Trading Places
Inside views on the jobs market
Job Bank – Nov.20
The following financial services industry appointments were announced on November 20, linked where possible to personal profiles on LinkedIn. To inform us of other job changes, please e-mail moves@thomsonreuters.com.
LEHMAN BROTHERS HOLDINGS
Bryan Marsal will take over as Chief Executive of Lehman Brother’s Holdings, Inc at close of business December 31, 2008 according to court testimony by Harvey Miller, an attorney representing the firm. At a U.S. bankruptcy court hearing in Manhattan today, Miller said the firm’s board of directors had approved the appointment. Marsal, who is currently the chief restructuring officer of the firm, will replace Richard Fuld as company CEO.
ONTARIO TEACHERS’ PENSION PLAN
Neil Petroff has been named Executive Vice-President, Investments and Chief Investment Officer of the Toronto-based Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (Teachers’), replacing the retiring Robert Bertram, effective by year’s end. He is currently group senior vice-president of investments. Prior to joining Teachers’ in 1990, Bertram spent 18 years at Telus Corporation, formerly Alberta Government Telephone.
FIRST NATIONAL BANK
Maybe rethink that banking career
It’s bound to happen in every industry, especially in the days and weeks that follow historic layoffs like yesterday’s at Citigroup: young up-and-comers eager to snap up top jobs come to the painful realization that they couldn’t have chosen a worse time to enter their chosen career field. And so the re-thinking, re-jigging and re-planning begins.
Just ask any MBA grad, who’s likely eying the carnage on Wall Street with a mix of dread and disbelief. Analyst jobs are among the newest batch of casualties, experts says, as an ongoing flurry of consolidation is threatening to obliterate thousands of positions that are unlikely to return.
As a result, an increasing number of graduates are abandoning their dream of investment banking in lieu of careers in consulting and corporate finance until the market stabilizes, the Wall Street Journal reports.
But bad news for new graduates is good news for smaller investment firms that often struggle to attract top candidates. Says one recruiter: “We’re sort of like kids in a candy store right now.”
Granted, not everyone wants to wait it out until the tumult on Wall Street passes. One banking veteran says she’s finally found stability in a career that’s guaranteed to keep her working. She’s a nurse.
Would you consider making a career switch if it meant more job stability? Share your thoughts below.
Do the right thing
Goldman Sachs sent the business media abuzz this weekend with news that its top executives were voluntarily giving up their annual bonus in a gesture they hope will spread to the rest of the Street. The decision immediately won the praise of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who hailed the move as a “step in the right direction”, while the firm’s spokesperson said, “They believe it’s the right thing to do.”
But don’t expect any applause just yet, at least not from Main Street. Taxpayers around the globe are still fuming about their respective government’s multibillion dollar bank rescue schemes, prompting no shortage of snarky editorials pointing to bloated paycheques and bankers’ cavalier actions for the financial meltdown.
At a time when most bankers are holding on to their jobs by a string — just ask any Citigroup employee how they’re feeling these days — editorialists are quick to point out that bonuses are just that: a bonus.
“The truth is, most of them are lucky to have a job at all and they know it,” writes the Wall Street Journal’s William Cohan.
Perhaps UBS is taking note. The Swiss bank recently axed bonuses for top executives and said it would introduce a more transparent pay system, in a sign that banks are finally acting to quell the public’s mistrust of the bonus culture.
Are the recent moves to cut bankers’ pay an encouraging sign, or is the damage already done? Share your thoughts below
Job Bank – Nov.5
The following financial services industry appointments were announced on Nov. 5, linked where possible to personal profiles on LinkedIn. To inform us of other job changes, please e-mail moves@thomsonreuters.com.
LEHMAN BROTHERS
Lehman Brothers Holdings Chief Executive Richard Fuld will step down from that post by year’s end, a spokesman for the bankrupt financial firm said. Fuld will continue as nonmanagement chairman of the board after leaving. A new CEO was not named.
PERMIRA
The private equity firm appointed James Fraser as head of financial services. Prior to joining Permira, Fraser was at L.E.K. Consulting in the U.K., U.S. and Australia, most recently co-head of L.E.K’s global financial services practice.
CITIGROUP
Wall Street’s high-profile ‘job jumpers’
The New York Times’ Dealbook takes a look at some of Wall Street’s biggest movers and shakers as they have played musical chairs in the last few months:
Days after Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, it emerged that Mr. Shafir, a global cohead of mergers and acquisitions, was leaving for Citigroup. Mr. Shafir stayed long enough to help sell Lehman’s United States capital-markets business to Barclays.
As head of Lehman’s communications banking group, Mr. Young, known as Woody, was that firm’s biggest rainmaker. After abruptly leaving Lehman in early 2007, he resurfaced last month at Merrill Lynch, just a week before Merrill agreed to be sold to Bank of America.
A banker’s banker, Mr. Sarkozy, the halfbrother of the French president, brokered transactions as joint global head of UBS’s financial institutions group. In March, he became co-head of the global financial services group at Carlyle Group, the private equity giant.
In his 22 years at Goldman Sachs, Mr. Kraus rose as high as co-head of its investment management division. But in May, he left to become head of strategy at Merrill Lynch, where another Goldman alum, John Thain, had recently taken the helm.
As chief financial officer at Lehman Brothers, she was one of Wall Street’s most powerful women. But she was demoted after her defense of the firm’s health failed to comfort skittish investors. In July, she jumped to Credit Suisse to run its global hedge fund business.
Mr. Schwartz became chief executive at Bear Stearns a few months before its sale to JPMorgan Chase & Company. He decided in July to leave JPMorgan and has not announced his next move. He has reportedly talked to investment banks and private equity firms.
Photo: Children play musical chairs after taking part in a role play exercise during an induction course at Mexico City’s stock market July 15, 2005. Mexico City’s stock market holds an induction course for children who’s parents would like them to learn the basics of market capitalism during their summer holidays. REUTERS/Andrew Winning
If we get any closer to a depression these people won’t be jumping jobs, they’ll be jumping buildings.
