Job Wrap: Cantor Hires 15 for DCM; CSFB Loses Prop Trading Head

Cantor Fitzgerald announced 15 hires for its debt capital markets division last week. The new additions will build on its mortgage-backed securities (MBS), asset-backed securities (ABS) and corporate businesses.

The Cantor hires include John Randolph, Mark Halstead, Samir Shah, Michelle Fredenburg, Steve Blakley, Jeannie Hughes and Frank Edwards, who join the MBS sales staff to focus on credit and structured products.

Patrick Lyons, Hans Nelson and Renee Johnson join to focus on global sales. Harry Fry and Mark Valentine join in Los Angeles. Ned Smith joins the matched book sales department to focus on building new hedge fund relationships for the repo desk. Kurt Modarelli and Martin Klenert join the corporates/mortgages division.

Separately, J.P. Turner & Company, the brokerage firm, hired Michael Bresner as executive vice president from National Securities. His responsibilities will include operational support, broker supervision and new product development.

Banks: Clark quits CSFB, Yeary promoted at Citigroup

Michael Clark, global head of proprietary equity trading at Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), plans to leave at the end of February in pursuit of 'personal interests.' Clark was an ally of John Mack, the former CSFB chief executive who left the bank in July.

Citigroup promoted Frank Yeary, former co-head of global M&A to sole head of global M&A. Tom King, former co-head of global M&A with Yeary was made head of Citigroup's European investment bank last year.

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW) hired Bob Plunkett, a veteran bond trader, to broaden its fixed income capabilities. Plunkett joins from Bank of New York capital markets, where he spent the last ten years as managing director responsible for high grade corporate bonds with a specialization in utilities. KBW also announced plans to open an office in Red Bank, New Jersey to be staffed with additional fixed income salespeople.

Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking hired three people to its asset finance group as part of an extension of its structured finance business across the Americas. Dan T. Suratt joined as managing director in asset finance from GE Structured Finance. Sue K. Waterhouse joined as a director in asset finance from Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. Yasmin Bucknor joined as an analyst with the group from Cornell University.

CSFB began hiring for its new global business centre at Research Triangle Park in Raleigh, North Carolina. The bank is expected to add 400 new jobs in areas including technology and securities operations.

Analysts: Fitch hires from Merrill, Criterion hires from S&P

In a move counter to the flow of analysts from ratings agencies to investment banks, Fitch Ratings hired Glen Costello from Merrill Lynch. Costello will become managing director and the new co-head of Fitch's U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities group with Joanne Sokolowski.

Standard & Poor's lost a senior industry analyst to Criterion Research Group, an independent research firm covering corporate equities and debt. Erik J. Eisenstein joined the firm to cover the equity and fixed income securities of the banking sector. He covered a similar area at Standard & Poor's.

JMP Securities, the San Francisco investment bank, announced it hired six senior professionals to its sales and trading, healthcare investment banking and finance groups since the start of the year. Marilynn Fogarty and Jake Rothenberg joined from Schwab SoundView Capital Markets as managing directors in institutional sales. Colin Henne joined from Susquehanna Financial Group as a director and sales trader. Peter Hunt and Bill Suddath joined from Shattuck Hammond Partners to focus on healthcare services investment banking; Hunt has joined as team leader, with Suddath director. Finally, Chantal Miklosi joined as director of finance from law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

Piper Jaffray hired Mark Arnold from 3M Company as a research analyst covering healthcare. At 3M Arnold worked in marketing covering products under the Post-it, Scotch and 3M Brands. He was previously a health care consultant.

Japaninvest, a boutique providing research into Japanese equities, moved to New York and recruited Sean Forbes, a Japanese equity salesman from CSFB, and David Lucas, an analyst at Daiwa Securities.

Funds: Northern Trust hires for quantitative management, BlueMountain hires from Goldman, Lehman

Northern Trust Global Investments hired two portfolio managers for its quantitative management area. Timothy Minsk joins from Barclays Global Investors as a quantitative equity trader in New York. Joseph Wolfe joins from the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, as a quantitative active portfolio manager/researcher in Chicago.

BlueMountain Capital Management, a New York-based hedge fund with $2.5 billion under management, hired three executives from Goldman Sachs and one from Lehman Brothers. Arthur Berd, a senior vice president at Lehman, joined as a quantitative strategist. Bryce Markus, a vice president trading corporate debt and credit derivatives at Goldman joined as a portfolio manager. Jonathan Loflin, a Goldman vice president, and Scott Smith, a Goldman derivatives trader, joined as associate portfolio managers.

Private equity: Benchmark taps Expedia founder

Benchmark Capital has hired Richard Barton, founder of Expedia, the online travel company, as a venture partner.

Palladium Equity Partners, a New York-based private equity firm, announced it hired Maria del Pilar Avila as Vice President of Marketing. Avila joins from New America Alliance where she was Executive Director since 1999.

NYSE hires for fixed income trading, MarketAxess hires COO

The New York Stock Exchange appointed two executives to oversee the expansion of its fixed-income trading business and to preside over disciplinary hearings of exchange members. John Holman, a managing director at Piper Jaffray, was appointed vice-president, fixed income. Holman will lead the NYSE's effort to expand trading in corporate bonds as it seeks to diversify and increase its revenues. Peggy Kuo, a lawyer at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, was appointed chief hearings officer. Kuo will be charged with presiding over hearings involving allegations of NYSE rules violations and transgressions of federal securities laws by exchange member firms and traders.

MarketAxess Holdings, operator of MarketAxess, an electronic trading platform for U.S.

and European high-grade corporate and emerging markets bonds, announced the appointment of Thomas Thees as chief operating officer. Thees spent 16 years at Morgan Stanley, where he was managing director and head of investment grade trading North

America. He is chairman of the Investment Grade Committee at The Bond Market Association.