Suisse, where he was most recently head of Asia-Pacific central collateral desk. 

Prior to Credit Suisse, Edwards spent six years at Lehman Brothers’ on the equity and fixed-income secured financing desk. He has nearly two decades of experience in securities finance, and liquidity and financial resource management.

Sun Life has made three senior digital leadership appointments. Cassandra White joins as president of digital enterprise in Asia. Darren Pigg has been named chief transformation officer. Aneesh Chaudhry has been appointed chief data and analytics officer. 

White has more than 25 years’ experience delivering large-scale business transformation and technology programs in financial services organisations globally. 

Pigg joins from KPMG and brings over 19 years’ experience as a consultant specialising in insurance, customer experience and digital transformation in Asia and Europe. 

Chaudhry joins from Hindustan Unilever and brings over 20 years’ experience leading data and analytics practices in the consumer goods sector.

Hong Kong-based Value Partners has appointed Winnie Lam as the managing director of the chief operating officer’s office, responsible for overseeing the group’s overall operations and back-office functions. She reports jointly to Dato’ Seri Cheah Cheng Hye and Louis So, both of whom hold the roles of co-chairman and co-chief investment officers. 

Lam has more than 30 years of experience in the fund management and financial services industry across Asia. Most recently, she spent 14 years as head of operations for Asia at First Sentier Investors in Hong Kong. 

Before this, Lam held various senior positions across a range of firms, including Lloyd George Management, JP Morgan Securities and American Express.