Yuri Bender is a financial journalist focusing on private banking, international asset management and capital markets. He has edited and launched a variety of titles at the Financial Times group and is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Professional Wealth Management pan-European and Asian magazine, website and events hub.

Mr Bender has promoted and led debate on how private banks and asset management groups must match customer needs. He moderates panels on financial, business and cultural issues in Europe, the US and Asia, has reported from developing markets including Indonesia, China, Russia and Ukraine and writes a regular column for FTfm, the fund management section of the FT newspaper. He studied Investment Management at the London Business School.

Michael Blake was appointed as General Manager for Asia, and as a member of the General Management Committee, in October 2012. In this capacity, Mr Blake chairs the Asia Management Committee, oversees all functions in the region and acts as the senior regional representative with regulators and government authorities. He joined Coutts in January 2011 as the Wealth division’s Chief of Staff. He has over a decade’s experience in Asia, having previously lived in Hong Kong and Beijing, where he studied Mandarin. He also studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University.

James Cheo is an Investment Strategist at HSBC Private Bank, Asia. He has nearly a decade of experience in macroeconomic research and investment strategy. At HSBC, Mr Cheo is responsible for providing investment strategy and generating tactical and thematic investment ideas across asset classes. He is also a keynote speaker for HSBC Private Bank's Investment Outlooks across Asian cities. He contributes investment views frequently to the international media.

Prior to joining HSBC, Mr Cheo worked as a senior economist for the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). During this time, he conducted in-depth macroeconomic research and was involved in formulating economic and monetary policies. Mr Cheo co-authored the MAS' Financial Stability Review. He graduated with First Class Honours in Finance from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Chartered Holder.

Anant Deboor joined The Partners in 2011 to launch the office in Singapore. Mr Deboor brings over 20 years’ experience of working as part of fully integrated brand teams for clients including HSBC, Unilever, Rolex, Ducati and Colgate-Palmolive. Since the launch, he has taken the lead on developing The Partners’ client relationships in the Asia-Pacific region. This includes working on a variety of projects including AirAsia, Tune Hotels, and Caterham Cars. A brand communication specialist, Mr Deboor was previously regional head of strategy at both JWT and Young & Rubicam, working with clients across Asia and Australia.

Peter Flavel is Chief Executive Officer of J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Management in Asia. He is responsible for overseeing and expanding the high-net-worth business and client base in the region. Mr Flavel joined J.P. Morgan in 2011 with over 20 years of deep regional experience in financial services across Asia Pacific. In 2006 he led the establishment of Standard Chartered’s Global Private Bank. In the three years since the launch it grew to over 1700 employees and $50bn of assets under management across 30 locations globally including India, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, London and Korea.

Mr Flavel joined Standard Chartered in 2002 from National Australia Bank where he was General Manager of Personal Financial Services responsible for over 9,000 staff across the retail, mass affluent (premium) and private bank client segments. He was also an executive director of MLC Ltd, the bank’s wealth management subsidiary and led in 2000 the bank’s AUD$4.6bn acquisition of MLC, then Australia’s second largest fund manager.

Mr Flavel holds an LLB in Law and a Bachelor of Economics from Adelaide and Melbourne Universities and initially practiced for several years as a commercial litigation lawyer in Australia. He attended the Advanced Management Programme (AMP) at both Harvard Business School and the University of Oxford. He sits on the Private Bank Industry Group set up to help advise the Monetary Authority of Singapore on industry matters and within that Group chairs a subcommittee overseeing the implementation of the new mandatory continuing professional development (CPD) standards.

Teresa Kong is a Portfolio Manager at Matthews Asia and manages the firm’s Asia Strategic Income strategy. Prior to joining Matthews in 2010, Ms Kong was Head of Emerging Market Investments at Barclays Global Investors, now known as BlackRock, and responsible for managing the firm’s investment strategies in Emerging Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America. She developed and managed strategies spanning absolute return, active long-only and exchange-traded funds. In addition to founding the Fixed Income Emerging Markets Group at BlackRock, she was also Senior Portfolio Manager and Credit Strategist on the Fixed Income credit team. Previously, Ms Kong was a Senior Securities Analyst in the High Yield Group with Oppenheimer Funds, and began her career with JP Morgan Securities Inc., where she worked in the Structured Products Group and Latin America Capital Markets Group. She received both a BA in Economics and Political Science and an MA in International Development Policies from Stanford University. She speaks Cantonese fluently and is conversational in Mandarin.

Rajesh Malkani was appointed Head of Private Banking, East, in October 2010. Based in Singapore, Mr Malkani has responsibility for the Private Bank’s operations in South East and North East Asia. Prior to this appointment, he was Head of Private Banking, Singapore and South East Asia, where he had a strategic oversight of sales, business and franchise development and operations in the region. Prior to Standard Chartered Bank, he was Head of Marketing, Southeast Asia for BNP Paribas Private Bank, and held senior positions at UBS in Hong Kong. He started his career with ANZ Grindlays Bank in India, in 1987 as a Management Trainee, after completing his Masters of Business Administration.

Sam Manchanda has been based in Singapore since the first quarter of 2013, where he is now responsible for the distribution of DeAWM's Passive Asset Management products and client solutions for South East Asia. The team covers ETFs, Systematic Funds as well as 'smart-beta' and bespoke client mandates.

Mr Manchanda relocated to Singapore from London where he previously undertook the same role covering Institutional clients in UK and Ireland. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank he spent five years at Lehman Brothers which he joined as a graduate and ended his time there as part of Lehman's multi asset solution desks. He has an undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Bristol University and a Masters in International Management from Exeter University.

Toby Pittaway is a Partner at Oliver Wyman based in Singapore. He heads the Wealth and Wholesale Banking practices in Asia. During his long tenure at Oliver Wyman he has worked globally with numerous wholesale banks, wealth managers and market infrastructure providers across a range of strategic topics. Examples of the areas of work were he has supported leaders in the Wealth space include: new Asian market entry strategies; sales force and performance reward effectiveness; investment process and proposition improvement; enterprise and reputational risk control; liquidity gathering strategies; and M&A advisory and due diligence. Prior to joining Oliver Wyman in 2000, Mr Pittaway worked at JP Morgan. He received a 1st class degree in Economics and Political Philosophy from Exeter in the UK. He became a CFA Charter holder in 2003.

David Poh joined Societe Generale Private Banking (Asia Pacific) in 2011 as the Regional Head of Asset Allocation. In June 2012, he was promoted to Regional Head – Portfolio Management Solutions to manage a team of investment councillors and to deliver tailor-made investment strategies for clients’ portfolios.

With more than 18 years of experience in the financial industry, Mr Poh is also designated as the Regional Head of Discretionary Portfolio Management, and he oversees a team of portfolio managers responsible for managing assets on behalf of clients in Societe Generale Private Banking. Prior to joining the private bank, he worked at Bank of Singapore as Head of Equities, and before that was the deputy CIO in Credit Suisse Asset Management, where he managed multi assets across various geographies.

Mr Poh holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the Nanyang Business School in Singapore, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Chew Soon Gek is Head of Asset Allocation Advisory Asia Pacific for Private Banking and Wealth Management at Credit Suisse, based in Singapore. In this role, Mrs Chew is responsible for leading the asset allocation advisory business in Asia Pacific, and delivering asset allocation advisory services to UHNWI, Family Office and institutional clients.

Mrs Chew has 25 years of investment experience in strategy, money management and investment advisory. She joined the Credit Suisse Group in 2009 where she was Head of Portfolio Management and Investment Strategy Asia at Clariden Leu. Prior to that, she was Chief Investment Officer of Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management Asia Pacific from 2007-09 and Chief Investment Officer of ING Asia Private Bank from 2000-07. Before working in the private banking industry, Mrs Chew held senior roles in institutional fund management at DBS Asset Management and Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, where she was fund manager and senior economist.

Su Shan Tan joined DBS in June 2010 as Managing Director and Group Head of Wealth Management. She was promoted to Group Head, Consumer Banking and Wealth Management in April 2013.

Prior to joining DBS, Ms Tan was Morgan Stanley’s Head of Private Wealth Management for Southeast Asia. Before re-joining Morgan Stanley in May 2008, she was a Region Head for Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei for Citi Private Bank. She was responsible for the private bank’s overall business and was a board director of Citi Trust Singapore. She was also the Singapore Investment Centre Head. Prior to that, she was an Executive Director with Morgan Stanley in Singapore, serving from 1997 to 2005 as an investment adviser to high net worth families, corporates and institutions in the region. Before joining Morgan Stanley, she spent eight years in ING Baring Securities in institutional equity sales, working in key financial hubs in London, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Ms Tan is currently a Nominated Member of Parliament in Singapore. She was the founder and past president of the Financial Women’s Association in Singapore, and a board member of Aetos Security Management, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings. She also sits on the investment committee of Ministry of Health Holdings. In addition, she is a member of the Monetary Authority of Singapore Private Banking Advisory Group.

Ms Tan graduated with a Master of Arts from Oxford University in the United Kingdom, where she studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics.

Based in Hong Kong, John Woods leads Citi Investment Management’s (CIM) Asian Fixed Income investment strategies and manages client assets on a segregated account basis. Prior to joining CIM, he worked as Citi Private Bank’s Chief Investment Strategist, Asia Pacific.

Mr Woods has over 25 years of investment management experience in Asian fixed income and currency markets, with special focus on portfolio management, trading and research. Among his previous roles, he was HSBC’s Head of Absolute Return Proprietary Trading and Global Head of Credit Research and Strategy. During his tenure at HSBC, he was voted as Asia Pacific’s highest ranked fixed income strategist by Institutional Investor, Greenwich Surveys, FinanceAsia, and The Asset Magazine. He was also a partner and senior portfolio manager trading Asian fixed income at Lincoln Vale and at RAB Capital.

Mr Woods started his career at the UK-based credit rating agency Dun and Bradstreet, firstly as an analyst covering Asia Pacific, and later as head of the sovereign ratings desk. He received his MA in Area Studies (Asia Pacific) from The School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK.