That’s not to say CEEMEA jobs are a career cul-de-sac. Tolga Tuglular runs the entire CEEMEA fixed income business at JP Morgan — sales, marketing and DCM. Andrew Dell moved from being HSBC's head of CEEMEA DCM to become CEO of HSBC South Africa.
But as these examples show, most bankers stay within the broader EM world, even when they take on bigger jobs. Jonathan Brown — an emerging markets veteran — who is also head of fixed income syndicate for Europe at Barclays is an exception, having been promoted at UBS to a broader regional remit a decade ago.
Some attribute this to the youth of the market — the CEEMEA market itself is only around 15 years old. As such, most of the bankers that started in CEEMEA at a bank, stayed with it, and warrant promotion are only now reaching the level of experience that a senior job demands. Weaver, 42 years old, has been with Citi for 20 of those, and has gained experience in sovereign, FIG and corporate DCM.
Others suspect that Weaver’s promotion was possible in part because Citi’s CEEMEA business falls under its European umbrella. At other banks, EM is outside the European business, making ascent to a "EMEA head" position trickier.
Some would also say that senior jobs should go to those that work in the biggest businesses. The CEEMEA business provides lower volumes, especially compared to industrial scale markets. To take two examples , European SSAs printed $535bn last year, European FIG issuers $594bn. CEEMEA issuers knocked out just $129bn of bonds, albeit in a bad year.
But the volumes done in a market reflect issuers' funding needs more than a bank’s ability to drum up business there. Weaver led his team at Citi to be one of few who finished in a top four position every year in that market since 2008.
An individual should not be held back from the big job just because of the market they chose to specialise in, or more likely were assigned to.
It's already happened in the US, where several of the heads of US syndicate started out as LatAm syndicate bankers. In Asia it’s certainly not a problem. It is about time more EMEA businesses were open to filling top seats with bankers from smaller markets.