U.S. Jobs' Roundup: Commerzbank sheds another top dog

European-owned institutions saw most of the hiring action last week - and the most senior departure.

Commerzbank's top U.S. banker, Omar Bayoumi, resigned amid a wave of senior departures at the German bank over the past four months. Bayoumi joined the bank in 1998 and moved to the U.S. to take charge of the New York team in April 2003. On the positive side, Commerzbank Securities hired Kevin Campion from JP Morgan as head of equity sales trading in New York.

Fox-Pitt, Kelton (FPK), the Swiss Re-owned investment bank specializing in financial institutions, added several new traders to its sales trading and NASDAQ trading teams. Kenneth Plageman joins from Credit Suisse First Boston and will be based in Boston. Bill Morris and Anthony Giovati join sales trading in New York from Fulcrum Global Partners and Prudential Securities, respectively. Anthony Kiniry joins as a senior vice president on the NASDAQ trading ream. He was most recently with Oppenheimer and Company. FPK also announced the appointment of John Nadel as senior analyst joining the U.S. life insurance team. Nadel joins FPK from National Financial Partners Corp., where he was head of investor relations.

Deutsche Bank announced that Neil Ahuja and John Roach have joined the firm's mortgage group as managing directors within the global markets division. Both were previously with RBS Greenwich Capital.

BNP Paribas hired Paul Thomas in New York as vice president, institutional FX sales within the global foreign exchange business. Thomas was previously with Westpac Banking Corp.

Calyon Americas, the corporate and investment bank of the Credit Agricole group in New York, announced the appointment of Thomas Mykityshyn as managing director and head of North American credit sales. Mykityshyn was most recently head of capital market sales for TD Securities, a subsidiary of Toronto-Dominion Bank, in New York.

Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays PLC, appointed Karl Cooper as a director of rates compliance, Americas, based in New York. Cooper joins from Citigroup Global Markets, where he was a director of compliance in the fixed income division.

Brian Finn, president of Credit Suisse First Boston, made his first senior management change since taking charge of investment banking. He appointed Eric Varvel to the new position of head of client coverage in the Americas. Finn took over responsibility for the investment banking division after Bayo Ogunlesi was moved aside in August. He is moving Varvel back to New York from Hong Kong.

Among regional firms, Chicago Equity Partners announced the addition of George Gao as a quantitative analyst. Before joining Chicago Equity Partners, Gao worked for Gapgemini in Chicago.

Y&M Partners, a Beverley Hills, California-based boutique investment banking and strategic advisory firm, hired Jay Ruffin as senior partner. Ruffin comes from his own firm, Ruffin and Associates, where he managed a consulting practice focusing on the energy, entertainment, healthcare and finance industries.

Capitalink, a South Florida-based investment banking firm, hired John Mackle, a veteran Big 4 business valuation executive, to head its new valuation services division.

Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), a provider of corporate governance solutions, named Randall S. Hancock executive vice president and general manager of its global research business unit. Hancock comes from IBM where he was global leader of the Institute for Business Value, IBM's strategic research organization.

Among venture capital firms and fund managers, Baltimore-based Montagu Newhall Associates added Jim Lim as a partner. Lim was most recently director of venture capital at Commonfund Capital, a fund-of-funds firm.

Kirkland, Washington-based OVP Venture Partners announced the appointment of John Hull to the firm's investment team in Portland, Oregon, as its newest partner. Previously, Hull was the Director of the $500 million Intel Communications Fund, one of Intel Capital's investment programs.

New York-based D. E. Shaw Group hired Robert Bartkowiak as a senior vice president to help direct the sales and marketing effort of its institutional asset management platform. Bartkowiak joins from Deutsche Asset Management.

Boston-based, Acadian Asset Management appointed Brendan Bradley and Ross Dowd as senior vice president and vice president respectively. Bradley was previously with Upstream Technologies and Dowd with Barclays Global Investors.

Los Angles-based Transamerica Investment Management announced the arrival of Christopher M. Ericksen as a portfolio manager from Goldman Sachs.