Here’s a rundown of news on hires, exits, and promotions from the past week. Are we missing anyone? Let us know.
- Evercore announced that Celeste Mellet Brown will be the elite boutique bank’s new chief financial officer, according to a report from Bloomberg. Brown was previously the CFO at Fannie Mae. She will step into the role on September 1, with outgoing CFO Bob Walsh set to retire.
- GrowthCurve Capital, a private-equity firm focused on AI, human capital, and digital transformation launched on Monday, founder Sumit Rajpal, former global co-head of Goldman Sachs‘ merchant banking division, announced. Rajpal, who left Goldman in early 2020, poached 19 players across the financial industry to join the firm:
- On the executive side, Mark Uhrmacher, executive director at EY Parthenon, joins as head of digital transformation. Matthew Popper, managing director in Goldman’s merchant banking division, will be head of financial and information-services investing. Michael Finke, founder and CEO of healthcare AI firm M*Modal, will be chief AI architect. Ronnie West, executive vice president and chief people officer at IHS Markit, will serve as head of human capital. Sajji Jaffer, co-founder and managing partner of data science private-equity firm Two Six Capital, will join as head of data analytics and machine learning. Sanjay Swani, partner at Tailwind Capital, will be chief investment strategist and head of technology investing. Vignesh Aier, managing director at New Mountain Capital, will serve as head of healthcare investing.
- Also joining the leadership team is head of strategy and business development Michael Gaviser, previously the head of business development at Navab Capital Partners; COO Rehana Wijenayake Murphy, previously business manager and investor relations at Warlander Asset Management; and CFO Susan Yan, previously a managing director in Goldman’s merchant banking division.
- Gerry McCarthy, CEO of eSolutions, Mark Cantin, president of field operations at QBE North America, and Irina Shevelenko, VP of strategic initiatives at QBE North America, are also joining the firm as lead operating executives of healthcare (McCarthy) and insurance distribution (Cantin and Shevelenko).
- The firm also hired VPs Andrea McGuirt, previously VP at Palladium Equity Partners, and Simon Allan, previously a senior associate in Goldman’s merchant banking division; principals Kate Peachway, previously a senior investment professional at BlueMountain Capital, and Mangus Helgason, previously a VP in Goldman’s merchant banking division; associate Anrab Khasnobis, previously an associate in Goldman’s merchant banking division; and senior associate Evan Fierstein, previously an investment associate at L Catterton.
- JPMorgan hired Citi’s Chris Gartin as a managing director in its healthcare banking group, Bloomberg reported on May 21. Gartin, who had been at Citi since 2018 and previously was a director for healthcare investment banking from 2008-2017, was most recently a director for healthcare investment banking at the firm.
- SVB Leerink made yet another hire this week, nabbing Anurag Jindal from Bank of America. Jindal, who had been a managing director in BofA’s healthcare investment banking group, joins SVB Leerink as a senior managing director on the biopharma team, the firm announced May 20. In his new role, he will be based in New York and report to Dan Dubin, global co-head of healthcare investment banking.
- Colin Lancaster announced Monday that he was joining Schonfeld Strategic Advisors to start a new macro investing division, Insider reported. Lancaster, who formerly headed macro investing at Citadel and Balyasny, left London-based Matador Investment Management after only four months as its chief investment officer. He is bringing 11 former Matador employees to the $7.8 billion firm.
- Coinbase hired away Faryar Shirzad from Goldman Sachs to be its chief policy officer, the cryptocurrency exchange announced Monday. Shirzad spent the last 15 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was most recently the global co-head of the office of government affairs, and before that held several government positions, including White House Deputy National Security Advisor. In his new role at Coinbase, Shirzad will help the company “navigate the evolving global regulatory environment and work with governments around the world on critical issues surrounding the cryptoeconomy,” according to the announcement.
- Zonia Lau joins Deutsche Bank as head of healthcare for China, according to a report from Bloomberg. Lau comes from CBC Group, a private-equity firm, where she was a director based in Shanghai in pharmaceuticals.
- Tim Fang also started at Deutsche Bank as director for its China coverage.
- Michael DeVito, the former head of home lending at Wells Fargo, is set to become Freddie Mac‘s new CEO on June 1, the company announced. DeVito spent more than 23 years at Wells, including heading the bank’s mortgage production and servicing businesses, before retiring last year. DeVito replaces Freddie Mac’s interim CEO Mark Grier, who took over from David Brickman upon his retirement in January.
- Apollo Global Management announced Tuesday several wealth-management promotions:
- Stephanie Drescher was promoted to be the firm’s next chief client and product development officer. Dresher was most recently a senior partner at the firm and global head of Apollo’s client and product solutions (CPS) group. She will continue to oversee the CPS group in her new role, in addition to leading the newly-created global wealth management solutions (GWMS) group.
- Heather Berger and Chris Buchanan have been promoted to senior partner and co-leads of the institutional client and product solutions (ICPS) group within CPS. Berger was previously CPS’s lead product specialist, while Buchanan used to be Apollo’s lead of the Americas and European client relationships.
- As part of Apollo’s continued wealth-management growth, the firm earlier this year hired Howard Nifoussi to be head of US wealth management distribution and focus on private banks and wires.
- Jackie Krese is stepping into a newly-created role at BlackRock: She’ll now be the head of US BlackRock Capital Markets (BCM), according to an internal memo. In her new role, Krese, who was previously group head of Americas debt capital markets solutions, will lead efforts to grow client activities, ESG, fundraising, liquid syndicate, and private sourcing within the US capital markets group.
- Morgan Stanley announced a leadership shakeup in prime brokerage, the Wall Street Journal first reported:
- Global head Edward Keller is stepping down from his role to deal with a health issue, the firm said in an internal memo. Keller, who took over the top spot in prime brokerage at the beginning of 2020, is planning to assume a new role working for the three global co-heads of institutional equities — Alan Thomas, Gokul Laroia, and David Russell — in a “senior client advisory function focused on key client relationships and broader client strategic issues,” according to the memo, which was sent by the trio.
- The firm promoted Penny Novick and Kim Shaw to co-lead prime brokerage, making them the first two women to lead the business, the Journal said.
- James Boylan retired in April from his role as SVB Leerink‘s global co-head of investment banking, the firm confirmed to Insider this week. Boylan had been at the healthcare investment boutique since 2009, and before that, he was a managing director at Merrill Lynch for more than 12 years.
- Kimberley Harris joined Goldman Sachs‘s board of directors as an independent director, the board announced Monday. Harris, who is also the executive vice president of Comcast Corporation and a vice president and general counsel for NBCUniversal, will join the firm’s governance, compensation, and public responsibility committees. Previously, Harris was an attorney at the law firm Davis, Polk & Wardwell and also served as senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice‘s criminal division.
- Sustainable finance and AI firm Arabesque announced a trio of new leadership hires.
- Jürgen Fitschen, the former co-CEO of Deutsche Bank from 2012 to 2016, will become a senior advisor and join the board of Arabesque S-Ray.
- Christof Mascher, the former COO and technology chief of Allianz, will join Arabesque AI as a senior advisor alongside Lars Jaeger, previously head of alternative risk premia at quant fund GAM Systematic.
- Piper Sandler announced it has added to its energy and power investment banking coverage with the hiring of Austin Harbour, previously the CFO of Arita Energy. The hire marks a return to Piper Sandler for Harbour, who was with the firm from 2012 to 2014. Harbour also spent time in Lazard‘s energy group.
- Piper Sandler also announced the appointment of Jeffery Thomas as a new managing director in its healthcare investment-banking group. Thomas, who will be based in Boston, will focus on serving clients in medtech and life sciences tools and diagnostics, the firm said. Previously, he was on the leadership team of Laborie, a medical equipment producer and supplier, where he oversaw global strategy and M&A.
- Houlihan Lokey announced it has hired Sameer Shamsi from Credit Suisse, where he led secondary advisory activities in the Americas. Shamsi joins Houlihan as a managing director and head of secondaries in the firm’s private funds group.
- Paul Chung is joining Cinctive Capital from ExodusPoint Capital. At his new firm, he will be a portfolio manager, Hedge Fund Alert reported this week. Chung joined ExodusPoint in 2020 and has led a team at ExodusPoint which trades global healthcare stocks. Previously, he worked at Millennium Management and Goldman Sachs. Two analysts from his ExodusPoint team, Brad Mas and Paul Lee, will also join Cinctive.
- Meredith Mazzilli, Bradley Saacks, Carter Johnson, and Rebecca Ungarino contributed to this report.