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Millennium hires Sweeney for senior role

The former Hong Kong head of Lehman Brothers, Kirk Sweeney, is tipped to be taking over as Asia chief executive at US hedge fund Millennium Management.
 Millennium hires Sweeney for senior role

Millennium Management, an $18 billion US hedge fund, has taken on Kirk Sweeney, former Asia-Pacific head of senior relationship management (SRM) at Barclays and a Lehman Brothers veteran, in a senior role in Asia.

Sweeney is being tipped by sources as the successor to Kunho Cho, who served for three years as chief executive of Millennium Asia, based in Hong Kong. Cho left Millennium in March and is now CEO of PineStreet Group, an alternatives fund advisory firm based in Seoul.

A spokeswoman for Millennium in New York declined to comment to AsianInvestor on Sweeney’s role.

The CEO's remit entails overseeing the firm's business in the region, including interactions with government officials and regulators and relationships with Asian investors – therefore capital-raising.

Sweeney parted ways with Barclays in May, a bank spokesman confirmed. Since his departure, Deborah Ho, Southeast Asia head of SRM, and Anthony Davies, head of cash equities distribution for Asia ex-Japan, have been running the regional SRM business.

Sweeney joined Barclays in 2010 from Nomura, where he had been head of Asia fixed income sales. A 16-year veteran of Lehman in Asia – where he served as Hong Kong head – he transitioned to Nomura when it acquired the bankrupt US bank’s regional operations.   

Cho is also a Lehman veteran, having spent nearly 20 years at the bank, where was Asia-Pacific head of investment banking before its bankruptcy.

Another Lehman veteran, Hyung Lee, is Millennium’s global head of equities, based in New York. He was previously the hedge fund firm’s head of Asian capital markets. Before joining Millennium in 2008, Lee had spent 15 years at Lehman, with his last title being co-head of global fixed income.

Millennium earlier this year hired Asia hedge fund veteran Kurt Baker as head of business development for Asia, in a newly created role that entails scouting for potential portfolio managers in the region.

The firm has about 150 portfolio managers globally who run capital allocated from its multi-strategy Millennium International fund.

¬ Haymarket Media Limited. All rights reserved.
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