People: SocGen and Nomura spot slew of FX hires, RepoClear gets new head, and more

Latest job changes across the industry

Societe Generale is making a foreign exchange push with a series of new hires in the Americas, as first reported on Risk.net. The bank has raided rival Crédit Agricole for several of the roles. Among these, Eric Darwell joins as head of FX and emerging markets rates trading for the Americas, leading a fresh initiative to boost the bank’s regional market-making presence.

Michael Agaisse joins as a senior spot FX trader from Barclays, while Jesse Bass, a senior Latin America FX trader, and Patrick Kerjose, head of cross-asset solutions, also join from CA. JB Holmes, formerly of Lloyds, joins as an FX forwards trader. All are based in New York. The firm also hired Victor Gomez from Mizuho as an FX and rates trader in Brazil. Another ex-Crédit Agricole hire, emerging markets FX trader Logan Willits, joined earlier in the year.

“FX is a product in focus,” says Darwell. “Until now, the area where we have had the least amount of feet on the ground and expertise is the Americas. But [it] is a big part of the overall FX strategy of the bank.” The bank’s renewed focus on the area follows the hire in April of John Estrada from Credit Suisse as global head of FX.

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Nomura is also making a key change in its FX business with the hire of David Leigh as co-head of FX emerging markets, based in London. Leigh joins existing co-head Nagaraj Pangal to lead FX and emerging markets globally. He arrives from Deutsche Bank, where he most recently held the position of head of FX for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, while also running the firm’s global FX spot, precious metals and electronic trading business. Leigh will report to Rig Karkhanis, head of global markets, at a global level and locally to Nat Tyce, head of global markets, Emea.

John Tierney

The bank also confirmed John Tierney was approved as chief executive officer of Nomura Europe Holdings (NEHS) and Nomura International with immediate effect. Tierney has spent over 25 years at the bank and has held a number of senior positions, including chief operating officer – previously chief financial officer and CFAO – for Emea and CFO for Asia ex-Japan. He has also been part of the NEHS executive committee and a director and member of the NEHS/NIP board since 2016, and has served as CEO of Nomura Bank International since 2020.

Tierney replaces Jonathan Lewis, who stepped down in March after 10 years in the role. Lewis continues as chair of multiple Nomura subsidiary boards in a non-executive director capacity. He also becomes chair of Nomura Financial Products Europe, Instinet Europe and Nomura Reinsurance. In the latter role, he takes over from Paul Spanswick, who is retiring after a 26-year career with the firm.

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Michel Semaan has joined LCH as the new global head of RepoClear. He is tasked with managing the next phase of growth for RepoClear, while overseeing clearing for the euro and sterling markets. He reports to Corentine Poilvet-Clédière, CEO of LCH SA, and Isabelle Girolami, CEO of LCH Ltd and joins their respective leadership teams. He brings over 25 years of experience in repo and trading in global financial markets across both secured and unsecured funding. Prior to his arrival at LCH, Semaan was global head of securities financing at BBVA and held leadership roles with TransFICC, Crédit Agricole CIB and Nomura.

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Rodrigo Buenaventura

The board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions has announced the appointment of Rodrigo Buenaventura for a three-year renewable term as secretary general of Iosco. The appointment is pending the finalisation of Buenaventura’s current mandate as chair of the Spanish Securities Markets Commission. Tajinder Singh, who has served as acting secretary general since May 2024, will continue to serve as deputy secretary general. Buenaventura further serves as chair of the Iosco sustainable finance task force, vice-chair of the OECD corporate governance committee and chair of the Esma markets standing committee.

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Photo: Banco de España

Pablo Hernández de Cos

The Bank for International Settlements has announced the appointment of Pablo Hernández de Cos as its next general manager. The appointment is effective July 1, 2025 and begins a five-year term in which he succeeds Agustín Carstens, who has served as GM since December 2017, and previously as governor of the Bank of Mexico from 2010. Hernández de Cos previously served as the governor of the Bank of Spain from 2018 through June 2024. In his time there, he was a member of the governing council of the European Central Bank and served as chair of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision from 2019 to June 2024. Hernández de Cos also brings experience as a member of the Financial Stability Board and BIS group of governors and heads of supervision.

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Technology-focused agency execution specialist Liquidnet has tapped Eric Blake as head of Latin America. Blake is tasked with expanding the firm’s LatAm business. He will be based in New York, reporting to Alan Polo, head of equities sales and trading, Americas. He brings more than 25 years of domestic and international capital markets experience, most recently as head of electronic trading at BTG Pactual, where he was responsible for strategic deployment of the firm’s electronic execution products and creation of the first electronic block trading facility in Brazil.

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Donia Rouigueb

Donia Rouigueb has joined Euronext as global head of sales, according to a LinkedIn post. She joins from asset servicing provider CACEIS after nearly a decade with the firm. She also brings prior experience as a securities lending sales trader and cash equity dealer with Mediobanca and Covea.

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Rich Grossi has been named chief executive officer at EquiLend, a provider of technology, data and analytics solutions for the securities finance industry. He will focus on accelerating the firm’s growth in the market. He joins from his time as CEO at Ion Corporates, a suite of trading, risk management and workflow automation services.

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The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation made two new appointments in November, each reporting to the FDIC board. Hansel Cordeiro becomes director of its newly created office of professional conduct. Before joining, Cordeiro served as executive director of accountability and strategic business management at the Federal Aviation Administration. The agency has also appointed Amanda Lavis as director of the also newly created office of equal employment opportunity. She previously served as chief culture officer for the US Army’s combat capabilities development command.

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Eric Lordi has joined Citi Wealth as the head of wealth platform and experience, effective January 29, 2025. Lordi will be tasked with growing the client base and netting new investment assets. He previously served as head of ConnectWealth strategic development at JP Morgan where he oversaw the integration of products and services within a single platform. He also brings experience as head of advice platforms at Morgan Stanley and previously held roles at Barclays, Merrill Lynch and MetLife

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Lowenstein Sandler has announced the addition of former FTX US general counsel Ryne Miller as partner and chair of the firm’s commodities, futures and derivatives practice and as co-chair of Lowenstein Crypto, effective November 18. Miller will advise clients at both traditional financial markets and fintech firms. At FTX, he was co-head of the commodities, futures and derivatives group. He was also previously legal counsel to the chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.