BNP Paribas has appointed Kavi Gupta as Head of FICC (Fixed Income, Currencies & Commodities) Trading in the Americas. Gupta will report to John Gallo, Head of Global Markets Americas and Global Head of the GM Client Group, and to Arne Groes, Global Head of FICC. According to a press release, he brings more than 20 years of experience across Credit and Rates trading, spanning both the sell-side and the buy-side. He began his career at Goldman Sachs, where he built a foundation in Credit markets before moving to Bank of America.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has named Paul Knight as the agency’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), according to a press release. Knight joins the SEC from JPMorgan Chase, where he most recently worked as the principal lead for driving growth across U.S. lines of business, after previously managing the program office for the Chase Bank expansion into 25 new states. Prior to his nearly 12 years at JPMorgan Chase, he served as a senior advisor and business manager at the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 2012 to 2014.
Clear Street, a cloud-native financial infrastructure firm, has announced three senior hires. According to a press release, Puneet Pardasani joins as Global Head of Institutional Sales and Trading from Bank of America, where he led Global OneTouch and Cross-Asset Distribution. He previously spent nine years at Goldman Sachs; Allan Amitay joins as Managing Director, Multi-Asset Sales after more than 15 years at Goldman Sachs; and Scott Block joins as Managing Director, Sales Trader from Bank of America, where he led Americas OneTouch Distribution. He previously spent more than a decade at Goldman Sachs.
Lazard has promoted Kathy Elsesser to its Board of Directors. According to a press release, Elsesser, who also serves on TPG’s Board of Directors, is a retired Partner and former Global Chair of the Consumer Retail and Healthcare Groups in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs. She succeeds Andrew M. Alper, who has retired from Lazard’s Board after more than 13 years of distinguished service.
SIFMA has promoted Guowei Zhang to Head of the Prudential Policy Group, effective September 1, 2026. In this role, Zhang will be SIFMA’s senior prudential staff advisor and lead SIFMA’s related committees and forums, according to a press statement. Prior to joining SIFMA, he served as senior policy advisor at the OCC, focused on banking capital policy development, analysis and compliance examination.
Global law firm K&L Gates has welcomed Tamika Bent as a partner in its Asset Management and Investment Funds (AMIF) practice. Bent joins the firm’s New York office from Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP. Bent brings extensive private practice, in-house, government, and academic experience in derivatives and financial regulation, according to a press statement.
IRACE Digital has announced the formation of its Board of Advisors and the appointment of seven inaugural members, according to a press release. The members include John Cronin, Global CEO of IRACE, together with: Derek Delaney, Exec Chair of IRACE and former Global CEO of Waystone; Fred Jacobs, Veteran banking executive with deep experience across institutional banking, payments, and fund administration; Don Seymour, Founder of DMS Governance, which became Waystone upon acquisition, and Chairman of Black Unicorn; Paul Cahill, Co-Founder of DataOp and ComOp and former Global COO of Waystone; Glen Magee, Co-Founder of DataOp and ComOp, and former Global CFO of Waystone; John D’Agostino, Head of Strategy at Coinbase Institutional; and Colm O’Driscoll, Chair and CEO of IRACE Europe.
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