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Lai See

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Why you can trust SCMP

It's not plain sailing for Murray these days

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Simon Murray (pictured), he of the Foreign Legion, Hutchison Whampoa and now Glencore, does not appear to be flavour of the month. He was taken to task recently for remarks he made during an interview with the The Sunday Telegraph on women in business. One of his choicer lines was that he wasn't keen on hiring young women, 'who are about to get married ... because I know they're going to get pregnant and they're going to go off for nine months'. The idea of the interview was to generate favourable publicity for Glencore, where he has just become non-executive chairman ahead of its listing. The resulting blowback has been less than positive.

In addition, we see that his re-election to the board of Hong Kong-listed Orient Overseas (International) (OOIL) wasn't exactly the shoo-in these matters normally are. While Kenneth Cambie was re-elected to the board with 99 per cent of the votes and Roger King 98.9 per cent, Murray received what amounts to a bit of a drubbing with 86.5 per cent in favour and 13.5 per cent against. Another shot across the bows perhaps.

After the financial crisis, the 'C-level' is back in demand

Demand in Asia for CEOs, CFOs and COOs - otherwise known as the 'C-level' - is on the increase for the first time since the financial crisis. For the past two years recruitment at this level has been virtually frozen, according to analysis by IIC Partners, an executive search organisation.

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Demand for C-level and board candidates is strongest in the financial services, industrial and manufacturing, and consumer and retail sectors. The company's research also shows that there has been a 114 per cent increase in executive recruitment in the industrial and manufacturing sector in the Asia Pacific region from 2009-10, a 100 per cent increase in the technology sector over the same period and 480 per cent rise in the energy sector.

Demand for C-level searches during the first quarter of 2011 was strongest in the industrial and manufacturing sector, followed by financial services and consumer and retail. Growth in financial services in the Asia-Pacific region was up by 100 per cent in the first quarter compared with the comparable period last year.

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