award
Where are the prime broking superstars of yesteryear?
A tribute to the aces and golden boys of Asia's prime broking firmament.
For the last three years, AsianInvestor has been giving individual trophies to the glitterati of the prime broking world in Asia. They are the kind of people without whom the rest of their PB teams would not shine so brightly.
When we started singling out individual accolades, one prime broking capital introductions expert said "it's like starting a knife fight among cannibals". But what does he know; he subsequently got fired and we're still giving the awards. Many feign nonchalance about winning, but privately, we think they dig it (because it goes in the press release when they get new jobs).
We thought that given our upcoming 2011 service provider awards, we'd take a stride down 'memory lane' and see what became of all our previous winners.
This was the best awards ceremony of all time. A-listers in every seat, and the entire event was funky like a monkey.
It was held in Macau and even though the AsianInvestor editor told the corniest jokes ever in his pantheon of otherwise-scintillating after-dinner speeches, nobody minded because it felt so glam to be at the Venetian Hotel.
It was at the height of the financial crisis, and a number of winners couldn't come because of their bean counters denying them budget. That was a pity. They missed a terrific show.
Our winners were a fab set. Harvey Twomey won for capital introductions. He's still at Deutsche Bank, although we haven't heard a peep from him since 2009. Alexis Fosler won Best Salesperson. She then worked with Philippa 'Madame Compliance' Allen at ComplianceAsia, and later joined Omnium to do hedge fund administration, and that company was recently acquired by Northern Trust. To this day, she remains our only female victor.
Best Consultant was James Shipton (pictured below) of Goldman Sachs. He is the sole Goldman winner in our Hall of Fame (surely it's high-time for another Goldman bobbydazzler to win something). To this day he keeps his trophy in his 'haunted library', where it is the only non-antique object (except for his telly). He's still at Goldman, now on the relationship side rather than consultancy.
Oh my, it's James Shipton in black velvet.
This was a real slobberknocker for our individual heroes, because it was conducted 100% along democratic lines. We had a poll and the winners of that election took the gongs -- automatically. It was an incorruptibly pure exercise in universal suffrage. We at AsianInvestor love democracy.
All three winners came from Deutsche Bank, and to the best of our knowledge, there they still sit today. Marlin Naidoo won for capital introductions, Sukru Kesebi for consultancy and Chris Pagan for sales. Chris Pagan (pictured below) won by one vote from his colleague Charlie Bennett. As the result was announced, the two macho men clasped hands.
The entire audience nearly cried, (but didn't).
Chris Pagan -- back in the days when everyone was slimmer.
The content-rich-talent winning trophies in 2010 made us very excited (over-excited in fact). All three of these guys we predict will be global PB heads of the future.
Last year, we "snapped into a Slim Jim" in the form of Jim Fallon of Bank of America-Merrill Lynch. He's still with that firm in Singapore. Alas, he didn't show up to collect the trophy, and we've now lost it in an AsianInvestor office move. Sorry about that Jim, but you're still the reigning title holder and champ (for six more weeks)!
The winner of Best Consultant was Ashley Jarvis of UBS. He has now joined Morgan Stanley in a global prime broking consultancy role, where he now bestrides the planet like a ginger colossus of consultation.
Winning for capital introductions was Benjamin Happ. He remains at Credit Suisse. Not only is he a leading light in cap intros, he writes award pitches extremely well -- at least he has a future in journalism if he screws up in banking.
Credit Suisse's Benjamin Happ, looking fashionable in a black Armani suit.
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