Weekly roundup of job-hoppers, June 15

Hutson joins Ascalon as investment manager
Ascalon Capital, the Sydney-based alternatives fund incubator, has appointed Andrew Hutson as an investment specialist for its Asia operation.

Hutson joins from GAM in Hong Kong, where he served as an investment manager for the global fund of hedge funds manager. His duties included selecting, allocating and monitoring allocations to Asian hedge funds.

In his new role, Hutson will work out of Hong Kong, alongside Ascalon Asia chief operating officer Chuak Chan, on business development and investor relations. He will help to source potential seeding candidates in the region.

Since mid-2011, when the Asia operation was set up by Chan, Ascalon has invested in two hedge funds in the region: Singapore-based Canning Park Capital and Athos Capital in Hong Kong.

IMF’s Chalk heads emerging Asia research at Barclays
Barclays announced the appointment of Nigel Chalk from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as managing director and head of emerging Asia research based in Singapore.

He started at the firm this week to lead its macroeconomic, foreign exchange and interest rate teams across Asia Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand but excluding Japan.

He comes in to replace Peter Redwood, who quit Barclays in the middle of last year and returned to his native New Zealand to set up an emerging markets advisory firm.

Chalk now reports to Piero Ghezzi, the bank’s head of global economics, emerging Asia and FX research, and to Jon Scoffin, head of Asia-Pacific research.

Chalk has been the IMF’s China mission chief and senior adviser on Greater China and Mongolia. He also had responsibility for the fund’s biannual regional economic outlook. He began his career at the IMF in 1997.

Seven new appointments for BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas Wealth Management announced seven appointments, four for its China team in Hong Kong, two for Hong Kong and one for discretionary portfolio management in Singapore.

Ivan Ching and Alex Xu joined in April and May, respectively, as managing directors for the China market. Ching was a director at Credit Suisse focused on ultra-high-net-worth clients, and Xu had worked at Guosen Securities as managing director in corporate finance.

Further, Maggie Zhang started in May as a China market director, having previously worked at UBS as a director for ultra-high-net-worth clients in China. And Mandy Koo joined from Credit Suisse in April as vice-president for the China market.

It comes after Credit Suisse hired nine staff from BNP Paribas WM this year, as reported by AsianInvestor, including Eddy Sze as MD and market leader for Greater China, based in Hong Kong. Previously he had been MD and China team head at BNP.

Last month the French bank also hired Louisa Yau from HSBC Private Bank as MD for the Hong Kong market and Wincy Ching as senior vice-president in Hong Kong.

Lastly the bank revealed that Garth Bregman is set to relocate in July as head of discretionary portfolio management for Asia, based in Singapore. He is currently head of discretionary portfolio management and head of investment advisory for wealth management in the UK.

Steinberg joins Hedge Fund Association’s China chapter
The Hedge Fund Association has appointed Beijing-based financial communications consultant Adam Steinberg as director of its China chapter.

The appointment is a reflection of China’s increasing importance in the hedge fund arena, says association president Mitch Ackles. “The hedge fund industry in China is still at a learning stage and not yet at an action stage,” he tells AsianInvestor.

However, he says several hedge funds that opened rep offices in the country are researching the market as they await their qualified foreign institutional investor licences.

Data provider PerTrac puts the number of hedge funds reporting in China at 658 as of April this year, about half of which were formed since January 2010.

Steinberg, who has spent eight years advising mainland Chinese firms, previously worked at Hill & Knowlton Strategies in Beijing.

The HFA is looking to represent not only hedge funds, but also its service providers such as communication consultants. The association has representation in 12 regions outside the US and 17 in total, and advocates for over 9,500 hedge funds globally.

Deutsche adds head of global transaction banking for Greater China
Deutsche Bank announced the appointment of Carl Wegner from Standard Chartered as head of global transaction banking for Greater China, based in Shanghai.

He reports regionally to Lisa Robins, head of global transaction banking for Asia Pacific, and in China to Feng Gao, president of Deutsche Bank (China).

Previously Wegner was country head of transaction banking for StanChart in Taiwan.

HSBC adds five in Asia equity research, hires Asean economist
HSBC announced five new appointments to its equity research unit in Hong Kong as the group seeks to increase its coverage of what it sees as high-growth sectors.

Thomas Hilbolt joined from Samsung Securities as regional head of oil, gas and petrochemical research for Asia-Pacific. Similarly, Tingting Si also joined from Samsung Securities as oil, gas and petrochemicals analyst for Asia-Pacific.

It comes after Samsung Securities moved to trim down its Hong Kong operations, as reported by AsianInvestor in January, having attempted to branch out into investment banking, proprietary trading, seeding funds of hedge funds and broking Asian equities.

Their former Samsung colleagues Simon Francis, Thomas Zhu and Chris Chen were hired by HSBC earlier this year and are all now part of its metals and mining global research unit.

Further, HSBC appointed Jenny Cosgrove as regional head of utilities and alternative energy research for Asia Pacific. Previously she worked at RBS in a similar role.

Other hires include Chris Zee as consumer and retail analyst for Asia Pacific from BNP Paribas, and Chi Tsang as telecoms, media and internet analyst for Asia-Pacific. He was previously at Lombard Odier.

The new hires started in May, with the exception of Chi and Chen who both started in April.

Separately, HSBC also announced the appointment of Su Sian Lim from the Royal Bank of Scotland as Asean economist, based in Singapore.

Lim assumes responsibility for macroeconomic research on Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. She reports to Leif Eskesen, the bank's chief economist for India and Asean, and functionally to Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economic research.

Previously Lim was senior regional economist at RBS, and has worked at DBS, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi-UFJ and IDEAglobal.