Nomura Expands its Institutional Equity Sales Team

Nomura announced today that it was expanding its Institutional Equity Sales team with five key hires in San Francisco, Boston, Chicago and New York.

In a statement, the bank says the additions will broaden Nomura's equity research distribution capabilities and enhance the firm's ability to deliver its high quality research content to its institutional client base.

The new hires are David Miller who will be based in San Franciso, Ryan Thornton in Boston, Gina Markevitch in New York, Mark Walsh in Chicago and Chris Virelli in New York. Miller left JP Morgan to join Nomura as Managing Director and Head of West Coast Research Sales. Ryan joined the firm from Deutsche Bank, while Markevitch comes from UBS. Walsh had been with Thomas Weisel Partners and Virelli was from Soleil Securities.

This will give Nomura a stronger regional presence with clients and investors outside New York as the bank broadens its coverage of other financial hubs.

For example, Nomura recently nabbed Wall Street's top-ranked software industry analyst Richard Sherlund from Goldman Sachs. Just as Sherland begins his Silicon Valley coverage for Nomura, the bank now has an equity research sales office in San Francisco to make sure clients and investors can take advantage of it.

As one person familiar with Nomura's strategy regarding this geographically diverse expansion, "it shows an understanding that business doesn't necessarily begin and end in New York."