HH_Poll_2009

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IStaff at banks have been on the front line as far as the global financial crisis is concerned,with bonuses slashed and entire teams of people let go. It was a challenging environmentfor the region’s recruiters too, with firing strongly outstripping hiring. Richard Morrowexamines firms that have prospered in the toughest year in a decade.

In the financial industry, headhunters tend to make haywhile the sun shines. Unfortunately, 2008 was a distinctlyovercast year, and the coming 12 months look darker still.

As news of spiralling sub-prime losses emerged and thecost of debt surged, bank after bank found itself contemplat-ing a bleak outlook for 2009. And in a people-intensiveindustry, one of the first costs to consider is the huge sumsbeing paid to its stars.

For the industry’s recruiters, this has been a mixed bless-ing. On the bright side, highly skilled professionals whowere once completely uninterested in moving jobs are noweither out on the street or restless as they face the prospectof greatly reduced compensation. That has offeredrecruiters a swelling pool of talent that they can offer theirclients.

Yet there is very little desire to hire among banks orfunds, as they prioritise cost cuts. Only the occasionalopportunity to upgrade personnel is presenting itself at themoment. As a result, most of the region’s headhunters haveseen their revenue streams collapse from an admittedlyrecord 2007. Some estimate drops of more than 50%.

But if Asiamoney’s Headhunters Poll 2009 is anything togo by, the services of a good recruitment firm are beingviewed by senior decision-makers as of unprecedentedimportance. We recorded 725 valid responses from seniorexecutives in the Asia-Pacific region, all of whom have hir-ing power. It easily our largest response level ever, nearlydouble the number of last year.

This increased response has led to some surprisingchanges in the rankings of headhunters and recruitmentfirms in our poll. The unpleasant environment has evidentlyforced many banks to reconsider which firms will continueto deliver.

METEORIC RISESThe most notable company winner is Wellesley Partners,which is still one of the region’s fresh-faced recruitmentagencies. It jumps from sixth place overall in 2008 to bevoted the top headhunting firm for Asia ex-Japan.

The 11-strong company was only set up in 2005, but inless than four years it has gained a lot of ground. Wellesleytops the company categories of investment banking, primebroking, and fixed income and comes second in derivativesand structured products.

Many of its staff are widely admired. Christian Brunretains his hold as the top individual headhunter for invest-ment banking; Loretta Chan once again is voted the bestindividual for fixed income, debt, treasury and debt capitalmarket people moves; and Sophie Pasha is voted the bestheadhunter for prime broking coverage.

Brun believes the secret of the firm’s success lies in hav-ing very strong ties to a small group of partners. “We’vestuck to our approach and worked with select clients with

whom we do as much as possible,” he says. “Some of ourcompetition may have spread themselves too thin.”

Many boutique firms will only work on a retainer basisfor senior hires, restricting their deal flow in tougher times.Other firms adopt a contingency strategy, only being paid ifthe candidates they submit are accepted, and tending toaccept lower rates. “We try to place a lot of people for oneclient and build a whole team, instead of just one seniormember,” says Brun.

Just as impressive as Wellesley’s performance is themeteoric rise of Matthew Hoyle International. The man incharge of his eponymous firm was voted the best overallheadhunter in Asia, while he and his company topped abroad array of categories, including cash equities, deriva-tives and structured products, bank and finance technology.Additionally, Hoyle was voted the best headhunter for buy-side and hedge funds, private equity, and middle/backoffice coverage. It’s an impressive breadth of nominations.

For private banking, newcomer Lionrock Internationalsteals the limelight. Alice Liu, formerly of Pelham SearchPacific, set the company up in the second half of 2008.Despite the move she maintained her hold on the title ofAsia’s best private banking headhunter, and was also votedthe second-most popular headhunter overall, according toour poll respondents. She keeps industry admired PhilipEisenbeiss of Executive Access in second place.

Market stalwart Executive Access has seen its rankingsslip over the year. It continues to head private equity,although Anita Chan of the firm is voted second best head-hunter. Meanwhile veteran headhunting firm Global Sageheads up buy-side and hedge funds coverage, although MayKoon is pipped at the post by Hoyle and takes second spotfor the individual nomination.

JAPAN’S WINNERSJapan’s headhunting market has seen less of a sea-change inthe most impressive firms. Eban still impresses our votersthe most and is the country’s top-rated firm overall,although Simon Hayes drops from top spot to fourth thisyear.

Eban retains its number one position for cash equitiescoverage, investment banking and buy-side/hedge fundstoo. Hayes is voted the best headhunter for investmentbanking in this part of the industry.

Instead, Matthew Miller of Global Sage rises from sixthin 2008 to take the top overall individual position this year.He is also voted top headhunter for fixed income and deriva-tives and structured products, while his firm is voted top inthese two categories as well.

However, despite his impressive performance, Millerconfesses: “Being voted number one is a bit of a surprise tome. The way I personally work is to develop very close part-nerships. But given the way the market fell this year, I think

Talent-finders adapt to tough times

HEADHUNTERS POLL

36 FEBRUARY 2009 ASIAMONEY

HEADHUNTERS POLL

my good standing in the poll was due to standing by ourclients and making sure they really trust me, almost becom-ing part of management infrastructure.”

T2 Tokyo and its representative Bruce Lepore top ourfirst coverage of bank and finance technology recruitment inJapan. The firm also takes first place for middle and backoffice coverage, while James Graham and Hiroshi Kurosakatake the top two individual spots in this field, respectively.

Kojiro Nojiri of Tiglon Partners is voted the top individualfor cash equities, just beating Simon Spencer of SpencerAssociates, although he does come first for buy-side andhedge funds coverage. And while Robert Walters is the com-pany voted best for human resources, it is the individualNeal Walters of Wall Street Associates who takes the individ-ual plaudits for this area.

FIGHT FOR SURVIVALThe winners of our Headhunters Poll 2009 all deserve praisefor impressing their clientele and candidates in the midst ofwoeful market conditions.

Banks continue to labour under counterparty pressuresand colossal funding problems, and there is no sign thatfinancial markets will improve any time soon.

This has led to the banks slashing their once-lucrativeannual bonuses. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, theWall Street stalwarts, are understood to have pared backtheir pay packets for managing directors by 60% to 70% onaverage, and dropped their bonuses for medium-level staffby 40% to 50% and for vice-presidents by 30% to 40%down, respectively.

Meanwhile, there is almost a daily flow of news about jobcuts. Citi, HSBC, J.P. Morgan and the newly formed Bank ofAmerica/Merrill Lynch announced global redundanciestotalling tens of thousands over the last three months, andall investment banks have had to chop back their teams. Asiahas been spared the worst of this but it has still been impact-ed as revenues dry up.

Many bankers, some mediocre, others very good, endedup on the street, while those still in employment are fumingthat their hard work is not being remunerated with theannual cash bonanza that they had become used to. Manywould love to shift jobs, but while the supply of quality can-didates has never been greater, the job opportunities remainslim.

Virtually the only exception to this shedding of jobs hasbeen the emerging markets-focused Standard Chartered,and even it has very finite ambitions.

DO OR DIEBut just as banks continue to close, consolidate or shed jobs,so the region’s recruitment advisers are thinning out as thefocus on firing rather than hiring hits their bottom lines.

In May 2008 Akamai, which had previously been better-known as Alexander Mann, collapsed, and shortly after-wards so did Whitney Group. Headhunters privately confessto worrying about the coming year.

“If you’re a very small entrepreneurial firm you may beokay, as you can tailor yourself to what a client wants,” saysone senior recruiter.

“And if you’re a global player you may have the resourcesto survive. Mid-sized boutique firms with sizeable over-heads will struggle and could fragment, as we’ve alreadyseen.”

The most surprising development in Asia’s recruit-ment circles in 2008 was the aggressive expansion ofglobal recruitment consultant Heidrick and Strugglesinto the region. The US firm splurged huge sums ofmoney to bring together a triumvirate of arguably themost senior team of investment banking and marketsheadhunters in the region.

Whitney old-hand Harry O’Neill started at the begin-ning of 2008 as head of its Asia financial markets, thenhired ex-Asia Akamai head Daren Kemp in July, and final-ly agreed to employ the much-respected StephenMcAlinden from Eban, the company he helped to form inthe mid-1990s, in late 2008.

Combined, the three men are believed to be costingHeidrick several million US dollars a year, so the firm istaking a big bet on these three, especially given that inJanuary it announced a 12% overall cut in staff globallyvia restructuring.

Asiamoney’s Headhunter Poll winners such asWellesley, Matthew Hoyle, Eban and Global Sage cannotboast Heidrick’s resources. That means they will have torely on what has made them stand out so far: nimblenessand fresh ideas.

“We are small and lean versus some of the big head-hunters, and there is nobody we can afford to lose,” saysWellesley’s Brun. “But we’re not resting on our laurels.We’re taking advantage of what transfer opportunitiesexist and are focused on doing very specific searches forour clients.”

The firms that will survive the next 12 months willalso have to consider branching out beyond pure peopleplacement.

“We are doing consulting fees and we’ll aim to domore of that sort of work. There are advantages to doingthat,” says Global Sage’s Miller. This consulting workconsists of cost analysis, headcount analysis, staff effi-ciency discussions and management counselling. “Wecan do what McKinsey does but don’t charge half a mil-lion dollars for it,” he says.

Heidrick evidently has similar ambitions. The firmjust announced plans to raise its leadership advisorybusiness from 4% to 40% of the firm’s revenues in fiveyears.

There are valid reasons for this emphasis on alterna-tive revenue sources. The true worry for all boutiquefinancial recruitment firms is that the global financialcrisis has killed off their once-lucrative retained businessmodels for good.

With no sign of an end in sight to the financial crisis,banks will have very small hiring needs for a year at least.And they have never faced so much pressure to reducethe amounts that they pay their bankers. As these institu-tions seek to trim costs, expensive retained searches aregoing to become a lot less popular. That is bound to havea huge impact on the money that the headhunters relyingon such searches make, and that in turn will force themto drop their rates, pressurising them even more.

As the region’s investment banking and fund manage-ment industries continue to go through the wringer, thecompanies represented this year will also be impacted.

The stormy financial weather is going to claim severalmore recruitment firms before it is done. And the sur-vivors are likely to look very different from today.

Best headhunters for 2009

Best Headhunting Firms (Accumulation of all categories)

RANK 2008 FIRM %

1 6 Wellesley Partners 8.68

2 11 Matthew Hoyle Financial Markets 7.97

3 1 Global Sage 5.36

4 13 Profile Search & Selection 4.87

5 7 The Laurus Group 4.85

6 4 Webbe International 4.50

7 5 Executive Access 4.21

8 - Lionrock International 3.59

=9 2 Pelham 3.35

=9 15 Heidrick & Struggles 3.35

Best Headhunting Executives (Accumulation of all categories)

RANK 2008 NAME FIRM %

1 3 Matthew Hoyle Matthew Hoyle Financial Markets 9.68

2 2 Alice Liu Lionrock International 5.12

3 7 Christian Brun Wellesley Partners 3.33

4 1 May Koon Global Sage 3.30

5 - Nick Green The Laurus Group 2.57

6 12 Aaron Stewart Pemberton Stewart 2.54

7 10 Loretta Chan Wellesley Partners 2.27

8 - Nick Henderson Wellesley Partners 2.23

9 6 Philip Eisenbeiss Executive Access 2.20

10 - Paul Quinn Nisus Executive Search 2.06

Japan

Best Headhunting Firms (Accumulation of all categories)

RANK 2008 FIRM %

1 1 Eban 8.65

2 4 Robert Walters 8.57


4 16 T2 Tokyo 7.00

5 3 Spencer Associates 6.01

6 8 Morgan McKinley 5.02

7 10 Heidrick & Struggles 4.37

8 6 Tardis Group 4.04

9 9 Wall Street Associates 3.71

10 - Tiglon Partners 2.97

Best Headhunting Executives(Accumulaton of all categories)

RANK 2008 NAME FIRM %

1 6 Matthew Miller Global Sage 6.69

2 3 Simon Spencer Spencer Associates 5.99

3 =9 James Graham T2 Tokyo 4.34

4 1 Simon Hayes Eban 3.76

5 =14 Kojiro Nojiri Tiglon Partners 3.64

6 7 Steven McCrindle Eban 3.29

7 - Junko Kannami Morgan McKinley 2.70

8 - Matthew Hoyle Matthew Hoyle Financial Markets 2.23

=9 8 Kevin Lim Spencer Associates 2.11

=9 =4 John Wright Global Sage 2.11

Asia ex-Japan

asiamoney.com 37


HEADHUNTERS POLL

ASIA EX-JAPAN BEST HEADHUNTING EXECUTIVES

Rank 2008* Name Firm %

1 Sophie Pasha Wellesley Partners 30.36

2 Matthew Hoyle Matthew Hoyle Fin. Markets 26.79

3 Sarah Arblaster Sheffield Haworth 8.93

* Results not published in 2008

PRIVATE BANKING

BEST HEADHUNTING FIRMS

Rank 2008 Firm %

1 - Lionrock International 26.12

2 2 Executive Access 12.95

3 6 ExecCapital 6.70

BEST HEADHUNTING EXECUTIVES

Rank 2008 Name Firm %

1 1 Alice Liu Lionrock International 29.97

2 2 Philip Eisenbeiss Executive Access 12.92

=3 - Paul Quinn Nisus International Search 7.75

=3 5 Rachel Yin ExecCapital 7.75

BUY-SIDE / HEDGE FUNDS


Rank 2008* Firm %


2 =3 Webbe International 8.02

3 - Matthew Hoyle Financial Markets 7.35

* Buy-Side / Hedge Funds = 2008 ranking of Buy-Side / Hedge Funds / Private Equity



1 - Matthew Hoyle Matthew Hoyle Fin. Markets 9.59

2 1 May Koon Global Sage 9.01

3 5 Jeremy Harris Wellesley Partners 7.85


PRIVATE EQUITY


Rank 2008* Firm %

1 Executive Access 13.41

2 Matthew Hoyle Financial Markets 9.42

3 Global Sage 8.70

* Category not polled seperately in 2008




=2 Anita Chan Executive Access 6.15

=2 Jag Dhaliwall Webbe International 6.15

=2 Michael Di Cicco Global Sage 6.15

* Category not polled seperately in 2008

BANK & FINANCE TECHNOLOGY


Rank 2008* Firm %


2 Robert Walters 11.40

3 Profile Search and Selection 7.77

* Category not polled in 2008

CASH EQUITIES


Rank 2008 Firm %


2 3 Pelham 10.18




1 2 Matthew Hoyle Matthew Hoyle Fin. Markets 12.63

2 3 Justin McLennan Pelham 11.36

3 7 Nick Henderson Wellesley Partners 7.83

FIXED INCOME / DEBT / TREASURY / DCM


Rank 2008 Firm %

1 =7 Wellesley Partners 13.27

2 - Pemberton Stewart 11.48

3 =2 Global Sage 6.89



1 1 Loretta Chan Wellesley Partners 16.16

=2 2 Aaron Stewart Pemberton Stewart 8.08

=2 - Phil Pemberton Pemberton Stewart 8.08

DERIVATIVES / STRUCTURED PRODUCTS (ALL PRODUCT AREAS)


Rank 2008 Firm %


2 - Wellesley Partners 12.02

3 - Pemberton Stewart 7.44




2 2 Aaron Stewart Pemberton Stewart 7.98

3 - Sophie Pasha Wellesley Partners 7.45

INVESTMENT BANKING / CORPORATE FINANCE / M&A / ECM


Rank 2008 Firm %

1 2 Wellesley Partners 22.50

2 1 The Laurus Group 19.04

3 6 Eban 6.73



1 1 Christian Brun Wellesley Partners 21.17

2 2 Nick Green The Laurus Group 13.29

3 5 Jason Orange The Laurus Group 7.66

PRIME BROKING


Rank 2008* Firm %

1 Wellesley Partners 26.32


3 Sheffield Haworth 9.21

* Results not published in 2008

asiamoney.com 41

JAPAN



1 =3 Matthew Miller Global Sage 18.27

=2 - Kojiro Nojiri Tiglon Partners 5.77

=2 - Samuel Gilbert Tardis Group 5.77

DERIVATIVES / STRUCTURED PRODUCTS (all product areas)


Rank 2008 Firm %


=2 1 Eban 8.54

=2 3 Tardis Group 8.54




2 =2 Kevin Lim Spencer Associates 7.44

=3 - Matthew Hoyle Matthew Hoyle Fin. Markets 5.79

=3 1 Simon Hayes Eban 5.79

INVESTMENT BANKING / CORPORATE FINANCE / M&A / ECM


Rank 2008 Firm %

1 1 Eban 18.75


3 =9 Russell Reynolds Associates 7.50

INVESTMENT BANKING/CORPORATE FINANCE/M&A/ECM (CONT.)



1 1 Simon Hayes Eban 28.30

2 =3 John Wright Global Sage 15.09

=3 - Jun Hongo Tardis Group 5.66

=3 - Kevin Lim Spencer Associates 5.66

=3 =6 Matthew Miller Global Sage 5.66

=3 - Mitsuyuki Domoto A-TEN Associates 5.66

BUY-SIDE / HEDGE FUNDS


Rank 2008* Firm %

1 1 Eban 19.26


=3 =7 Heidrick & Struggles 5.93

=3 - Tiglon Partners 5.93





2 3 Steven McCrindle Eban 17.20

3 - Kojiro Nojiri Tiglon Partners 8.60


CASH EQUITIES


Rank 2008 Firm %

1 1 Eban 16.28





=1 7 Kojiro Nojiri Tiglon Partners 12.12

=1 3 Simon Spencer Spencer Associates 12.12


FIXED INCOME / DEBT / TREASURY / DCM


Rank 2008 Firm %


2 3 Tardis Group 9.42


ASIA EX-JAPAN CONT.BEST HEADHUNTING EXECUTIVES

Rank 2008*Name Firm %


=2 Paul Quinn Nisus International Search 7.41

=2 Sommer Owens Robert Walters 7.41


MIDDLE / BACK-OFFICE


Rank 2008 Firm %

1 - Profile Search & Selection 8.15

=2 - Kerry Consulting 7.33

=2 3 Morgan McKinley 7.33




2 - Carol Cheung Hudson 5.20

3 - Audrey Chan Kerry Consulting 4.80

HUMAN RESOURCES


Rank 2008 Firm %

1 1 Profile Search and Selection 31.35


3 =8 Hudson 5.41



1 3 Stuart Elliot Profile Search & Selection 18.45

2 1 Richard Letcher Profile Search & Selection 16.50

3 - Matthew Hoyle Matthew Hoyle Fin. Markets 8.74

HEADHUNTERS POLL

JAPAN CONT.BEST HEADHUNTING EXECUTIVES


1 2 James Graham T2 Tokyo 17.96

2 - Hiroshi Kurosaka T2 Tokyo 4.85


HUMAN RESOURCES


Rank 2008 Firm %

1 =1 Robert Walters 26.26

2 =1 Wall Street Associates 10.10

3 - Profile Search & Selection 9.09



1 =1 Neal Walters Wall Street Associates 16.95

2 3 Darren Wada Robert Walters 15.25

=3 - Junko Kannami Morgan McKinley 10.17

=3 =1 Mark Kadillak Hays 10.17

BANK & FINANCE TECHNOLOGY


Rank 2008* Firm %

1 T2 Tokyo 17.09

2 Robert Walters 16.24

3 Wall Street Associates 9.40




1 Bruce Lepore T2 Tokyo 19.18

2 Karim Hakam Wall Street Associates 12.33

3 Adriana Alexandrescu Executive Search Int’l 9.59


MIDDLE / BACK-OFFICE


Rank 2008 Firm %

1 3 T2 Tokyo 17.25


3 2 Morgan McKinley 8.63

METHODOLOGYIn the 9th annual headhunters poll senior executives, key to hiring decisions within Asia-Pacific’s financial services industry, were asked their views of the bestheadhunters and recruiters in the region. Asiamoney received 861 completed questionnaires.

Prior to the launch of the poll Asiamoney mapped out a target list of decision makers within key financial institutions and only responses from these individualswere accepted. During the auditing process Asiamoney further verified responses by speaking directly to respondents; 136 responses were made void due to theirfailure to fulfill requirements – 563 relating to Asia ex-Japan and 162 relating to Japan.

The final response breakdown by product area is as follows (some respondents are responsible for more than one product area):

Product Area Individual responses No. of institutions No. of search No. of individualsrepresented firms nominated nominated

ASIA JAPAN ASIA JAPAN ASIA JAPAN ASIA JAPANCash Equities 112 29 82 26 59 28 64 23FI/Debt/Treasury/DCM 92 32 67 24 50 28 50 31Derivatives/Structured Products 120 45 83 34 68 33 64 30IB/Corporate Finance/M&A/ECM 113 18 63 18 47 17 48 14Buy-Side/Hedge Funds 103 35 91 30 51 33 56 23Private Equity 1 68 - 63 - 45 - 41 -Prime Broking 1 19 - 17 - 15 - 11 -Private Banking 1 107 - 76 - 54 - 42 -Banking & Finance Technology 47 26 37 24 47 21 21 21Middle-/Back-Office 2 105 54 82 41 61 34 67 52Human Resources 45 21 40 21 26 15 24 13

1 Results in Japan have not been published due to a lacking response, however votes for the individuals still contribute to their overall scores.2 Includes Operations, Compliance, Audit, Legal, Marketing & Communications and Financial Reporting.

For each of the eleven product areas polled respondents were asked their view of the three best headhunting/executive search firms and the three best individualheadhunters in the market(s) in which they are responsible for hiring. Three points were awarded to firms/individuals with a first place ranking, two for secondplace and one for third. For the overall rankings, Asiamoney calculated the accumulative score for each firm/individual nominated.

Asiamoney would like to thank those who helped design the questionnaire, as well as all respondents for their participation. Extended results of the poll are alsoavailable on our website, www.asiamoney.com.


Documents

HH_Poll_2009