Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) has appointed a senior advisor for technology from the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) as its head of infrastructure and operations.
Niguel Brooks joined the exchange operator this week, reporting to HKEX group chief technology officer, Richard Leung. Brooks will be responsible for information security management and hosting services, and act as Leung’s deputy in Hong Kong.
“We are delighted to welcome [Brooks] to HKEX. His twenty years of international experience and his background in IT infrastructure and operations will be invaluable to HKEX and I am very much looking forward to welcoming him to the team,” Leung commented.
Brooks joined HKEX from ASX where he was previously a strategic advisor on information technology. Prior to that, he was part of the senior IT management team at the Singapore Exchange (SGX), where he was responsible for the firm’s infrastructure and hosting services.
HKEX’s infrastructure and operations team oversees the exchange group’s IT infrastructure and application systems. HKEX also confirmed that Alfred Lai, its managing director for information technology for more than 14 years, has announced his intention to retire at the end of June.
“On behalf of the company, I would like to thank Alfred for his considerable contributions and long service to HKEX,” Leung added. He has made significant contributions to the reliability to the IT operations at HKEX during his tenure. We wish him a very happy retirement.”
In February, HKEX said it had acquired a 51% equity stake in Shenzhen-based exchange and regulation technology firm, Ronghui Tongjin Technology. Ronghui Tongjin provides IT services to Chinese securities, asset management, regulatory agencies and integrated finance firms.