eFinancialCareers

Goldman Sachs, still perched comfortably above the tsunami of write-downs that roil its bulge-bracket rivals, is nonetheless cutting costs in its own subdued way. Slashing perks plus a modest headcount reduction helped Goldman beat estimates for its May quarter, the New York Post reports. "Junior and mid-tier executives now fly coach instead of business class on flights shorter than four or five hours," the paper says, citing unnamed sources. It also... Read more

NYSE Euronext said it hired Thomas F. Callahan, who headed the global financial futures and options business at Merrill Lynch, to lead the exchange's pending move into U.S. futures. The veteran Merrill Lynch executive will join NYSE Euronext in early July as executive vice president and head of U.S. futures. He will report to Hugh Freedberg, group executive vice president and head of global derivatives. NYSE is at the center of the... Read more

Fidelity Investments said it hired Michael E. Wilens from Thomson Reuters as head of asset management. He'll oversee the firm's three major investment divisions - Fidelity Management & Research Company (FMRCo), Pyramis Global Advisors and Strategic Advisers – and will direct the investment technology and operations areas. At Thomson Reuters, Wilens was named executive vice president - strategy, technology and innovation in April 2008, responsible for corporate strategy development and implementation,... Read more

Law firm Thacher Proffitt & Wood is said to be suffering an exodus of partners and associates, many of them from practice areas hard hit by the credit crunch. "Ten U.S. partners and some two dozen associates have left the firm, which had had a substantial practice in the now-decimated structured-finance business," The Wall Street Journal reports, citing the National Law Journal. Profit per partner at the firm reportedly declined 22... Read more

Want to work for Eliot Spitzer? The putatively disgraced ex-governor of New York is looking to start a real estate-focused "vulture fund" that invests in projects valued between $100 million and $500 million, the New York Sun reports, citing an unnamed source. Late last month, Spitzer reportedly met with national labor union chieftans to lay the groundwork for attracting union pension funds to invest in the new venture. Such a move... Read more

Advisory boutique Moelis & Co. expanded to Chicago, hiring Bear Stearns' Midwest investment banking head lead its buildup and client coverage in the region. Ken Viellieu joined Moelis as a managing cirector and head of the Chicago office. In seven years at Bear Stearns, he advised clients in a broad range of industries, especially food and drug retailing, consumer products, industrial and transportation, financial services, healthcare, and media. Before joining Bear... Read more

Tudor Investment Corp. launched a credit investment strategy spearheaded by five former Bear Stearns distressed-debt executives and analysts. The hedge fund joins a growing list of prominent financial institutions scooping up talent in the wake of Bear's shotgun wedding with JPMorgan Chase. Gregory Hanley and Alan Mintz will establish Tudor's new investment management business focused on credit-related strategies, the company said. The two had co-led Bear's distressed debt team, and Hanley... Read more

Schroder Investment Management hired Ronald Albahary from SEI to lead Schroder's Strategic Investment Solutions initiatives in North America. "This key new hire is part of the firm's continuing North American expansion plans," the company said. Albahary will lead efforts to build and deliver the asset manager's global multi-asset and quantitative investment capabilities to North American institutional clients and intermediaries. The firm launched a multi-asset growth product in the U.S. last... Read more

The New York Stock Exchange's parent company is offering buyouts to a quarter of its New York-based staff, and plans further job reductions both in the U.S. and Europe. NYSE Euronext Chief Executive Duncan Niederauer said last week that he decided to slash headcount in the U.S. first, "because I don't want anyone in Europe to accuse us of being an American-led company," according to Financial News. The company, formed a... Read more

Riverfront Investment Group, launched in April by four asset management executives who split off from Wachovia Securities, said 10 of their former colleagues at Wachovia have joined the firm in senior roles. They include portfolio managers, research analysts, relationship managers and portfolio administrators. The team has a six-year history working together while at Wachovia, said Riverfront, which is based in Richmond, Va. The four founding partners made their move two months... Read more

As the Bear Stearns saga draws to a close, several bankers and equity research professionals from the ill-fated investment bank have landed on their feet elsewhere. For example, Bank of America hired David Glaser as global mergers and acquisitions chairman. He had co-led Bear Stearns' investment banking unit and was a member of the bank's management committee. At least four other senior bankers from Bear Stearns joined B of A in... Read more

Fidelity Investments laid off an unspecified number of people, primarily from its human resources services and retirement plan services units. The job cuts "weren't the result of a companywide directive, but rather were made by divisional leaders as part of a restructuring that took place last year," the Boston Globe says, citing a Fidelity spokeswoman. The spokeswoman described the size of the layoff as "a very small percentage" of Fidelity's work... Read more

Unable to find a buyer for its U.S. municipal bonds business, UBS said it will close down the unit and fire 280 people, according to media reports. The Swiss bank said May 6 it would either sell or close its municipal department, which employed more than 300 people and ranked third in U.S. muni debt underwriting in the first quarter. In a statement cited by Bloomberg News, UBS said "the complexities... Read more

If you get a job offer on Wall Street, the compensation may be roughly 20 percent below what you could have commanded a year ago. That's the upshot of a new survey of recruiters released this week by the smart cube, a London-based global research boutique. The survey aimed to pinpoint and quantify how the market downturn is affecting employer and candidate expectations and bargaining power, particularly in terms of compensation. In... Read more

Merrill Lynch hired a top Bear Stearns investment banker, Fares D. Noujaim, as leader of the Middle East and sovereign wealth funds businesses. Noujaim was named both global head of sovereign wealth funds and president of Merrill's Middle East and North Africa business. He'll divide his time between the Middle East and New York, and he will report to Gregory J. Fleming, president and chief operating officer of Merrill Lynch. The... Read more

Credit Suisse is eliminating 100 administrative jobs from its asset management unit, shrinking the division's global headcount by about 3 percent, according to various media reports. Citing a company spokesperson, theTRADEnews.com said the cutbacks were "targeted staff reductions from non-investment related roles." The move came a month after the bank reportedly cut its investment banking division by 5 percent or about 500 jobs.

Nasdaq OMX Group said it hired Steve Matthews from Credit Suisse to be chief legal and compliance officer for its Pan-European Market initiative, a new multi-market trading platform slated for launch in September. Matthews was a senior compliance officer at Credit Suisse in London. An attorney, he previously co-led Citigroup's core control group in London and spent nearly four years at the UK Financial Services Authority. Nasdaq OMX announced its Pan-European Market... Read more