Jefferies appointed Jonathan Slone chairman of Asia, based in Hong Kong.

Slone will focus on the firm’s major relationships for investment banking and trading throughout Asia. Prior to joining Jefferies, Slone spent more than three decades at CLSA, where he was the longstanding chairman and CEO and oversaw CLSA’s global operations of broking, investment banking, asset management, research and sales.

“We are excited to welcome Jonathan as chairman of Jefferies’ Asia business,” said Jefferies’ CEO, Rich Handler, and President, Brian Friedman. “The significant hires in recent weeks across our firm’s Asian platform represent the next stage of growth and commitment to our firm’s continued global expansion. These new additions, combined with our strong existing team, will enable Jefferies to even better serve our global client base.”

Jefferies has recently made a number of significant hires in Asia. Notably, Christopher Wood joined as global head of Equity Strategy. Also joining recently is a global microstrategy research team, including 20-year veteran Desh Peramunetilleke as head of MicroStrategy Product. These recent hires also came from CLSA and will be based in Hong Kong. The firm has also hired 54 professionals across sales, trading, research and investment banking in Australia, Japan and Hong Kong.