UBS appoints Taiwan investment banking co-head

UBS has appointed Felice Chen as co-head of investment banking in Taipei and will also assume the role of vice-chairman of IBD Asia, UBS Asia's investment banking and fixed income arm.

Chen's appointment becomes effective on April 2 and she will report to co-heads of IBD Asia, Peter Burnett and Robert Rankin. She will manage the Taiwan business alongside Sean Chao, country head and branch manager of the IBD business in Taiwan.

Most recently, Chen was deputy chief executive of the Development Fund, a department of the Taiwan Regulatory Commission, which deals largely with the information and biotech sector. She was also an advisor on finance, banking and investment to the Cabinet of the Taiwan Government and a committee member of the National Corporate Governance Policy Task Force at the Council for Economic Planning and Development.

Outside the government sector, Chen has previously worked for HSBC, Lehman Brothers and ING Barings in securities, banking and finance departments. She is also a trained lawyer and an advisor to the Executive Yuan.

"We have enormous confidence in the potential of the market in Taiwan," says Rankin. "Felice's arrival will undoubtedly provide momentum to already-strong franchises in the technology, FIG and industrial sectors there."

Chen's law degree was completed at National Taiwan University and she was a visiting scholar at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business during 2001-2.