Barr opens in Seoul

Following yesterday's announcement of a whole slug of Taiwan hires, ABN AMRO's recently installed head of Asian and Australia/ NZ equities, Alastair Barr has hired a team in Korea and bolstered sales in New York.

In Korea, Barr has hired six. Most prominent is David Bouckley who will head Korean country product and be senior sales trader. He will also be a member of the bank's Asia Management Committee. He joins from CLSA where he was head of sales trading for three years.

Min Seong Hwang joins from Goldman Sachs in Seoul to become the regional head of technology research. Jay H Park joins from Samsung ITC to be Korean bank analyst; Simon Sangyup Lee joins from CLSA as part of the Korean research technology team; and also joining on the research side is Sang Hoon Lee who arrives from Ernst & Young in Seoul.

The two new hires based in New York are both on the sales side.

Chris Kim has been hired from Samsung Securities in New York where he was head of Korean sales. He joins ABN as a specialist in Korean sales.

Adding to the raft of Taiwan-related hires, Virginia Van who will be a specialists in Taiwan sales and come from ING.

As indicated in yesterday's story, Barr is looking to hire a total of 40 in research and sales to upgrade ABN's broking team and take it from 9th to 5th.