Jefferies has been doing some big hiring for its London operation

Jefferies has been hiring. While few investment banks have been willing to commit to new recruits this year – thanks to Brexit uncertainty and ongoing challenges – Jefferies has continued to build its London operation.

Jefferies has been bringing in new people across the investment banking hierarchy. The most senior recent recruit is Haroon Rahmathulla, who has just joined as a managing director and head of chemicals investment banking from Barclays. He worked at the UK bank for six years, having moved to London from Lehman Brothers in New York in 2010.

Meanwhile, Juergen Schroeder, a director in corporate finance at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, joined in February. At BAML, Schroeder was the development officer for Moritz Erhardt, the intern who died of an epileptic seizure in 2013 after working for three days without sleep.

Other senior recruits include Alan Cameron, a director in the economics team at boutique bank Exotix, who joined Jefferies as a sovereign desk analyst. Ryan Burke, an emerging markets analyst at Threadneedle Investments, joined in emerging markets fixed income research earlier this year and Mark Chadwell, who worked in equity sales at Macquarie in Japan, was hired in a similar role at Jefferies in February.

Ken Rumph, who was latterly a principal at clean tech consultancy Cleantechnics has also joined as a research analyst focused on the venture capital and intellectual property sectors.

Jefferies hasn't restricted its recruitment to the top ranks - it's also hired juniors. Sarah Barr, a former equity research associate on the global consumer team at Nomura in New York, joined Jefferies’ London team in February. Charlie Talbot, an emerging markets credit sales associate – and former soldier – joined from Citi and Ayso van Eysinga, who was an associate at political risk research and consulting firm Eurasia Group, has joined Jefferies as an associate on the emerging markets fixed income desk.

Olga Small, algorithmic and electronic sales trader at Exane, also joined in the same role at Jefferies in January.

At the analyst level, Hamish Galgarno, joined the equity research graduate programme after interning last year and Robert Ortells, who has two levels of the CFA, joined as an analyst on the structured credit team.

Jefferies pays all cash bonuses in its UK operations, which is a good hook for anyone joining from a larger, regulatory constrained, investment bank. But there’s a catch – you have to pay them back if you leave.

Right now, the bank is in a very public spat with former employees who jumped to Credit Suisse in New York and is asking for $10m in damages from the bankers’ own pockets.

In London, exits have slowed, but it’s not all one-way traffic at Jefferies in the UK. Jayaweera, an equity analyst who worked at Jefferies for nine years, left for Peel Hunt earlier this month.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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