European jobs roundup: Fund management staff on the move
Senior fund management staff have been on the move in the past week. There was hiring too in financial institutions group (FIG) roles in corporate finance, while Citigroup filled gaps in media research.
Britannic Asset Management replaced Leslie McIntosh, its chief executive, with Gavin Stewart, its chief operating officer, with immediate effect. Last year McIntosh presided over the loss of 100m in total assets.
Nick Reid, a long-only manager at Gartmore, left to join RAB Capital, the hedge fund manager whose valued soared hen it floated in London in March. Reid spent 10 years at Gartmore and helped launched the firm's Japanese equities hedge fund in 2000. Further hires are likely at RAB: Michael Alan Buckley, its executive chairman, said he wants to employ 55 staff by December, up from 42 currently.
Insight Investment, the asset management arm of HBOS, suffered a spate of departures. Mark Burgess, head of equities, left after just three months for Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM), where he will join as global co-head of equities alongside Greg Sawyer. Crispin Cripwell, head of US equities and Steven Wheeler, head of Japanese equities, were also leaving, Insight said.
Barclays Capital remained one of the most active hirers among investment banks. In the same week that Barclays reported record revenues in its investment banking division, it announced the recruitment of three bankers for its European commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS) team. Lynn Gilbert, Christian Janssen and Natalie Howard are all joining from Morgan Stanley. Gilbert will be head of head of European CMBS.
Bob Diamond, chief executive of Barclays Capital, said the bank was hiring client-facing bankers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Merrill Lynch hired two directors for its European FIG group: Joachim Dobrikat from CSFB and David Gruffat from CDC IXIS Asset Management. FIG has been an active area of recruitment this year: last month Bank of America and Lehman Brothers both hired FIG bankers and SG said it had plans to hire 10 new FIG specialists for Europe.
Media research remained at the centre of recruitment activity. Citigroup poached a media research team comprising Marc Sugarman, Tom Singlehurst and Hazel Morgan from Goldman Sachs. The move followed the departure of Patrick Wellington, Citigroup's top rated media analyst, for Morgan Stanley two months ago.
Lehman bolstered the Merchant Banking Group, its European private equity arm, by hiring Javier Banon from DB-Capital Partners. Banon will co-head the group with Joe Cohen and will report to Charles Ayres, global head of merchant banking.
Private banks also made staff changes. Rothschild Private Management, the private banking arm of the UK bank, hired Philip Degren and Hugh Giltrow from Dresdner Kleinwort Benson Private Bank. Julius Baer Holding, the Swiss private bank, appointed Glen Wisher as chief executive officer. Wisher had been with the bank since 1995.
Staff at Prebon Marshall Yamane, the UK inter-dealer broker, had reason for concern following news that the company was in takeover talks with Collins Stewart, a UK rival. If the deal goes ahead, the firms could merge in October. A spokesman said significant job losses were unlikely, but that redundancies were possible at the regional level.
