Trading Places
Inside views on the jobs market
Job Bank – Nov.12
The following financial services industry appointments were announced on Nov. 12, linked where possible to personal profiles on LinkedIn. To inform us of other job changes, please e-mail moves@thomsonreuters.com.
BREWIN DOLPHIN INVESTMENT BANKING
The investment manager appointed Nick Owen as the head of Corporate Broking, Michael Parkinson as head of Research; David Green as head of Sales and Trading, Matt Davis as deputy head of Corporate Finance and Jock Maxwell-Macdonald as deputy head of Sales. The company also promoted Jamie Cumming to Deputy Head of Investment Banking.
MERRILL LYNCH GLOBAL WEALTH MANAGEMENT
The U.S.-based investment bank’s wealth management arm named Andrew Keating as a financial advisor focusing on the U.K. and Ireland. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, he was a financial advisor at Prudential-Bache International.
CONFORTO FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
Job Bank – Oct. 28
The following financial services industry appointments were announced on October 28, linked where possible to personal profiles on LinkedIn. To inform us of other job changes, please e-mail moves@thomsonreuters.com.
Lazard Lazard Ltd said Alexis de Rosnay will join the firm as a vice chairman of Lazard International and as a senior member of its global financial advisory team, starting on Nov. 12. De Rosnay, based in London, was previously at Lehman Brothers, where he was co-head of investment banking for Europe and the Middle East as well as global co-head of health-care investment banking.
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher Law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher hired David Feldman, Eric Wise and Matthew Williams as partners in its New York office as partners. All three were formerly partners at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel. The firm said they joined Gibson Dunn’s business restructuring and reorganization practice group, with Feldman co-chairing the group.
LPL Financial Independent broker-dealer LPL Financial hired Bruce Harrington as senior vice president of retirement solutions. Harrington will focus on developing the retirement plan platform, identifying retirement income solutions, and generating ways for independent financial advisers to best capture rollovers from their existing plans and other sources.
FBR Capital Markets FBR Capital Markets Corp, a middle-market investment bank, hired Kurt Oehlberg, Sharon Weinstein and Christopher Weyers as managing directors in its investment banking group. Oehlberg was named managing director in FBR Capital Markets’ energy & natural resources group, Weinstein joins its financial institutions group, and Weyers joins the company’s diversified industrials group. Insight Investment Management (Global) Ltd The investment manager of HBOS Plc announced that Colm McDonagh has joined its fixed income team as head of emerging markets. Prior, McDonagh was with Hydra Capital Management. Grant Thornton UK LLP The business and financial adviser appointed Alistair Drage as associate director within its leasing and asset finance team. He was previously a partner with a boutique advisory firm. Merrill Lynch & Co Inc Merrill appointed Kristjon Gretarsson and Mikael Nass to focus on ultra-high net worth and high net worth clients in Iceland and Sweden respectively. Prior, Nass was with Kuylenstierna & Skog SA and Gretarssonc was with Glitnir Bank
ING Real Estate The real estate company said Kevin Aitchison has started in his new role as the chief executive Investment Management UK following Robert Houston’s appointment as CEO of the global investment management business. Aitchison has been with the company for more than eight years.
The bright side of financial turmoil
Who says it’s all gloom and doom on Wall Street? Sure, job cuts are fast and furious these days, but the deepening financial crisis is bringing about some interesting unintended consquences. Time magazine reports that although the government bailout caps the salaries of top executives, it may actually prop up the bonuses of rank and file bankers.
True, those bonuses are substantially lower than they would’ve been had the markets not imploded in recent weeks — but not nearly as low as one might expect.
Compensation consultant Alan Johnson predicts the average managing director at an investment bank will be on the receiving end of a $625,000 bonus this year, with top bankers earning as much as $1 million. That may be a tough pill to swallow for the taxpayers footing the bailout bill, but some argue that bankers shouldn’t be penalized for their firm’s bad decisions.
Banks already recognize the importance of rewarding newly acquired talent. Bank of America last week offered retention packages to more than 15,000 Merill brokers in a bid to stave off defections. Only time will tell if it works.
Do Wall Street payouts need to be reined in? Share your thoughts below in the comments section.
Too easy to say, its ‘not right’ for bankers to get large bonus pay outs on the back of bail outs. It has to be relative to the individuals contribution in terms of revenue to bank. The banks have loaned money, that is what all companies do in tough times, the government reached out and held up the main banks because they were fearful of a total collapse and confidence panic in the market. If the money was not given in contract where it was stipulated there are constraints on bonus pay-outs to employees because we have loaned out the money then fine but it is not the case, therefore the banks are free to run their business as they see fit. Couple of points are to retain the best people in the market, one has to pay top bonuses. The money if not loaned then the government gets a stake at a rock bottom price which makes for an excellent investment correct? If so then when the share price rockets at whatever point in the future, then the government stand to make a healthy profit, makes perfect sense to me – there are no favours here, the governments will cash in at some point – not that the tax payer will benefit! Tough job making money for these guys, very bright, very sharp, top of their game and the bonus is relative to how much money they have made for the bank so why should they not get paid what they signed upto – because the government used tax payers money? One investment bank who is paying out excellent bonuses have already paid back the bail out money and made enough to pay its employees good bonuses. It is wrong in a sense, but wrong of the governement not to have managed it better rather than the banks for paying well. Tax payers should be compensated according to share price increase of the ‘investments’ (rather than bail-outs) that the government has made, let’s see some money flowing back into our pockets in terms of rate cuts and benefits to the public off the back of the hefty profits the governments of the world will make when things turn around.
Job Bank – Oct. 21
The following financial servies industry appointments were announced on Oct. 21, linked where possible to personal profiles on LinkedIn. To inform us of other job changes, please e-mail moves@thomsonreuters.com.
MERRILL LYNCH & CO
Merrill Lynch’s Global Wealth Management (GWM) group appointed Alla Fedorova as a financial advisor. The company also hired Katalin Cseh, previously with UBS wealth management. Fedorova & Cseh will be based in London and will work as a part of emerging European markets team.
RBC CAPITAL MARKETS
The corporate and investment banking arm of Royal Bank of Canada appointed David Gair, previously with BP, as senior adviser to its oil and gas team in London.
CITIC SECURITIES
More “slash and burn” to come?
Nerves are likely frayed at newly-acquired Merrill Lynch after analyst Richard Bove wrote a daunting note to clients warning of Bank of America’s “slash and burn” post-acquisition style, Bloomberg reports. A BofA spokesperson is mum on the size of the cuts, but Merrill CEO John Thain estimated in an earlier TV interview that cuts would be in the thousands. CNBC reported that about 500 sales and trading jobs across fixed-income and equity divisions have already been cut.
Meanwhile, some 4,000 National City employees are expected to get the axe as the Cleveland-based lender looks to shave costs over the next three years.
But it’s not bad news for everyone. Merrill’s head of strategy Peter Kraus is set to walk away with as much as $25 million, according to media reports. And three other senior Merrill executives — president and COO Greg Fleming, global sales and trading head Tom Montag, and global wealth management president Bob McCann — will take on new positions at Bank Of America.
Big isn’t always better for brokers
Beaten-down brokers are weighing the benefits of staying at Wall Street mammoths Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch in a time when even the big guys aren’t so safe anymore. Turns out, well-established firms are still attractive to many brokers even as some decide to break ties altogether to set up their own shop.
“Merrill advisors are looking at the prospect of working for Ken Lewis and Bank of America and fear they will find themselves in a cost-cutting mentality,” says Howard Diamond, CEO of Diamond Consultants, a New Jersey-based financial services recruiter.
But avoiding a job loss might be harder than simply switching firms. The U.N.’s International Labour Organization said on Monday that an estimated 20 million jobs will disappear by the end of next year as the financial crisis swirls. Think you’re next? Consult the Wall Street Journal’s handy “Five signs you may be on the layoff list” for more clues.
Job Bank – Oct. 9
The following are job changes within the financial industry for Oct. 7, linked where possible to personal and company profiles on LinkedIn. To inform us of other job changes, please e-mail moves@thomsonreuters.com.
UBS INVESTMENT BANK The Swiss investment bank said Janine McGrath Shelffo will join its Investment Banking Department (IBD) as a Managing Director in its Technology, Media and Telecommunications Banking group. Prior to this assignment, Shelffo was a managing director and senior coverage banker for the media sector at Lehman Brothers, where she worked since 2004.
PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS LLP The New York based assurance, tax and advisory services firm said John McCaffrey has been appointed leader of the U.S. Transaction Services group, and Timothy Hartnett as U.S. Private Equity Leader. McCaffrey previously headed the firm’s U.S. Private Equity group and replaces Michael Burwell, who is now the U.S. firm’s chief financial officer.
RBC CAPITAL MARKETS The Canadian bank’s investment banking arm named Peter Walraven as managing director of the firm’s U.S. Debt Capital Markets efforts for Infrastructure and Project Finance. He will be based in New York. Prior to this appointment, Walraven worked at JP Morgan, most recently as a managing director and a member of that firm’s global private placements group.
MERRILL LYNCH BANK (SUISSE) The investment bank has appointed Mark Kahnau as the new office manager of its Global Wealth Management Zurich branch.
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.
BofA’s big challenge seen keeping Merrill advisers
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Merrill’s “thundering herd” may be stampeding into the sunset.
That’s Bank of America Corp’s fear as it proceeds with the planned $50 billion purchase of Merrill Lynch and prepares to inherit Merrill’s 16,000 financial advisers, part of the retail brokerage that Bank of America Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis has described as the “crown jewel.”
The advisers may be tempted to strike out on their own or other firms could poach them. In either case, they could take a lot of their clients — and assets — with them.
“This is an industry where a lot of these brokers look at peers setting up their own businesses, breaking away,” notes Seamus McMahon, a financial services partner at management consulting firm Booz & Co.
Also, industry analysts fear a culture clash in the making between Merrill’s independent-minded, field-office broker and the large bank’s central command-and-control hierarchy.
The advisers expect to be courted. “Of course, our phones are ringing,” said a current Merrill adviser, who declined to be identified because he isn’t authorized to speak to the press.
Wall Street job losses may be Asia’s gain
MUMBAI/SHANGHAI: Within hours of Bank of America agreeing to buy Merrill Lynch this week, Indian financial services firm Ambit hired five Merrill executives, a sign that Asia hopes to gain from massive Wall Street layoffs.
For China and India, whose economies are still expanding at well over 7 percent, the global financial industry crisis makes it easier to recruit bankers who are brushing off their resumes.
New York’s governor reckons 40,000 Wall Street jobs could go in a worst-case scenario, with talk swirling of more bank deals and mergers.
Lehman Brothers, which has filed for bankruptcy protection, has around 2,000 staff in India, including its back-office operation, while Merrill has about 500.
Ambit Holdings said on Monday it hired the five Merrill executives from a majority-owned local venture for its institutional equities and equity proprietary trading unit, including a 10-year Merrill veteran as head.
BNP Paribas and Nomura Securities in India are looking to hire Lehman executives, according to investment banking sources who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. In Hong Kong, bankers said they were considering hiring from Lehman.
