People moves: facing the funds fallout music, CS changes chairs, and more

Latest job changes across the industry

Credit Suisse faces some tough choices as it absorbs the extraordinary losses inflicted by the Greensill and Archegos fund fiascos and subsequent ratings hit. On April 6, the firm announced an estimated pre-tax loss of approximately Sfr900 million ($963 million) for the first quarter, including a charge of Sfr4.4 billion ($4.7 billion) in respect of Archegos. At the same time, the firm announced that investment bank CEO Brian Chin and chief risk and compliance officer Lara Warner were stepping down from their roles with immediate effect.  

Christian Meissner, co-head of wealth management banking advisory and vice-chair of investment banking, will replace Chin in May. Meissner was previously head of global corporate and investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and earlier co-CEO for EMEA at Lehman Brothers.

Joachim Oechslin is appointed interim CRO, effective immediately. Having served as CRO from January 2014 to February 2019, he had since been appointed as senior adviser and chief of staff to the CEO of Credit Suisse Group. Previously, he was group CRO for Munich Re Group from 2007.

Thomas Grotzer, the bank’s general counsel, has been appointed interim global head of compliance for the group.

Earlier, the firm announced it had replaced its asset management chief Eric Varvel, hiring one-time Switzerland CEO Ulrich Körner – latterly, adviser to the board of national rival UBS – as CEO, asset management, and member of the Credit Suisse executive board. The firm also said it had separated its asset management and wealth businesses.

The firm says Varvel will work alongside Körner in the coming months to facilitate the transition, but will continue in his other roles as CEO of Credit Suisse Holdings (USA) and chairman of the investment bank. As a member of the executive board, Körner will report directly to the group’s CEO, Thomas Gottstein.

Somewhat inauspiciously, Körner took up his new role on April 1

Also under scrutiny for the handling of its sale of Archegos shares, the firm’s outgoing chairman Urs Rohner has launched investigations into these issues – and a suspension of executive board bonuses – just as the moral mood music in favour of clawbacks in the industry has been reaching peak season.

The group’s shareholders will vote on the bank’s next chairman at its end-of-April annual general meeting. The board has proposed António Horta-Osório, currently group chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, to succeed Rohner, who will step down later this year after a statutory 12-year term.

---

Citi has appointed Mbar Diop as Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Emea) head of commodities – a newly created role – as part of its efforts to expand this business regionally, Risk.net has learned. Diop joined Citi’s commodities business in 2012, and currently serves as global head of commodity investor products trading – a role he will retain alongside his new position. Before joining Citi, Diop was part of the commodity investor product trading team at Credit Suisse for almost four years, and earlier was part of the commodity investor product team at UBS. In his new role at Citi, Diop reports to José Cogolludo, global head of commodities.

Conor Davis

Elsewhere at Citi, Conor Davis was promoted to head of investor sales and relationship management for markets. He joined the bank in 2007 as head of European distressed and high-yield trading. Davis’s remit subsequently expanded to roles including head of investor sales for markets in Emea and head of global cross-asset exchange traded funds. In his new role, he succeeds Jim O’Donnell – who, in January, became head of the newly merged global wealth business – and Davis will have responsibility for sales and relationship management functions across the markets team. In his new role, Davis reports to Carey Lathrop and Andrew Morton, co-heads of markets and securities services.

Meanwhile, Sandeep Arora becomes head of digital for Citi’s Institutional Clients Group (ICG) and ICG chief investment officer, governing ICG digital strategy and promoting greater adoption of the bank’s digital services’ client offerings. Arora will also lead Citi’s application programming interface (API) strategy, aimed at giving clients direct access through fewer APIs. Arora is a long-standing veteran of Citi, having spent the last 32 years at the bank in a range of roles – the most recent being global head of fintech and innovation for the markets desk. He reports to Paco Ybarra, chief executive officer of Citi’s ICG, and Stuart Riley, head of ICG technology and operations.

---

Kevin Connors has joined Nomura as global head of foreign exchange and emerging market (EM) sales, and Emea head of FX and EM – a newly created role within the bank. He joins from Commodities World Capital, where he spent a year as CEO, prior to which he was CEO of FX fund manager Ibex Capital for two years. Connors was previously global head of FX sales at Bank of America Merrill Lynch for four years and co-head of FX sales at Goldman Sachs for 10. He also served as global head of commodities trading at UBS between 1998 and 2000. In his new role, Connors will be responsible for managing the bank’s FX and EM businesses across trading and sales, and will report to John Goff, head of global markets, Emea, and Rig Karkhanis, deputy head of global markets, and global head of FX and EM.

---

PNC Bank, the US lender currently involved in a takeover to make it the nation’s fifth-largest by assets, has switched chief risk officer (CRO), Risk.net has learned. Kieran Fallon, the bank’s deputy general counsel, was named CRO of PNC Financial Services Group, a bank spokesperson confirmed, replacing Joseph Rockey, CRO since 2015. Rockey, who continues to be employed by PNC, has taken a leave of absence to focus on a health issue, says a spokesperson. The unannounced transition occurred in February.

---

Chong Wee Khoon joins BNY Mellon’s markets business, as senior Asia-Pacific region market strategist. Wee Khoon joins the New York bank from China Life Franklin Asset Management, where he served as senior investment strategist for the past four years. He was previously a portfolio manager at Aspen Hill Partners, and earlier served as rates strategy head at Nomura. In his new role, Wee Khoon will be based in Hong Kong, reporting to Daniel Tenengauzer, head of markets strategy at the global level, and to Darren Boulos, head of FX Apac locally.

---

Mizuho has appointed Aurora Mouturat-Sorensen as head of environmental and social corporate governance risk management – in which role she will seek to establish a sustainability framework across the business and corporate functions of the bank. Mouturat-Sorensen previously spent nine months within the bank’s sustainability office, prior to which she was Emea head of risk governance and regulatory liaison at Morgan Stanley for two years. She previously spent over seven years in various roles at RBS, most recently as head of audit for the regulatory risk department. In her new role, Mouturat-Sorensen reports to deputy CRO Maria Anastase.

---

HSBC Asset Management has hired Dominic Clabby as head of exchange-traded funds (ETF) strategy, a newly created role in which he will drive the firm’s ETF product strategy. Growing its ETF range is one of HSBC AM’s strategic growth initiatives – it currently manages $86 billion in passive strategies and $13.1 billion in ETF strategies. Clabby joins from Invesco, where he was head of product engagement. He earlier held a number of roles in distribution at AXA Distribution Services and Fidelity International. In his new role, Clabber will be based in London, reporting to the head of ETF capability, Carmen Gonzalez-Calatayud.

---

Murray Roos

Murray Roos has joined Tradeweb’s board of directors, effective March 19, leaving his role as group head of capital markets for the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), where he was a member of the group’s executive committee. The move comes after the European Commission approved LSEG’s acquisition of Refinitiv (a majority stakeholder of Tradeweb) in January. Before joining LSEG in 2020, Roos was global co-head of equities at Citigroup. At Tradeweb, he succeeds Debra Walton, who is stepping down from the Tradeweb board. Walton is currently chief revenue officer at Refinitiv, a role she has held for the past two years.

---

The Bank for International Settlements has re-elected Jens Weidmann as chair of the BIS board of directors for another three-year term, effective November 1, 2021. The 18-member board meets around six times a year to determine BIS policy direction and fulfil specific tasks in its statutes. Weidmann, who has been president of the Deutsche Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank, since 2011, was first elected BIS chair in 2015.

---

The European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma) has selected Natasha Cazenave as its candidate for executive director – a role she will assume following confirmation by the European Parliament. Once confirmed, Cazenave will serve a five-year term, renewable once. She will succeed current executive director Verena Ross, whose term concludes on May 29, having run its maximum 10 years. Cazenave is currently deputy secretary-general and head of the policy and international affairs directorate at the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), a role she has also held for the past 10 years.

Elsewhere at Esma, Steven Maijoor stepped down as chair on March 31 to join the governing board of the Netherlands Bank (DNB), having similarly served the maximum 10-year term permitted under Esma’s regulations. His successor will also be confirmed by the European Parliament and formally appointed by the Council of the European Union. Until then, Esma’s vice-chair, Anneli Tuominen, will become acting chair.

---

Former HSBC managing director Barbara Patow has joined financial technology firm Plenitude as a senior adviser. In her 10 years at HSBC, Patow held multiple senior leadership roles in financial crime and compliance (FCC), including global head of FCC for global banking and markets. She was also head of correspondent banking and chief operating officer for the global liquidity and cash management business, developing and implementing FCC control frameworks. In her new role, Patow will provide advice to clients on more effective financial crime risk management. She reports to Plenitude managing director Alan Paterson.

---

Nick Watson

NFU Mutual has appointed Ross Ainslie as a non-executive director. Since 2013, Ainslie has served as both a member of Phoenix Group’s with-profits committee and non-executive director at the risk modelling company Longevitas respectively. According to his LinkedIn profile, he previously served as a senior pricing manager at Scottish Widows between 2018 and 2019.

Nick Watson will join NFU Mutual as sales and agency director in May, subject to regulatory approval. Watson will join from AXA, where he is currently director for commercial distribution and trading, a role he has held for almost three years. He previously spent 13 years at Aviva in a range of roles covering commercial offerings, long-term savings and protection. In his new role, Watson will replace Nick Turner – who is set to become chief executive of NFU Mutual on April 1, after previously being appointed sales and agency director in 2013.

---

Etay Katz has left Allen & Overy to join rival law firm Ashurst, where he joins as a partner in the firm’s financial regulatory practice. Katz spent over 10 years as a partner at Allen & Overy, where he advised on national and international regulatory regimes, as well as on strategic corporate transactions in the regulated financial services sector. Before joining Allen & Overy in 2006, he spent four years working as an associate for White & Case.

---

Chris Seaman

Financial data and analytics firm Macrobond has hired John Leffler as vice-president for the Americas. Leffler joins from Donnelley Financial Solutions, a global risk and compliance solutions company, where he served as vice-president and global head of venue sales. Prior to that, he spent 17 years at FactSet Research Systems in multiple senior roles. In his new role, Leffler will be responsible for expanding Macrobond’s business in Canada, the US and South America.

Chris Seaman also joins Macrobond as regional managing director in the UK. Seaman joins from the trading and logistics firm Benteler Trading International, where he served as global head of sales for almost two years. Before that, he spent almost two years as managing director, Emea, at software company GTreasury, and prior to that was global head of corporate treasury management solutions at Bloomberg. In his new role, Seaman will oversee all of Macrobond’s new and existing business in the UK, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and the Middle East and North Africa.

Leffler and Seaman will report to Howard Rees, chief commercial officer.