Stephen Stonefield, the highly regarded chairman of Credit Suisse First Boston, has decided to relocate to Singapore from Hong Kong at the beginning of August. According to sources within the bank, Stonefield mainly wants to leave for family reasons. But he also feels that the business in Hong Kong has grown to a suitable size and now he wants to concentrate on building up a more substantial presence in Southeast Asia.
Stonefield leaves behind a well-staffed corporate office in Hong Kong with the head of emerging markets, the head of investment banking and the head of equity capital markets still running the show in Hong Kong.
Suggestions that Stonefield is moving to Singapore because it is further away from Tokyo than Hong Kong have been dismissed by sources in the bank. Earlier this month Stonefield was forced to be a witness at the Tokyo show trial of a former CSFB employee charged with impeding Japanese regulators in their investigations.
