Lehman Brothers hired away Julian Cheong, a managing director at rival Goldman Sachs, to become co-head of Lehman's financial institutions group for Asia-Pacific, according to people familiar with the situation.

Cheong, who is expected to start at the end of August and be based in Hong Kong, is the latest hire by Lehman -- a smaller player in Asia -- to strengthen its investment-banking practice in the region. Lehman's current Asia head of financial institutions, David Kim, will remain in his role and share the same title as Cheong.