Job Wrap: Hiring sprees all-round

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) and Mercer Investment Consulting revealed plans to embark on hiring sprees last week.

It emerged that Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein is planning to hire as many as 300 staff. The bank's capital markets team is currently comprised of 25% sales and trading staff, a proportion that Steve Bellotti, head of capital markets at the bank, said he wanted to rise to 40%. Foreign exchange and derivative products will be among the growth areas, said Bellotti. The bank also reshuffled its fixed income team, appointing Pierre Blandin and Ian Platt as co-heads of a new primary rates group, and Carlyle Peake as head of credit syndicate.

Mercer Investment Consulting launched a hiring spree in advance of opening a new multi-manager business in mid-2006. The company is looking for a new chief operating officer, a senior compliance officer, equity and fixed income managers, and a handful of analysts.

Fixed income: Commerzbank hires for new London securitization unit

Commerzbank Corporates and Markets hired Michael Eleftheriou from Rabobank as senior originator and structurer in its European securitization team. Eleftheriou was a director in Rabobank's securitization team. He joins Commerzbank as it re-launches its securitization business in London.

BNP Paribashired a banker at the centre of the storm over Citigroup's multi-billion euro government bond trades last year. Simon Wivell, a vice president in Citigroup's European government bond trading team joined BNP Paribas as a trader in August.

Fund management: Fry goes to Lazard

Lazard Asset Management hired Michael Fry, head of global equity portfolio management at UBS Global Asset Management. Fry will be a senior portfolio manager and managing director of global equities, based in London.

Watson Wyatt, the investment consultancy, hired Ravi Rastogi from PSolve Asset Solutions. He will become a senior investment consultant and start work in December.

JP Morgan Asset Management promoted Campbell Fleming, head of technology and operations, to head of its UK business.

Franco-Belgian fund manager Dexia Asset Management, hired Fredrik Wilkens from Key Asset Management to open a branch in Stockholm.

David Morrison, a former European chairman of now defunct Tiger Management, once the world's largest hedge fund manager, became a partner at Titanium Capital, a hedge fund manager with $500m (€420m) of assets.

Henderson Global Investors, the UK fund manager, hired Paul Casson from Edinburgh-based SVM Asset Management for its European equity team.

$11.5bn (€9.6bn) London hedge fund manager GLG, hired Steve Roth from Deutsche Bank to work as co-manager of two of its flagship funds.

Private equity: Biddulph joins Promethean

Mike Biddulph quit private equity firm Kleinwort Capital, to become the fifth partner at Promethean Investments, the manager of Aim-listed takeover vehicle Promethean.

Peter Brooks, managing partner of Sovereign Capital, a UK mid-market private equity house, has told investors he is leaving the firm less than four months after raising 275m (€400m) for its second fund

Legal: Bank of America hires Gray from CSFB

Bank of America hired Richard Gray from Credit Suisse First Boston as managing director and general counsel for its global corporate and investment banking business in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Senior management: JP Morgan appoints for European Advisory Council

JP Morgan Chase & Co made hires for its newly formed European Advisory Council. They were: Antonio de Sousa, former chairman of Caixa Geral de Depositos and former governor of the Bank of Portugal; Wilhelm Simson, retired joint chief executive of E.ON, the German utility; and Cees van Lede, chairman of the supervisory board of Heineken, the brewer, and chairman of the board of directors of French business school INSEAD.

Separately, Ruth Lea, director of the Centre for Policy Studies, a private think-tank set up by former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, joined the board of Arbuthnot Banking, owner of investment bank Arbuthnot Securities.

Sir Andrew Large, deputy governor of the Bank of England responsible for financial stability, resigned and will leave in January. He will return to the private sector but a spokesman for the Bank said he has not yet lined up another job. Large was previously deputy chairman of Barclays.