JOB DONE
Pace George W Bush and his landing on
the USS Lincoln in May, declarations of missions accomplished
can come back to haunt. Nevertheless, Mark Qiu, CFO of CNOOC,
the China overseas oil company, wrote: "I have seen my
mission through - job done," in his resignation letter
to the board last month. News of Qiu's leaving was followed
by a stock drop of 4.8 percent, a sell-off in step with the
general decline in China blue chip stocks, say analysts, and
not an indication of investor fears over company finances.
Qiu, 41, has been something of a wunderkind
in local finance. He came to CNOOC from AsiaEC, an e-commerce
venture which he co-founded, serving as president and CFO.
But it was at Salomon Smith Barney that CNOOC got to know
Qiu, who advised the company during its 1999 IPO that flopped
mainly because investors were more interested in internet
gold than black gold. Before that, Qiu represented Atlantic
Richfield Corporation (ARCO) in Washington DC as its corporate
federal government relations director (read lobbyist). He
also served as a vice president for ARCO China. He is a Sloan
Fellow and holds an MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Qiu, citing "personal reasons",
will leave his post when his contract expires early next year.
His accomplishments at the company include shepherding it
through its several years as a public entity and overseeing
finance during a period when the stock price quadrupled. His
tenure was marked by CNOOC's intense involvement in dealmaking
overseas. The company also faced criticism for lack of transparency
in extending a huge loan to CNOOC Finance without prior shareholder
approval. His replacement has yet to be named.
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| Citigroup's Inside Moves
With bad news about Citigroup appearing
with alarming regularity - the latest a forced shutdown of
its private banking group in Japan - the financial services
behemoth is shuffling two top managers at headquarters. CFO
Todd Thompson and Sallie Krawchek, head of the firm's Smith
Barney investment-banking unit, swapped positions last month.
Although Citigroup says it's making the move to provide the
two executives with opportunities to further develop their
skills, the trade has the look of a last-ditch effort to prove
the firm is serious about good governance.
Krawchek, considered a beacon of integrity
by the equity-analyst community, headed independent research
firm Sanford C Bernstein before Citigroup hired her to clean
up Smith Barney's reputation in the wake of the WorldCom equity-research
scandal. By making Krawchek CFO, Citigroup is "trying
to wave a magic wand over a lot of negative stuff that's gone
on," says Brian Sullivan, CEO of executive search firm
Christian & Timbers, based in Boston.
But what kind of message does it send
Thomson, who had been CFO since March 2000? While Sullivan
says the move puts Thomson in line for a bigger job, some
analysts call it a demotion. Thomson told CFO magazine a year
ago that he wanted "regulators to view us as a company
that is not dragging its feet on reform, but is leading reform."
But the news of Citigroup's involvement in the Parmalat scandal
broke shortly afterward. Then a bond-trading scandal in London
riled European regulators this summer. 'Taken together, the
problems in Japan and Europe illustrate how difficult it is
even for insiders to monitor practices across Citigroup's
far-flung global operations," wrote Kathy Shanley, credit
research analyst for research firm Gimme Shelter, in September.
Now it's Krawchek's turn to try. A new
challenge already looms: South Korea's financial regulator
has announced it will be looking closely at Citigroup's operations
there.
Logical
Srinivasa Raghavan takes over as finance
director for LogicaCMG Offsore Services in India this month.
The company, a division of Amsterdam- and London-listed LogicaCMG,
the IT services and wireless telecoms company, is growing
in Asia. It aims to increase its staff to 2,500 by 2006, compared
with the current 750. Raghavan will handle the finances of
its Bangalore, Mumbai, and New Delhi offices.
Raghavan comes to the company from GE Capital in India, where
he was the CFO for the IT services business. He is a qualified
chartered and cost accountant. Dave Ellis, the departing finance
director, was on an internal company secondment from LogicaCMG
Australia. He completed his term in India and now returns
to Australia.
Flour Power
Peter Mak has just become the CFO at New
Dragon Asia, taking the place of Li Xia Wang, who becomes
a director. About half of New Dragon Asia's business is milling,
selling, and distributing flour. The other half of the business
is making instant noodles. Oodles of them, or to be more exact,
more than 1.1 billion packages a year.
Before joining New Dragon Asia, which
is listed on the American Stock Exchange, Mak founded and
acted as managing director for Venfund Investment in Hong
Kong and Venfund VC Investment Management in Shenzhen. Before
that, he was a partner with Arthur Andersen Worldwide and
a partner with Arthur Andersen Southern China. He has a degree
in accountancy from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and
is a fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants
in the UK and the Hong Kong Society of Accountants. 
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