Hong switches to Lehman

Lehman Brothers has continued its investment banking hiring purge with the appointment of Joonkee Hong as managing director and head of global finance, Asia-Pacific. In the new role, Hong assumes regional responsibility for Lehman's equity capital markets (ECM), debt capital markets (DCM), capital markets derivatives, leveraged finance and private placements business.

He will report locally to Kunho Cho, Lehman's head of investment banking, Asia-Pacific and globally to Jeff Weiss and Larry Wieseneck, co-heads of global finance. In total, Lehman acquires the services of an investment banker with 13 years of experience in capital markets and derivatives products.

Most recently, Hong held a senior position in the debt markets team for Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong. Previously, he was employed by UBS for nine years, where his titles included global head of emerging markets derivatives marketing ansd head of fixed income for North Asia.

Lehman's poaching of Hong, follows a busy hiring strategy over the past few months, with Zhizhong Yang joining the firm to lead its China investment banking division, Masaru Shibata coming on board as head of Japan M&A and Charles Alexander's appointment as head of the Asia corporate finance group.