Simon Woods - Director

Born in London and educated at Westminster School, Simon graduated from Durham University with a BA in Anthropology in 1976, and from Durham University Business School with an MSc in 1977. He also holds a Cert. Dip. in Accounting and Finance from the City of London Polytechnic.

After a brief spell running a motorcycle sales and repair shop, Simon realised his talents lay more in the field of banking than biking and he moved into the City of London in 1980.

Simon trained as an investment analyst and spent 5 years with the respected city firms of Hoare Govett and Capel-Cure Myers. In 1985 he was recruited by Vickers da Costa research Asia. Based in Singapore, he managed this highly successful joint-venture operation for 3 years before moving on to help set up the investment banking operations of Barclays Bank, Barclays de Zoete Wedd, in 1988.

At BZW he quickly rose to become Head of Research and then Head of Sales, becoming a member of the Stock Exchange of Singapore, and overseeing the setting up of a merger with a local broking house and a full seat on the exchange.

Simon's investment banking career switched to Malaysia in 1993 when he became Country Manager and Head of Research for Jardine Fleming. In 1998 he was recruited to join the start-up boutique firm Caspian Securities, based in Kuala Lumpur, but commuting fortnightly to Hong Kong, where he also became a member of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

In 1999 Simon returned to Singapore and worked as a financial recruitment consultant until 2004, when he set up his own consultancy business, the Palatinate Partnership.

He is a director of the Malaysia based Pangolin Investment Trust and Octtane Pte Ltd. He is also a founding investor in Spaceport Singapore.

Outside of Asia, Simon is a Freeman of the City of London, and a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. He is a past president of the Singapore Rowing Association and a past Chairman of the Riding for the Disabled Association of Singapore.

A keen sportsman, Simon has won two UK national rowing championships, was a member of the UK national lightweight rowing squad for two years, represented Singapore at the Asian Rowing Championships as a lightweight sculler, won a British national dragonboat championship, won a bronze medal for Britain at the world dragonboat championships in Hong Kong and has competed in the Whitbread (now Volvo) Round the World sailing race.

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