THE ESSENTIALS : SKILLS , EXPERIENCE , PASSION AND INTEGRITY
CHEE FEI MENG
THE ESSENTIALS : SKILLS , EXPERIENCE , PASSION AND INTEGRITY
I am currently the Regional Head of Group Legal for Wholesale Banking and Group Asset Management & Investments for CIMB Group .
CHEE FEI MENG
• Ms . Fei Meng is currently the Regional Head of Group Legal for Wholesale Banking and Group Asset Management and Investments for CIMB Group
• She has been listed in the GC Powerlist Southeast Asia by Legal 500 issued in 2017 as recognition of the most influential and innovative in-house counsel working in the region
• She was part of the CIMB Group Legal Team which was awarded the Legal Team of the Year for Banking Industry by In- House Community 2017
• She has been named in the list of Top 25 inhouse lawyers in Asia for 2010 by ALB
I started my career in a medium sized law firm in Kuala Lumpur specializing in corporate work . After about four years in practice , I moved to become an in-house counsel for about four years before moving back to legal practice in one of the biggest law firms in Malaysia . I was made a partner of that law firm in 2001 which was about a year after joining them .
My transition from legal field to non-legal field happened in June 2004 when I joined the Equity Capital Markets (“ ECM ”) department of CIMB as one of the project heads . It was a move that surprised many people as it is not that common for a partner of law firm to retire from a partnership and to jump into a relatively different field . However , the rare opportunity opened up to me at that time and being passionate about the investment banking business , I yearned to be more involved , to get on the ground and have a closer understanding of how the business work . What is closer to the action than being in the frontline !
Although my job included some legal work in terms of reviewing the underwriting and placement agreements , the main scope included identifying , structuring , valuing , marketing and distributing equity as well convertible products for e . g . IPOs , secondary placements . I had to deal with many stakeholders , from clients to investors , the sales force , the syndicate team , the operations and settlement team , other bankers , external legal counsels and regulators . My responsibilities included accompanying clients for roadshows to meet with institutional investors around the world and that included managing the roadshow meetings , getting investors ’ feedback and making sure the management roadshow team ’ s needs and logistics are taken care of .
It was a steep learning curve but definitely exciting and enriching . In addition to learning on the job , I had to take courses in finance to upscale my skills for the role . It also helped that I had colleagues who were willing to guide me and a team with mix of background where we could leverage on each other ’ s expertise .