Raffles Family Office has appointed Ken Peng as chief investment officer with immediate effect from 31 August 2026, the firm said in announcing the creation of the position. The mandate is the first of its kind at the firm, a newly created seat rather than a succession, and it places a single executive in charge of investment strategy across a business that is dual headquartered in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Peng is based in Hong Kong and reports to Chi Man Kwan, group chief executive officer. His remit covers strengthening the firm's investment function and shaping its overall investment strategy, including guidance on global macroeconomic trends and emerging investment themes. The announcement framed the hire around investment capability rather than around a change of leadership, and it did not identify any previous holder of the title, consistent with the description of the role as newly created. No further terms of the appointment were disclosed.
Peng brings more than 20 years in private wealth across Greater China and the United States, where he has led investment teams and shaped asset allocation at global financial institutions. He joins from Citi Private Bank, where he was head of Asia Pacific investment strategy and a managing director, a position at the centre of the bank's regional house view. Asian Private Banker reported that he left the bank in May 2026, placing roughly three months between that departure and the new appointment. His education was not detailed in the announcement.
Raffles Family Office is dual headquartered in Hong Kong and Singapore, the two centres that anchor most private wealth activity in Asia. The firm did not disclose assets under management, client numbers or headcount alongside the appointment, and no terms were attached to it. Seating its first chief investment officer in Hong Kong rather than in Singapore locates the new investment leadership in the Greater China corridor, where Peng has spent much of his career.
The creation of the seat is the clearest signal in the announcement. Wealth managers operating across jurisdictions typically formalise a central investment office once client assets and product breadth outgrow decisions taken case by case, and the inference, which the firm does not draw, is that the business has reached that point. Recruiting from a private bank rather than from an asset manager also suggests an emphasis on client facing house views and allocation discipline rather than on running money in house, though the announcement does not say so. What can be stated plainly is narrower: the firm now has one named executive accountable for investment strategy, reporting to the group chief executive officer, where previously it named none.
