Dahlman Rose Continues Push As Founders Depart

Though its co-founders have recently left the firm, Dahlman Rose & Co. is continuing to expand, recently hiring a 27-year industry veteran to lead its sales trading division.

On Thursday, the firm announced Glenn Starkman as the new global head of sales trading. He previously held the same position at Knight Capital Group. He also spent nine years at UBS, and prior to that worked at Goldman Sachs and Sanford C. Bernstein.

In the past, Dahlman Rose has been seen as a boutique firm, but Starkman said it is moving more into the mid-level arena.

“It’s nice to be coming into a firm that has good momentum,” Starkman said. “The research and banking businesses here are very strong across the sectors of transportation, energy, shipping, commodities, minerals, and we recently added consumer.”

The firm’s co-founder, president and chief executive officer, Simon Rose, stepped down last month. He was replaced by Donald Motschwiller as president and Kim Fennebresque as CEO. Fennebresque, who previously headed Cowen and Co., remains chairman of Dahlman Rose, a position he assumed last year.

Ernest Dahlman, the firm’s other co-founder, left earlier this month, though his departure has not yet been officially announced in a press release. Both Dahlman and Rose officially retired, but have retained stakes in the company.

Although the old guard is now gone, Dahlman Rose has been making a number of new hires lately. In June the firm brought on board Neil Currie, a former managing director at UBS Securities, as global head of consumer research. It also hired former recycling industry executive Geoffrey O’Malley as part of the firm’s investment banking division.

In May the investment banking division added William Hunter and Edwin Chapman, both formerly with Jefferies & Co. In April, Dahlman Rose hired Rome Arnold, who was once global head of energy for Banc of America Securities, to head energy investment banking

Founded in 2004, Dahlman Rose is focused on energy, transportation, infrastructure and other industries that compose the global supply chain.

Though the firm plans to remain focused on those areas, it will be open to expanding into new sectors, especially if seasoned professionals should become free agents, according to Starkman.

“As opportunity knocks, we are ready to respond to it,” Starkman said.