Ida Liu
Back a decade or so ago, when Western private banks were scrambling to build a business in Asia, that fabulous new wealth frontier, the search for people with any wealthy contacts truly grew truly to absurd levels.
Any Tom, Dick or Harry in Singapore, Hong Kong or other centres with a suitable address book of connections was quickly offered a job.
So hairdressers, senior hotel staff, maitre'ds, chauffeurs, travel agents, Latin American dancing teachers and fashion house executives, et al, were approached by client-hungry banks.
Most of these mismatched types have fallen by the wayside, so it is pleasing to reveal that one with extensive fashion house expertise has made it to the very top of the tree.
This superstar is Ida Liu, who has just been made head global private banking by Citi – a role which must be one of the most influential in the advisory industry.
She was previously the head of Citi Private Bank North America
La Liu will now oversee the bank's private capital group, global trust and private bank global marketing.
Ida first joined Citigroup in 2007 from the fashion industry after she sold the bank on the idea of establishing an investment banking business focused on fashion, media and entertainment. In 2011, she launched a new Asian clients practice for Citi Private Bank.
Ida was born in California and raised in a Mandarin-speaking home by her Chinese parents.
Prior to Citi, Ida worked for Vivienne Tam, the women’s wear design house, where she was global head of sales and marketing.
But her early years were in finance. She spent seven years in investment banking with Merrill Lynch in New York and Hong Kong. She started her career in mergers and acquisitions at BT Wolfensohn, now Deutsche Bank.
At the Tam fashion house, she went from running one struggling department to running all of the European designer collections – Chanel, Armani, Dolce and Gabbana, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent – at US store Bergdorf Goodman.
Ida has recalled that after working in fashion for quite some time she really missed many aspects of finance.
She says she asked herself what the best way to combine the best of both worlds and utilise the “tremendous network” that she had in both the finance and fashion sectors.
Ida approached Citi with an idea to create a wealth management department for those at the top of the fashion, retail and consumer sectors.
From there, she worked her way up through the ranks to her latest global private role for Citi.
She has said that she had found the perfect job because “I absolutely love private banking”.
Pip pip
