Morning Coffee: 47-year-old who left banking in 2009 beats younger rivals to job. HSBC opts for the $7k technologists

When Henrik Aslaksen left Deutsche Bank for "unspecified reasons" (joining Credit Suisse) last June, there seemed no shortage of internal candidates to replace him as global head of M&A. At the very least, why not Berthold Fuerst and Richard Sheppard, the two freshly appointed EMEA heads of M&A at Deutsche? Or Anthony Whittemore, the then-head of Americas M&A at the German bank (Whittemore subsequently resigned, possibly as a result of being overlooked)?

But no. Instead, Deutsche went for a totally wild card: a 47 year-old Frenchman who hasn't worked in banking since 2009.

Like Harry Potter hiding out with the Dursley family, Thomas Piquemal has spent the past seven years working in corporate development roles. Latterly, he worked for EDF Energy. Before that, he worked for Veolia Environnement.

So, what equips Piquemal to charge in and seize the prize? The Financial Times says he knows Marcus Schenck, Deutsche's finance director, from back in the days when Schenck himself worked in corporate development for German energy firm Eon. It probably helps too that Piquemal has some M&A experience - he was a partner at Lazard for 14 years until 2009. Either way, Deutsche clearly wants Piquemal a lot as it tries to bolster its flagging M&A fortunes. - It's allowing him to be based in France. Piquemal starts in the Paris office this week.

Separately, while Deutsche has decided that $7k Indian technologists are a false economy, HSBC is all for them. The bank is reportedly moving 840 technology jobs out of the UK and into cheap locations like India as part of its cost cutting plan.

Meanwhile:

Deutsche Bank doom: Analyst says John Cryan can't costs fast enough to atone for falling revenues and the bank will struggle to either sell assets or raise new capital. (Bloomberg) 

Landis Olson, head of Hudson River Trading in Europe, is leaving. (Financial News)

Two more Goldman fixed income partners are disappearing into the sunset: Michael Swenson and Jonathan Meltzer. (Financial News) 

Ex-Global head of equities and commodities at Standard Chartered finds self in pickle. (The Sun) 

Ex-Bank of England economist dies tragically at 47 from aggressive form of brain cancer. (Bloomberg) 

Career advice from a hedge fund manager: "Great ideas can strike at any stage of the investment process." (WilowWallStreet)

Nihilistic password prompts: What was the name of your favorite unpaid internship? (McSweeney's) 

Photo credit: Tortoise by Keith Roper is licensed under CC BY 2.0.