Lars Holst-led GCEX has expanded into the Asia Pacific with the latest hiring of Sue Cheung as the Head of APAC Sales. She is based in Hong Kong and is the first senior APAC-specific hire of the group.
GCEX Makes First Senior APAC Appointment
The digital prime brokerage will now start onboarding Asia Pacific clients: FX clients from the region will be onboarded under GCEX’s FCA-regulated UK entity, while digital asset clients will be brought in under the Danish entity, regulated by the FSA.
“GCEX is a regulated firm and has a robust, credible, and very professional offering, always keeping clients’ assets segregated and secure. This will have great appeal to clients in the region, particularly as interest in digital assets is rapidly increasing,” Cheung said.
“My initial focus will be on Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia, but I have very ambitious growth plans across the whole of the APAC region.”
An Experienced Executive
Additionally, the hiring of Cheung is strategic as she brings vast experience working in the Asian offices of several companies in the financial services industry. She joined GCEX from Integral, a technology provider in the forex trading space, where she has been a Sales Director for the last year and seven months.
Between June 2015 and November 2021, she worked at Finalto (previously CFH), a company recently acquired by Hong Kong-based Gopher Investments. In that role, she was a part of the company’s Senior Institutional Sales team in the Hong Kong offices and worked under Holst briefly.
During her 15 years career, she was an FX Institutional Sales Manager at Leverate and also worked at a couple of other companies.
“There are significant opportunities for GCEX across the APAC region and, from my experience of working with Sue at CFH, I know she has the expertise, regional knowledge, and contacts to help us to build a strong presence in the region,” Holst, the Founder and CEO of GCEX, said. “This is our first senior hire in Asia, and we hope it will pave the way for further team growth and potentially a regulatory license in the region, too.”
An Expanding Company
Established in 2018, GCEX enables brokers, hedge funds, and professional traders to access deep liquidity in FX and digital assets and offers a range of technology solutions.
The company is expanding aggressively, mainly by building strong teams around targeted markets. Currently, it is very much focused on the Middle East which became more prominent with its hiring: it recently onboarded Maria Alberghini as a Sales Manager in Dubai, who will work closely with Mehtap Önder, the Managing Director of Dubai, on the company’s strategic growth plans.
Further, to enhance its crypto custody services, GCEX recently partnered with Komainu, a joint venture between Nomura and two leading digital assets companies, CoinShares and Ledger. Last year, the company launched round-the-clock forex trading for its institutional and professional clients.
