eFinancialCareers

Sean Walker is a managing director at Salem Partners. How did you become a managing director in M&A? My route to managing director was somewhat atypical. After graduating from the Wharton School of Business, I entered the US Navy on an NROTC Scholarship from the University of Pennsylvania and spent eight and a half years there. After my first tour of duty, I finished my commitment to the Navy as an NROTC... Read more

Richard Kass is chief investment officer of KBK Wealth Management. Please describe the career path that led you to wealth management and to the role of chief investment officer. I began my career at Bear Stearns working in options and municipal bond trading. Next, I moved to IDS Financial Services, where I trained to be a financial planner. I completed my Certified Financial Planner certification and later moved to a firm... Read more

Megan Brown is a vice president in funds management at J.P. Morgan Asset Management How did you become a VP in funds management? After college, I worked on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange for a convertible arbitrage firm. I loved the challenge but wanted to expand my career to a larger firm. In 1998, I joined Bear Stearns as an institutional equity trader. I enjoyed equity trading but wanted... Read more

Claire Koeneman is president of MWW Group's Financial Relations Board. Could you describe your role? The Financial Relations Board (FRB) provides a range of financial communications and services that help companies achieve their financial and business goals. Our work centers on helping companies build positive profiles in the media. I handle everything from running administration and operations to securing new business. I also handle transactional work for our clients and am in... Read more

Sarah Baldwin Kavanagh is a vice-chair in the investment banking group at Scotia Capital, the investment banking and capital markets division of Scotiabank. She is co-head of the diversified industries team and focuses on media and telecom clients. How did you become a managing director in capital markets? I graduated from Williams College and worked in investment management in Boston before eventually attending Harvard Business School. After finishing my MBA I joined... Read more

Andrew Dougherty is chief operating officer at BNP Paribas Financial Services. How did you become a chief operating officer at BNP Paribas? I graduated from Delaware Valley College, majoring in business administration, with a concentration in finance. My first job was with an international accounting firm that specialized in healthcare financing and provided structured loans and equipment leases for hospitals and medical practices. In 2000, I moved to investment management, joining CooperNeff... Read more

Jason Hedberg is managing director of equity derivatives sales for Societe Generale. How did you become a managing director? I went to the Naval Academy and after graduation spent seven years in the Navy as an intelligence officer. I liked the analysis and interpretation of this work as well as the fast pace and pressure. Making the jump from the military to finance wasn't easy so I went back to get my... Read more

The recent rise in equity prices isn't translating to any kind of hiring surge, particularly in investment research. Yet, observers say jobs exist - they simply reside in new places. For instance, research positions can be found within a growing number of boutique and research-only firms, led by a wave of companies seeking to position themselves among the next big players. While many jobs lost on the sell-side may never return,... Read more

As Executive Vice President and a senior member of PIMCO's investment strategy and portfolio management group, Mark Kiesel is responsible for managing the firm's corporate bond portfolio. He also heads the investment-grade corporate desk. Previously, he served as PIMCO's head of equity derivatives and as a senior credit analyst. Although we interviewed him before the market's current storm, he offers solid observations about the financial industry and managing your career. Could... Read more

Deutsche Bank said it hired Paul Stefanick, the chairman of Merrill Lynch's global mergers and acquisitions group, to head its global industrials group. Stefanick will join Deutsche Bank in New York in January 2009 and report to Jacques Brand, co-head of global industry coverage. In his 20 years at Merrill, Stefanick advised on divestitures, recapitalizations and other transactions in the industrials and technology sectors globally. He is a graduate of the... Read more

Citadel Investments said it hired Timothy Bryan Wilkinson, John Alexander Goodridge and Alex Maddox, moves that will expand the firm’s capabilities in global fixed income. All three join the Chicago hedge fund from Lehman Brothers. Wilkinson served as head of fixed income proprietary trading at Lehman and will join Citadel’s proprietary trading group along with John Alexander Goodridge, also from Lehman. Alex Maddox was named Citadel’s head of securitized products... Read more

Chicago-based Mesirow Financial International said it hired John Collins and Dermot Kegan for London-based roles within its alternative investments subsidiary, Mesirow Advanced Strategies. Collins joins the firm as a senior analyst focused on European hedge fund manager research. He was a senior investment consultant at Watson Wyatt, leading research on multi-strategy funds as a member of the global long/short equity team. Keegan will lead Mesirow's UK and continental Europe client coverage... Read more

Evercore Partners said it hired Jed Sherwindt from Citigroup as senior managing director in its advisory business. He will advise technology companies and be based in Evercore’s San Francisco office. Sherwindt joins the boutique investment bank from Citigroup where he was a managing director and head of the global software investment banking group. At Citigroup, he worked on several major technology transactions, including PeopleSoft in its sale to Oracle and... Read more

James E. Scott has joined Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft's New York office as special counsel in the financial regulatory practice. He joins from Citigroup, where since 2001 he served as assistant general counsel, handling regulatory aspects of domestic and international restructurings and mergers and acquisitions, and supporting the bank’s emerging markets mortgage and auto finance businesses, global compliance, and privacy offices. Scott specializes in bank regulatory and policy matters. Before... Read more

Deutsche Bank promoted Mark Fedorcik to head of leveraged capital markets, responsible for leveraged finance, high yield, loan capital markets and loan trading and sales businesses globally. He was U.S. head of high yield and leveraged loan capital markets. Fedorcik replaces David Flannery, who left in August to take the same role at Bank of America. According to Leveraged Finance News, the move is part of a complete overhaul in... Read more

Citadel Investment Group is capitalizing on Wall Street’s shakeup by naming Tobias Gehrke and Anita Nassar to spearhead the fund’s international growth plans. The two will serve as co-heads of international distribution and marketing, and lead its fundraising efforts in Europe, the Middle East, and Northern Africa. Both join the firm from Merrill Lynch, acquired yesterday by B of A for $50 billion, where they headed government institutional sales. Nassar... Read more

Royal Bank of Scotland said it hired Christiane Mandell from Bank of America as head of FX and local markets trading for the Americas, a new position that rounds out RBS’ senior management team in its U.S. sales and trading business. Mandell led the global foreign exchange group at Bank of America. In her 18 years there, her past roles included head of investor client management for debt and equity, head... Read more

Even in today’s shrinking economy, some career coaches say liberal arts degrees can still pave the way to a successful career in financial services. Former Merrill Lynch campus recruiting head Connie Thanasoulis told the New York Daily News that the skills obtained in English literature and other arts degrees can be an ideal training ground for finance and management. She points to a job like a research analyst, heavy on writing,... Read more

Ex-Bear Stearns executives continue to land high-level roles with hedge funds. Capital Z Asset Management said late last month it hired James M. Marrone, Jr. as chief marketing officer, a new role designed to strengthen sales and hedge fund sponsor services. He'll provide strategic direction for sales, marketing and product development while supporting Capital Z’s sponsored managers in marketing and new business initiatives. Marrone led corporate institutional sales efforts at Bear... Read more

Bankers and traders no longer needed on Wall Street increasingly are being given another option – move overseas. Big investment banks are moving both key executives and some of their most junior employees to Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Latin America, the New York Times reports. While such transfers in part reflect cost-cutting pressures, banks also are fortifying their businesses beyond New York and London in order to take advantage... Read more