Headhunter aims to bring Europeans to Asia fund firms

Two senior headhunters in the asset management world have moved shop to take advantage of an expected rise in executive moves from Europe to Asia.

Jim Crowe, Hong Kong-based managing director of Strategic Executive Search (SES), and Michael Swinsburg, principal at the firm’s Sydney office, have left to join Alexander Hughes.

Alexander Hughes is a Paris-based headhunting shop. Aside from an existing office in New Delhi helmed by Pankaj Dutt, it has not had an Asia-Pacific presence.

Crowe says SES has been a leading search firm based in Asia-Pacific, but it lacks reach beyond the region. A major trend now for headhunters is to move experienced people in asset management, mutual funds and wealth management from Europe to Asia.

“We want to help financial talent move East,” he says.

Crowe and Swinsburg have been named partners at Alexander Hughes, with the principals and the firm both owning the Asia-Pac operations in Hong Kong and Australia. Crowe declined to comment further on the economics of the deal.

The move leaves SES without experienced asset management search executives, although it remains well staffed for other parts of the financial industry, including investment banking, commercial banking, consumer banking and insurance.

Judy Seto remains SES’s Hong Kong-based managing director for Greater China, where she co-leads consumer, retail and hospitality searches.

A Canadian national, Crowe moved to Australia in 1980 and co-founded search firm Roussos Crowe and Palmer Holt in 1986. Sydneysider Swinsburg has held managerial roles at Citigroup, Macquarie and Prudential, and in 1997 helped another Australian search firm to set up its wealth-management practice.