People moves: new Credit Suisse chair, Esho becomes BCBS secretary general, and more

Latest job changes across the industry

Credit Suisse has named Axel Lehmann as its chairman, effective immediately. Lehmann was tapped to replace António Horta-Osório, who resigned after a Credit Suisse board investigation into personal misconduct.

A former executive at UBS Group, Lehmann will be proposed for election as chair at the group’s annual general meeting on April 29, 2022.

Lehmann joined the Credit Suisse board in late 2021 and is chair of its risk committee. He was formerly a board member at UBS Group and has served as its chief operating officer and president of UBS Switzerland.

Severin Schwan, vice-chairman and lead independent director of the board of Credit Suisse, said: “With his extensive international and Swiss industry experience, [Lehmann] is ideally suited to drive forward the strategic and cultural transformation of the bank. 

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The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has chosen Neil Esho as its next secretary general for an initial term of three years. Esho has served as deputy secretary general since July 2014. He joined the Basel Committee Secretariat in April 2006 and was previously head of research at the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.  

Esho succeeds Carolyn Rogers, who had served as secretary general since 2019, and departed in November to become senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada. Earlier in his career, he taught at the School of Banking and Finance at the University of New South Wales as a senior lecturer.

Pablo Hernández de Cos, chair of the Basel Committee and governor of the Bank of Spain, said Esho is in an “ideal position to lead the Secretariat in the next phase of the Committee’s work”, as it focuses on Basel III implementation and new challenges around cryptocurrencies, climate-related financial risks and the digitalisation of finance.

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Wells Fargo has appointed Derek Flowers as its new chief risk officer. Flowers, a 24-year Wells veteran, assumed the role immediately. Prior to his appointment, Flowers was Wells Fargo’s head of strategic execution and operations and will continue to serve on the operating committee. He has previously held executive roles such as chief market risk officer and chief credit officer at the bank.

Amanda Norton

Wells Fargo’s CEO Charlie Scharf wrote on January 18, 2022: “Derek is a proven leader with extensive experience managing risk. Over the last several years, he has played a critical role managing the buildout of the company’s risk and control frameworks.”

Flowers succeeds Amanda Norton, who will retire at the end of June. Norton joined Wells Fargo in 2018 and was tasked with overhauling the bank’s risk management frameworks following federal regulatory investigations. She had previously served at JP Morgan as its consumer and community banking chief risk officer, and had held roles at Bank of America and Ally Financial.

In a memo to staff, Scharf said that under Norton’s leadership, the company’s risk management division had made “tremendous” progress.

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The Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), a group of central banks and regulators focused on climate-related risks, has appointed Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, as its new chair and appointed Sabine Mauderer, a member of the Deutsche Bundesbank executive board, as its vice-chair. Both will serve a two-year term effective immediately. Mauderer will then assume the position of chair for the next two years.

Menon said: “We must strengthen the resilience of the financial system to the risks from climate change and scale up the financing needed to support the transition to a sustainable global economy.”

He succeeds Frank Elderson, a member of the European Central Bank executive board, who served as chair since the NGFS’s establishment in 2017. In that time, its membership has grown from eight founding members to 105 today.

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Stephanie Cohen, chief operating officer at UK markets watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will step down at the end of 2022, after barely a year in the role. She will be succeeded by Emily Shepperd, who joined the FCA as head of authorisations from Dutch life insurance firm Aegon in February 2021. Shepperd previously worked for BNY Mellon for 14 years, most recently as chief operating officer for EMEA.

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The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has appointed William Birdthistle as director of the division of investment management. The division oversees regulatory policy for investment advisers and investment companies, including mutual funds.

Birdthistle joins from Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he was a professor of law. His research and teaching have covered investment funds, securities regulation and corporate governance. Prior to joining academia in 2006, Birdthistle practiced law at Ropes & Gray in Boston for five years as a corporate associate in the firm’s investment management practice.

SEC chair Gary Gensler said of the appointment, “Professor Birdthistle will bring remarkable expertise in investment funds to the SEC”.

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Rostin Behnam, the newly confirmed chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has made a raft of senior hires. Rob Schwartz has been named general counsel, leading its legal division and serving as chief legal adviser. A CFTC staffer for a decade, Schwartz has served as acting general counsel since January 2021. 

Photo: John Harrington

New hires at CFTC

During his time at the CFTC, Schwartz has served as the CFTC’s chief litigator, in the position of deputy general counsel for litigation, enforcement and adjudication. He has successfully represented the CFTC in lawsuits challenging the agency’s implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act, appeals against enforcement actions, and bankruptcies of registered entities. Schwartz joined the CFTC in 2011 from Arnold & Porter, where he practiced business litigation. 

Behnam has also named Amanda Olear as director of the market participants division. In this role, she oversees swap dealers, futures commission merchants and others. A CFTC veteran of 14 years, Olear has most recently served as deputy director for registration and compliance since 2018. Prior to joining the CFTC, she worked in private practice at Council, Baradel, Kosmerl & Nolan, focusing on business entity formation and complex commercial litigation.

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Nomura Holdings has hired Anu Jayanti to a new role as global head of client account management, as part of its strategy to expand its global business. Jayanti joins from Citigroup, where she was most recently global head of investor relationship management. Based in New York, Jayanti will report to head of Nomura Holdings’ wholesale division Steve Ashley and to the co-chief executive of Nomura Holding America Chris Willcox. She will also join Nomura’s wholesale executive committee and chair a newly established wholesale client committee.

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BNY Mellon has made three hires to its Europe, Middle East and Africa clearing and collateral management client coverage team. The new relationship managers will report to Gesa Benda, EMEA head of clearing and collateral management and global head of product strategy, and to Eric Badger, global head of clearing and collateral management client coverage. 

Stuart Bird joins from Goldman Sachs Asset Management, where he was a vice-president in global liquidity solutions. Based in London, Bird will manage collateral relationships with the global bank’s largest clients.

Also based in London, Hadley Pritchard joins from ABN Amro, after 15 years in various securities lending roles, most recently executive director of securities finance and global markets. Pritchard will focus on increasing agent lending and asset management clients across the EMEA region.  

In addition, Karen Van Cauteren joins from Euroclear, where she held a variety of sales and relationship management roles over 14 years. She will serve large clients at BNY Mellon’s European Bank and global clients in the EMEA region from the company’s Brussels office.

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Markets watchdog the European Securities and Markets Authority has appointed two new members to its management board: Thorsten Pötzsch, from Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht; and Rodrigo Buenaventura, Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores. The board is responsible for ensuring Esma satisfies its charter.

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The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has appointed Michelle Neal to head its markets group and serve on the executive committee. Neal is currently chief executive of US operations for the distributed ledger platform LedgerEdge, which she joined in June 2021.

Michelle Neal

At the New York Fed, Neal will lead market operations in line with FOMC directives and its monitoring of global financial market developments, and lender of last resort operations and collateral valuation. She will assume the role in March 2022.

New York Fed CEO and president John Williams highlighted her experience “leading and operating organisations focused on innovation in financial markets”.

Neal’s 20-year career includes spells as head of US fixed income, currencies and commodities at RBC Capital Markets and chief executive of markets at BNY Mellon.

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London Metal Exchange chief Matthew Chamberlain will depart on April 30, 2022 to lead the digital asset custody startup Komainu as chief executive.

Chamberlain’s nine-year tenure at the LME, which is owned by the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX), included reforms of warehousing, new listings and responsible sourcing programmes.

Komainu, which is headquartered in the Channel Island Jersey, was founded in 2018 through a joint-venture between Nomura and digital asset security firm Ledger and digital asset investment firm CoinShares. It provides custody services for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin for institutional investors. 

Adrian Farnham, who currently heads LME’s clearing house LME Clear, will become interim chief executive from May 1. Farnham will become a member of the HKEX management committee and report to HKEX group CEO Nicolas Aguzin. Prior to joining the group in 2013, he worked as an executive director of operations at Morgan Stanley for 13 years.

HKEX and the LME board say the search for a permanent successor continues.

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US investment bank Jefferies has hired mergers and acquisitions (M&A) specialist Philip Yates as a vice-chairman in its UK entity. Yates has held senior management positions at Merrill Lynch, SG Warburg and Perella Weinberg Partners over a 30-year City career. 

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Mizuho Financial Group has announced a senior executive shake-up, following a JFSA investigation into a series of serious computer systems failures in 2021. Masahiro Kihara will become president of the group from February 1, replacing Tatsufumi Sakai, who has resigned. Kihara currently serves as senior executive officer. 

Seiji Imai will replace Yasuhiro Sato as chairman of the group, vacating his current role as deputy president Mizuho Financial Group.

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NatWest Markets has reshuffled its primary capital markets division. James Tayler has been appointed head of primary capital markets. Currently based in New York, where he leads the NatWest Markets US capital markets team, Tayler will relocate to London. He will also assume the role of head of financial institutions debt capital markets. 

Eddie Brown will replace Tayler as head of US capital markets and join the capital markets management team, reporting to Jonathan Peberdy, head of capital markets, and to Tayler. 

The division has also launched a new digital capital markets team that will be led by Chris Agathangelou. It will have a particular focus on distributed ledger technology and trade execution. Agathangelou will continue in his role as head of flow credit.

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NatWest Markets NV, the Amsterdam-based subsidiary of NatWest Markets plc, has appointed Vincent Goedegebuure as chief executive, effective from May 2022. He will join NatWest Markets’ executive committee and report directly to chief executive Robert Begbie. Goedegebuure joins from ABN Amro, where he was global head of client coverage. 

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Trading and investment fintech Saxo Bank has appointed Peter Morris as chief operating officer and board member of its UK subsidiary Saxo Markets UK Limited. City veteran Morris has worked for Cognizant, Broadridge Financial Solutions, Smartstream Systems, BGC/Cantor Fitzgerald, Commerzbank, Nomura and Lehman Brothers over a 40-year career.

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RBC Capital Markets has hired NatWest Markets’ head of loan trading Ian Devine to lead its leveraged loan trading business in Europe. Devine has more than 20 years’ experience across leveraged loan products at NatWest Markets, Credit Agricole, GE Capital, Lloyds and UBS in the US and UK. 

In addition, RBC had hired Fredrik Johansen as a managing director for its European M&A team. Previously head of UK financial services at Mediobanca, Johansen has more than 20 years’ financial services experience, most recently advising on domestic and cross-border transactions.

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Foreign exchange platform LMAX has hired Sean Cleary as head of liquidity management and analytics for the Americas. Cleary joins from foreign exchange software company Integral Development, where he worked for less than a year. Cleary has previously held roles at CBOE Global Markets, Currenex, BNP Paribas and Icap. He will report to LMAX managing director for the Americas Patrick Bartle and will be based in New York. 

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Virgin Money has appointed Susan Poot as group chief risk officer. She joins from ING Bank, where she was most recently chief risk officer for retail banking. Poot will replace Mark Thundercliffe, who is retiring.

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Crypto industry lobby group CryptoUK has appointed Teana Baker-Taylor as non-executive director. Baker-Taylor is currently chief policy officer for the US digital asset lobby group the Digital Chamber of Commerce. Previously, she has worked for Crypto.com and Binance in a range of strategy, operations and regulatory affairs roles.  

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Kroll, the governance, risk and transparency consultancy, has hired David Lewis as managing director of its forensic investigations and intelligence practice. Lewis joins from the G7-affiliated Financial Action Task Force, where he served as executive secretary. Lewis will lead Kroll’s anti-money laundering advisory services.

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Digitec, a firm offering FX swaps and NDF pricing and data, has promoted Peer Joost to chief executive. Previously chief operating officer, Joost has worked at the firm for a decade. His appointment follows the retirement of his father and Digitec co-founder Hans-Jürgen Joost.