As 2024 begins, SRP looks back at the most relevant people moves stories in 2023 highlighting new hires and exits at the main issuers of structured products across markets.
Bank of America (BofA)
BofA promoted the head of its Latin America business, Alex Bettamio, to co-head of global investment banking alongside Thomas Sheehan.
Bettamio’s appointment was one of several announced by the US bank which also appointed Faiz Ahmad to jointly lead global capital markets with Sarang Gadkari. Elif Bilgi Zapparoli was named head of international client strategy, reporting to Bernie Mensah (right), BofA's president of international business and member of bank’s executive management team.
Other moves include the appointment of Augusto Urmeneta as president for Latin America, succeeding Bettamio; and the retirement of Jiro Seguchi, co-president of Asia Pacific – which meant Jin Su became the bank's sole president for the Asia Pacific. Peter Guenthardt leads the global corporate investment banking in the region.
In September, Bank of America made three new senior hires as part of plans to further bolster its equities division in Europe.
Matt Watson (right) was appointed global head of structured issuance for equities. Watson joined BofA following 26 years at Citi where he most recently was global head of issuance solutions for equities. In his new role, Watson, who is based in London, has been charged with growing globally the bank’s structured notes business via a close partnership with treasury. He reports to Martina Slowey, head of Emea equities and Matthew Scott, global head of the asset optimization group.
Vincent Charvin was appointed Emea head of delta one sales. He joined from Goldman Sachs where he was global co-head of custom baskets and EQ managed portfolio solutions. Charvin is based in London and reports to Alexandre Isaaz, head of Emea equities derivatives sales and structuring.
Maxime Menard was appointed head of Emea X-asset third party distribution sales. Menard has over 14 years of experience in structured products for 3PD and joined from Société Générale where he was head of the cross-asset distribution team for the UK, Ireland, Nordics, Iberia, Central Eastern European, Israel and Africa. He is based in Paris and also reports to Isaaz.
Sambacor N'Diaye (right), global co-head of strategic equity derivatives, equity-linked products and special purpose acquisition company left BofA after nearly 11 years. N'Diaye was appointed head of Emea equity-linked products in 2018.
N’Diaye joined Bank of America in 2012 from J.P. Morgan, where he was head of corporate structuring in London focused on equity-linked products in Northern Europe. He then was appointed head of international strategic equity solutions structuring, before expanding his responsibilities and assuming the role of head of Emea strategic equity solutions in 2014.
Arnaud Iannic left BofA Securities, previously Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Iannic spent four-years at the US bank where he was head of Emea equities client solutions based in Paris. Iannic relocated to Hong Kong SAR to join Nomura International (Hong Kong) on 16 May, according to his licence record from the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).
Barclays
Barclays appointed Jayesh Shavdia as head of core fixed income currencies and commodities (FICC), EoD (end of day) and analytics platforms. The London-based technologist with over two decades of experience in finance joined from cloud-based investment management firm Coremont, where he was chief quant officer.
Prior to joining Corement, Shavdia was a Citi director, acting as global head of equity derivatives and delta one pricing. At Citi, he directed ‘multi-year risk/analytics migration for 700k+ positions across 200+ models’.
In May, the UK bank announced the appointment of Yun Zhang (right) as sole head of macro trading for Asia-Pacific with the aim to bolster revenue from structured products sales. In her new role, Zhang reports to Hossein Zaimi, head of markets, Asia Pacific, and Michael Lublinsky, global head of macro. Zhang leads the bank’s structured rates business in the region and has also been responsible for the flow business since September 2022.
Zhang continued to hold her existing roles as global head of medium-term notes (MTN) and structured notes trading and global co-head of hybrids trading.
Barclays also appointed Scott McDavid and Ronnie Wexler to run the global equities business which houses the bank’s structured products activities.
McDavid joined Barclays in September 2023 as global head of equities. In this role, he leads the global equities team and has oversight and responsibility for equities distribution and prime. He also has a strategic focus on the bank’s platform complex. In addition to partnering with macro, credit and securitised products, McDavid works in partnership with investment banking to drive progress across the CIB. He is based in New York where reports to Abdeel Khan.
McDavid joins from Morgan Stanley where he spent over 18 years. In his most recent role, he was co-head of equities trading for Americas with primary responsibility and oversight over flow and structured derivatives, central risk management and the delta one desks.
Wexler (right) joined Barclays in June as global head of equities distribution. He reports to Stephen Dainton and like McDavid is based in New York. Wexler joined Barclays from NYDIG where he has served as global head of business development since August 2020. Prior to this, he spent 19 years at Goldman Sachs where he held several senior positions across securities division distribution, most recently as partner and co-head of Americas equities distribution & execution.
In June, the UK bank appointed two senior bankers in Singapore covering private banking and wealth management.
Tom Road (right) was appointed deputy head of Barclays Private Bank, Singapore. Road relocated from London where he spent 13 years covering ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) individuals and global family offices at the UK private bank. In his new role, he is responsible for advancing the bank's rapid growth goals in Singapore and serving the needs of UHNWs and family offices in the city.
Wengmun Loh got a promotion to head of dealing and derivatives, Singapore. Since joining Barclays Private Bank in 2008, Loh most recently served as head of UK direct access in London. In his new role in Singapore, Loh is responsible for expanding the bank's trading, and capital markets capabilities.
He reports locally to Ken Sze, head of investments Asia, and to Aurelien Callegari, global co-head of capital markets and head of structured products, in Geneva.
Barclays hired Jean-Baptiste Patois as managing director, head of equity derivatives ex-strategic derivatives, Asia Pacific, effective from 21 November.
Based in Hong Kong SAR, Patois is responsible for leading exotics and flow derivatives. He reports regionally to Hossein Zaimi, head of markets, Apac, and functionally to Ashish Prabhudesai, global head of structured derivatives and non-US flow.
Patois joined from Nomura where he spent four years most recently serving as managing director, head of EQD trading, Asia ex-Japan.
Prior to that, Patois worked for Credit Suisse based in Hong Kong SAR for over five years running the EQD business across the region. Before relocating to Hong Kong SAR in 2008, he was with Société Générale in New York, Paris, and Tokyo, with his most recent role at the French bank as an EQD trader.
Merrill spent 18 years at Barclays where he was one of the most senior executives at the bank’s US equity derivatives division at the time of the structured notes over-issuance fiasco in the US market which marred the performance of the bank and triggered several litigation cases from investors seeking restitution. Merrill left the Barclays in late February.
Merrill was also a member of the board of directors of Simon Investments’ Simon Markets, for over three years before it was sold to iCapital.
SCG also appointed Kevin Murphy as head of trading, product and risk management and Todd Dilatush as head of distribution. Murphy held senior management roles in structured equity derivative trading teams at J.P. Morgan, Lehman Brothers and Barclays. At Barclays, Murphy managed global trading, structuring and sales teams focusing on client solutions and structured transactions, including corporate derivatives, margin financing, structured investment products, quantitative investment strategies and fund derivative solutions.
Based in New York, they will be responsible for building SCG’s expanding asset management platform, ‘focusing on product and index development and distribution, as well as sourcing strategic investments that are accretive to the overall platform’.
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