HKEX’s New CEO Reorganizes Operations in Fifth Week on the Job

(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. shuffled its management team and reorganized its corporate structure as Nicolas Aguzin makes his mark on the company five weeks after taking over as chief executive officer.

Aguzin shifted all of the company's products, services, market-facing and operations teams into two new divisions: the markets unit, which will be co-led by Wilfred Yiu and Glenda So, and the operations unit, which will be overseen by Chief Operating Officer Calvin Tai, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News.

The original management committee, which comprised 15 of the most-senior managers, will split in two, with eight members reporting directly to Aguzin, including the heads of markets, listings and risk function, and the rest reporting to Tai. Group Chief Compliance Officer Adam Singer will join the committee as well. Romnesh Lamba, the current co-president, will move off the management committee and become senior adviser to the CEO.

Among the other changes, James Fok, who was behind HKEX's surprise but failed acquisition offer to London Stock Exchange Plc, came back to lead the fixed-income product development department.

Read more on recent changes at HKEX:
HKEX Appoints JPMorgan's Adam Singer as Chief Compliance Officer
HKEX Board Sets Up Committee on Listing Operation Governance
Hong Kong Bourse Is Recruiting a Dozen New Risk Managers

“These changes focus on ensuring the group's organizational structure is fully aligned to the needs of its customers,” the company said in an emailed statement Friday. The changes take effect Aug. 1, according to the memo.

The Hong Kong exchange doubled its revenue in a decade under the previous CEO, Charles Li, who tied the bourse closer to China through a landmark stock- and bond-trading link. But the company has struggled to get past a scandal involving a former co-head of IPO vetting.

Its overture to the LSE in September 2019 also highlighted tensions between China and the West, where HKEX has faced skepticism. The appointment of Aguzin, a veteran of JPMorgan Chase & Co., as its first non-Chinese CEO was seen as a sign of the city's openness and its role as a gateway between China and the rest of the world, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui said earlier this year.