Wanted: C-suite and specialist talents to serve ultra-rich

[SINGAPORE] As demand for alternative assets is heating up in Singapore, so too is the need to hire more staff versed in the field. Leading recruitment agencies saw more openings for such roles in the first quarter of 2025, with Robert Walters and Randstad reporting a year-on-year increase of nearly 20 per cent in the number of such job postings in the city-state.

To diversify their portfolios, family offices, ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW), and high-net-worth individuals are turning towards alternative investments – a broad class spanning unlisted assets including private debt, private equity (PE) and real estate.

The increase in job postings is “attributed to higher demand for senior talent in origination and structurer, as well as associates and analysts to support due diligence in deals”, Lim Chai Leng, general manager of banking, life sciences, construction and property at Randstad Singapore, told The Business Times (BT).

In particular, for PE firms that are prioritising value creation of their portfolio companies, there is higher demand for senior roles such as chief financial officer, chief operating officer and investment directors.

Private credit firms, on the other hand, are expanding “quite significantly, and employers are looking for talent with traditional banking backgrounds, particularly senior professionals with a strong client network”, said Lim. She singled out robust growth in infrastructure, which is driving hiring for senior bankers.  

Robert Walters is also seeing job openings for infrastructure roles in PE and private credit, but for the more junior positions such as associates and analysts. Overall, the demand seems to be for the less-senior roles in private markets, with the occasional advertisements for assistant vice-president to vice-president positions, Serena Fernando, senior consultant for banking and financial services at Robert Walters Singapore, told BT.

As for the international players coming to the city-state, “they often bring in a seasoned investment principal from their international business to set up offices in Singapore and then hire revenue-generating functions like sales and investing, an office manager and typically a compliance professional”, she noted.

The demand for more private-market specialists in Singapore comes as the total assets under management (AUM) in all private markets is expanding. The figure for all private markets – including credit, equity, infrastructure, real estate, and venture capital – rose to US$150.5 billion as at Jun 30, 2024, according to data compiled by Preqin at BT’s request. That is almost equivalent to the US$151.1 billion registered for the whole of 2023. This, in turn, was nearly double the US$82.6 billion logged in 2018.

Wealth management growth spurring hiring

DBS Private Bank, which manages the wealth of individuals with at least S$5 million in investible asset, saw an even-faster pace of growth. “Our wealth clients’ assets under management in private assets has grown approximately five-fold over the past five years, reflecting the resilient demand for this asset class,” its group head Joseph Poon told BT.

Relationship managers (RMs) at DBS Private Bank do not specialise just in private markets. The bank has been building up its strength to further serve UHNW individuals and families, with a spokesperson saying that it currently employs more than 850 RMs. That number has been growing consistently at a compound annual growth rate of 8 per cent between 2020 and 2024, and the bank intends to hire 130 more RMs this year.

Bank of Singapore (BOS), the private banking arm of OCBC, said that it has a dedicated alternative investments team and hires strategically to support growth. BOS had earlier reported a double-digit year-on-year growth in its clients’ investments into alternatives in 2024.

“Niche skill set”

A battle for talent is emerging as Singapore does not have enough workers with private-market expertise, as this is “a niche skill set that needs to be fostered in the local workforce”, Fernando added.

Over at UOB Private Bank, its head of managed product solutions Wong Meng Keet said: “While we are comfortable with the size of our current team, we also see the potential growth in this area and are aware of the competition for talent should we need to build our team’s capacity.”

The battle for private-markets talent could heat up as local banks are not the only ones hiring.

Samir Subberwal, Standard Chartered’s (StanChart) global head of wealth solutions, mortgages and deposits and chief client officer, said that the bank is investing in its private market team.

“Allocations into alternatives for customers, I think, is a trend here to stay. It’s a fairly new trend in some ways, in Asia, and it’s only been last two, three years, while it’s been a very big trend in the North Americas and Europe.”

StanChart, which has a global team of private-market experts partnering its RMs, has made a few senior hires in Singapore in the past year. These include Nicholas Cheng, the global head of private markets group, who joined in mid-2024. Khoo Kian Jin, also based in Singapore, joined as head of private markets for South-east Asia and South Asia in January this year.

Apart from the Singapore hires, StanChart is recruiting for the team in Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates in the coming months, to respond to growing interest from its clients about accessing private markets.

Sovereign wealth fund GIC, which is a significant player in the alternative markets space, has 18 job postings offering full-time positions to those with private markets experience, a check by BT found.

Boston and Paris-based asset manager Natixis Investment Managers, with US$1.4 trillion in AUM, including private assets through its affiliates, is recruiting private market specialists as well.

“We certainly have plans to grow our team to add more private markets specialists in order to drive growth in the wholesale space,” Dora Seow, Singapore CEO of Natixis, told BT. 

In particular, it is expanding its sales force. In December, Natixis hired Johan Lim as head of wealth for Hong Kong, Singapore and South-east Asia. Seow added that there will “shortly” be an additional recruit fully dedicated to alternatives investments resource for its Hong Kong and Singapore wholesale team.