Morgan Stanley names new CEO for Asia | morgan, stanley

January was a painful month for Morgan Stanley. In what began to resemble a revolving door there were departures in its China team (Jonathan Zhu), India team (Mickey Doshi), private equity group (David Liu) and in its general industries group (Shamus Hassan). And just a few weeks earlier, the head of its Asia real estate group, Timothy Grady had also left.

Rumours were also rampant that global boss, John Mack wanted to revamp the Asia leadership, and was particularly unhappy with the firmÆs China strategy. His solution to the China issue was to hire Wei Christianson from Citigroup. A longtime colleague, Christianson had followed Mack to CSFB, after having worked for him at Morgan Stanley.

And now it seems that the revamp of the Asia leadership is also being addressed with the news that Hans Schuettler has been appointed the new chief executive officer for Asia.

SchuettlerÆs appointment is being highlighted by Morgan Stanley sources as, ôadding extra bandwidthö to its Asia-Pacific management structure. The German banker is being relocated from Europe where he was the co-head of European investment banking, and country head for Germany û managing some of the firmÆs most important European investment banking relationships.

Schuettler, who joined Morgan Stanley in 1990, will have two reporting lines. One is to Morgan StanleyÆs co-president, Zoe Cruz, and the other is into Asia chairman, Alasdair Morrison.

Morrison, who previously held the joint roles of chairman and CEO for Asia, will give up the latter title on Schuettler's arrival. Morrison will, however, remain a member of Morgan StanleyÆs 19 person global management committee.

Mike BerchtoldÆs role as president for Asia-Pacific remains unchanged.

SchuettlerÆs position will see him based in Hong Kong and running the whole region, including Japan.