These senior investment bankers have just quit for industry jobs

Senior bankers and equity researchers in both London and New York are still leaving the industry to take up supposedly more secure roles in industry.

One example is James Collins, who until earlier this month was a retail research analyst at Stifel Financial. Collins is a long-serving researcher, having previously worked as a food retail analyst at Deutsche Bank for over nine years and for seven years covering the industry at ABN Amro in London. Now, he’s just taken the role as head of investor relations at J Sainsbury.

Despite the anticipated uptick in demand for senior equity researchers in the build up to MiFID II – which will ‘unbundle’ research costs from other trading charges and is boosting demand for high-rated analysts – senior people are still leaving the industry.

Investor relations remains a popular choice, with analysts switching across to the companies they covered. Another recent example is Richard Burden, a managing director in insurance research at Credit Suisse, who is now head of investor relations at Zurich insurance.

A more unusual move is that of Dave Francis. He was a managing director at RBC Capital Markets and head of the U.S. healthcare IT and distribution equity research team. He’s also made the switch across to industry, but has just taken the role of chief financial officer at private healthcare insurance exchange, eHealth Inc.

Meanwhile, the trend of senior bankers moving into corporate development roles is also trundling on. Joseph “Mickey” Giacobbe, who was a managing director in aerospace, defence and government services investment banking at RBC Capital Markets, has just joined medical equipment manufacturer, Drive Medical, in a corporate development role.

Giacobbe is a senior vice president at the firm.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com