Lehman ECM head leaves Asia

Lehman's ECM head Will Bowmer is leaving Asia at the end of June to return to the US as global head of tech ECM based in Menlo Park, California. In his place, ECM will be split three ways.

In Tokyo, David Paine will continue to maintain syndicate duties for the region, as well as oversee Japan ECM. Non-Japan Asia will be split between Edward Lie and a new addition to the team, Adam Perrett.

An old face in Asian ECM, Perrett first came to Asia in 2001 as a director in Credit Suisse First Boston's ECM team, then run by Nick Andrews. Prior to that, he had worked for CSFB and Salomon Bros in New York and most recently, he has headed a boutique investment bank in the Philippines.

The ever youthful Bowmer, meanwhile, leaves Asia after 14 years in a region, which barely appears to have aged him. He first arrived in February 1990 as a lawyer with Skadden Arps, before jumping across to investment banking in 1994 when he joined UBS.

He then moved to Lehman in June 1997 and since then has built up a reputation as one of the most experienced tech ECM bankers in the region. Lehman was at the forefront of the many dotcom deals of 1999, including the IPO of FinanceAsia shareholder, Chinadotcom.

Lehman also has a strong franchise in Taiwan, where it is considered house bank for UMC and the Quanta group and regularly leads deals for a core group of other clients including CMC Magnetics and Powerchip. In his new role, Bowmer expects to continue spending plenty of time int he region.