JPMorgan Chase Appoints Eyles as Asian Commodities Head; Dawe to Leave

JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second- biggest U.S. bank by assets, has appointed Ray Eyles as chief executive officer of its commodities business in Asia, according to an e-mail sent to Bloomberg News.

Eyles, 40, was the global head of commodity proprietary trading based in London, and he will replace Oral Dawe in Singapore, who will be retiring, the e-mail said.

JPMorgan has told traders who bet on commodities for the firm’s account that their unit will be closed as the company, starts to shut all proprietary trading, according to a person briefed on the matter. The bank eventually will close all in- house trading to comply with new U.S. curbs, said the person.

“Oral and Ray will work closely on a transition plan,” Blythe Masters, head of the bank’s global commodities group, said in the e-mail. “Ray has a long-term connection in the region, having worked in Singapore twice previously.”

Eyles, who joined JPMorgan in 1988, was formerly chief executive officer for Europe, Middle East and Africa commodities; co-head of global commodities; and head of global metals and agriculture, the e-mail said. He was based in Singapore from 1997 to 2000, and again from 2005 to 2007 to start and then develop JPMorgan’s Asian commodity business, the e-mail said.

Dawe, who is Asia-Pacific chief executive officer of the bank’s global commodities group, joined JPMorgan in 2008 from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., where he was co-head of Asia commodities. Under him, the bank “built a first-class franchise through our sales and trading capabilities across the region and in establishing and strengthening our operations in both physical and financial products,” Masters said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Glenys Sim in Singapore at gsim4@bloomberg.net

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