Citi’s Ben Valentine has been named as the new head of Citi’s pan-Asian electronic execution business. He will report to Paul Sanger.
According to a source at the bank, he has assumed the responsibilities of Ian Smith, who left the firm two weeks ago, amid speculation that he is headed to a senior execution role at Goldman Sachs.
Valentine was formerly in charge of pan-Asian electronic sales and coverage. He is now managing the entire pan-Asia product including the front office quants who build Citi’s algorithms.
In addition to his electronic execution he has also taken the helm for regional middle markets execution. Two members of the Hong Kong team will report to Valentine focusing on high touch coverage of those clients as well as supporting the execution needs of Asia-based clients trading into American, Europe, Middle East and Africa.