Apex Group has made three new senior appointments in Luxembourg, naming a new head of real estate, a locally–based global head of onboarding and a COO in the country.
Fund services veteran Ramón van Heusden, formerly of TMF Group, Citco and Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH), joins the Luxembourg team as head of real estate. Van Heusden has over 30 years’ experience most recently as senior director of relationship management, private equity/real estate at TMF Group.
At BBH, van Heusden created and developed its Luxembourg-based real estate fund servicing arm, growing its client base to over 100 funds with $40 billion in assets under administration.
The hire follows the Group’s appointment of Michael Sheahan as global head of real estate. Apex said the moves, “further reinforces its intent to dominate not only the real estate space globally but also the Luxembourg fund servicing space.”
Meanwhile, Frederic Bilas joins as Apex’s COO for Luxembourg from European Fund Administration (EFA) where he was director of operations, and the Group has expanded the scope of its head of client onboarding, Kris Allen, to take on the role on a global scale.
As well as being a major servicing hub for Apex, Luxembourg has become the home of the group’s digital banking and onboarding business and its super management company services, through various launches and acquisitions over the past two years.
“Luxembourg is not only one of our largest service hubs, it is the home of our single-source solution and the base for our Super ManCo and Banking offerings,” said Chris Mulhern, Group COO for Apex.
“Having successful executed on our post-acquisition integration strategy over the last 18 months, we are now enhancing client experience through a connected operational framework. With Frederic at the helm of a centralised operational leadership structure in Luxembourg, we have the expertise in place to deliver a smooth and integrated client experience from onboarding, and throughout the ongoing relationship.”
In May, Apex hired Credit Suisse’s former lead for institutional asset managers and corporates sales and relationship management as a sales director based in Luxembourg. Jean-Daniel Zandona joined with over two decades of experience in private asset markets, including spells at RBC and PwC, alongside the seven and a half years at Credit Suisse.
The country has clearly become an area of focus for Apex which operates fund services, digital banking, depositary, custody FX, corporate services and Super Manco solutions there. The group has over 600 employees based there.