Citi's new head of hedge fund sales is building his team

Citi's new head of hedge fund sales in London is settling into his seat and accumulating new colleagues, one of whom he's worked with before.

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We reported on Ali Sanai's departure from UBS to Citi in March this year. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) register shows him being registered at Citi in late August, although insiders at the bank say he's been around for around six months.

Sanai is Citi's new head of G10 hedge fund and real money sales for Europe and the UK. It appears to be a step-down from his role as global head of hedge fund rate sales at UBS, where Sanai covered London, New York and APAC, but his new job presumably involves less travelling and UBS's macro business is by far the smaller of the two. 

Sanai didn't respond to a request to comment for this article, but it's understood that he's already hiring. He's understood to have recruited two people to his team in London: Maria Spathari, a G10 rates saleswoman from Bank of America and Aisha Rubio, a junior he worked with at UBS. 

Sanai is thought to have replaced Hubert Lanne, Citi's former head of hedge fund rates sales, who moved to France to become head of markets sales in September 2024. 

Citi declined to comment.

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