U.S. Jobs' Roundup: European banks make cuts
It was a week of restructuring and transatlantic job reshuffles, including announcements of large scale redundancies at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) and Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB).
DrKW, the German-owned investment bank, is firing 240 of its staff worldwide, 50 of them in New York. The cuts are being driven by Steve Bellotti, the former Merrill Lynch banker who took over as global head of capital markets at DrKW in September. The cuts are intended to refocus DrKW on higher-margin businesses such as derivatives and structured products. Although it will not be pulling out of any businesses, it will be focusing the cuts in commoditised and highly competitive areas such as foreign exchange.
Meanwhile, Brady Dougan, chief executive of Credit Suisse First Boston has warned that between 200 and 300 jobs will be axed worldwide over the next few months as part of the restructuring of the troubled investment bank by its Swiss parent Credit Suisse. Robert Jain, head of equity proprietary trading at CSFB in New York, will take control of a new integrated global proprietary trading group which will span fixed income and equities.
As part of the restructuring, Eric Varvel and Marc Granetz, both in New York, have been named as co-heads of corporate and investment banking. Varvel was previously head of investment banking and emerging markets coverage for Asia Pacific ex-Japan. Granetz also oversees the firm's global M&A group.
Oswald Gruebel, chief executive, said the shake up will mean the name First Boston will eventually be dropped from the investment bank, that the bank will spin out private equity and float its insurance group Winterthur.
On a more upbeat note, BNP Paribas announced that Alex Corley Smith has moved from its London office to its New York office as a managing director in debt capital markets, covering sovereign, supranational and agency issuers based in North America.
Smith has worked at BNP Paribas' London office since 2001 where she was responsible for the coverage of Sovereigns and Agencies. Prior to that, she worked at Merrill Lynch.
In recent months, BNP Paribas fixed income has appointed over 26 fixed income professionals in the U.S., including the establishment of the San Francisco desk and the expansion of the Chicago sales effort.
SG Corporate and Investment Banking has strengthened its U.S. team by shifting Philippe Mathé, its head of coverage for Europe, from London to New York to run its corporate and institutional division in the Americas.
Mathé has worked for SG for 22 years since joining the French bank's Mexican office from Banco Nacional de Mexico in 1982. He was made deputy chief executive of European coverage in 2000 and took over as head of that business in January 2002.
In his new role, Mathé will report to Patrick Soulard, global head of the corporates and institutions division, and to Jacques Bouhet, chief executive of SG in the Americas region. He will also join the bank's U.S. management committee.
Regional banks hire
Tampa, Florida-based boutique investment bank Hyde Park Capital Advisors announced that David Gilroy is joining the firm as managing director, investment banking. Gilroy is opening a new Charlotte, North Carolina office for Hyde Park Capital and will focus on originating investment banking business and serving client companies throughout the states of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. In addition Gilroy, who comes from venture capital firm Wakefield Group, will assist Hyde Park Capital in the development of a principal investing line of business.
Galen Capital Group, a merchant banking firm dedicated to the healthcare industry, hired Brad Hoffman as a managing director based out of Galen's new Newport Beach, California office. Hoffman launched his finance career fifteen years ago as co-founder of Hoffman, Hoffman & Associates (HH&A), a financial services company specific to the healthcare market and in January 2004 he co-founded Surgifund and acquired California-based Ambulatory Surgery Center Accounts Receivables to provide factoring services.
Asset management firm gets new CEO
A quiet week in asset management saw New York-based Utendahl Capital Management hire Penny Zuckerwise as its chief executive officer. With $2.1 billion in assets under management, Utendahl is among the largest minority-owned institutional fixed income asset management firms in the United States.
Zuckerwise, a 20-year veteran of the asset management business, was previously president and chief operating officer of Chancellor LGT Asset Management (formerly Citicorp Investment Management and currently Invesco), where she was responsible for over $50 billion dollars of assets.
