Singapore wealth manager Lumen Capital Investors has hired a host of top private bankers from larger rivals. The fledgling firm wants to increasingly open up, as finews.com can reveal.
Julius Baer's former boss in Asia, Wilfried Kofmehl, founded Lumen Capital Investors (Lumen) in 2010 and has spent the last seven years discreetly building up the new business. Conceived as a family office, the firm offers traditional wealth management as well as trust, real estate and fiduciary advice as well as support on corporate finance.
Lumen has until now been comprised of six partners and one dozen employees. The firm is seeking to open itself up and has bulked up on bankers as a result, finews.com learned. Lumen Chairman Kofmehl confirmed this.
Most Respected Client Advisors in Asia
Roger Fluri (pictured above), a 27-year veteran of Julius Baer in Asia and Europe who has spent the last three years as a Managing Director for Genevan private bank Pictet in Singapore, joined Lumen last week. Fluri has 36 years industry experience and is one of the most respected client advisors in Southeast Asia.
Lumen also hired Dudley Lim (pictured above), who has worked for Trident Trust in Singapore for the past six years, after 13 years at Commerzbank's trust business in Singapore. Lim began his banking career at HSBC in Hong Kong.
Indonesian Rep Office
Nirmal Singh, formerly head of Asia-Pacific for Micros Systems, also joined Lumen recently as head of advisory services. The firm has opened an office in Jakarta in the first quarter, Kofmehl also confirmed to finews.com.
The ex-Julius Baer banker sees Lumen growing to as many as 12 partners in the mid-term in order to offer the entire spectrum of family office services for wealthy individuals and families. The changes translate to a quantum leap for Lumen, which is run by CEO Jan Dirkmann, also a former Julius Baer banker in Singapore. The firm's name is derived for the Latin term for «light».
