Job Wrap: Senior hires in continental Europe

Banks, including Citigroup, SG and Calyon, added senior figures in Italy and France last week. There was also an indisputable flurry of hiring activity in the fund management sector.

Citigroup hired Jean-Manuel Richier, head of French and Belgian equity capital markets at Goldman Sachs, as deputy head of French investment banking.

SG Corporate & Investment Banking hired Professor Gian Maria Gros-Pietro, chairman of Autostrade, the Italian toll motorway operator, as senior advisor in Italy. It also hired Massimiliano Battisti from Babcock & Brown as director of project finance in Italy, with responsibility for originating and structuring project finance transactions in the infrastructure and energy sectors.

Calyon hired Christopher Kelly from Lydian Capital Advisors and Bernard Vignoles from Société Générale to its investment banking division. Both will be based in Paris.

BNP Paribas hired Patrick Calinski from Natexis Banques Populaires to its corporate debt capital markets team.

Fund management and private banking

Every man and his dog was hiring in fund management last week.

Morley Fund Management hired Mark Westwood from Legg Mason Investments as UK equity fund manager in its core UK equities team.

ILEX Asset Management hired David Meek from Citigroup as a partner and senior portfolio manager.

Scottish Widows Investment Partnership hired Simon Wombwell from Mellon Global Investments as head of UK distribution.

André du Plessis, the London-based chief executive of Coronation Fund Managers, a fund of hedge funds with $20bn under management, resigned suddenly. Coronation hired Charles Barnick, an independent market maker, as its new chief executive in London.

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein lost Evan Kalimtgis, head of its proprietary trading desk, to Glencore Finance, a subsidiary of Swiss commodities group Glencore International. Moves are afoot to turn Glencore Finance into a hedge fund

Nicola Horlick hired Andrew Green from SG Asset Management to manage UK equities at Bramdean, her new firm.

Citigroup Private Bank poached Giles Crowe and Nicholas Parker from Barclays Private Bank as directors focusing on the UK onshore and offshore ultra-high-net-worth market. Both will be based in London.

Schroders said Denis Clough will become a fund manager in its UK equities team. Clough is currently on sabbatical. He was formerly a fund manager in the bank's European equities team.

Finally, David Haysey, senior equity fund manager at Deutsche Asset Management (DeAM) in London, became the latest in a series of top managers at DeAM to resign.

Back office hiring expected to rocket

City of London firms are looking to hire greater numbers of operations and risk management professionals according to the latest survey by back office recruiter Morgan McKinley. While vacancies climb and banks want to hire in, they say the right candidates are proving elusive:

• 64% of City firms anticipate an increase in hiring during 2005.
• 50% of City employers are finding it harder to hire good candidates than a year ago.
• The majority (64%) of City firms expect basic salary offerings to remain steady in 2005 although 36% do expect an increase.
• The average City basic salary increased by 1% in March to 46,990.
• The number of outstanding job vacancies in the City in March, 2005 (10521) is more than double the number in March, 2004 (4593).