People: SocGen promotes Garnier to head of Apac global markets

Societe Generale has appointed Yann Garnier as head of global markets for the Asia-Pacific region, following the promotion of his predecessor Frank Drouet as the group's head of global markets in April.

Hong Kong-based Garnier, who has been the deputy head of Asia-Pacific global markets for the past 12 months, will take up the new role with immediate effect and he will report to Drouet and Hikaru Ogata, the bank's chief executive of global banking and investor solutions for the Apac region.

Garnier has worked for the French lender for almost 10 years, covering different senior roles. He joined in 2006 as head of sales for central and eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and two years later became head of sales and cross-asset solutions for Asia-Pacific.

Drouet's appointment follows the departures of Daniel Field and David Escoffier, head and deputy head of global markets, respectively. Field left the bank to pursue other opportunities. A source familiar with the matter said he was developing a personal project.

Mark Agne, head of Goldman Sachs' Japan securities division and co-head of Asia-Pacific equities trading, has left the firm where he worked for 17 years.

According to an internal memo seen by Risk.net, he has decided to retire from the firm he joined as an associate in 1999. After starting on the Japan equity derivatives desk, he became head of Asia-Pacific derivatives trading in 2006, and was promoted to co-head of Asia-Pacific equities trading in 2010. He assumed his current role in 2014.

Agne also serves as an Asia board member of Goldman Sachs Finance. He was named managing director in 2003 and partner in 2006.

The US bank has also promoted Ben Ferguson to co-head of Japan securities sales alongside Shinichi Yokote, according to another internal memo. Ferguson will retain his responsibilities as co-head of Asia-Pacific equities distribution. He joined the firm in 1998 and was named managing director in 2005 and partner in 2008.

Muhammad bin Ibrahim has been named as the next Bank Negara Malaysia governor, succeeding Zeti Akhtar Aziz, who stepped down on April 30.

Prime minister Najib Razak appointed Bin Ibrahim for a five-year term, effective May 1. He has served as deputy governor at the bank since 2010, and holds a master's degree from Harvard University.

Multi-asset execution and order-management system provider FlexTrade has boosted its Asia-Pacific sales force with three hires. Tim Wong, Maroof Khan and Dan Enstedt become vice-presidents of business development in multi-asset sales for the Asia-Pacific region.

Based at the company's Hong Kong office, Wong will focus on multi-asset execution management system (EMS) sales in North Asia.

Khan, who is also based at FlexTrade's Singapore office, will be responsible for multi-asset EMS sales in South-east Asia.

Enstedt will spearhead the establishment of FlexTrade's multi-asset business operations in Australia and New Zealand.

State Street Global Advisors has made two additions to its Asia-Pacific exchange-traded fund (ETF) team.

Matthew Arnold becomes head of ETF strategy and research, and Robin Tsui joins as ETF gold specialist, both within the Asia-Pacific SPDR ETF business.

Arnold was previously head of SPDR institutional ETF sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at SSGA, based in London. Tsui joins the company from the World Gold Council, where he worked in investment product and research. He has also worked at Bank of China International and Haitong International Securities Group.

Based in Singapore, Arnold reports to James MacNevin, SSGA's chief operating officer for the Asia-Pacific region, while Hong Kong-based Tsui reports to Arnold.

Deutsche Bank has hired Citi's global head of equity derivatives, James Boyle. He joins the German bank's Hong Kong office as co-head of global equity derivatives, and head of equities for Asia-Pacific.

Boyle replaces Deutsche Bank's former head of equities for Asia-Pacific, Robert Ebert, who has left the bank to focus on personal matters.

At Citi, David Haldane will replace Boyle as global head of equity derivatives in London.

Prior to this, Haldane had been head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa equity derivatives since 2014. He first joined Citi in 2011 from JP Morgan, where he was head of US flow derivatives trading.

Citi has hired Li-Gang Liu as chief economist for China. He joins from ANZ in Hong Kong, where he was chief economist for Greater China.

Prior to ANZ, Li-Gang held various research roles at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo, and the World Bank and Peterson Institute for International Economics, both in Washington DC.

Meanwhile, Ivan Szpakowski has left his position as a Hong Kong-based commodity analyst at Citi to become chief investment officer of Academia Capital, a new alternative macro hedge fund, sources say. Szpakowski worked for Citi from 2013 to 2016, and before that for Credit Suisse, according to his LinkedIn profile. A spokesman for Citi confirms Szpakowski left the bank in March. Szpakowski did not respond to requests for comment.