MIGNONNE CHENG BNP Paribas Asia-Pacific CEO of BNP Paribas Wealth Management
Mignonne Cheng has spent her 35-year career with two high-profile banks: Chase Manhattan and BNP Paribas. And during the course of that career she has amassed a wealth of experience. No wonder then that when BNP decided to shake up its wealth management business last year, it put Cheng in charge.
BNP has ambitious plans to grow private banking and has defined the Asia-Pacific region as strategically important to those plans. It has a stated target of doubling revenues and assets under management (AUM) by 2013 — no easy feat when considering that AUM in the region already stands at more than $40 billion. Cheng directly oversees the six regions in Asia-Pacific that BNP says have the greatest market potential, as well as the dedicated ultra-high-net-worth individuals unit that BNP created earlier this year. She is also a member of the global executive committee of BNP Paribas Wealth Management. In all, Cheng supervises more than 800 people.
Cheng joined BNP Hong Kong in 1990 as general manager for the Chinese division. Before she took on her current wealth management role she was head of North Asia for BNP as well as chief executive officer of BNP’s Hong Kong branch.
WEI SUN CHRISTIANSON Morgan Stanley Co-CEO of Asia-Pacific (non-Japan) and China CEO
Even rival bankers acknowledge that Wei Sun Christianson has helped Morgan Stanley expand its onshore footprint in China. For example, under her leadership, in June, Morgan Stanley launched its China domestic securities business, Morgan Stanley Huaxin Securities, having sold its CICC stake in December 2010. And, in May, the firm announced the formation of a China local currency private equity fund management company with Hangzhou Trust.
She first joined Morgan Stanley in 1998, working in the investment banking division. Between 2002 and 2005, she served as chairman for China at Credit Suisse and subsequently for Citi’s global markets. She rejoined Morgan Stanley at the beginning of 2006 in her current role. During her banking career, Christianson has had senior roles advising on many of China’s landmark privatisations, and on M&A transactions by overseas listed Chinese companies.
Before starting her investment banking career, Christianson was an associate director at the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). While at the SFC, she was already making history, given that she helped formulate the regulations in preparation for the Hong Kong public listings of the first group of mainland Chinese companies in 1993.
ROWENA CHU Deutsche Bank Vice-chairman of Greater China coverage
When we called around to ask about Rowena Chu, what we heard is that she’s key in driving Deutsche Bank’s future business. For example, she has been instrumental in leading innovative deals such as the landmark Hutchison Port Holdings Trust initial public offering, the largest ever IPO and business trust in Singapore, which have helped Deutsche Bank’s equities franchise leap to the top of the Asia ex-Japan IPO league tables for the first time ever.
Chu knows the markets and the corporate world. Before taking on the coverage role of vice-chairman of Greater China, Chu was Deutsche’s chairman of equity capital markets, Asia. Before joining Deutsche, she was the chief financial officer of ICG Asia, responsible for corporate structure, capital raising and M&A activities, and prior to that she had a 20-year banking track record: she was viewed as the face of Asian technology at Merrill Lynch and, before that, head of Greater China equity origination and co-head of Greater China investment banking at J.P. Morgan.
Given this track record, she has worked with leading Asian companies repeatedly during the years, making Chu a mover and shaker in the industry.
KALPANA DESAI Macquarie Capital Head of Asia
Since taking the helm late in 2009, Kalpana Desai is credited with transforming Macquarie’s Asian investment banking business into a strong competitor. Her responsibilities cover all of Macquarie’s equities capital markets (ECM), debt capital markets (DCM), advisory, private placement and principal investment businesses across 12 countries in the region.
Macquarie has continued building its strength in ECM, with an overall top-five position in the number of Hong Kong IPOs brought to market since 2008, having managed some of Asia’s biggest IPOs in each of the past three years, including a bookrunner role in the $22.1 billion IPO of Agricultural Bank of China last year.
Under Desai, Macquarie has also recently been climbing the league tables for M&A, more than doubling its ranking during the past year for completed deals and also building a strong DCM platform. She has also spearheaded the growth of Macquarie’s regional footprint, adding country coverage teams in India, Singapore and Malaysia, hiring more senior bankers for China and Japan, as well as negotiating exclusive cooperation agreements with leading domestic players in Pakistan and Vietnam.
KAREN FAWCETT Standard Chartered Group head, transaction banking
Standard Chartered prides itself on its Asia focus. For many of the bank’s products, Asia drives both strategy and revenues. Transaction banking is one such area. At Standard Chartered, the department encompasses trade finance, cash management, securities services and electronic channels. It stands alongside corporate finance, principal finance and financial markets as one of the bank’s four key business streams, and the foundation of the wholesale banking business. And the person entrusted with this critical charge is Fawcett.
Karen Fawcett, who joined Standard Chartered in 2001 from Booz Allen Hamilton, was appointed to her current position in 2005. Since then she has steadily grown the business. Her acumen was clearly in focus after the 2008 subprime-sparked crisis. She used the opportunity created by the dislocation at many competitors to strengthen relationships with key clients and gain a bigger share of wallet. She and her team of 2,000 transaction bankers around the world achieved revenues of $2.8 billion in 2010, up 9% over the previous year, and contributed more than 25% to wholesale banking revenue.
Fawcett also ensures Standard Chartered is an early mover in transaction banking, be it in using iPhone and iPad technology to facilitate client trade flows or in renminbi payments and collections.
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