Woods goes global

John Woods has left his Hong Kong garden full of snakes (and the occasional dead body) in the New Territories for the slightly more sedate world of Greenwich.

The well regarded and highly ranked Woods has just been promoted to the position as HSBC's global head of credit research & strategy, from his previous role running the Asian fixed income research team.

The move by an Asian fixed income research head to a global job in London follows that of Merrill's Chris Francis and CSFB's Abdul Hussain.

Likewise it also signals another trend in which some of former Asia global markets boss, Stuart Gulliver has taken many of his talented cohorts with him to London. However, so far Gulliver's talent drain has only underscored his own repeated assessment that the Asian business he left behind has a "deep bench" since the business continues to grow at a stellar rate and HSBC is at the top of the Asian underwriting league tables.

Woods meanwhile has still been commuting to Hong Kong on a regular basis regardless of his new base in Canary Wharf. Indeed, since relocating to London two weeks ago, he has already been spotted in Hong Kong on two separate occasions.

He is also reckoned to be the only banker in recent times to have a shorter commute to work after moving back to London. Unlike in Hong Kong where he had to navigate his way to Queens Road Central each morning from the New Territories (called "New" because many people in Hong Kong island have never been there) his commute to Canary Wharf from Greenwich is a mere 10 minutes (allegedly on a bike).

His replacement as head of Asian fixed income research is Dilip Shahani, who was his deputy for four years.