Richard Weintraub is joining Citi Private Bank to lead its Family Office Group in the Americas, leaders of the bank said in a memo to employees Wednesday seen by Institutional Investor.
“As we continue our focus on UHNW clients, their families and their businesses, we are building upon the strengths of our Global Family Office (GFO) group by bolstering our capabilities and attracting the best talent,” Ida Liu, the global head of Citi Private Bank, and Hannes Hofmann, the global head of the family office group, wrote to employees.
Weintraub was previously part of the global family and institutional wealth team at UBS, where he worked with some of the largest family office clients across the globe. “Richard brings a deep understanding of the family office industry, strong relationships, and a proven capability to deliver institutional solutions to family offices,” the memo said.
The note to employees also announced a small reorganization. Three bankers from a capital markets group (called Wealth Markets) are being moved into Citi’s family office group, with the goal of building stronger relationships with those investors and getting them better access to all of Citi’s products and services. The bankers moving are Amanda Ens in North America, Stefano Gilotti who covers Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and Stephan Lanz in Asia. They are going to work with Lorenzo Frontini, the vice chairman of the global family office business, who is leading an effort to innovate and expand it.
Citi’s tinkering with its family office group is the latest example of how big banks and other organizations are trying to better engage these allocators, which are growing in number and sophistication as investors. Family offices — sometimes with many billions of dollars to invest and their own in-house investment staff — are a hybrid of institutional and private wealth clients. For example, they often have huge, complex portfolios and needs but might not have the infrastructure that a pension system or asset manager does.
Weintraub’s hiring was part of a spree in recent weeks. The private bank has also hired Don Plaus to lead its business in North America and Antonio Gonzales to lead in Latin America. Gonzales is taking over for Fabio Fontainha, the interim head of Latin America who will then transition fully to be head of business execution.
The bank also recently promoted Frederic Viaud to be the new head of its business in France.
