Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) announced today (Friday) that chief financial officer Karen Lee will retire at the end of September this year.  Senior vice president Archie Tsim will succeed Ms Lee as chief financial officer with effect from 1 October.

The HKEx Board was informed of Ms Lee's decision at its meeting on 13 July. It subsequently formed an ad hoc committee to identify a suitable candidate to fill the vacancy. At its meeting today, the ad hoc committee accepted the recommended appointment of Mr Tsim to be the next chief financial officer. Mr Tsim will report to HKEx's chief executive, Paul Chow, and will be a member of HKEx's Senior Management Committee.

The ad hoc committee was chaired by HKEx chairman Charles Lee and its other members comprised HKEx directors Fong Hup, Vincent Lee, David Webb and Oscar Wong.

HKEx wishes to thank Ms Lee for her many contributions.

"We thank Karen for her distinguished and dedicated service to HKEx and its subsidiaries over the past 20 years," Mr Chow said. "She served in senior positions at the Stock Exchange and the Futures Exchange between 1983 and 1999, and she had played a significant role in the demutualisation of the exchanges and the listing of HKEx in 2000."

Mr Tsim joined HKEx on 8 October last year as senior vice president and special adviser to the head of Listing.  Before joining HKEx, Mr Tsim was managing director for Corporate Finance and Advisory, Asia-Pacific, at The Hong kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, where he was the head of Hong Kong Coverage with overall responsibility for all matters relating to Hong Kong. Before joining the HSBC Group in 1997, Mr Tsim was deputy head of corporate finance in the Stock Exchange's Listing Division, where he oversaw all corporate finance matters. Mr Tsim is a qualified accountant and has more than 15 years' experience in corporate finance.