People on the Move - April 30
Published: April 30 2001 23:07GMT | Last Updated: May 1 2001 16:49GMT
KPMG Hungary names head of finance
Tamas Simonyi has joined KPMG Hungary as head of corporate finance. Simonyi, 43, has become a well known figure in Budapest financial circles over the past decade, as the country has grappled with economic transition to a market economy.
He joins KPMG after a spell as a private consultant, having previously headed Rabobank's Budapest operations for four years, when he was particularly active in the food and health care sectors.
Corporate Hungary is ripe for a swathe of M&A activity, but with a shortage of "plumb, $100m deals," available, the big investment banks will not enter the market, he argued. That left the main professional services firms, the "Big Five", well-placed for deals.
"The market is relatively small, but very active. I believe we can pick up a lot of mandates in M&A, debt restructuring, capital raises, that kind of thing," he said.
After starting his career at the National Bank of Hungary, Simonyi later switched to journalism with a Hungarian business daily, before landing a post with a Japanese bank in Australia.
He returned to Hungary in 1992 as joint general manager at GiroCredit Investment (now Erste Bank Investment), where his specialities were privatisation advisory and asset management.
An accomplished polyglot, he speaks fluent English and Germanand can negotiate in Spanish, Russian or Japanese. Kester Eddy
Koegler to lead e.Biscom
Bernd Koegler, 42, will join e.Biscom, the broadband company founded by Silvio Scaglia, the former Omnitel boss, to lead the Italian company's expansion in Germany.
Koegler, who will leave his position at the end of this month as deputy member of the executive board at Mannesmann Arcor, where he has special responsibilities for marketing and product development, will also become chief executive officer of Hamburg-based HanseNet Telekommunikation.
Koegler will jointly manage HanseNet with its current chief executive officer Karl-Heinz Maever until this autumn when Maever retires.
E.Biscom made its first investment outside of Italy when it bought an 80 per cent stake in HanseNet from Hamburgische Electricitaets Werke last October.
Former SEC chief Levitt to join Carlyle Group
Arthur Levitt, former chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, is expected to join the Carlyle Group, the Washington-based private equity firm, as a senior adviser. It is Levitt's second appointment since he stepped down in February as head of the SEC after an eight-year term. Last month he joined the board of Bloomberg, the financial information and news service company.
In recent years Carlyle has drawn a long list of high-powered leaders from the senior ranks of government, including former president George Bush, also an adviser, and former secretary of state James Baker III, who is a partner. The group, which was founded in 1987, is chaired by Frank Carlucci, secretary of defense under former president Ronald Reagan.
"I'm looking forward to renewing my relationship with [the firm] which goes back 10 years,and with Frank Carlucci, who I've known for 20 [years]," said Levitt. Prior to heading the SEC, Levitt had served on the board of a Carlyle-owned company and Carlucci had worked under Levitt before that.
Carlyle manages assets of more than $13bn through 15 funds in the US, Europe and Asia. Carlyle's investments cover a range of industries but are considered strongest in the defence contracting and telecommunctions sectors. Its investors include major banks and insurance companies. John Labate, New York
Mandl resigns as chairman and CEO of Teligent
Alex Mandlresigned today as the chairman and chief executive of Teligent, the struggling US wireless technology group.
The former president and chief operating officer of AT&T, Mandl, 57, surprised the business community when he joined Teligent in 1996.
Earlier this month, Liberty Media sold its 33.7 per cent stake in Teligent to IDT, a calling card and long distance phone group, giving IDT its three seats on Teligent's board of directors.
Yoav Krill, who is currently the managing director of IDT's European division, will replace Mandl as Teligent's acting chief executive and chief operating officer.
Ariba management reshuffle
Ariba today announced a management reshuffle including the appointment of a new chief executive, but the troubled business-to-business internet company failed to reveal that it had also lost a high-profile senior international executive, Nick Earle, president of its European, Middle East and African operations.
The company said Larry Mueller, chief operating officer, would become chief executive. The current chief executive, co-founder Keither Krach, would remain as chairman.
The move follows a traumatic period for the California-based company. Last month, the group announced it would sack a third of its employees, after reporting a quarterly loss, excluding exceptional items of $48.3m on sales of $90.7m.
The loss of Earle is an embarrasment for Ariba. He had previously spent 18 years at Hewlett-Packard, and was dubbed by Fortune Magazine as "HP's E-vangelist". The author of a book, "From .com to .profit", he only took up his post on October 2 last year.
The company also announced that Masayoshi Son, chairman of Softbank, the Japanese internet investment group, would join the board as a non-executive director. The move follows the announcement last year that Softbank would take a significant minority stake in Nihon Ariba, its Japanese subsidiary.
The decision that John Mumford, the founder of Crosspoint Corporation, the venture capital group and investor in Ariba, should leave the board was emblematic of Mueller's intention that Ariba should internationalise and escape its Silicon Valley roots.
Mueller said Mr Mumford's departure was to allow Son to join the board. Paul Abrahams, San Francisco and Ben Hunt, London
More Movers
Graham Wallace, chief executive of Cable and Wireless, the telecommunications group, has joined the boards of Barclays and Barclays Bank as a non-executive director.
Generali, Italy's largest insurer, has named its chief executive Gianfranco Gutty chairman.
Ariba, the business-to-business e-commerce solutions provider, has promoted Larry Mueller, 48, to chief executive. Mueller, currently president and chief operating officer, replaces Keith Krach, who will continue as chairman.
Pacific Century CyberWorks has appointed Frederick Ma and executive director. He will be responsible for the financial performance and strategic direction of PCCW's subsidiaries and associates. Ma was appointed chief executive, Asia Pacific, of J P Morgan Private Bank in January.
The AT&T Wireless Group, the mobile-telephone unit of AT&T, has named Joseph McCabe Jr chief financial officer and executive vice-president. McCabe, 50, has been the interim financial officer for the last year.
BNP Paribas has appointed Simon Piney global head, equity capital markets. Piney left the bank last year to join UBS Warburg after spending seven years with the French bank.
Juka Huuskonen, vice-president for business analysis at the Finnish forestry group UPM-Kymmene, has been appointed head of the group's investor relations in Northern America.
Commerzbank Securities has appointed Judith Tan a senior member of the structured finance team in London; Yoshiharu Horikawa a senior member of the structured finance Asia team; Michael Koch head of sovereigns; Jane England as a ratings adviser; Julia Abbott is promoted to global head of Euro Medium Term Notes and Euro Commercial Paper Origination and Gayle Turner recruited as global head of EMTN Trading. Tan joins from Lehman Brothers; Horikawa from Merrill Lynch in Tokyo; Koch from the World Bank in Washington DC; England from Chase Manhattan and Turner from JP Morgan.
CIBC World Markets has hired Kim Christian Koehler as a director within its European leveraged finance group, based in London. He was formerly a vice-president at JP Morgan Chase in Frankfurt.
Recall Group, the vehicle data management systems specialist, has promoted Charles McKay from finance director to chief executive. He takes over from Ian Calvert who is leaving the board.
Tim Wander, managing director of Recall's subsidiary Multiple Data Management, becomes group chief operating officer. Mike Selby, MDM's technical director, becomes managing director.
Morley & Scott Chartered Accountants has named Kay Linnell a litigation support partner.
David Bowles, former head of business development at regional development agency One NorthEast, has become the new chair of the regional professional services organisation Service Challenge.
People on the Move is edited by Ellen Kelleher. Contact ellen.kelleher@ft.com with new appointments.
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