Scott Gaynor, a veteran Morgan Stanley banker and current chief operating officer for Asia, resigned last week and has been replaced by Paul Day.
Gaynor, who has spent 24 years with the firm across various roles, quit last week to pursue a new opportunity, according to sources close to the situation, who added that he will not be joining a competitor. Some other sources have speculated that he could be joining a hedge fund in a similar capacity to his last role at Morgan Stanley.
As chief operating officer for Asia-Pacific, Gaynor has covered Australia and Asia ex-Japan for the past two years. He was Asia COO for the institutional equity division (IED), which is the equity sales and trading business, before he became COO for the entire business. Gaynor has spent much of his career in the IED across various roles, including setting up equity platforms in Brazil, India and Korea.
Gaynor is still at Morgan Stanley though he will be departing quite soon, said a source close to the development. Day, who is currently head of operations for Asia for the US investment bank, has taken charge as Asia-Pacific COO. Day has also been with Morgan Stanley for 24 years, during which time he has held senior positions across finance and operations. He has worked in Asia for 13 years, including stints in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Mumbai. He was promoted to managing director in 2001.
The departure follows a few weeks after Owen Thomas, Morgan Stanley’s chief executive for Asia, relinquished his post, although in the case of Thomas his departure was precipitated by a desire to move back to the US, said sources. Thomas is also a Morgan Stanley veteran who has been with the US investment bank for 20 years.
In other news, Sanjay Dhir, who was J.P. Morgan’s business manager for global emerging markets (GEM) in Hong Kong, is moving to London to take on a larger responsibility as senior business manager for GEM and a part of the GEM management team, according to a memo FinanceAsia has seen. The team’s senior business managers for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and for the Americas will report to Dhir in his new role. He is expected to announce a new structure for GEM in Asia shortly, said a source close to the development.
Dhir will support James Kenny and Tarun Mahrotri, co-heads of GEM. He started his career with Jardine Fleming in London, then Mumbai, and was part of the team that moved to J.P. Morgan when the US investment bank bought Jardine Fleming. Dhir moved to Hong Kong with J.P. Morgan in 2001.
