Board of directors
Daiwa Capital Markets Europe Limited has its headquarters in London. Board member profiles are below:
Douglas van den Aardweg was appointed Chairman in November 2019, he was further appointed as Interim CEO and Executive Chairman in April 2021, and received regulatory approval on 31st August 2021. In light of a new CEO being appointed, with effect from 1 June 2022 he will revert to his former role of Non-Executive Chairman of DCME. He began his career at Daiwa when he joined the board in May 2017 as a Non-Executive Director. Mr van den Aardweg also serves as Non Executive Chairman of HSBC Life (UK) Ltd and Vice Chairman, the Alliance, Bioversity International and Center for International Tropical Agriculture, a merger between the two international agricultural research organisations. He recently stepped down from the Marks and Spencer Financial Services PLC board. A chartered accountant, he holds both the FCA and CA(SA) designations. After a career with Old Mutual in South Africa and London he spent four years as a director in consulting with PricewaterhouseCoopers in London.
Independent Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit Committee
Ewa Kerin joined the DCME Board in September 2020 as a Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit Committee, in February 2021 she was appointed as DCME’s Senior Independent Non-Executive Director (SID). Further, she is a Board Trustee and Honorary Treasurer of the Smart Works Charity. Ewa is a qualified accountant and has held a number of senior positions within the Financial Services industry for over 25 years. She started her career at JP Morgan where she was a Vice President in Finance then moved to Credit Suisse, where as a Managing Director she led a number of functions across Global Finance. Following this, she was CFO of the International business at Willis Towers Watson before moving to HSBC where she was the Global Head of Financial Planning and Analysis.
Megan McDonald joined DCME on 4th January 2022. She is currently awaiting regulatory approval and once received she will be appointed as the CEO of DCME. She has over 20 years’ experience in investment banking. After qualifying as a solicitor she started her banking career in debt capital markets with Standard Bank in 2001, Standard Bank is Africa’s largest bank by assets with a presence in 25 countries and over 40 000 employees.
Since then, she has held various roles across investment banking, working in South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. Megan has been responsible for the global leadership of the Debt Capital Markets business as well as the International Investment Banking business, managing product teams including equity capital markets, debt capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, advisory and loan origination and syndication supported by sales and trading teams in the US, UK, Africa and Asia.
Most recently she was the Global Head of Client Coverage, leading specialised teams focused on business strategy and client relationships across key markets, including London, Dubai, Beijing, New York and Brazil. Megan was recognised by Financial News as one of the top 100 Women in Finance in Europe and shortlisted by Women in Finance Awards London in 2019 in the Banker of the Year category. Megan holds Bachelor of Commerce and LLB degrees from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa and a BCL from Oxford University, England.
Independent Non-Executive Director and Chair of Remuneration Committee
Maria Bentley joined DCME in May 2021 as a nominee Independent Non-Executive Director and Chair of Remuneration Committee. She received regulatory approval on 22nd September 2021. She is also serving as a Chair of Remuneration Committee at BlueBay Asset Management LLP and Picton Property Income Limited.
Maria has over 31 years of experience in the investment banking sector. She started her career as a credit analyst in the Chemical Bank and then moved to fixed income sales at CSFB and Goldman Sachs, she also served as Managing Director for Human Resources in the latter. Maria has led the global Human Resources function as a Group Managing Director at UBS Investment Bank and Nomura International.
Mr. Kobayashi joined Daiwa Securities in 1990 and started his career working in the Hibiya branch before taking a role in the Foreign Exchange Trading section of the Treasury Department in 1994.
From 1999, Mr. Kobayashi joined the Fixed Income Currency and Commodities department of Daiwa Securities SB Capital Markets before moving over to become the Head of FICC & Global Markets Planning at Daiwa Securities SMBC Co. Ltd.
In 2011, Mr. Kobayashi became the Head of the Corporate Planning Section and subsequently the Head of the Risk Management Department. He became the Co-Head of Equity and FICC in 2018 and was then appointed as the Head of Group Risk Management and the Head of Data Management in April 2021.
In April 2022, Mr. Kobayashi was delighted to join the Board of Daiwa Capital Markets Europe as a Group Non-Executive Director. He was appointed Group Chief Risk Officer in April 2023.
Executive Managing Director, Group Head of Europe and the Middle East
Mr. Shirota joined Daiwa Securities in 1987 and started his career in capital markets for overseas clients. After graduating from The Fletcher School in Boston in 1994, he took a role as fixed income sales for overseas investors followed by new securities issuance promotions.
From 2001, he became the Co-Head of Debt Syndicate Department at Daiwa Securities SMBC Europe. On his return to Japan in 2009, he became the Head of Debt Syndicate Department and subsequently the Head of Debt Capital Markets Department. He became is the Head of global DCM/Syndication in 2016 with the responsibility of SDGs debt promotion at Daiwa Securities. In April of 2021, Mr. Shirota was appointed as the Head of Europe and the Middle East and, following his arrival in London in May 2021, he also joined the DCME Board as a Group Non-Executive Director in June 2021.
Mr. Nagashima joined the DCME board on 15th June 2022 as President, Strategic Business Development. He originally joined Daiwa Securities Co. Ltd. in 1996 after graduating from university with a degree in Economics and his first assignment was retail sales at the Nagoya branch. Mr. Nagashima was then transferred to the International Finance Department to introduce non-Japanese issuers to the Japanese capital market.
In 2001, Mr. Nagashima extended his career by moving to New York to cover debt finance of US corporates, Washington-based supranationals, and Latin American sovereign issuers. After 6 years in the US, Mr. Nagashima moved back to Tokyo to work at Corporate Planning, and was then posted to London as Head of Equity Capital Markets, syndicating equity offerings outside of Japan.
Mr. Nagashima was relocated to Tokyo again in 2013 as a FIG coverage banker for 4 years before being appointed Head of Real Estate Department and later Head of International Business Planning Department in 2018.