City Moves: Who’s switching jobs in the Square Mile this week?
City A.M.’s Millie Turner provides a roundup of the most important hires and job moves across the City, every Wednesday afternoon. Email citymoves@cityam.com to be featured.
TopHat appoints former McLaren group boss as CFO
Goldman Sachs-backed housing company TopHat has bagged McLaren’s former boss as its new chief financial officer to join its King Cross offices.
Paul Buddin, who left the McLaren group in May, will lead on the housebuilder’s growth strategy as it looks to deliver some 3,500 factory-built houses and apartments a year by 2025.
Formerly the boss of luxury carmaker McLaren, Buddin was responsible for growing McLaren Automotive into the luxury automotive market, after being set up in 2010.
TopHat boss Jordan Rosenhaus said: “It brings me great pride to be able to bring someone of Paul’s calibre and capabilities to TopHat.”
“TopHat will benefit from Paul’s industry and commercial experience that will help us to continue revolutionising housing delivery across the UK.”
Backed by his experience at McLaren Automotive, Buddin will be responsible for securing funding for TopHat’s expansion plans – using artificial intelligence, and robotics to build homes.
“The company’s business model is more akin to manufacturing, rather than house building. Therefore, I plan to use my decade worth of experience in high-tech manufacturing to help the modular housing pioneer scale up rapidly,” Buddin said.
“If the government wants to achieve its climate reduction targets and investors want to meet new building regulations in such a short space of time, then factory-built housing has to be part of the solution.”
This latest appointment follows that of its new chief technology officer Matt Evans who joined the firm from Airbus.
Rathbones boosts stewardship team amid ESG-era
Investment management services firm Rathbones poached a new ESG analyst from HSBC this week who is set to join its London office.
Kazuki Shaw joins the firm from HSBC where he worked on a fixed-income and equity futures trading desk.
Prior to that, Shaw worked at fellow equity heavyweight Credit Suisse on its equity portfolio trading desk in Tokyo.
The latest incoming ESG analyst is set to support the wider team on its stewardship projects while scaling its engagement activities.
The appointment follows that of Andrea Marandino, who also joined Rathbones new ESG analyst position ahead of COP26.
Marandino joined the team from environment charity WWF UK where she was the sustainable finance and corporate risk manager.
While at WWF UK, Marandino engaged with banks and investors to improves their ESG policies, as well as encouraging asset owners and managers to disclose their potential climate risks.
Both Shaw and Marandino are due to report to stewardship director Matt Crossman.
“The need for engagement is likely to increase markedly as investors rightly demand deeper commitment from wealth managers and stronger, ongoing communication and monitoring of investee companies,” Crossman said.
Brewin Dolphin’s 1762 team hires wealth director
Wealth manager Brewin Dolphin has bolstered its St James’s 1762 team this week with a new wealth manager.
Don Percival joins Brewin’s growing ‘1762’ team which offers wealth advisory services and investment solutions for clients with “more complex” financial requirements.
As the fifth addition to the team within the last few months, Percival brings with him experience from his 30-year career focused on developing wealth management solutions for both UK clients and those across seas.
Commenting on his appointment, Percival said: “I am pleased to become part of a team whose competence in wealth advisory services ranging from close coordination around complex family law, non-dom planning and investing assets in accordance with Tier one visa rules, was a huge draw for me.”
With 23 years spent in private banking alone, Percival has knowledge across both client practice and management.
“We believe that his experience, focus and passion in managing the financial needs of private clients with an emphasis on exceptional service make him an ideal fit for the 1762 team,” 1762 operations director Nick Hammond said.
Across the pond: Goodwin hires remote-working partner
Law firm Goodwin has confirmed a new partner will be joining the firm’s German division in Munich.
Anke Johann is set to join the firm’s real estate finance practice from an in-house role at a German bank.
“As a widely respected and recognized authority on lending issues in the industry, Anke’s experience advising on sophisticated German and pan-European financings will be extremely valuable to our clients,” chair of Goodwin’s Frankfurt office, Stephan Kock, said.
Johann will bring a wealth of experience across banking law, with a special focus on real estate finance, financial restructuring, work-outs and banking supervisory law.
The latest appointment forms part of Goodwin’s plans to expand its operations across Germany.