Ken Savio joined Guggenheim Capital Markets to build an equities sales and trading business. The veteran Savio was the global co-head of trading and sales trading at Bear Stearns when the firm faltered and was acquired by JPMorgan Chase last year. Savio spent a year at BTIG before rejoining his old boss Alan Schwartz, the former CEO at Bear Stearns, who was hired in June to transform Guggenheim into a full-blown investment bank.
Guggenheim Capital Markets is the brokerage arm of Guggenheim Partners, a money management firm associated with the family that operates the Guggenheim museums. The brokerage arm currently has a fixed-income business, but little in the way of equities. Savio spent 20 years at Bear Stearns in a variety of leadership positions. During the 1990s, he ran Bear’s convertibles group. Between 2000 and 2005, he was head of U.S. trading and sales trading. In 2005, he assumed responsibility for Bear’s global trading effort. At BTIG, Savio helped to build out the firm’s fixed income effort.
Reginald "Reggie" Weaver joined Gardner Rich & Co. in Chicago as head of sales trading. Weaver, a 17-year veteran of the buyside, was previously with William Blair & Co., where he spent eight years as a senior equity trader. He oversees three sales traders/traders on the desk. He reports to president Curtis Spears. The firm’s principal is Chris Gardner, whose life story was the subject of the film, "The Pursuit of Happyness." He was played by actor Will Smith.
Gardner was also the subject of a March 2003 story in Traders Magazine.
Morgan Stanley hired top electronic trading executive Richard Evans away from Citi to oversee its European trading strategy. Evans, based in London, was previously global head of Citi’s electronic execution business. At Citi, he oversaw the development and distribution of such services as direct market access, agency program trading, market data monetization, the smart order-routing technology owned by Citi subsidiary Lava Trading, transaction-cost analysis and Citi’s OpenPort.
Jefferies International Limited, the London-based subsidiary of investment bank Jefferies Group Inc. hired five pros in equity sales, trading and research.
Bernal Vargas leads U.S. equity sales in Europe. Previously, he worked in London at Merrill Lynch as a director in its U.S. equities division and deputy head of international Americas distribution.
Cameron Kissel joins as a senior vice president of U.S. equity sales in Europe. Before Jefferies, he was a portfolio manager of the North American multi-strategy fund at Henderson Global Investors.
Owen Jacob is a senior vice president and European cash equities trader. Jacob was previously a European equity trader and division director at Macquarie Capital.
James Grzinic joins as a senior vice president and head of European retail equity research. Previously, Grzinic was at Dresdner Kleinwort, where he was head of integrated food and non-food retail equity research.
Charlotte Andrews started as a vice president and marketing analyst covering the consumer and retail sector. Before Jefferies, she was at Dresdner Kleinwort, where she was a retail marketing analyst.
Glenn Lesko joined agency brokerage Instinet as chief executive of its Asia branch, in Hong Kong. He will be responsible for the firm’s regional business units: Instinet Japan, Instinet Pacific, Instinet Singapore Services and Instinet Australia Clearing Services. With nearly 20 years of industry experience, he previously headed Instinet’s U.S.-based International Trading Group. Lesko joined the firm in 2006 from CF Global Trading, where he had been a partner since 2003.
He spent 10 years at ABN AMRO and its affiliates, first heading its Asian trading desk in Hong Kong and later its international trading desk in New York.
Agency broker ConvergEx hired Sam Lundqvist in London to lead transition management in Europe. Previously, Lundqvist headed European, African and Middle Eastern transition management for Russell Investments. He succeeded ConvergEx veteran Alex Johnstone, who relocated to Johannesburg, South Africa to expand the firm’s global transition management business throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
FTEN hired Valerie Bannert-Thurner as executive director to run its new office in London. Bannert-Thurner, a 10-year industry veteran, previously worked for the low-latency market data vendor Skyler Technology. She held a variety of executive positions there, including head of product strategy, strategic alliances, marketing and business development.
Institutional broker BTIG hired five industry pros.
Michael Balog joined BTIG in New York as managing director, global marketing, where he will create, develop and streamline product flow from new and existing sources. Balog had managed money for a family office on the West Coast since 2002. Before that, he served on the executive committee and ran institutional research sales and marketing at Banc of America Securities.
Brendan Hughes joined BTIG’s Boston office as managing director and equities sales trader. He arrived after a 13-year career in Citi’s Boston office, which he ran for the past five years.
Robert Langer will lead convertible bond sales and trading in New York. Langer was most recently a consultant for multiple U.S. hedge funds and investment advisors. Prior to that, he was a partner at Stanfield Capital Group, a money manager in New York. There he established and was the senior portfolio manager of a convertible/capital structure arbitrage fund.
Tina DeRico joined BTIG as a sales trader in New York, after nine years at Citi. There, she helped establish and lead the middle markets sales trading team.
Marci Field joined in New York as a sales trader in international equities. Field was most recently a consultant for large U.S.-based global macro hedge funds and quant funds. Before that, she was a sales trader for Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia in Asian equities and emerging markets.
Iain Wilson will join UBS in New York in the fourth quarter as an executive director and salesman in European cash sales. He will report to Richard James, who heads European equity sales in the U.S. Wilson was previously a senior salesman at RBS Greenwich Capital Markets. He has held sales positions at JPMorgan and Citi.
Sanford C. Bernstein added a sales trader for its global program business and a sector trader.
Luis Camacho joins Bernstein to coordinate the firm’s global program trading business. Camacho, a 15-year veteran, came from BNY ConvergEx, where he headed its global program trading effort in Hong Kong for the last two years.
Robin Halpern joins as a consumer sector trader. Halpern, an eight-year veteran, was previously at Barclays and Lehman where she traded consumer stocks for the last three years. Both are based in New York.
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