Yemi Oshodi and Paul Boogaert join agency broker WallachBeth Capital’s new merger arbitrage and event-driven trading desk. They join Alec Levine, a managing director who is overseeing the desk’s expansion. Oshodi, a 17-year veteran, previously led the M&A desk at Tullett Prebon. Other stints included senior trading roles at Ramius Capital and Putnam Lovell NBF. Boogaert, a 10-year veteran, joins from Linkbrokers Derivatives Corp., an ICAP subsidiary in the U.K. He also worked as an arbitrage trader at Commerzbank Capital Markets. Both report to Michael Wallach and David Beth, the firm’s senior principals.
Geffery Gioia joins Longbow Research in Cleveland as a sales trader. Gioia, a 17-year veteran, was previously a managing director with FTN Equity Capital Markets, and most recently with Wunderlich Securities. Gioia covers parts of the Midwest, along with New York and Connecticut. He is president of the Cleveland Security Traders Association.
Kevin Byrne joins Fidelity Capital Markets to run its transition management practice. Byrne has more than 12 years of experience in transition management, specifically in portfolio trading, transaction-cost analysis, and equity and fixed income derivatives. He most recently was head of the U.S. transition management group at ConvergEx Group and prior to that led J.P. Morgan’s North America transition management business. Byrne will report to Mike Cashel, senior vice president and head of equity trading at Fidelity Capital Markets.
Jason Straus joins Wells Fargo as a director in electronic sales. A 15-year veteran, Straus is charged with leading Wells Fargo’s electronic and portfolio sales effort across the Americas; and developing the firm’s algorithms, pairs and portfolio trading, as well as its crossing network. He was a senior salesman for Barclays Capital/Lehman Brothers for the last eight years. Straus reports to Ed Gonzalez, head of electronic and portfolio trading.
Hudson Securities hires sales trader Jerry Kallas as executive vice president in the firm’s Chicago office. Kallas, a 30-year pro, was a managing director at Terra Nova Financial for five years, responsible for sales, trading and customer support. Prior to that, he was a partner at Engelman Securities. He will service Midwest-based accounts for Hudson. He reports to Tim Fierce.
Nichole Ake joins newly formed U.S. Capital Advisors, a Houston-based wealth management firm, as its chief compliance officer. The 21-year veteran and onetime agency trader will oversee compliance and other business areas for the broker-dealer and its sister companies. Ake was president of the Dallas Security Traders Association; her term ended in December. She reports to chief executive Patrick Mendenhall.
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