Michael Smith has to rank as the first banker profiled in FinanceAsia to successfully survive an assassination attempt. Currently chief executive of HSBC in Asia he had his brush with death while running the British bank's Argentinian operations, and still has the leg wound to prove it.
A fairly unflappable character, Smith talks about the incident with what some might describe as an offhand manner. The incident occurred when the bank uncovered a corporate fraud in Buenos Aires and the said company hired a team of assassins to eliminate Smith as he was driving home. With some presence of mind, Smith reacted to the first shooting by accelerating the...
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