Swiss banking group SYZ & CO has this week announced the appointment of Xavier Guillon (pictured) as CEO of its OYSTER Funds business division. Guillon will be taking over from Alan Mudie who will head up the bank’s newly created SYZ Fund Research department. Guillon has been at SYZ for three years, most recently helping to create and grow the banking group’s Services to Independent Asset Managers. Prior to this he accumulated 14 years’ experience at Brown Brothers Harriman: America’s largest private bank. One of Guillon’s key responsibilities will be to improve SYZ & CO’s distribution network and develop new markets, particularly in Asia with Hong Kong acting as a “bridgehead for the Group’s products in the region” according to the official press release. SYZ currently operates 26 Lux-domiciled SICAV Oyster funds, which are marketed across 10 countries and managed both internally and externally across a variety of asset classes and investment styles. Commenting on Guillon’s new role, SYZ & CO Managing Partner Alfredo Piacentini said: “Thanks to his dynamism and his professional career, Xavier Guillon is particularly well-qualified to successfully meet the demands of a highly competitive market and to keep OYSTER Funds on the road to growth.” Unfortunately Guillon was unavailable to talk at the time of writing although earlier this week he told Citywire Global that he believed “the European Opportunities Fund, the Small Cap Fund, the Italy Fund and the Credit Opportunities Fund could prove particularly attractive to Asian investors”.