Global Private Banking Awards 2025: Meet the judges

Gerard Aquilina,
Founder, AquilinaAdvisory
Based in Athens, Greece

Yuri Bender,
Editor-in-Chief, Professional Wealth Management
Based in London, UK

Yuri Bender is a journalist covering banking, asset management and capital markets. He has launched and edited several magazines and websites at the Financial Times group and is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Professional Wealth Management global magazine, website and events hub.

He moderates panel discussions on financial, business and cultural issues in Europe, the US, Middle East and Asia. He has reported from Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine for the FT Wealth magazine and writes regularly for FTfm, the fund management section of the FT newspaper. He studied Investment Management at the London Business School and International Relations at Cambridge University, writing his thesis on the economics of armed conflict.

William Chow
Deputy Group CEO, Raffles Family Office

William is deputy group CEO at Raffles Family Office (RFO), a pan-Asian financial advisory firm focused on addressing the wealth growth and preservation needs of ultra-high net worth individuals. He is based at RFO’s headquarters in Hong Kong and tasked with ensuring the multi-family office continues capitalising on rising demand for independent wealth management services in Asia and beyond.

William was also appointed to RFO’s board of management and investment committee, to which his wide-ranging experience will be key to informing the company’s future development and service expansion plans.

He joined Raffles Family Office from China Life Franklin Asset Management, where he was deputy CEO and helped oversee the company’s $35bn in assets under management. He also chaired its risk management committee and was a member of its investment committee and board of management.

Prior to this, William was a group managing director at Value Partners Group, one of Asia’s largest asset managers and the first to be listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Whist there, he headed the firm’s ETF and quantitative investment businesses. He was also a member of its executive committee.

William additionally brings an extensive portfolio management background with him comprised of senior roles at UBS, BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors, where he oversaw the tracker fund of Hong Kong, among others. He holds a Master’s degree in science in operational research from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Bachelor’s degree in engineering (Hons) in civil engineering from University College London in the UK.

Kim Cornwall,
Founder and CEO, Cornwall and Co Consulting Ltd
Based in London, UK

Kim is the founder and CEO of Cornwall and Co Consulting Ltd, which provides learning and development training to banks and financial institutions in Europe and the Middle East. The focus is on private banking, motivational speaking and project management. Clients include SG Hambros London, Gulf Bank Kuwait, Markaz Kuwait, Boubyan Bank Kuwait and the Kuwait Institute of Banking Studies.

He is also advising non-UK citizens on the holding of UK real estate.

With 36 years’ experience in private banking, with a strong leadership and management track record, Kim retired from SG Hambros Bank in November 2013 after 10 years covering the Middle East and Europe.

He developed the Middle East private banking business in particular by using valuable contacts acquired by living and working in the area from 1977 to 1984 as a financial consultant. He opened up new markets in Kuwait, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, gathered more than $700m of new assets, and helped integrated the purchase of ABN Private Banking and Barings Asset Management

From 1984 to 2002, as a vice president at Merrill Lynch Private Banking in London, Kim acquired and serviced a broad base of UK and European clients.

Kim became one of the first persons in the UK to become fully RDR compliant and then guided and mentored others to achieve this necessary and important qualification. Kim holds a law degree from Queens’ College Cambridge, passed Bar Exams and became a barrister at the Inner Temple.

Nicole Curti,
CEO, Capital Y
Based in Geneva, Switzerland

Nicole has successfully navigated her career on top of wealth management firms in a predominantly male environment of finance. She is CEO of Capital Y, an independent wealth manager in Switzerland. In addition to her executive role, Nicole  gives her time and expertise to various corporate or community boards: she is president of the Alliance of Wealth Managers and a board member of a Private Bank and Swiss Athletics.

In 2015 and 2021 she was elected ‘Powerwoman’ by Citywealth (in the category Leadership, Mentor & Business Growth).

Nicole has a BA in Political Science from Université de Lausanne and an MBA from ESADE (Barcelona).

Anant Deboor,
Head of strategy, VML Hong Kong
Based in Hong Kong

Anant is a Hong Kong-based strategic marketer with over 25 years’ experience combining client-side brand development and consulting with agency-side roles in both Asia-Pacific and global capacities.

As head of strategy at VML Hong Kong today, he has been helping develop HSBC’s brand and marketing strategies across product lines, in particular HSBC Global Private Banking as well as their ESG/sustainability propositions…both in Asia as well as globally. He specialises in marketing to the high net worth and premium B2B, having worked with luxury labels as well as financial brands, professional services and private equity. Over his career, he has worked extensively with high-end B2C brands such as Rolex, KEF, BMW and Ducati – and professional services businesses such as Allen & Gledhill and Deloitte.

He has also written and commented often on the importance of strategic brand development across banking, luxury and city branding.

Seb Dovey,
Independent wealth management consultant,
Based in London, UK

Seb has 25 years of experience in the commercial evolution of global private banking and wealth management. He is an independent advisor to various businesses and families across the globe alongside being an early stage investor. He is chairman of F2 Strategy in San Francisco and a non-executive director of FiComm in Los Angeles, Entrepreneurs Investment Office in Dubai and Milamber PLC in London.

He is also on the advisory board, specialising in data insight and consumer marketing for Moneyhub, Silver Lane and Align17. In addition to this, Seb has since 2018 been on the board of the London School of Economics Generate program for Entrepreneurship as well as thought leader in residence for Fitch Learning, while he continues to be a judge on various global wealth industry award programs for publishers including the Financial Times Professional Wealth Management Global Private Banking Awards and Wealth Tech awards.

Seb was co-founder of Scorpio Partnership, a multiple award winning global wealth management strategic insight consultancy, which was acquired by Aon PLC in 2014. His body of work was recognised by the industry in 2018 with the award of Industry Thought Leader (Wealth Briefing).

Elizabeth Hart,
CEO and Founder, Legacy Wealth Advisors Pte Ltd

Elizabeth has dedicated her entire career, of over 35 years, to advising private clients and provides holistic advice on wealth preservation, succession planning and family wellness.

Elizabeth is the CEO and founder of Legacy Wealth Advisors Pte Ltd which provides independent succession planning and investment services to support families to preserve wealth and ensure a smooth transition of wealth.

Elizabeth is also managing director of The Life Academy Pte Ltd, which provides bespoke family wellness programmes and empowerment coaching to support individuals and families to live with purpose and fulfilment, to ensure harmony through generations and to prepare the next generation for being future wealth owners.

Elizabeth is an independent non-executive director of British & Malayan Holdings Ltd, an SGX listed company established since 1924 and a pioneering member of the Singapore Stock Exchange. Elizabeth chairs the nominating committee and is a member of the audit risk committee and remuneration committee.

She is an ambassador for WealthiHer and Ladies Finance Club.

Previously, Elizabeth has held senior managerial positions including managing director, head of south-east Asia, Rothschild Wealth Management and director, Rothschild Trust until 2016. During her 12-year tenure, Elizabeth was responsible for establishing Rothschild Wealth Management in south-east Asia and was a pioneering director of Rothschild Trust in Singapore.

Elizabeth has been advising families in Asia and Australia for more than 25 years.

Kian Leong,
Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Based in Singapore

Kian Leong is a Partner with the Financial Services Assurance (FSA) with PwC Singapore with more than 16 years of professional experience (including three years in the UK), during which he has serviced a wide range of financial institutions.

Kian is also responsible for driving the private banking industry within FSA. This involves advising clients of the regulatory expectations (AML/KYC, sales suitability, conduct etc) and having the read across of the industry in benchmarking of best practices.

In addition, he has also been involved in various advisory engagements. He spent six months on a client secondment to a prominent Japanese bank assisting in the integration of Middle/Back Office functions following its acquisition of European business of an US investment bank to operationally align and improve the processes for the transition. In addition, he was involved in advising the control environment of a leading European bank specifically in their shared services centres. More recently, Kian Leong led several financial due diligence engagements advising both the buy-and sell-side including assessment of regulatory conditions in certain specific territories including private banks.

Outside of PwC, Kian is an active grassroot volunteer and a mentor to the accountancy students in Singapore Institute of Technology. He is a certified Financial Risk Manager, a Chartered Accountant with Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants and member of Association of Certified Anti-money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS).

Doris Meister
Financial services CEO, Wilmington Trust

Doris is a financial services CEO with expertise in strategy, business transformation, finance, and governance. She has a proven track record of creating and transforming businesses, building high-performing teams, and driving profitable growth.

Most recently, Doris served as chairman and CEO of Wilmington Trust, where she led a transformation of the wealth and investment business, including strategy development, a significant culture shift, a new go to market operating model, and the modernisation of operations and technology.

She has been included in the top 10 women in wealth management by Barron’s and was selected as one of the top 25 women in finance by American Banker.

Sharmil Patwa,
Founder, Opus Una Financial Services Consulting
Based in London

Sharmil is the founder and Managing Director of Opus Una, a consultancy founded in 2011, to help participants in the Wealth Management ecosystem build better products & services and scale their businesses. Clients range from Early Stage WealthTechs to Tier 1 Wealth Managers.

Previously, Sharmil held senior roles at Barclays Wealth and Deutsche Bank. He started his career at Accenture where he consulted across equities, fixed income, FX and money markets businesses.

He is a highly active mentor and investor in the fintech space and is particularly passionate about supporting early stage companies. He is a strategic advisor to a number of WealthTechs around the world and on the Advisory Board of The Wealth Mosaic. Sharmil has an MBA from Imperial College Business School.

Shelby du Pasquier,
Partner, Head of Banking and Finance Group, Lenz & Staehelin,
Based in Geneva, Switzerland

Shelby R du Pasquier is a partner at Lenz & Staehelin where he is the head of the banking and finance group in Geneva. In this context, he advises Swiss and international financial institutions in all banking matters with a focus on regulatory issues and internal investigations. Mr du Pasquier is a frequent speaker at professional conferences. His publications include a number of contributions and articles on banking law and financial services, hedge funds and private equity. He has served as vice chair (2001-2005) on the IBA sub-committee I1 (private funds) and as expert on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

He is regularly distinguished by a number of nominations in professional directories, including Chambers, Who's Who Legal and IFLR in banking, capital markets and investment funds. He is a board member of the Swiss National Bank.

Mr du Pasquier has been a partner at Lenz & Staehelin since 1994. He completed both a business degree and a law degree at Geneva University in 1983. He also obtained an LLM from Columbia University School of Law in 1988. He speaks English, French, German and Spanish.

Alois Pirker,
Founder and CEO, Pirker Partners
Based in Boston, US

Alois Pirker is the founder and CEO of Pirker Partners. During Alois’s 25-year tenure in the wealth management industry, he had the opportunity to collaborate, discuss industry trends, and provide advice to many of the leading wealth management firms and financial-technology companies around the globe.

He is a recognised expert on the wealth management market and its structure, as well as many important trends that shape this industry, including financial-advisor processes and platforms, digital transformation in wealth management, the independent advisor market, and portfolio management processes (including separately managed accounts and direct indexing) to name a few.

Before starting his own firm in January 2023, Alois built and led Aite-Novarica Group’s market-leading wealth management research practice over 16.5 years. Prior to entering the market research world, he was an associate director of investment solutions at UBS Wealth Management in London and a data architect within UBS’s enterprise data warehouse program in Switzerland. While at UBS, Alois also completed the private banking diploma, UBS’s training program for financial advisors.

Amin Rajan,
CEO, Create-Research,
Based in London, UK

Amin Rajan is the Chief Executive of the Centre for Research in Employment and Technology in Europe (CREATE) – a pan-European network of prominent researchers undertaking high level advisory assignments for the UK Government, City institutions, multinational companies and international bodies such as the EU, OECD and ILO.

He has also acted as a senior consultant to companies such as ABN-AMRO, Aegon Group, Barclays, BP, BT, Citigroup, Corning, Deutsche Bank, EDS, Fiat, Ford, GSK, HSBC, IBM, ICI, ICL, KPMG Legal & General plc, Lloyds TSB, Merrill Lynch Investment Management, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Motorola, Proctor & Gamble, Prudential, Rolls Royce, Royal Bank of Scotland, Royal SunAlliance, Shell, and UBS.

As well as appearing on radio and television regularly, he contributes feature articles to The Financial Times, Global Investor, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, and The London Evening Standard. He has published numerous books and articles on leadership, business cultures, socio-economic forecasting, globalisation, new technologies, diversity and new business models.

He has presented the results of his work at over 100 major events in the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific in the last five years. His expertise covers, amongst others, leadership and new business models in financial services. He is the author of 11 best selling research reports. He is a visiting professor at the Cass Business School, London Metropolitan University, Centre for Leadership Studies at Exeter University, President of the Scientific Committee at Audencia - Nantes Ecole de Management in France, and on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Asia-Pacific Business.

In 1998 he was awarded the Aspen Institute's Prize in leadership. It is a subject on which he has done extensive research involving some of today's outstanding business leaders. In two resulting publications, he has developed a close link between leadership, strategy and the emerging business models. His work has proved so influential that he now provides leadership coaching to Chief Executives, executive committees and investment specialists in different companies.

João Miguel Rodrigues,
Principal, Financial Services, Private Capital, Oliver Wyman
based in Berlin Germany

João is a Principal in Oliver Wyman’s Berlin office. During his time at Oliver Wyman, he has worked on a diverse range of topics involving growth strategy, commercial effectiveness, M&A, and due diligences in the Wealth Management industry for clients across Europe, Asia, as well as North and Latin America.

Prior to joining Oliver Wyman, João worked as an M&A banker for an investment bank in Frankfurt. He holds a Master of Science in Finance & Economics from WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management and has also studied Finance, Economics & Public Policy at Sciences Po in Paris, as well as the PUC Rio de Janeiro. He is fluent in German, Portuguese, and English.

Malik S. Sarwar,
Senior Partner, Managing Director, Wealth Management, Global Leader Group, US
Based in New York, US

Malik has operated at the leading edge of the global wealth management industry for more than 30 years across the US, Asia, and MENA. He has led wealth management organisations to market-leading positions by helping their clients achieve their life goals and dreams. He deploys a genuinely passionate style based on his “war stories”, motivating leaders and frontline staff to become exceptional professionals and deliver an engaging client experience.

Malik is a noted speaker/panelist and chair at industry events on: wealth management best practices, including digital innovations and exceptional client experience; mega-trends like women’s empowerment, gen. wealth transfer; primary advisors and excellence in leadership.

As global head of sales management/wealth development at HSBC, Malik renewed the company’s wealth management business in 12 markets through a digital transformation program centred on client journeys that resulted in double-digit growth of client assets. Prior to that, he launched the wealth management proposition at ADIB. He has also served as a senior executive at Permal, Merrill Lynch, and Citi. During his seven years at Citi, he was the president of Citicorp Investment Services (US) and head of wealth management (Asia), growing their market share and profitability.

Out of his passion for moral leadership, he joined his current firm as a senior partner. He also serves as a senior advisor to Singapore Consultancy and is the co-author of “Mechanics of Wealth Management”, a post-graduate certificate programme with Informa/Middlesex University, UK.

Malik is an advisor to Acumen and active with Developments in Literacy, that provides education to underprivileged girls in Pakistan. Malik, Najmi, their two daughters, and two sons are avid hikers and scuba divers.

Matthias Schulthess,
Managing Partner, Schulthess Zimmermann & Jauch
Based in London, UK

Matthias Schulthess focuses on board and senior appointments in financial services. He regularly advises global asset and wealth managers, insurance companies and investment and corporate banks on creating more diverse leadership teams at the top. He has been responsible for some of the most senior appointments in the global investment management industry and has extensive experience in leading searches across a multitude of functional disciplines, including chief financial officers, chief risk officers, chief operating officers, heads of human resources and general counsels. Matthias and the firm’s board practice are also engaged in succession planning, conducting board reviews and searches for non-executive directors.

Matthias previously held senior roles working in investment and wealth management as well as in capital markets.

Matthias holds an MBA from London Business School and he is a CFA charterholder. He completed the executive program Promoting Racial Equity in the Workplace at Harvard Kennedy School.

Ezra Sofer
Partner, Family Office Division, Stonehage Fleming

Ezra is a partner in Stonehage Fleming’s family office division. He is a senior member of the team, acting as key adviser to a number of high net worth families around the globe, assisting them in managing their worldwide affairs and controlling their risk.  He works closely with Stonehage Fleming Investment Management and is a former chairman of the Stonehage investment advisory committee.

Prior to joining the group in 2000, Ezra was a senior private banker at the London branch of Republic National Bank of New York (later HSBC Republic). He attained a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree from Kingston University.

Ray Soudah,
Founder, MilleniumAssociates
Based in Switzerland

Ray Soudah is the founding partner and chairman of MilleniumAssociates, the independent international M&A and Corporate Finance Advisory firm, based in Switzerland and the UK. Founded in 2000, MilleniumAssociates specialises in M&A and advisory services for the global financial services industry with particular focus on the global wealth and asset management sectors. As founding partner and chairman Ray takes a strategic advisory role, supporting the operational team and developing MilleniumAssociates' broad network of senior contacts with financial services companies, investors, institutions and sovereign funds globally.

Ray has enjoyed a long and varied career in the global financial services arena working in territories as diverse as the US, Asia, Middle East and Europe. Prior to forming MilleniumAssociates Ray was Managing Director and member of the Private Banking Management Board for SBC/UBS AG where he created and led the global corporate strategic acquisition and development team in asset/wealth management and private banking.

Earlier positions include; Chief Investment Officer, Chief Financial Officer and member of the Executive Board of Cedel Bank (renamed Clearstream); Chief Investment Officer for the National Bank of Bahrain including Head of International Banking and Private Banking; CEO of Hong Kong, CEO of Japan, Head of Global Capital Markets office (London) and head of FIG for Midland Montagu Investment Banking and MD/CEO of Midland Montagu Securities as well as various senior positions within Citigroup, including Head of Asia Pacific Treasury and Capital Markets.

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 and speaks English, French, Greek and Japanese.

Sally Tennant,
Founder, Acorn Capital Advisers
Based in London, UK

Sally is the founder of Acorn Capital Advisers. She is an independent adviser to ultra-high net worth individuals, families and their trustees.

Acorn Capital Advisers is an experienced wealth management and family office practitioner which empathises with the complexities of multigenerational wealth. It provides support across vision, strategy, investments, philanthropy, structures, multigenerational wealth and governance as a family office adviser as well as acting as an outsourced family office to a select group of clients.

She has many years of investment, banking and management experience as an investment manager and chief executive. From 2011 to 2014 Sally was CEO of Kleinwort Benson. She was previously chief executive of Lombard Odier (UK) Ltd and chief executive of Schroders Private Banking.

She is a director of B-FLEXION Group Holdings SA and on the board of Younited Financial SA, a leading European consumer credit business. She also sits on the investment committees and boards for a number of Acorn’s clients.

Sally is a trustee, vice-chair and chairs the investment committee for the Royal Academy Trust and is a patron of Tommy’s, the Baby Charity.

She holds a degree in politics from the University of Durham.

Charlotte Thorne,
Co-founder Capital Generation Partners
Based in London, UK

Charlotte has been helping wealthy individuals navigate the financial services industry for over 20 years. In co-founding Capital Generation Partners (CapGen) in 2007, she helped build a firm that is unique in the marketplace; exclusively serving UHNW families to create unique and sophisticated investment solutions across portfolio management, commercial real estate and direct investments. In both launching CapGen and working side-by-side with clients, Charlotte has become a driving force in the industry, helping families get more out of their investment managers, and in turn, helping the investment industry better understand and adapt to the needs of family investors.

Charlotte heads the firm’s risk committee and also launched CapGen’s responsible capital programme; an initiative designed to help the firm and its clients actively meet the environmental and social challenges the world faces today. Charlotte began her career at HM Treasury where she advised both Conservative and Labour ministers on a range of policies including corporation tax and pensions. She also spent a year in Brussels working as a diplomat in the UK’s embassy to the European Commission and worked in policy at the then FSA. She has a degree in PPE from Oxford University.

Vineet K Vohra,
Managing Partner, Leader Circuit
Based in Singapore

Vineet is a senior wealth management professional with nearly 30 years in banking, wealth, asset management and consulting across Asia, including 25 years with firms including Citi, ING, ANZ and HSBC.

Presently, he is a managing partner at Leader Circuit in Singapore, providing search, learning and consulting services to the industry in Asia. His focus is on helping businesses boost their talent base, lift productivity, improve market standing and drive a path to sustainable growth.

At Leader Circuit, he works on search, learning and consulting solutions for financial institutions in consumer banking, wealth management, private banking, corporate and investment banking, public/private asset management, fintech and insurance. He also provides search services to clients in the professional services domain with an emphasis on corporate finance and structured capital solutions, and to clients in the consumer products space across food and beverage, retail and e-commerce.

With a CFA charter, and degrees in engineering and business management from India, he has been based in Singapore since the mid-90s.

Cara Williams,
Senior Partner, Global Head of ESG, Climate and Sustainability, Wealth Management and Multinational Client Lead for Wealth, Mercer
Based in London, UK

Cara Williams, Senior Partner, is ESG Strategy Leader for Mercer. Located in London, Cara leads the programme of work to articulate and amplify Mercer’s ESG value proposition and positioning, embed sustainability in the journey to a bright future, and drive highly-practical, relevant and value-added outcomes both internally and externally.

Cara oversees the Mercer’s Private Wealth businesses in Canada and India, and also works with Mercer’s multinational clients to deliver the best of Mercer’s broad Wealth solutions to assure positive financial outcomes for organizations and their employees. Cara presents regularly on global ESG, sustainability, diversity and investment trends. With over 25 years of experience in the investment industry, Cara began at Mercer’s investment consulting business as Global COO in April 2005.

Cara began her career in finance as a financial advisor with Merrill Lynch in New York. Prior to working in the investment industry, she was responsible for budgets and logistics for US Army and NATO MWR deployments. Cara is an active mentor for external programmes and internal colleagues supporting and promoting women and people of colour in their careers. She is member of the Board of Directors of The German School of London. Cara graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with a BA, and from The University of Hartford with an MBA in Finance.

Ian Woodhouse,
Board and executive adviser to wealth managers and technology firms
Based in London, UK

Ian is a strategic board adviser and consultant to wealth managers, asset managers, family offices, software firms and fintechs. He provides tangible value through helping executives to guide, shape, achieve consensus and prioritise their agenda to meet industry opportunities and challenges by adapting to firm specific circumstances which may include the need to re-focus strategic direction, meet new client expectations, enhance business development and evolve their technology. He highlights where and how further potential may be realised by meeting emerging good practices to be future ready and well positioned to optimise growth, resilience and performance in the next wave of industry and competitive disruption.

Combining distinctive experience of working with top tier international business consulting and technology integration firms and their financial services clients in Europe and Asia, with his board and governance
experience, an extensive network and, as a conference speaker and published author, he supports boards and executives in a collaborative way. He provides awareness, engagement, insights and guidance to help achieve a shared focus and prioritisation through analysis to identify, validate and design actionable steps to close any key missing capability gaps needed for future success.

Previously, Ian held senior roles with IBM, EY, PwC and Orbium, a privately held business consultancy and core banking platform implementor, sold to Accenture. After integration, he took a wider European wealth industry business and technology transformation role supporting key wealth accounts within Accenture until 2023, when he became a strategic board adviser and consultant to a selected portfolio of firms.