Lim Ho Kee, Chairman, UBS East AsiaLim Ho Kee is UBS's biggest rainmaker in Asia. The chairman of the bank's east Asian operations has strong relationships with many of the region's most important overseas Chinese, particularly in Malaysia, Singapore (where he is based) and Indonesia. Lim regularly plays golf with Indonesian tycoon Anthony Salim, for example. Salim - the son of Liem Sioe Liong - runs the Salim group, which accounts for about 5% of Indonesia's GDP. Both men speak the Fujian dialect of Chinese, and when UBS arranged a US roadshow for Indofood, a part of the Salim group, Lim joined Salim on the trip. According to one member of the team: "Both men were very unhappy with the restaurants in Boston and said they wanted Chinese food. So we ended up in this little restaurant, the pair of them eating noodles, both in seventh heaven, talking in dialect." The 52-year-old Malaysian-born Chinese also carries a lot of clout inside UBS. He is the only non-Swiss to sit on the enlarged group executive board and his star has risen in parallel with that of UBS chief executive Mathis Cabiallavetta, who hired him 13 years ago. |