Asia moves: Nomura boosts Asia ex-Japan, Bank of America picks two Apac co-heads, and more

Latest job changes across industry

Nomura has hired a number of staff for its Asia ex-Japan equity products business. The bank says Fayez El Hicheri joined as head of quantitative index strategies and fund derivatives structuring in January 2019. He has more than 20 years of industry experience and was most recently head of investment solutions structuring at Credit Suisse. 

Manish Ghia has been hired as head of prime finance for Asia ex-Japan. He joins from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he led the equity synthetics and securities lending desk.  

Renaud Gocsei has also joined the Japanese investment bank as head of delta one trading, Asia ex-Japan from Societe Generale. The bank also appointed Jean-Baptiste Patois as head of equity derivatives trading for Asia ex-Japan in November, from Credit Suisse where he headed the index derivatives desk for Credit Suisse. Nick Lewis has relocated to the US to be the head of Apac prime finance sales at Nomura, after more than six years at the firm in Hong Kong.

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Bank of America has appointed Jiro Seguchi and Jin Su as co-presidents for the Asia-Pacific region, replacing Matthew Koder, who recently became global head of corporate and investment banking.

Seguchi, country head of Japan and head of corporate and investment banking for the region, and Su, co-head of fixed income, currencies and commodities for the region, will also retain their current roles. Seguchi has been with the firm for 19 years, holding a number of leadership roles across the franchise. He has been based in Hong Kong and Japan and has extensive client relationships. Over his 25-year career with the firm, Su has served in various trading and management roles in London and Hong Kong. Seguchi and Su will continue to be based in Japan and Hong Kong respectively.

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Barclays has named Vanessa Koo as head of banking for Asia-Pacific. Koo will be based in Hong Kong and lead the banking franchise in the region. She also retains her role as head of banking for greater China. Koo joined Barclays in 2010 and has held roles including head of mergers and acquisitions for greater China and head of consumer and retail coverage for Asia-Pacific.

Lars Aagaard succeeds Koo in the role of head of mergers and acquisitions for Asia-Pacific while retaining the head of financial sponsors for Asia-Pacific. Aagaard also joined Barclays in 2010 and held a number of roles within the banking business prior to his appointment as head of financial sponsors for Asia-Pacific in 2015. 

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HSBC Private Banking in Singapore has announced several appointments for its investment services and product solutions, including two newly created roles: chief market strategist, South-east Asia; and head of global solutions group.

James Cheo has re-joined HSBC’s investment advisory team as chief market strategist for South-east Asia. James brings more than 15 years’ portfolio strategy, asset allocation and economic research experience with international banks as an investment strategist, including five years with the Monetary Authority of Singapore as a senior economist.

Rowan Tan has joined as head of the global solutions group for South-east Asia at the investment services and product solutions group. He has more than 10 years of investment banking experience along with corporate finance advisory to high-net-worth clients with international banks.

Ishan Sarkar has been named head of structured products for the unit. He joins with 12 years of industry experience with international banks and is responsible for delivering equity derivatives, commodities, credits and rates structured products to clients. Ishan replaces Wendy Ang, who has relocated to Hong Kong with HSBC.

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Fullerton Fund Management Company announced that Mark Yuen will join the company on January 8 as chief business development officer, while Tan Huck Khim joined the firm on December 1 as head of private equity. Yuen will report to Fullerton’s chief executive, Jenny Sofian, and will also lead efforts to widen Fullerton’s target markets and client segments. Khim reports to Patrick Yeo, chief investment officer and is responsible for driving the firm’s private equity strategies and portfolio. He will be supported by Kenneth Chia, who joined Fullerton on January 7 as vice- president for private equity.

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Moody’s Analytics has appointed Steve Cochrane as its chief Asia-Pacific economist. In this new role, based in Singapore, Cochrane is responsible for leading the expansion of economic forecasting and advisory services for Moody’s across Asia. Previously, Cochrane spent 25 years managing the economic research and forecasting activities of teams of economists in the US. 

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State Street Corporation has named Ian Martin as head of Asia-Pacific in addition to his current responsibilities as head of global services in the region. Martin succeeds Wai-Kwong Seck who, after eight years in the role has left to pursue other opportunities, closer to his home town of Singapore.

Martin, a 25-year State Street veteran, will continue to be based in Hong Kong and report to Andrew Erickson, head of global services worldwide.