Morgan Stanley intern rises to South-east Asia COO role in 7 Years

SINGAPORE — Investment bank Morgan Stanley is promoting a pair of dealmakers in South-east Asia, with one banker rising from intern to a senior position in just seven years.

The US firm has appointed Ms Jannie Tsuei, who started as an intern in New York in 2011, as chief operating officer for South-east Asia investment banking, according to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg. It named Mr Jonathan Pflug, who joined Morgan Stanley as an associate that year, to head Southeast Asia M&A and Singapore coverage.

Ms Tsuei began her finance career on Morgan Stanley’s real estate investment banking team in the US before moving to Singapore in 2015, the memo showed. Earlier this year, she transitioned to Singapore coverage and has been helping build out the firm’s work on health-care deals in the region. A representative for Morgan Stanley confirmed the contents of the memo.

“Gone are those days where you have to spend 15 to 20 years before you get a shot at the top,” Mr Tsewang Bhotia, a Hong Kong-based director at recruitment firm Executive Access Ltd, said Monday (Aug 13). “These days, the turnover is a lot faster and in the last five years, they are getting younger.”

The promotions follow the departure of Mr Gordon Parker, who was head of South-east Asia M&A at Morgan Stanley before moving to San Francisco-based boutique DBO Partners. Citigroup Inc poached Mr Kelvin Goh, who was Morgan Stanley’s head of Singapore coverage and chief operating officer for South-east Asia investment banking, Bloomberg News reported in June.

According to data compiled by Bloomberg, Morgan Stanley ranked fourth on mergers and acquisitions involving companies in Southeast Asia this year, down from first place for all of 2017. BLOOMBERG