France's Natixis has appointed Emmanuel Lefort as its head of global markets for the Asia-Pacific region, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
Lefort replaces Serge Ekué, who was recently named senior country manager for the UK and head of global markets for Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Based in Hong Kong, Lefort will report to Luc François, head of global markets, and to Alain Gallois, chief executive officer of its corporate and investment banking division in the Asia-Pacific region.
Lefort will start his new role on January 1. Gallois, who relocated to Hong Kong in July, will lead the unit until Lefort arrives.
Lefort started his career in 2001 at CDC IXIS, now Natixis, where he occupied various positions in structured credit before being appointed head of structuring for GAPC, Natixis’ so-called "bad bank" set up to deal with toxic assets after the global financial crisis, in 2009.
In 2011 he was appointed head of global structured credit & solutions (GSCS) for Europe and in 2014 he was named global head of GSCS, based in London.
“Natixis’ capital markets business in Asia Pacific has evolved significantly under our 2014-17 strategic plan," Gallois said in the statement. “As the architect of Natixis’ structured credit business worldwide over the past five years, Emmanuel has a solutions-first mindset that makes him ideally placed to build on Serge’s many achievements and oversee the next stage of development for Natixis Global Markets in Asia Pacific.”
