Brokerage 80s generation executives expanding, another wave of high-level management changes since June.

As we enter the second half of the year, the intense trend of personnel changes among brokerage executives shows no sign of slowing down. Aside from the further increase in the promotion rate of executives born in the 1980s, the movement of talents across different financial sectors continues to intensify. According to incomplete statistics, since June, the number of changes in positions such as chairman/president, general manager, and vice president has reached 12, 6, and 17 respectively. Unlike the past trends of selecting executives with deep experience in the securities industry or supplementing core positions through market-oriented recruitment, the current trend of personnel changes in brokerage executives is progressing towards three main directions, with relevant cases becoming more concentrated. One is the movement of personnel between companies under the same shareholder or group; the second is internal training and promotion as the core selection method; the third is the increasingly prominent path of promotion based on research and excellence. A deeper analysis reveals that behind these three major hiring trends, there is a common transformation in the profile of brokerage executives: the traditional model of executives with a single business background is gradually being replaced by versatile talents with experience in various financial sectors. This transformation is not accidental but fundamentally linked to the strategic adjustments and industry development pattern changes within the brokerage industry. The introduction of versatile talents has also become an important support for brokerages to cope with industry competition and expand their business boundaries. Chairman changes remain frequent, with adjustments in 11 brokerage firms since June Since June, at least 11 brokerage firms have seen changes in their chairmen. During this period of organizational restructuring in brokerage firms, it is more common to see chairmen take on additional responsibilities. For example, after the appointment of Zheng Yu as the new chairman of Minmetals Securities, he also concurrently serves as the company's general manager. Similarly, after Caitong appointed Ying Chaohui, former party secretary and chairman of Zhejiang Guarantee Group, as the general manager, the chairman of the company, Zhang Qicheng, ended his tenure as acting general manager after nearly a year. In terms of the age structure of new appointees, the number of cases of chairmen born in the 1980s has further expanded in this round of adjustments. On July 1, Guangdong Development Bank Securities announced that Guo Chuanzhou, currently the party secretary and chairman of Guangzhou Development Zone Holding Group Co., Ltd., would be appointed as the company's chairman. Born in 1986, Guo Chuanzhou became the youngest chairman among listed securities firms. Similarly, Zheng Yu, the newly appointed chairman of Minmetals Securities, is also from the 1980s. On July 31, Zheng Yu officially took over the position of chairman after serving as acting chairman, making him another typical case of an executive born in the 1980s taking charge in the brokerage industry. In addition to routine adjustments, some cases of executive promotions have received significant attention due to their rarity, such as an increasing trend of financial professionals being appointed to local government positions. In April this year, there was a case where Guo Chenglin, the chief accountant of China Post Group and chairman of China Post Securities, was appointed as Vice Governor of Guizhou Province. This appointment was announced by the Standing Committee of the Guizhou Provincial People's Congress, becoming an important case of brokerage executives moving to local government positions. In July of the second half of the year, the appointment of Wu Lishun, chairman of First Capital Securities, as the head of the Beijing State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission once again brought the promotion of brokerage executives to the public eye. Market-oriented recruitment for general managers/presidents remains a minority Against the backdrop of recent intensive adjustments in brokerage industry executives, changes in general manager/president positions have been relatively stable. According to incomplete statistics, since June, six brokerage firms have seen adjustments in their general manager/president positions, with a significantly lower frequency of changes compared to other executive levels. During this period, only two general managers/presidents resigned. On July 19, China Great Wall announced that its president and chief financial officer, Li Xiang, resigned from his position for personal reasons, with Deputy President and Board Secretary Zhou Zhongshan temporarily assuming the responsibilities of the president. On August 1, Cinda also announced personnel changes, with general manager Zhu Ruimin stepping down from the position of director and general manager due to job adjustments, and Deputy General Manager, Chief Financial Officer, and Board Secretary Zhang Yi temporarily taking over the responsibilities. In comparison, there have been more concentrated cases of new appointments for general managers/presidents. Overall, while internal appointments are the mainstream trend in brokerage firms currently, market-oriented recruitment remains a minority. Only Guosheng Securities initiated a public recruitment process for the position of general manager. This market-oriented selection process, lasting over two months, concluded on August 27 with Zhao Jingliang, former deputy general manager of Caida, being confirmed as the intended appointee. It is worth noting that Zhao Jingliang has experience in banking, funds, and securities, making him a versatile talent with a cross-sector background. How he will lead the "new Guosheng" in breaking through in various business areas has become a focus of market attention. In fact, this is not the first time Guosheng Securities has conducted market-oriented recruitment. The company had previously publicly recruited positions such as general manager of Guosheng Futures, chief information officer, general manager of the South China Branch, and general manager of Guosheng Hongyuan, with "market-oriented" clearly becoming an important label in the company's talent selection system, contrasting sharply with the prevalent internal appointment or promotion model in the industry. The appointment of general managers/presidents in the other three brokerage firms clearly demonstrates the two mainstream paths for executive appointments in the industry at present. The first path is the movement of personnel between companies under the same shareholder or group, as seen in the personnel adjustments between Caitong and CMSC. On June 3, CMSC announced the appointment of Zhu Jiangtao, former executive director and vice president of China Merchants Bank, as the company's general manager. As sister companies under China Merchants Group, CMSC and China Merchants Bank have always had close ties in terms of history, business cooperation, and executive exchanges. Many early executives of CMSC had backgrounds in China Merchants Bank, and this personnel move further continues this tradition. On August 7, Caitong also confirmed its new general manager, appointing Ying Chaohui, former party secretary and chairman of Zhejiang Guarantee Group. Considering the ownership structure, both Caitong and Zhejiang Guarantee Group are state-owned financial institutions in Zhejiang Province, both of which are partially owned by Zhejiang Innovation Investment Group Co., Ltd., and controlled by the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Finance. This cross-company appointment reflects the talent coordination logic within the state-owned enterprises system of the province. The second mainstream path is internal promotion, as exemplified by the personnel changes at CICC. On August 29, CICC announced the appointment of Wang Shuguang as the company's president. His public resume shows that Wang Shuguang has been with CICC since 1998, holding various positions within the company and gradually advancing from department head to core management positions. His promotion to president is a typical case of internal training and promotion, reflecting the top brokerages' recognition and reuse of internal core talent. In the case of changes in deputy general managers/presidents, the intensified frequency of adjustments, with 17 such cases since June, mostly involves internal promotions. The concentrated personnel arrangements at Guolian Minsheng Securities in the context of mergers, as well as the promotion cases at Cinda based on excellence in research, are particularly worth noting. As a representative brokerage firm recently undergoing integration in the industry, the changes in vice general managers/vice presidents at Guolian Minsheng Securities show a "batch adjustment" trend, closely linked to the company's business integration process. On June 6, Guolian Minsheng Securities announced the appointment of Wang Jinling as executive vice president, with Wang Wei, Ren Kaifeng, and Yang Hai appointed as vice presidents. On August 8, there was another wave of senior executive appointments, with the current party secretary, Gu Wei, officially appointed as chairman, and Ma Qunxing stepping down as vice president due to job adjustments, while Xiong Leiming was appointed as executive president, and Zheng Liang and Hu Youwen as vice presidents. From an industry perspective, these series of personnel appointments at Guolian Minsheng Securities are important measures for business integration. In addition to the concentrated adjustments in the context of mergers, the promotion cases of deputy general managers at Cinda highlight another important trend in the current selection of brokerage executives, with "research-driven excellence" increasingly becoming one of the mainstream promotion paths. On July 1, Cinda announced the appointment of Cheng Yuan, former manager of the research and development center, as deputy general manager. This appointment has drawn high attention from the industry due to Cheng Yuan's multiple labels. As a young executive born in the 1985s, he is not only a typical representative of the "research-driven excellence" path but also possesses scarce experience in both buy-side and sell-side operations, providing a new sample of "research-driven management" for executive selection in the industry. This article is from "CaiLian Society". GMTEight Editor: Liu Jiayin.