The Hong Kong stock exchange on February 9 announced the appointment of Alejandro Nicolas Aguzin as Chief Executive of HKEX, effective from May 24, 2021 to May 23, 2024 and subject to the approval of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. The appointment concludes the brief search that followed former CE Charles Li's retirement on December 31, 2020. Aguzin will take over from the interim CE, Calvin Tai.

Aguzin is presently the Chief Executive Officer of JP Morgan’s International Private Bank. Prior to this, he was the Chairman and CEO of JP Morgan's Asia Pacific business from 2012 to 2020, and before that the CEO of the Latin America business. He has spent three decades with the bank in total.

Laura M Cha, Chairman of HKEX, said that Aguzin's extensive international and regional experience and his knowledge of Mainland China will be invaluable to the exchange. “As a highly respected and experienced executive, his broad experience in Greater China, the Americas and globally, makes him extremely well-placed to lead HKEX as we enter a post-COVID world, with the many opportunities and challenges that this will bring. Mr Aguzin’s skills and expertise will help us drive forward our strategy, utilizing our deep China experience, but also reinforcing our international reach and relevance,” she said.

Aguzin said of his upcoming move: “I am deeply honoured to be asked to lead the world’s largest stock market group, especially at such an important time for global financial markets. In recent years, HKEX has been instrumental in defining the evolution of Asian finance and has become the world’s leading IPO venue. I am excited to now have the opportunity to build on the solid foundations of innovation, impact and progress created by my predecessors.”

HKEX was the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of listed companies as of the end of December 2020. For a number of years now, the exchange has marketed itself as a “leading venue for investing into and out of Mainland China”, and at the end of 2020 it reported “record nine-month results and trading volumes” despite the pandemic and the geopolitical disruption of the last two years.