Jefferies is still poaching senior investment bankers

Jefferies has been steadily plucking off senior investment bankers from its competitors both in the U.S. and UK, and it’s just added two new managing directors to its ranks early on in 2017.

Paul Cugno, a Lehman-lifer who has been working at Barclays’ investment bank for the past eight years as head of the natural resources, power and infrastructure leveraged finance group in New York, has just joined Jefferies’ energy leveraged finance division.

Cugno led a team of 10 investment bankers in Barclays’ energy leveraged finance business. Prior to Lehman, he spent three years working at Scotia Bank.

Jefferies has also poached Shaun Westfall as a managing director in consumer investment banking. Westfall most recently held the same role at Piper Jaffray, where he worked for nearly 11 years. He’s based in San Francisco.

Jefferies has taken to hiring-in senior bankers externally, rather than elevating people from within. In its latest class of managing directors, just 26 people were promoted – nearly half that of 2016, when 47 people were bumped up. It also ended 2016 with fewer employees than it started with – 3,329 compared to 3,557.

Churn has been an issue at Jefferies throughout the past 12 months, but it’s still been hiring in senior staff across various functions throughout 2016.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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