Paladyne hires Leung, set to double Asia staff

Apr 13, 2010

The trading and portfolio management software provider has experienced a rapid increase in business since its Asia office launch in August, in the form of 10 new clients.

Paladyne Systems, a New York-based provider of trading, portfolio management and analytics, has named Askin Leung as director of client services for Asia-Pacific and expects to double its 10-strong Hong Kong headcount in the next few months.

The hire comes following a swift take-up of the company's products locally -- since the Hong Kong office opened in August, it has secured 10 clients in the region.

Leung joins regional director Eric Royer in Hong Kong and will run client-service activities, including implementation, training and help-desk support. Both report to Sameer Shalaby, chief executive of Paladyne in New York.

Paladyne provides front-, middle- and back-office services and allows asset managers to buy some or all of its products' components. In Hong Kong for a visit this week, Shalaby describes Asian clients as "cost-sensitive", something he says has worked in Paladyne's favour. The suite is available either as a local install or as a hosted application service provider (ASP) solution, with most of the Asian clients going for the latter.

Before his new appointment, Leung was head of IT for a Hong Kong-based multi-billion-dollar hedge fund and was formerly Asia-Pacific head of implementation for Linedata Services, a provider of portfolio-management software.

Clients have already given positive feedback and include Lawrence Parsons at Saka Capital and Guan Ong at Blue Rice Investment Management, both credit hedge funds based in Singapore.

Beyond Hong Kong and New York, Paladyne has offices in London, New Jersey and St Petersburg and more than 100 clients worldwide.

The firm's suite of products includes Paladyne Portfolio Master; Paladyne Credit Master, Paladyne Analytics Master, Paladyne Security Master and Paladyne Price Master.