Former ADS Securities executive Louisa Kwok head back to the interbank world, becomes Executive Director at JP Morgan
Louisa Kwok spent just one year at ADS Securities, and has now returned to the Interbank OTC prime brokerage sector as Executive Director at JPMorgan. Ms Kwok’s interbank OTC prime brokerage experience spans 14 years across major institution in New York and London
In just one year, ADS Securities has experienced an outflow of senior executives, including its London CEO James Watson, as well as interbank prime brokerage stalwart Marco Baggioli.
In June this year, BNP Paribas and Morgan Stanley Prime Brokerage relationship specialist Louisa Kwok also left the firm after less than a year with the company where she held the position of Head of Prime Brokerage Sales and Product, based in London.
This week, Ms Kwok has embarked on her next executive posting, this time heralding a return to the interbank sector in which she was a senior figure for several years, facing OTC prime brokerage clients of large institutions since 2002.
Ms Kwok has this week commenced her tenure at JP Morgan in the capacity of Executive Director, representing a return to her former employer, where she spent seven years between 2002 and 2009 in the OTC Prime Brokerage division of the firm in London and New York. This time, Ms Kwok’s responsibilities involve the Custody and Fund Services operations.
Ms Kwok has this week left the company after less than one year from her appointment, and is a highly respected senior institutional electronic trading executive, having joined ADS Securities in August last year from BNP Paribas, where she spent almost four years, her ultimate post having been as Head of Relationship Management for EMEA in the Prime Solutions and Financing Division – that being the division of the bank which provides Tier 1 prime brokerage relationships to the OTC industry across all asset classes from commodities clearing, to FX and equity prime brokerage.
Louisa Kwok
Before joining BNP Paribas, Ms Kwok was Global Head of FX Prime Brokerage Negotiations at Morgan Stanley for three years, demonstrating that her position at ADS Securities gave her a distinct advantage in that she is absolutely au fait with how the prime brokerage divisions of the very banks upon which the entire OTC FX business depends structure their client relationships and dispense counterparty credit – a vital skill and knowledge set especially in these times of restricted access to Tier 1 liquidity that blights the entire FX business globally.
For ADS Securities, waving goodbye to senior talent has become the norm over the past twelve months, however FinanceFeeds can confidently put paid to any speculation that the company is reducing in size and market share, because whilst London is most certainly less of a priority, research in mainland China demonstrates that ADS Securities’ Abu Dhabi office serves a vast number of large high value IBs across China, many of them managing vast client portfolios.
In October last year, James Watson, CEO of ADS Securities’ London operations resigned from the company, simultaneous with structural changes made by the company.
At the time, Mr Watson, a former senior executive of FXall (now Thomson Reuters institutional ECN division) confirmed that the consolidation would not affect the firm’s ability to service clients or expand its business, and at the time he remained a member of the firm’s board of directors.
Upon his departure, Mr Watson said: “When I joined ADS Securities London Limited two years ago, my goal was to deliver against an ambitious growth strategy to provide the highest quality products and services to clients across Europe. The company is exceptionally well positioned and I feel we have achieved significant milestones. ADS Securities London Limited has a very talented sales team that will be supported by dedicated, customer-focused support teams in Abu Dhabi.”
In November last year, Mr. Watson, an astute and very senior institutional FX industry professional, made his diversion from the boardrooms of large electronic trading firms into an ultra-modern highly advanced startup where he now assists the board of a young, new and exciting ‘Drone Film & Video’ company called SkyFly Video Ltd to develop their products and strategy to build on their success to date.
The restructure also resulted in the moving on of Stephen Davie, one of the most experienced communications experts in the industry, Stephen Davie, who concludes his 5 year tenure at ADS Securities as Communications Director, taking on a Partnership position at specialist consultancy Dragon Advisory in November last year.
September this year marked the exodus of a further member of ADS Securities’ senior management team, this time interbank prime brokerage stalwart Marco Baggioli.
Mr Baggioli leaves ADS Securities after just over two years at the firm, commencing his tenure at the company’s global headquarters in Abu Dhabi, UAE as Executive Manager of Global Brokerage before moving to London to oversea the operational aspects of the company’s British division alongside astute and urbane CEO James Watson, before returning to the United Arab Emirates last year following his promotion to Chief Operating Officer.
