US banking giant Morgan Stanley names its current PWM head to take over as co-chief executive for Asia-Pacific after William Strong retires in May 2014.

Morgan Stanley, the US banking giant, has appointed a new co-chief executive for Asia-Pacific to replace William Strong, who is retiring in May 2014, according to an internal memo seen by this publication.

Strong is retiring after three years in this position and will be returning to the US. As such, he remains in his current role for the next few months. After his retirement, he remains connected to the firm as a senior advisor.

According to a spokesperson from the firm, Strong made his retirement plans in May 2014 known in early 2013. He joined Morgan Stanley in 1993 in Chicago and in March 2011 was relocated to Hong Kong to serve as co-CEO of the Asia-Pacific arm alongside Wei Sun Christianson, who is also the China CEO.

The new co-CEO, Gokul Laroia, adds this new designation to his current duties as head of Morgan Stanley's institutional equities and private wealth management business in Asia (including Japan). He will partner with Christianson.

Prior to his previous role as co-head of Asia-Pacific investment banking and head of global capital markets, he was responsible for the company's Asia-Pacific merger and acquisition business and the communications and media group. Early in February 2014, Gokul was appointed to the global management committee. He is presently based in Hong Kong.

The company began aligning its private wealth management Asia business with its institutional securities group in early 2013. As part of that move, the PWM business, which refers to the ultra high net worth business based out of Hong Kong and Singapore, had started reporting to Laroia since March 2013.