US jobs roundup: Reorganisation at Bank of America

Bank of America and Merrill Lynch made several internal appointments in the past week.

Jon Sandelman, global head of equities at Banc of America Securities, the investment banking arm of Bank of America, was promoted to head of debt and equities in New York.

Sandelman, who has been global head of equities since 2002, was deputy head of global equities and managing director of equity derivatives at Salomon Brothers before joining Banc of America in 1998.

Banc of America Securities also said it is separating the roles of chairman and chief executive. Ed Brown, who used to hold both titles, will remain chief executive while Carter McClelland will become chairman. McClelland will remain head of corporate and investment banking and as New York market president at Banc of America Securities.

McClelland and Sandelman, who continue to report to Brown, will share responsibility for the debt and equity capital markets business.

Bank of America also promoted Dik Blewitt to head of structured product sales as part of a reorganisation in its investment grade and asset securitisation group. Blewitt, a managing director in the global structured products group, has been with the bank since October 2001.

Merrill Lynch said Philippe Hatstadt, a managing director in credit derivatives, resigned to pursue other opportunities after nine months with the bank. He was previously a senior managing director and head of credit derivatives trading at Bear Stearns in New York before working at Merrill Lynch.

Brian Fullerton, chief investment officer for Merrill Lynch Investment Manager's America's region and head of global risk management and performance, will take over as the leader of the bank's Focus Twenty Fund. Fullerton replaces Michael Hahn who had been in charge of the fund since 2001.

Fullerton is joined by three other managers on the Focus Twenty Fund: Anthony Patti, chief risk officer for Merrill Lynch Investment Management for the Americas; Linfeng You, senior risk analyst; and Steve Salberta, Focus Twenty Fund analyst since 2000.

FX Week magazine reported Merrill Lynch is restructuring its foreign exchange management. It said Michael DeSa, co-head of foreign exchange and rates, will have fewer responsibilities than before, while Marcus Browning, co-head of global forex trading at Merrill Lynch, would take on sole responsibility for the group.

Rob Catalanello, co-head of the global foreign exchange issuer client group, loses global management responsibility for his division but gains responsibility for corporate foreign exchange sales and hedge fund sales in New York, the magazine said. Merrill declined to comment except to say some restructuring was taking place.

Lazard Frere's power and utilities investment banking group hired Jim von Riesmann, a utilities analyst at JP Morgan Chase, to advise on mergers and acquisitions.

Standard & Poor hired Frank Dos Santos from Citigroup Capital Markets as director of a new taxable fixed income evaluations department. Dos Santos was senior vice president in pricing control at Citigroup.

The International Securities Exchange (ISE)named Thomas Bendixen vice president of corporate initiatives and Robert Cornish vice president of automation and development. Bendixen joined ISE in March 2003 from OM where he was president of OM Transaction NA Inc. Cornish was a software development consultant for Prudential Investments before joining ISE in March 1999.

FrontPoint Partners appointed David Muccia as a senior credit analyst with the convertible arbitrage team. Muccia, who will focus on research and investment, moved from FleetBoston Financial, where he was a high-yield research analyst.

Alan Whalley, a managing partner at Watson Wyatt in London, is to become US regional manager based in Washington. He succeeds Charles Wood, who retired last October after 28 years with the company.