A top UBS hedge fund expert has left the bank in Hong Kong

Stephen Pak, a veteran alternative investment professional, has quit his executive director job at UBS in Hong Kong. Pak, who left in October, is on gardening leave and says he is now exploring other career options. UBS declined to comment on his exit.

We understand that Pak has not yet been replaced but that his departure was not part of a restructuring. UBS is culling about 40 jobs from its markets and investment banking teams in Asia, Bloomberg reported last month. The firm also announced plans in October to reduce CHF90m in global costs, mainly by trimming headcount.

Pak joined UBS in Hong Kong in September 2010 and held senior capital introduction jobs in UBS’s prime brokerage division, including APAC head of capital introduction, the team that introduces Asian hedge funds to potential investors. He serviced UBS’s “top-tiered hedge fund clients”, ran fund-raising campaigns for clients, and covered “key investors and institutions” in Asia, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Prime brokerage is becoming increasingly important to many banks as they try to prop up their underperforming equities divisions. Earlier this year BNP Paribas acquired Deutsche Bank’s prime brokerage business, in a deal that could see the transfer of up to 1,000 staff.

Prior to UBS, Pak spent more than six years at Credit Suisse as an alternative investments specialist, latterly at director level. He covered the bank’s hedge fund, distressed, private equity and secondary PE products.

Pak started his banking career in 1997 as an Asian equity product analyst at Goldman Sachs. In 2003, after completing an MBA from UCLA, he joined hedge fund research and investment firm SAIL Advisors for a brief stint.

Image credit: balipadma, Getty

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