in 1995, he joined merrill lynch as head of asian foreign exchange in singapore. that same year he was promoted to merrill's global head of foreign exchange, based in london, where he may have earned around us$2.25 million a year including bonuses, which is about nz$5 million at 2001 exchange rates. some co-workers called him "the smiling assassin" for maintaining his usual cheerfulness while sacking dozens (some say hundreds) of staff after heavy losses from the 1998 russian financial crisis. he was a member of the foreign exchange committee of the new york federal reserve bank from 1999 to 2001.