He is currently CEO of the Greater China business and will be taking over from Kevin Coppel who will retire from the partnership in March 2025.

Shute (pictured) joined Knight Frank last year and has more than 25 years of experience in the real estate industry, having held senior leadership roles across Australia, Malaysia, Hong Kong SAR, and the USA. Prior to joining Knight Frank, Shute served as the managing director of JLL in Victoria, Australia, and previously led CBRE’s operations in Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan from 2008 to 2016.

Knight Frank’s Asia-Pacific region consists of 11,000 people in 300 offices across 16 markets.

William Beardmore-Gray, senior partner and group chair, Knight Frank said: “With a proven track record of driving growth and delivering strong results across multiple markets, Craig’s leadership will play a key role in shaping the next phase of our APAC strategy. His appointment is testament to the partnership’s commitment to strengthening our presence across APAC, ensuring sustained and organic growth across the region.

“Kevin’s contributions to the success of our Asia Pacific operations have been significant. Under his leadership, the region has become one of the fastest growing and most dynamic areas of our global business, as illustrated recently by our acquisition of the McGrath business in Australia. As we look forward, I am confident that Craig’s extensive industry experience and strategic vision will help us continue our growth trajectory in this important region.”

Shute said: “I am honoured and excited by this opportunity to work with our valued clients, exceptional people, and businesses across Asia Pacific. We are different. Knight Frank’s entrepreneurial, unique partnership structure ideally positions us to provide superior services and advice to our clients and attract the best talent in the industry. This powerful combination will continue to see our brand expand throughout this diverse and ever-evolving region.”

The asset management giant has announced chief financial officer and director Richard Keers has decided to retire.

Keers will leave Schroders on 31 December 2023.

Richard Oldfield will succeed Keers as both chief financial officer and as a director of the company on 2 October 2023.

Oldfield is currently vice chairman and global markets leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) leading all market-facing activities, initiatives, and strategy.

Also, Schroders has hired Iain Mackay as an independent non-executive director, effective 1 January 2024.

He will also join the audit and risk committee and the nominations committee. Mackay is currently chief financial officer at GSK plc and was previously chief financial officer of HSBC Holdings.

Nucleus

The wrap platform has named Laura Barnes as director of business development.

She joins from Parmenion, where she was head of intermediary distribution for almost three years with responsibility for sales strategy and growth.

Royal London

The UK life, pensions and investment mutual has appointed Ronnie Binnie as head of strategic partnerships. He will be based in Edinburgh.

Binnie joins from Evelyn Partners, where he was managing partner and head of office, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

Lombard Odier

Amer Malik has been named local managing director of the bank’s Dubai office.

He has over two decades of experience working for financial institutions in the US and the Middle East, including Julius Baer and HSBC Private Bank.

Pictet

The wealth manager has appointed Raymond Sagayam as its 47th managing partner in the 218-year history of the firm, effective 1 January 2024.

Sagayam joined Pictet Asset Management (PAM) in 2010 as head of total return fixed income. He was then appointed chief investment officer of fixed income for PAM and a member of its executive committee in 2017.

In addition to these responsibilities, he was named equity partner of the group in 2018 and head of PAM London in 2022.

Impax Asset Management

The specialist asset manager has named Yasumitsu (Yasu) Iwasa as head of Japan.

Prior to joining Impax in March 2023, he was head of Japan at Fullerton Fund Management, an asset management arm of Temasek Group.

Jupiter Fund Management

Non-executive chair Nichola Pease has stepped down with immediate effect.

Pease has quit for personal reasons, according to a stock exchange announcement on 26 April.

She has been replaced in the role by David Cruickshank, independent non-executive director and chair of the audit and risk committee.

Karl Sternberg will step in to act as interim chair of the audit and risk committee, while Roger Yates will join it. The appointments remain subject to regulatory approval.

Jupiter said at least one new independent non-executive director will be added to the board at a later date.

Knight Frank

Henry Faun, head of the firm’s private office in the Middle East, has relocated to London.

Faun will continue in his current role as head of the region but will now be based out of Knight Frank’s headquarters, travelling frequently into the Gulf to serve his clients from the Middle East.

Knight Frank will continue to have a private office presence in the Middle East with associate partner Paul Sacco based in Dubai.

Excello Law

Katie Brassington has joined the national consultancy law firm based in Chester.

Qualifying in 2004, Katie has over 18 years’ experience advising individuals, families, trustees and business owners across Cheshire and north Wales.

She joined Excello from Knights where she headed up their private client team in Chester.

The firm has appointed Ho-Pin Tung as head. Tung joins Knight Frank from Far East Consortium International Limited, where he served as an executive director of dining concepts.

Knight Frank has five dedicated private office teams globally, based in London, Dubai, New York, Singapore and Hong Kong, providing a joined-up service for our private clients.

Paddy Dring, head of the Knight Frank Private Office, said: “We are delighted to have Ho-Pin join the Knight Frank Private Office. We set ourselves an ambitious target to be the market leading, global private client and family office advisor in real estate and Ho-Pin’s appointment takes us a step closer to reaching our goal.

“His appointment enables Knight Frank to cater fully to our clients’ needs in the region, advising private clients on all their real estate transactions, no matter where in the world they are taking place.”

The asset management subsidiary of Prudential has promoted Matthew Appelstein to head of international distribution.

He joined the firm in 2019 and will retain his role as chief executive of Eastspring’s Americas business.

IQ-EQ

The investor services group has promoted Joannes van de Kimmenade to managing director for Belgium.

He was previously market leader for IQ-EQ Belgium where he was responsible for serving and expanding the portfolio of clients in the region.

Deutsche Bank

The German bank has made some changes to the senior management of its Ireland operations.

Neil Brady will take on the role of chief country officer for Ireland, effective from 1 October 2022, while keeping his responsibilities as global head of surveillance, messaging and agency securities lending (ASL) operations within the corporate bank.

He has been at Deutsche Bank since 1995, when he joined as a graduate.

Indosuez Wealth Management

The global wealth management arm of the Credit Agricole group has made two senior hires in Singapore.

Yeng Fang Ong becomes southeast Asia global market head, while Rosemarie Chong takes on the role of ultra-high net worth and wealth partnership market head.

Yeng was previously managing director and head of UOB Private Bank for eight years, whereas Chong used to work as managing director of Swiss-based BCV Investment Asia.

Fidelity international

Ilga Haubelt has been named head of equities for Europe at the investment firm.

She will be based in London and lead Fidelity’s European-based equity team.

Haubelt joins from Newton Investment Management where she served as head of equity income and senior portfolio manager.

Bank of Singapore

The private banking arm of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation has recruited Yazid Mahadi as head of fund selection, based in the Lion City.

He was most recently managing director of Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam.

Knight Frank Investment Management

The specialist real estate investment firm made three senior hires.

Ian Wilson has become partner to grow the residential investment management business. He joins from CBRE Investment Management where he led the residential investment practice.

Xaviere Roudeix-Crouan will work within the quantitative modelling research team; she was previously at real estate investment manager Redevco.

Lastly, Chantal Beaudoin has taken on the role of head of ESG. She used to work for Lamington Group as senior sustainability manager.

Brewin Dolphin

The UK-headquartered wealth manager promoted Richard Annis to head of office for Leeds.

He takes over from Micheal Craven who will retire on 1 October 2022.

Annis has been at Brewin Dolphin in Leeds since 1993 when he joined as a graduate trainee.

Edmund de Rothschild Asset Management

The asset management arm of Edmund de Rothschild has strengthened its equities capabilities with the hire of a portfolio manager based in Paris.

Benjamin Rousseau joins the team to focus on European small and mid-cap equities.

He was previously at Cogefi Gestion where he served in a similar role for four years.

In its Wealth Report 2020, the consultancy firm found that 31,000 people became UHNW in 2019, up 6.4% from the previous year.

Knight Frank defines an individual as ultra-wealthy if they have at least $30m (£23.4m, €26.9m) in assets.

Overall, UHNW individuals are estimated to increase by 27% in the next five years, totalling just under 650,000 worldwide.

The firm claims Asia will become the world’s second largest wealth hub by 2024, overtaking Europe, as its expected year-on-year growth is 44%.

In 2019, Asian countries took seven out of the top 10 spots for the fastest growing UHNW populations, with mainland China home to the second largest number of ultra-wealthy in the world after the US.

India head of the pack

Knight Frank estimates that India will become the country with the highest growth in UHNW individuals within the next five years, with a staggering 73% increase.

It expects that Egypt will follow with 66%, and then Vietnam (64%), mainland China (58%) and Indonesia (57%).

Liam Bailey, global head of research at Knight Frank, said: “Knight Frank predicts that by 2024, Asia will be the world’s second largest wealth hub outperforming Europe, with a forecast five-year growth of 44%.

“It’s exciting to see how wealth is developing across Asia and, with the number of ultra-wealthy in India, Vietnam, Chinese mainland and Malaysia outpacing many other markets over the next five years, it will be interesting to see how this impacts the global property market.

“With property accounting for a large proportion of total UHNWI wealth – almost a third, according to the Knight Frank Attitudes Survey – it will be fascinating to see where in the world the wealthy invest and into which asset classes.”