Singapore's $134 billion sovereign wealth fund, Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd., named Charles Goodyear (pictured left) to succeed Ho Ching (right) as CEO on Oct. 1. Ching is the wife of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Goodyear, who joined the board on Feb. 1, becomes CEO-designate on March 1. He retired as CEO of Australian mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd. in January 2008 after leading it for about five years.

Blackstone Group LP's New York-based chief investment officer of the fund of hedge funds group, Bruce Amlicke, is leaving the firm to spend time with his family.

Senior managing director Amlicke, who will leave in a couple months, also serves on the Blackstone Alternative Asset Management investment committee and advisory board. Before joining the firm in 2004, he was chief investment officer at UBS O'Connor LLC for the global hedge fund-of-funds business. Amlicke began his career at O'Connor & Associates as a currency options trader.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc's new chairman, Philip Hampton (left), said seven nonexecutive board members retired on Friday. Three new members will be named upon approval from UK Financial Investments Ltd., which the government set up in November to manage its shareholding in banks using its recapitalization fund. RBS received £20 billion ($29 billion).

Those retiring include: Bob Scott, Jim Currie, Bill Friedrich, Bud Koch, Janis Kong, Steve Robson and Peter Sutherland. Sutherland is former attorney general of Ireland and is chairman of BP plc and Goldman Sachs International. Scott is chair of publisher Yell Group plc.

The only remaining members of the old board are finance director Guy Whittaker, who joined in 2006 after 25 years with Citigroup Inc. and chairman of regional markets Gordon Pell, former group director of Lloyds TSB UK Retail Banking. CEO Stephen Hester (right), former chief executive of British Land Co. plc, was chosen by the government in October to replace then chief Fred Goodwin.

Nonexecutive directors of the board include Colin Buchan, Archie Hunter, Joe MacHale, John McFarlane and Art Ryan. Hampton, chairman of J Sainsbury plc, replaced chairman Tom McKillop this week, a few months earlier than planned.

Piper Jaffray & Co. hired Larry Zimmerman as head of industrials and financial sponsor coverage. Zimmerman arrives from Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., where he was a managing director and global co-head of industrials. He was a senior member of Deutsche Bank's financial sponsor and merger and acquisition groups.

Barclays Wealth recruited Robert Lynch as a managing director and head of credit structuring for the Americas. He comes from Bank of America Corp.'s U.S. Trust, where he worked since 2005 focused on banking and lending. He worked at Citibank NA and Citigroup Inc. for more than 23 years.

BMO Capital Markets, the investment and corporate banking arm of BMO Financial Group, hired foreign exchange sales professionals Robert Johnson and Michael Artim.

Johnson joins the Chicago FX sales desk as the managing director, responsible for fund sales. He worked at ABN Amro Bank NV, where he was most recently head of North American FX sales. Artim, also from ABN, will be a director on the Chicago sales desk.

Steptoe & Johnson LLP expanded its intellectual property practice with a seven-attorney trademark group led by Brian Winterfeldt in Washington, where four paralegals and other staff will join them. They arrive from Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll LLP. The team includes of counsel Stacey Johnson, special counsel Geoffrey McNutt, and associates Bryce Coughlin, Ahsen Khan, James Mercurio and Megan Whitney.

Cogent Partners, a private equity-focused investment bank, announced that Bernhard Engelien was promoted to managing director in the firm's London office, and that Briac Houtteville joined Cogent London as an associate. Houtteville joins Cogent office from Ernst & Young in Paris, where he was a manager in transaction services.

Christopher Haymons joined St. Charles Capital as a managing director in its diversified industries practice. Previously, Haymons was a senior managing director of Headwaters MB, which he joined at its inception in 2001. Denver-based St. Charles provides merger and acquisition advisory, private capital raising and financial advisory services.

Proskauer Rose LLP said Joan Ellis, a former judge at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, will join its Washington office as a senior counsel in the patent law practice group.

San Francisco-based Farella Braun + Martel LLP elevated Jessica Nall to partner. Nall is a member of the firm's white-collar crime and business litigation practice groups.

Business consulting and internal audit firm Protiviti Inc. promoted Charles Soranno to managing director in New York. He advises clients in the financial services, real estate, communications and retail industries.