Job Wrap: Reaching Out to Private Clients

Bear Stearns and Deutsche Bank Alex Brown both chose last week to announce additions to their private client teams.

Bear Stearns hired four brokers to cover the Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Seattle areas. In Dallas, Bill Fry joins from Legg Mason. In Los Angeles, David Mizrahi joins from Wachovia. In Chicago, Bob Venzor joins from Merrill Lynch. And Chad Reibman joins in Seattle from Oppenheimer.

Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown, the U.S. private client services division of Deutsche Bank Securities, made three hires to its Atlanta office from A.G. Edwards & Sons. Barry Sobel and Susan Thornton joined as directors and private client advisors. Tony Pruitt joined as a vice president and client advisor.

Investment Banking: Gatto Joins Lehman

There was a monumental move in investment banking, when Lehman Brothers hired Joseph Gatto, chairman of the global consumer products group of Goldman Sachs, as vice-chairman of the bank and chairman of global mergers and acquisitions. Gatto, who will be based in New York, has spent his entire career to date at Goldman.

Separately, ThinkEquity Partners, a research-centric investment firm, hired Jonathan

Lowenberg from UBS as a managing director in investment banking, situated in its New York office. At UBS, Lowenburg was a senior member of the global private equity placement group.

Leveraged Finance and Private Equity: BNP Paribas Hires from JP Morgan

BNP Paribas hired Thomas Cassidy from JP Morgan Chase as head of healthcare banking in its US leveraged finance business. Cassidy was a managing director in the financial sponsor coverage group at JP Morgan.

Northern Trust Global Investments hired Kevin Kresnicka for its private equity group. A former vice president in the private equity group at Bank of America, Kresnicka will be responsible for marketing strategy, product development and client communications and reporting.

Forstmann Little, the US private equity firm that turned around Gulfstream Aerospace in the 1990s, hired former Gulfstream executive Chris Davis to help manage three remaining investments as it winds down the business.

Finally, Michael Risman, one of Apax Partners' 22 global equity partners and an IT sector specialist, resigned. Risman is the second partner to leave since Apax closed its sixth buy-out fund with €4.3bn ($6.3bn) in July.

Equities: Jefferies Nets Wolfe

Jefferies & Co, the main operating subsidiary of Jefferies Group, hired Howard D. Wolfe III as a managing director in its equity capital markets group. Wolfe joins from Deutsche Bank's San Francisco-based equity capital markets team.

Banc of America Securities hired Seth Weber, a research associate at UBS, as a vice president and research analyst covering machinery and waste companies as well as small and mid cap industrial stocks. Weber will be based in New York.

Fixed Income and Commodities: BNP Paribas Hires from UBS

BNP Paribas hired Robert Dempsey from UBS Securities as a whole loan trader for its New York fixed income business. It also hired Tim Drayson from Morgan Stanley as global head of securitisation, plugging a seven-month gap in its debt capital markets management team since Michael Donahue resigned in March.

Jefferies Financial Products, a subsidiary of Jefferies Group, hired Mazin Mirza from Goldman Sachs as a managing director and global head of commodity derivatives.

Cantor Fitzgerald hired Scott Gruber, a former employee of National Bank of Commerce and SunTrust Bank, as managing director of a new office in Memphis. Gruber will oversee the office's fixed income sales and trading efforts.

Asset Management: Harvard Hires Pimco Star

Harvard Endowment Fund hired star fund manager Mohamed El-Erian from Pimco, the US bond manager, as president and chief executive. El-Erian replaces Jack Meyer, whose contract at Harvard finished at the end of September.

American Century Investments, an investment manager with $96.5bn (€80.5bn) in assets, hired Jonathan Thomas as executive vice-president. Thomas was previously chief operating officer for Morgan Stanley's asset management division.

US Trust, an asset management firm with $103bn (€86bn) of assets under management, hired Leo Grohowski from Deutsche Asset Management as its new chief investment officer