Job Wrap: Asset management back on top

The asset management sector returned to form as the busiest area of hiring last week, while senior investment bankers at Morgan Stanley had reason to fear for their future.

Tony Broccardo, chief investment officer at F&C Asset Management, became the latest in a string of departures from the UK asset management firm. Broccardo joined the firm three years ago and departed follows a reorganisation by new chief executive, Alain Grisay. His destination is unclear.

In other asset management moves, Schroder Investment Management, the London-based asset manager, hired two senior executives in its international property business. Mark Callender joins from property research company Investment Property Databank. Dr Alexandra Krystalogianni joins from Property Market Analysis, a research company.

State Street, the US custodian, promoted Peter Baker to take over from Jeff Conway as head of its investor services business in the UK, the Middle East and South Africa.

Baker was previously managing director of State Street's London investor services business. Separately, State Street opened a new investor services office in Amsterdam, which will house 150 of its employees.

BlueCrest Capital Management, a London-based hedge fund manager with more than $6bn (€5.1bn) in assets under management, hired Nigel Wakefield, a senior energy trader at New York-headquartered commodity fund Valhalla Capital Advisors. Wakefield will establish a dedicated energy trading desk at BlueCrest.

Fidelity International hired Mark Dowsey, previously a senior technical consultant at Watson Wyatt. Dowsey will be an associate director in Fidelity's defined contribution product development team. He is one of many consultants to have left Watson Wyatt after the consultancy sold out to its US namesake.

Investment banking: Cuts at Morgan Stanley

The City and Wall Street were awash with rumours that Morgan Stanley was preparing to ditch as many as 25 senior investment bankers after John Mack suggested there would be 'some changes' in the firm's 'portfolio of people.' Individuals for the chop were to be informed of their identify last week.

Jefferies, the New York-based investment bank, added four oil and gas sector bankers from ABN Amro in London. The team will be led by Richard Kent, former global head of oil and gas corporate finance, at ABN Amro. Neil Schroeder and Paul Wheeler join as directors, and Alex Grant becomes a vice president.

UBS reshuffled its mergers and acquisitions business, naming Piero Novelli and Jeffrey Raich as joint global heads of M&A. Novelli was previously European head of M&A and Raich co-head in the Americas.

Markets: West LB hires DZ MD

WestLB, the German bank, hired Oliver d'Oelsnitz from DZ Bank as a new managing director with responsibility for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region after a reorganisation of its capital markets business. D'Oelsnitz was responsible for North American operations at DZ Bank.

Farid Amellal, global head of credit trading at BNP Paribas, resigned and will leave the bank at the end of this year. Amellal said he would either retire or take an extended sabbatical.

Corporate banking: Bank of Scotland adds seven to loan distributions

Bank of Scotland Corporate added seven new people to its loans distribution team. They include four associate directors and two senior analysts to work in the corporate and leveraged distribution unit, and an associate for the project and infrastructure finance distribution unit.

Limor Shilo, David McKeegan, Frazer MacFarlane and Catherine MacLennan joined the corporate and leverage distribution as associate directors. Shilo and McKeegan joined from JP Morgan and Japanese bank UFJ, respectively. MacFarlane and MacLennan were internal moves. Justine Platt and Carl Paraskevas were hired as senior analysts in the team. Another internal mover, Ollie Champion joined the project and infrastructure finance team as an associate director.

Equity research: DrKW hires from JP Morgan

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein hired Mark Beilby from JP Morgan as head of media equities research. Beilby will have responsibility for expanding the media equity research team and broadening coverage of the sector, including widening the geographic focus to European stocks.