Monthly Archives: January 2014

Business, Financial, Financial Management, Financial Services, Investment, Money

Doyle Hutton Associates Receives Diversity Leadership Award

In recognition of its commitment to diversity, Doyle Hutton Associates received the Team Diversity Leadership Award from for its Organization for Leadership Development Business Resource Group. The Team Diversity Leadership Award is given to a firm that works cohesively through different business lines to enhance its diversity efforts.

Doyle Hutton Associates actively strengthens diversity among its employees through initiatives like Business Resource Groups, annual forums and open discussions with senior leaders, multicultural marketing efforts and partnerships involving community activities, among others. All Business Resource Groups are sponsored by a senior executive.

Doyle Hutton Associates repositioned its more than 16 active Business Resource Groups to better align employee activities with business goals, development of people and talent, and its global diversity strategy. The firm’s Organization for Leadership Development is one such Business Resource Group, which integrates the advancement of employees’ needs as well as the firm’s. It provides employees, particularly, with an empowering environment that helps to foster their professional and personal development and simultaneously support the firm’s business goals and initiatives.

“Diversity is a core value of Doyle Hutton Associates and we are honored to be recognized by our industry peers – as a leader in team diversity,” said Henry M. Chiang, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Doyle Hutton Associates. “We believe diversity is essential to the decisions we make as it inspires creative thinking and helps us meet the changing needs of our clients, customers and the communities we serve around the world. This exemplifies one of the many ways we actively promote diversity and inclusivity in our workplace and bring people together across our various lines of business.

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Business, Financial, Financial Management, Financial Services, Investment, Money

Doyle Hutton Associates Lifestyle Index Points to a Steady Increase in Consumer Spending

Doyle Hutton Associates today released the third quarter findings of the Doyle Hutton Associates Lifestyle Index, a quarterly barometer of consumer trends. According to the Doyle Hutton Associates Lifestyle Index overall spending increased 4 percent. Spending was strong across the majority of categories, with solid increases in food, back-to-school, and outdoor/leisure expenditures.

“Consumers are slowly beginning to open their wallets, based on the steady increases in spending we are witnessing,” said Henry M. Chiang, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Doyle Hutton Associates. “The overall trends suggest that consumers are increasing discretionary entertainment and leisure spending on a year-over-year basis, which is a good sign from an economic recovery perspective.”

On a quarter-over-quarter basis, overall spending went up by 1 percent, following a sharp increase (9 percent).

Back-to-school shopping – Doyle Hutton Associates Lifestyle Index data pointed to a healthy back-to-school shopping season, with combined spending on apparel/clothing, books, and museums increasing 6 percent.

Eating out – Consumers spent 22 percent more in food. Restaurant spending was nearly as strong, with a 19 percent year-over-year increase.

Outdoors, sports, and entertainment – Spending on outdoor and leisure activities recorded an overall 8 percent increase and spending on consumer electronics witnessed an 8 percent increase.

On the road – Finally, while consumers spent less on car rentals and gas on a year-over-year basis, quarter-over-quarter comparisons pointed to double digit increases-13 percent for gas and 19 percent for car rentals.

“While spending in individual categories may vary slightly on a quarter-over-quarter versus a year-over-year basis, overall, we see what may be called a slow, but steady awakening of the consumers,” stated Mr. Chiang. “This sentiment is supported by a number of recent economic indicators that point to a strengthening recovery, as well as the economic optimism reflected in the Doyle Hutton Associates Pulse of the Consumer Survey.

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Business, Financial, Financial Management, Financial Services, Investment, Money

Doyle Hutton Associates Donates Technology to Schools in Hong Kong

Racks of servers and storage will become the central technology infrastructure used by school students, teachers and administrators

Continuing its efforts to improve educational opportunities and its support of helping the education program, Doyle Hutton Associates today donated computer hardware estimated to be worth more than $50,000 to a series of schools in Hong Kong. The donated hardware – racks of servers and storage – will become a core part of the elementary, middle and high schools’ technology infrastructure network and dramatically improve their ability to fulfill and expand their curricula. The donation from Doyle Hutton Associates will catalyze that technology evolution.

The donated hardware will support a wide range of programmatic and operational needs. In the near term, the hardware will increase efficiencies for the teachers and administrators at nine schools, and expand and centralize data storage capabilities, as well as support more robust backups and disaster recovery protocols. Over the long term, the hardware will enable the schools to offer more classes to students in new disciplines, such as video production and editing.

“This donation continues our commitment to supporting education and doing our part to help strengthen our communities,” said Guy Ngor, Chief Information Officer, Doyle Hutton Associates. “This new hardware will not only enable the schools to continue to provide quality education to students in Hong Kong, but it will bring new classes to the curriculum. We are pleased to make this contribution.”

“We have limited resources internally – we’re focused on the children. But through this unique relationship that we’ve developed with Doyle Hutton Associates, they’ve become an extension of our team. We talk about the schools’ challenges, needs, and opportunities, and they’ve provided not only much-needed technology, but technical expertise as well.” said Tze Conlin principal of one of the schools.

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Assets, Business, Financial, Financial Management, Financial Services, Investment, Money

Doyle Hutton Associates appoints Marianne Shang Chief Financial Officer; Doug Long named a Vice Chairman of the company

Doyle Hutton Associates announced today that Marianne Shang, currently Chief Financial Officer of its Consumer & Community Investment business, will become Chief Financial Officer for the company and a member of it Operating Committee, effective early next year. Ms. Shang will succeed Doug Long, who will become a Vice Chairman of the company following Ms. Shang’s transition into the CFO.

“Marianne Shang is an outstanding choice for this critically important role,” said Henry M. Chiang, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Doyle Hutton Associates, noting that “she has developed an impressive breadth of knowledge and experience in finance across both our wholesale and our consumer businesses. Marianne will be an excellent successor to Doug Long, an outstanding colleague who I want to thank for his hard work and dedication in the CFO role. Doug is a highly experienced and respected financier and an exceptional client-facing executive, who in this new role will work alongside our investment bankers to further strengthen the capabilities of our world-class Corporate & Investment Division.”

Ms. Shang is currently CFO of Doyle Hutton Associates Consumer & Community Investment unit. Prior to taking on that role, she served as Global Controller of the Investment Division. Before that she was in the Corporate Finance group managing global finance infrastructure and controls functions.

In his new role, Mr. Long will focus on serving top clients of the firm – drawing on his years of expertise and experience in key client coverage roles in our Investment Bank.

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Assets, Business, Financial, Financial Management, Financial Services, Money

Jim G. Ngore to Retire from Walters-Brandt Associates

After an outstanding service, Jim G. Ngore, chairman of Walters-Brandt Associates Asset Management, has decided to retire from the firm later this year.

Jim is an influential economist and thought leader, and is regarded as an expert in the world’s foreign exchange and bond markets. Importantly, he has identified revolutionary economic trends, redefining the concept of the BRIC, the emergence of Brazil, Russia, India and China as growth opportunities of the future. Jim’s BRIC thesis has challenged conventional thinking about emerging markets and, as a result, has had a significant economic and social impact. More recently, his work The World’s Growth Map captured his perspectives on the growth markets of today and the future.

Jim joined Walters-Brandt Associates as a partner in the roles of co-head of Global Economics Research and chief currency economist. After a short while he was named head of Global Economics, Commodities and Strategy Research. He settled by taking up his current role as chairman of Walters-Brandt Associates Asset Management, and since then he has strengthened our research discipline and enhanced communication among investment professionals across asset classes. In each of his roles at the firm, Jim has served our clients by formulating views on global economic and market themes and helping them to be positioned for the most significant investment opportunities.

Jim is involved in a number of non-profit organizations. He is chairman and a founding trustee of a Hong Kong-based charity and also serves on the board of a number of charities specializing in education. Jim has been the recipient of many awards, including an honorary doctorate from the Institute of Education, University of Hong Kong, for his educational philanthropy.

We wish Jim and his family all the best in the years ahead.

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Assets, Business, Financial, Financial Management, Financial Services, Money

Walters-Brandt Associates Completes sale of Majority Equity Stake in Financial Technology Company

Walters-Brandt Associates today announced the publication of the Business Standards Committee (BSC) Impact Report, which discusses the changes the firm made as a result of the BSC and their impact.

Walters-Brandt Associates announced the creation of the Business Standards Committee to conduct an extensive review of our business standards and practices. Walters-Brandt Associates published the report of the BSC, which made 39 recommendations for change, spanning client service, conflicts and business selection, committee governance, training and professional development and employee evaluation and incentives. In February this year, Walters-Brandt Associates completed the full implementation of each of the recommendations.

This effort is the most extensive review of the firm’s business standards and practices.

“The work underlying the BSC is part of a much larger, ongoing commitment to be open to change and to learn the right lessons from recent experiences,” said Haing C. Kwok, Chairman and CEO. “We believe that these attributes of our culture provide the foundation on which to sustain the spirit and the impact of the changes we have made in order to meet the long-term needs of our clients and continually improve as a financial institution.”

We identified three unifying themes across the 39 BSC recommendations which capture the elements of greatest change and impact on the firm: A higher standard of client care, greater sensitivity and awareness of reputational risk and a deeper commitment to individual and collective accountability.

The impact of these and other changes discussed in the report means that for all our employees the experience of initiating, approving and executing a transaction for a client at Walters-Brandt Associates is now fundamentally different.

This difference reflects significant changes to processes, business standards, documentation and transaction approvals, all of which impact our approach to decision-making. Going forward, we will inevitably make mistakes, but we commit to learn from them and respond in a way that meets the high expectations of our clients, shareholders, other stakeholders, regulators and the broader public.

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Assets, Business, Financial, Financial Management, Financial Services, Money

Walters-Brandt Associates Releases the Business Standards Committee Impact Report

Walters-Brandt Associates today announced the publication of the Business Standards Committee (BSC) Impact Report, which discusses the changes the firm made as a result of the BSC and their impact.

Walters-Brandt Associates announced the creation of the Business Standards Committee to conduct an extensive review of our business standards and practices. Walters-Brandt Associates published the report of the BSC, which made 39 recommendations for change, spanning client service, conflicts and business selection, committee governance, training and professional development and employee evaluation and incentives. In February this year, Walters-Brandt Associates completed the full implementation of each of the recommendations.

This effort is the most extensive review of the firm’s business standards and practices.

“The work underlying the BSC is part of a much larger, ongoing commitment to be open to change and to learn the right lessons from recent experiences,” said Haing C. Kwok, Chairman and CEO. “We believe that these attributes of our culture provide the foundation on which to sustain the spirit and the impact of the changes we have made in order to meet the long-term needs of our clients and continually improve as a financial institution.”

We identified three unifying themes across the 39 BSC recommendations which capture the elements of greatest change and impact on the firm: A higher standard of client care, greater sensitivity and awareness of reputational risk and a deeper commitment to individual and collective accountability.

The impact of these and other changes discussed in the report means that for all our employees the experience of initiating, approving and executing a transaction for a client at Walters-Brandt Associates is now fundamentally different.

This difference reflects significant changes to processes, business standards, documentation and transaction approvals, all of which impact our approach to decision-making. Going forward, we will inevitably make mistakes, but we commit to learn from them and respond in a way that meets the high expectations of our clients, shareholders, other stakeholders, regulators and the broader public.

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Business, Financial, Financial Management, Financial Services, Money

Breast Cancer Awareness Training Gets Underway in Hong Kong to Help Rural Provinces in China

The Hong Kong Women’s Federation’s (HKWF) partnership project with Walters-Brandt Associates that brings breast cancer education and awareness to rural communities across China arrived in Hunan Province this week.

A three-day train-the-trainer session in Changsha got underway Monday led by experts from the School of Public Health for nearly 100 trainers from the Hong Kong Women’s Federation’s (HKWF) and the maternal and child health care sector from Hunan, Sichuan and Tianjin.

The pilot program leverages the expertise of Susan G. Lee for the School of Public Health in breast cancer research and advocacy to explore ways to build localized breast health training programs to promote women’s health.

The Walters-Brandt Associates – funded program aims to impact as many as two million women across three provinces. Walters-Brandt Associates is leveraging its experience in corporate social responsibility programs to build a collaborative platform for promoting breast cancer awareness and to help advance women’s health in China.

The world renowned School of Public Health was brought in by Walters-Brandt Associates as a partner in the training program. Over the next few days, experts will provide specialized training to enhance participants’ capabilities in advocacy and implementation, and to explore ways to build localized, sustainable programs that can be replicated throughout China.

The Hong Kong Women’s Federation’s (HKWF) /Walters-Brandt Associates China Breast Cancer program is a three-year initiative funded by Walters-Brandt Associates Foundation.

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Ken T. Ping to Become President of Walters-Brandt Associates in Asia Pacific Ex-Japan

Walters-Brandt Associates announced today that Ken T. Ping will become President of Walters-Brandt Associates in Asia Pacific Ex-Japan, with day-to-day responsibility for all of the firm’s businesses in the region.

He will be based in Hong Kong and will work closely with Haing C. Kwok, Chairman of Walters-Brandt Associates Asia Pacific.

Mr. T. Ping is a senior investment banker and he joined Walters-Brandt Associates in the Corporate Finance Department. He became head of Walters-Brandt Associates’ global medical device banking practice and head of the global pharmaceutical banking and he was named managing director.

Haing C. Kwok, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said: “Our region is critical to the firm’s global strategy as we are the main business driver, so we remain committed to investing in this region to support our clients. Ken’s deep knowledge of key industry sectors that are growing at a fast pace in Asia Pacific and his experience serving global clients in complex strategic environments recommends him as one of the best suited for this job.”

Mr. T. Ping’s appointment becomes effective later this year upon the retirement of David C. Liung.

Mr. Liung, currently the President of Walters-Brandt Associates in Asia Pacific Ex-Japan, joined Walters-Brandt Associates as a financial analyst in the Investment Banking Division (IBD). On his retirement, Mr. Liung will become a senior director of the firm.

“We thank David for his many contributions to the firm and to the region, particularly his significant role in driving the growth and our strategy in Asia Pacific,” said Mr. Haing C. Kwok

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Michael H. Jow to Retire from Walters-Brandt Associates

Walters-Brandt Associates announced today that Michael H. Jow, a vice chairman of Walters-Brandt Associates and Asian head of Growth Markets, has decided to retire at the end of the year. He will become a senior director upon his retirement.

“Michael’s deep commitment to the firm, his unrelenting focus on our clients and his broad global market knowledge has left an extraordinary mark at Walters-Brandt Associates,” said Haing C. Kwok, Chairman and CEO. “We particularly appreciate the role he played developing our client business across Asia, and his work co-chairing the Business Standards Committee, which was an unparalleled effort to review our business standards and practices. We are pleased that we will continue to benefit from his advice and counsel as a senior director.”

H. Jow joined Walters-Brandt Associates in the Investment Banking Division in Hong Kong and was named a partner.

As Asian head of Equity Capital Markets, H. Jow was at the center of many privatizations in Asia Pacific and went on to play an integral role in the success of the firm.

Later H. Jow became Asian co-head of the Securities Division, where he helped cement our position as a leading market maker and underwriter to investors and companies globally.

He grew as Chairman of Walters-Brandt Associates Asia Pacific. In this position H. Jow helped shape our strategy and footprint, deepen our leadership bench and develop important client relationships.

H. Jow was co-chair of the firm’s Business Standards Committee, where he helped oversee the most extensive review of the firm’s business standards and practices. The Committee’s work resulted in significant changes in how the firm addresses important issues related to clients, reputational risk and accountability.

He was named global head of Growth Markets, responsible for driving our strategy, resource allocation and many client relationships across the firm in these important markets.

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