SG Agenda

Rana Bhattacharjee is the Director and Senior Client Advisor at Alpha Quest Pte. Ltd., a licensed fund management company, regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, providing wealth and portfolio management services to its clients.

Rana has an extensive experience of over 20 years in the wealth management industry and worked for Private Banks including Fortis, Standard Chartered Private Bank and CIC Banque Privee before setting up Alpha Quest with his partners. He focuses on allocation across all traditional and alternative asset classes to achieve the portfolio goals for his clients.

He is a CAIA, CFP, CMT and CFTe charterholder and has an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta.

Chris is responsible for promoting the global Invesco ETF range to clients across Asia-Pacific. Chris previously worked for BlackRock as part of the APAC Portfolio Consulting team where he would construct multi-asset portfolios using a risk lens to meet client investment outcomes, predominantly using ETFs. Prior to this, Chris was part of the iShares ETF and Indexing product team based in Australia where he would develop and launch new, and maintain existing, ETFs. Chris holds a B.Sc. in Physics and a Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Statistics, both from Macquarie University, Sydney.

Kevin focuses on valuation anomalies and believes in detailed research and analysis and works with a group of like minded professionals within his investment ecosystem that lead up to investment decisions. Kevin was a volunteer with CFAS - UIRC, an advisor to CFA Institute China-India strategy team and was a Board Member of CFA Singapore and Secretary. Kevin has spoken for CFAI across the region (Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Singapore, Manila, Bangkok, HCMC, Hanoi) and has conducted lectures in Beijing Normal University, Zhongshan University-Lingnan College, National University of Singapore, HKUSpace and the Wealth Management Institute. Kevin is also a member of the Monetary Authority of Singapore - Commercial Affairs Department Panel of Experts on Securities Offenses and also serves as a senior advisor to GoDigitalediaGroup (a leading media company focused on intellectual property rights management. GDMG is transforming how music networks and brands, senior advisor to AlteredVerse (a Geo spatial spinoff building digital twins in the Metaverse), CIO to Smobler Labs (an Animoca and The Facebook investee company, focused on the Metaverse - builds, GameFi and Phygital), and founder of Being Human Capital.

Kevin brings with him more than 30 years of investment experience and was the Head of Greater China Property Research with Yuanta Securities (Hong Kong) with responsibilities ranging from research coverage and analysis, marketing, assisting in primary and secondary equity issues, PE and funds. Prior to Yuanta, Kevin was the SVP with Pacific Star Financial (a subsidiary of Pacific Star Group) and was engaged in fund creation, structuring, documentation, marketing, fund raising and investment. Kevin was also the Chief Operating Officer of CITIC Securities (formerly known as CITIC Frontier China Research), Managing Director of Matrix Venture Capital, Director of Matrix Venture Catalyst, Director of Kleinwort Benson Securities Asia, Head of Regional Property and Singapore Country research. Prior to his senior management appointments, Kevin was a regional special situations analyst with Barclays de Zoette Wedd, a quantitative analyst with BZW Australia (both part of Credit Suisse), Assistant Manager (FX) with Chase Manhattan Bank Singapore and a Japanese equity salesman with Nikko Merchant Bank Singapore.

Kevin graduated with an MBA from New York Stern School of Business/Australian Graduate School of Management in 1992 and a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil, Hon's) from the University of Melbourne in 1986. Kevin was awarded the Australian Post Graduate Scholarship Award and an AGSM scholarship and was conferred the Chartered Financial Analyst charter in 1992.

Gareth Nicholson joined Nomura in July 2021 as Chief Investment Officer and Head of Discretionary Portfolio Management for International Wealth Management. He is based in Singapore.

Gareth works closely with Nomura’s Global Markets and Investment Banking businesses to expand the firm’s product offerings and spearhead a streamlined, solutions-driven coverage effort for high-net-worth clients, external asset managers and family offices. With a strong institutional investment background, he creates and manages DPM strategies for fixed income, equity and multi-asset portfolios, while providing risk management support.

Gareth has over 16 years of experience in financial markets. Prior to Nomura, he was Head of Fixed Income DPM at Bank of Singapore, where he was also a member of its investment committee. Before that, he was with Aberdeen Standard Investments for almost 10 years as a fixed income trader and an Asian credit portfolio manager. He began working in finance in 2004 as a derivatives specialist with Deutsche Asset Management after an early career as a mathematics teacher.

Gareth holds a BSc in Financial Mathematics from the University of Johannesburg. He was born and raised in East London, South Africa.

Mr Persaud is Head of Investment Strategy and Solutions for the AIA Group where he is responsible for Strategic and Tactical Asset Allocation, Derivative Strategies, Private Market Strategy, New Investment Product Development, Portfolio Construction Oversight and Quantitative Investments. Prior to joining AIA, Trevor worked with a number of large insurers, asset managers and other asset owners in the region as an independent consultant. He left Standard Chartered Bank at the end of 2017, where he was responsible for their Commercial and Institutional Banking business (Financial Markets, Transaction Banking and Corporate Finance) for Insurers across Asia. Mr Persaud is a trusted investment advisor to many of the leading Insurers and Asset Owners in the region and has a distinguished 28 year career spanning Banking, Asset Management, Insurance and Consulting globally with the last 14 years in Asia. Prior to Standard Chartered, Mr Persaud held senior investment roles at Stradegi (a specialist investment consultancy), Russell Investments (leading their business in ASEAN, HK and Taiwan, focused on multi asset outcome oriented investments, strategic and tactical asset allocation and investment governance advisory for asset owners and in particular insurance companies), Prudential, Insight and Schroders (where he had been responsible for their Investment Risk and Performance Globally) and MSCI. Mr Persaud is a Chartered Management Accountant, has been conferred the Distinguished Fellow designation by the Institute of Banking and Finance in Singapore and is a past Chair of the Global Investment Performance Standards Executive committee. He is also an advisor to the Investment Management Association of Singapore and Chair of their Risk and Performance committee and is actively involved in industry efforts to promote and further innovation, best practice and transparency in Investment management.