Senior Client Partners, Market Heads, Team Heads & Cluster Heads

Hiring a good Banker is key to the growth of our client’s AuM & RoA. It can be a challenging and timely process and subsequently an integral part of many of our client’s hiring requirements. We not only help identify and introduce bankers but along the way we work in partnership with both the banker and our client to understand their synergies, the HNW & UHWN’s requirements from product needs, to lending support and market penetration, client duplication to ultimately pulling together a feasible business plan. Understanding the banker’s psychology, his/her needs and timing is key to this process, making this type of Executive Search unique to our industry.

Relationship Managers, Investment & Product Management Group and Supporting Functions

As much as 50% of our time is spent migrating Teams on the Private Banking (relationship managers), the Investment and Support Function side of the business.

We have successfully lifted teams covering all the major market geographies: Southeast Asia, North Asia, South Asia, Europe & International and Emerging Markets. Typically as much as 75% of our client’s Net New Money Asset flow is attributable to new banker hires. Accordingly, this is the area where many of our clients want the most help and support and in turn, is a major focus for our business.

Private Banking & Wealth Management: Top Down

We are proud of our track record in placing senior management who have helped our clients take their business from strength to strength. We have successfully placed numerous business-critical roles across the C-Suite, to Heads of Private Banking, Investment, Legal, Credit, Risk, Compliance and Operations. As our clients have evolved, so too have their requirements to hire increasingly sophisticated new-aged C-Suite practitioners who can lead and drive the business from the front, middle and back office. When identifying such talent, our key goal is to understand what characteristics, values and principles our clients need and therefore what type of candidates will shape the values and culture of the organisation and not just the bottom line.

Advisory, Execution & Direct Access-to-Clients

Westport Partners has successfully completed searches across these three major asset classes. For Equities, we have specialised in Global and Regional mandates. Within Bonds, we have covered a variety of Fixed Income areas including corporate credit, investment grade, emerging market debt and loans. For FX we have helped develop our client’s trading platforms looking at the most sophisticated FX products on the street.

We have helped our clients recruit in three primary functions: (1) Advisory, (2) Execution and (3) DAC, placing multiple Heads and built teams in these key Asset Classes.

Discretionary Portfolio Management

We have helped recruit and build all areas of the CIO, Research and Multi-Asset Functions. Recent work includes placing Chief Investment Officer, Head of Research, Head of DPM, Head of Multi-Asset, Chief Economist, Head of Equity Strategy and quant strategists.

A major recent focus has been the DPM function; where we have recently placed Global & Regional Heads of DPM, DPM Equities & Fixed Income and Bespoke & Standardised Mandates.

Multi-Asset Class Practitioners

Typically the IA/IC Function sits under either the Investment or Relationship Management P&L. The ratio of IAs/ICs supporting bankers varies from 1:1 to 1:8. As Private Banks continue to grow, so does the demand to hire top-notch multi-asset advisors & counsellors who can sell, advise and partner with both RMs and clients alike. We have done a tremendous amount of work in this space covering all market geographies.

In special instances, we have placed Investment Advisors as part of a Senior Client Partner Team or overall Team Migration.

Managed Solutions & Funds

We have successfully partnered with specialist firms, traditional asset managers and Private Banks to build their investment and distribution arms of the business: private equity, private debt and real estate. Recent work has included notable placements such as Head of Alternatives, Head of Managed Investments, Head of Funds, Head of Alternative Investment Sales & Distribution, Head of Private Equity and Head of Real Estate.

PE & VC Investors

As a trusted partner, we have helped our PE & VC clients secure the top 1% of the best players in the market. These practitioners have a unique mindset and consequently must be approached and courted in a sophisticated manner.

Recent work has included: Head of Private Banking & Wealth Solutions, Head of Alternative Asset Management and Head of Portfolio Management.

Family Office

As Singapore continues to focus its growth in the Family Office area, we have successfully placed multiple Heads of Investment, CIOs and Investment Analysts in this burgeoning space. We enjoy helping our clients set-up and further establish the investment arm of their operating business with great success. Many Family offices need guidance to truly understand the difference between an RM, IA, IC and Analyst and subsequently determine what is the most suitable profile for their business. Our role is to ascertain the correct profile for your business and to help you assess their credentials and commitment to your firm. We help our clients create competitive employment contracts, often with a floor and ceiling on performance-related bonuses.

We have worked closely with third-party law & accounting firms and Private Banks to develop this practice.

Fiduciary, Tax & Estate Planning

We have successfully helped create the organisational structure and built numerous Wealth Planning and Trust companies and teams, having placed numerous Heads of Wealth Planning and Trust. This work has also included placing legal, compliance, operational, sales & marketing and administrative practitioners over the past 15 years.

Markets, Investment & Product, CEO, COO and M&A Functions

As our clients have grown significantly in terms of their critical mass, as have the requirements to appoint strong business managers supporting each of the major functions.

We have helped our clients appoint business managers with varying specialities: sales & marketing, digital transformation, M&A and operational processes.

Scaling up through Digital Transformation

As our clients face critical tech and digitisation investment decisions to stay ahead of the pack; we have continually supported their hiring needs to further develop their infrastructure and platforms. We have helped our clients recruit onshore and offshore supporting their digital journey, looking at every aspect of their tech hiring needs from CLM/CRM solutions, data analytics and platform enhancement. This remains a cornerstone of our client’s hiring requirements.