Hong Kong bourse names Yiu, Buckley co-COOs as Tai retires

HONG KONG Exchanges & Clearing appointed Wilfred Yiu and John Buckley, who joined from Citadel in November, as co-chief operating officers after Calvin Tai retires after 24 years at the Asian bourse.

The appointment will be effective Jun 1, according to an exchange filing Friday. Tai will retire on May 31 and step down from all his positions.

Hong Kong's stock exchange (HKEX) last week reported a 31 per cent drop in profit in the first quarter, the biggest decline in almost 6 years, amid a drought in initial public offerings and plunging stock trading.

Chief executive officer Nicolas Aguzin, who has been on the job for almost a year, has vowed to build HKEX on its existing bonds with China and expand its international footprint.

Since Aguzin came on board, HKEX has recruited at least 9 top officers mostly from Wall Street investment banks, among which one third had ties to his own former firm, JPMorgan & Chase.

Tai, who joined the exchange in 1998, is among the longest serving staff member. He saw HKEX through listing in 2000 and transformed it from a members-exchange to a quasi-public organisation with nearly 6 per cent of the shares owned by the government.

In-between multiple leadership reshuffles throughout the decades, Tai was seen as a safe pair of hands to regulators and shareholders because of his familiarity with the operations and infrastructure. Tai was among the designers and led the execution of landmark projects such the trading link to China in 2014, and helped the bourse weather through some of the biggest scandals featuring penny stocks and bribery. BLOOMBERG