Deutsche hires head of corporate commodity sales

Deutsche Bank said yesterday that it has hired Stuart Smith as a managing director and head of corporate commodity sales for Asia ex-Japan. Smith, who will be based in Singapore, is joining from J.P. Morgan where he was an executive director within energy sales for Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia.

"[Smith's] broad range of industry and financial services experience strengthens our coverage capabilities at a time when demand for our commodity-linked financing, leasing and inventory monetisation products in Asia continues to grow," Venky Vishwanathan, Deutsche's co-head of corporate coverage and debt capital markets for Asia ex-Japan, said in the announcement.

Smith will report to Vishwanathan and his fellow co-head of corporate coverage and debt capital markets in region, Daniel Mamadou. Globally, he will also have a reporting line to Brian Cumming, global head of oil sales and origination. He is taking up his appointment immediately.

Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Smith was head of LNG trading at Goldman Sachs in London, where he established the US bank's LNG spot trading business. He began his career with Shell, where he worked in a number of roles across LNG sales, trading and marketing.

He holds a PhD in petroleum geology and geophysics from the University of Adelaide.