Moves afoot at Salomon Smith Barney
Since the beginning of the year, Salomon Smith Barney (SSB) has made more than 10 appointments, the most recent being Rupert Mitchell as vice-president, Equity Capital Markets for Asia. Mitchell was an assistant director with ING Baring's Hong Kong-based Regional Equity Capital Markets team.
William Mills, managing director and CEO of SSB Asia Pacific, says two appointment had also been made in India, adding that they "believe that time is ripe to grow our primary business and to establish a securities business in India".
The Indian appointments are Mr Brian Brown as head of New Indian Equities Business, and Pramit Jhaveri as head of Investment Banking. Brown was previously managing director of the Indian Securities business at WI Carr while Jhaveri was vice-president and head of Corporate Finance & Capital Markets at Citibank.
Other appointments include:
* Ying Tzyong Du who joined in March as managing director, head of Investment Banking in Taiwan and chairman of Salomon Brothers Taiwan Ltd. He will be responsible for the origination and execution of investment banking business for Taiwan-based clients and overseas clients interested in raising capital or acquiring businesses in Taiwan. He will also oversee the development and growth of SSB.
* John Kim has joined as head of Special Situations, North Asia and a Fixed Income Analyst in credit research. He was previously managing director for Long Investment Management Ltd and dead of Korean Investments, Special Situation Investments and Fixed Income Research. Prior to that, he was head of Research and Structured Financing at Sumitomo Finance (Asia) Ltd.
* Two key appointments have also been made to SSB Asia Pacific Research Department in Hong Kong. Dawn Lucke Chan has been appointed vice-president, Research Supervisory Officer. She was previously a research compliance officer for Merrill Lynch (Hong Kong). Jade Bang has been appointed as research supervisory associate. Bang was also from Merrill Lynch, in its Research Compliance Department.
* Otto Wong has joined as Asia Pacific deputy head of Regional Equity Research. Wong will assist regional and global equity research management with all aspects of business development, recruiting, and research production. He first joined SSB in 1998 as a director and head of Regional Property Research.
* In February, Lorenzo SH Koo joined as vice-president, International Fixed Income, in Korea. Koo will take over marketing cash and derivative foreign currency fixed income products to regional Korean customers.
* To expand regional internet and technology investment banking group, Ram Venkateswaran has joined as a vice-president of the internet/technology investment banking group, based in Singapore. Ram was previously with the corporate finance division in Bombay and Mergers and Acquisitions division in Singapore for Morgan Stanley.
* An integrated Communications Equity Research team for Asia Pacific has also been set up, and it is co-headed by Rohit Sobti (focusing principally on traditional telephony companies throughout Asia) and Pratik Gupta (concentrating on internet/media related companies). Sobti was a regional telecoms analyst for Prudential-Bache Securities; a manager at Afro-Asian Satellite Communications (ASC) and a telecoms industry consultant with AT Kearney Inc. Gupta was formerly a telecoms research analyst at Salomon Smith Barney.
Han Ong joined in January as managing director and head of Asia Pacific Equity Strategy, based in Hong Kong. He was previously a director of Mercury Asset Management and managing director of its subsidiary in Hong Kong; head of Research in Japanese equities at SG Warburg Securities in Tokyo; and a chartered accountant at Coopers & Lybrand.
Stephen Leist has also joined as managing director and head of Regional Equity Sales, Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong. He is also responsible for overseeing global accounts for Asia Pacific products. With over 15 years' experience in equity sales in Japan and the US, Leist was previously a director at Deutsche Bank; vice-president and later principal at Morgan Stanley; and general manager at SG Warburg Securities (Japan).