We tracked the 'frighteningly competitive' poaching war between rival investment banks. These are th
- 2019 has been an unexpectedly competitive and vigorous hiring market for top investment bankers, building off an exceptionally active 2018, according to Wall Street headhunters.
- With new leadership gripping the reins at top investment banks, turmoil enveloping others, and a still scorching dealmaking environment, competition in the US for rainmakers remained at a fever pitch this year.
- We spoke with investment-banking headhunters and consultants in the trenches to determine the 40 biggest hires and departures of the year.
Last year was one of the most competitive and vigorous hiring markets in the US for senior investment bankers in recent memory. So it would seem only natural that the frenetic pace would slow in 2019.
But it didn't, at least not by much, according to top Wall Street recruitment and executive-search firms.
With new leadership gripping the reins at top investment banks, turmoil enveloping others, and a still scorching dealmaking environment, competition in the US for top rainmakers remained at a fever pitch this year.
"In America, hiring is widespread and frighteningly competitive," Julian Bell, the regional managing director for the Americas at the executive-search firm Sheffield Haworth, told Business Insider.
While senior-dealmaker hiring has declined upward of 30% in Europe and Asia, it's nearly level with 2018 in the US with one month remaining in the year, according to Sheffield Haworth's data.
That's in part because the US has been the epicenter of the investment-banking action: While mergers-and-acquisitions deal volumes have cooled in recent months, US-targeted M&A stands at $1.75 trillion, already eclipsing the tally for 2018 and threatening to set a full-year record, according to Dealogic.
Investment-banking revenues in North America fell slightly to $11.1 billion across the industry through the first three quarters, according to Dealogic, whereas they fell 26% to $4.2 billion in Europe, and they declined 22% to $1 billion in Asia (not including Japan).
But new regimes and other trends factor in as well:
- Bank of America and Citigroup each announced new investment-banking leadership toward the end of 2018 and have made concerted efforts to stamp their respective imprints and staff up with top dealmakers.
- The turmoil at Deutsche Bank has left the firm vulnerable, and competitors have seized the opportunity to snatch more than 15 managing directors from the firm's investment bank in the US. Barclays and Lazard have also been fertile poaching grounds as they deal with shake-ups of their own.
- Goldman Sachs is culling its partner ranks, making it a propitious time for bankers to jump to a competitor.
- Firms are increasingly using the vice-chairman role to lure in veteran bankers with key relationships who want the client impact and big-ticket deal flow of a senior post without all the bureaucracy.
"It's a pragmatic approach to getting senior access to client relationships," Albert Laverge, the head of Egon Zehnder's banking and markets practice, told Business Insider. "It gives banks more flexibility, especially since some bankers would rather focus purely on clients than necessarily managing others, and the vice-chairman role avoids where to put them in the pyramid."
While technology and healthcare remain the most competitive hiring grounds, mirroring deal activity, other areas are growing in prominence, including activism-defense groups, which provide close access to top brass at major corporations.
"When an activist situation arises, you don't have a lot of time and have to have a rapid response," Laverge said. "Additionally, it's a good way to have an ongoing dialogue with clients."
Like we did last year, Business Insider has put together a guide to the most notable moves of 2019. We worked with senior headhunters and consultants who are in the trenches and tracking all the moves to narrow a list of more than 200 hires and departures down to the 40 biggest.
Some caveats: While seniority, title, and platform matter, they aren't the only criteria in play. Well-respected and impactful managing directors may trump investment bankers with more seniority and responsibility. Additionally, only bankers based in the US were included — we didn't consider moves in Europe and Asia. Lastly, our list encompasses only professionals who oversee or work directly in investment banking — senior-executive departures like Tim Throsby at Barclays, Jamie Forese at Citi, and Tim Sloane at Wells Fargo, while notable, didn't make the cut.
Read on for Business Insider's list of the 40 most significant and noteworthy hires and departures in investment banking in 2019.
Have thoughts? Think we missed somebody obvious or important? Send us a message at amorrell@businessinsider.com.
Steven Barg: Goldman Sachs to Elliott Management
Old role: Partner, global cohead of M&A shareholder advisory
New role: Global head of corporate engagement
Month: August
Barg is switching from protector to predator: At Goldman, he was the top banker defending companies against would-be corporate raiders and other investor antagonists. Now he's teaming up with Paul Singer and Elliott Management, the most feared and prolific activist hedge fund on Wall Street.
While Goldman has been shedding partners in 2019, Barg was a top player in one of the most influential and in-demand corners of investment banking. His poaching caught Goldman executives by surprise — and was closely guarded internally at Elliott — and competitors rushed to steal the investment bank's clients after the departure was announced, according to the FT. Goldman lost another top activist banker, Tyler Brooke, to Centerview earlier in the year.
A longtime capital-markets banker, Barg spent a decade at Goldman, largely in Asia, coheading its investment bank for Southeast Asia from 2012 to 2013 and later coleading equity-capital-markets operations in the region.
Eric Bischof: Bank of America to Morgan Stanley
Old role: Global head of financial-institutions investment banking
New role: Chairman, investment banking
Month: May
After only two years away, Bischof has returned to Morgan Stanley. The insurance specialist split in 2017 from the Wall Street giant, where he burnished his reputation and spent almost all of his more than two-decade career, to cohead Bank of America's financial-institutions group.
Now he's back as a chairman of its investment bank, where he'll have more time to focus on relationships that have helped him execute deals like Ace's $28 billion buyout of Chubb in 2015 and Fortress Investment Group's $3 billion sale to SoftBank in 2017.
Bischof is also known for coleading a team of 30 bankers that advised the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on its bailout of AIG during the financial crisis.
Tyler Brooke: Goldman Sachs to Centerview
Old role: MD, M&A and shareholder activism
New role: MD, M&A and shareholder activism
Month: May
After a five-year run with Goldman Sachs, Brooke joined Centerview Partners amid a ramp-up in demand for activist-defense bankers. His resignation landed several months before Goldman's top activist-defense banker, Barg, left to join the industry's leading activist, Elliott Management.
Brooke's recent mandates, according to Reuters, included aiding ILG in its $4.7 billion sale to Marriott in 2018 and Tribune Publishing in its defense against a hostile bid from Gannett in 2016.
Andrew Callaway: Bank of America to RBC
Old role: Global head of life-sciences investment banking
New role: Head of US healthcare investment banking
Month: January
After building out its investment-banking roster in 2018, RBC added senior Bank of America healthcare banker Andrew "Cal" Callaway in 2019. He brings more than 100 M&A and financing deals worth of experience in biopharma, including previous senior roles at Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank.
Thanks to veteran hires like these, the surging Canadian bank has raced into the top 10 in US M&A deal volume, hitting a goal it had set nearly a decade ago.
Kristin DeClark: Deutsche Bank to Barclays
Old role: Head of tech equity capital markets
New role: Cohead of US equity capital markets, global head of tech equity capital markets
Month: March
Barclays poached a pair of high-profile bankers to run equity capital markets in the US this year: Taylor Wright and Kristin DeClark.
DeClark, who also moonlights as a competitive ultramarathoner, joined first in March from Deutsche Bank and specializes in hot tech initial public offerings. Among the IPOs she has worked on are Dropbox, Snap, Fitbit, Square, and GoDaddy.
Wright, a 24-year veteran of Morgan Stanley and former head of its US financial-institutions equity-capital-markets group, joined a couple months later as DeClark's cohead. He's worked on public listings for AXA Equitable Holdings, Citizens Financial, Moelis & Co., Tradeweb, and Yext.
Lee Einbinder: Barclays to FinServ
Old role: Vice chairman and head of financial-institutions group, Americas
New role: CEO
Month: August
The most senior among a cadre of senior financial-institutions investment bankers to all quit the British firm within a month of each other over the summer.
Einbinder, who joined Barclays in 2008 after 12 years with Lehman Brothers, led the firm's investment-banking coverage of financial companies in the US. Now he's running a special-purpose acquisition vehicle called FinServ — a blank-check investment firm that raised $250 million in its November public offering and is looking to buy stakes in financial-services companies.
Onur Eken: Barclays to Guggenheim
Old role: Global head of capital-goods investment banking
New role: Senior MD, industrials investment banking
Month: June
Guggenheim roped in a pair of senior industrials bankers from Barclays in June: Onur Eken and John Welsh.
Eken, who joined Barclays from Lehman Brothers in 2008 and was the global head of capital goods, will continue on with a similar mandate in his new shop.
Rahm Emanuel: City of Chicago to Centerview
Old role: Mayor of Chicago
New role: Senior counselor
Month: June
The biggest name hired in investment banking in 2019 comes not from finance but from politics: Following an eight-year tenure as Chicago's mayor and a 30-year career as a Democratic political bulldog, Emanuel announced this summer he was joining the boutique powerhouse Centerview Partners.
Emanuel is in charge of launching the firm's Chicago office, where he'll build off a deep well of established connections — including the likes of area billionaires J.B. Pritzker, now Illinois' governor, and Citadel founder Ken Griffin.
The foundation for the hire was laid in the late 1990s, when Emanuel spent two years at boutique Wasserstein Perella after leaving the Clinton White House in 1998. According to The Wall Street Journal, while he was there, he met Robert Pruzan, who cofounded Centerview with Blair Effron in 2006.
John Eydenberg: Deutsche Bank to Citigroup
Old role: Chairman, investment banking, Americas
New role: Vice chairman, investment banking
Month: June
Few have capitalized on Deutsche Bank's mass exodus of bankers as favorably as Citigroup, which nabbed a trio of senior rainmakers over the summer: Mark Keene, the technology, media, and telecom cohead; Mark Hantho, the global investment-banking chairman and capital-markets head; and John Eydenberg, the North America investment-banking chairman.
Eydenberg, who'd been with Deutsche since 2001, has close ties to top-tier private-equity clients, like Apollo Global and the Japanese investment giant SoftBank, according to The Journal.
Jim Forbes: UBS to Morgan Stanley
Old role: Vice chairman, healthcare investment banking
New role: Vice chairman, healthcare investment banking
Month: July
In Forbes, Morgan Stanley acquired one of the top bankers in one of the hottest M&A sectors. The healthcare dealmaker has a track record with private-equity giants as well, running Bank of America's Global Principal Investments Group for three years before departing for UBS in 2012.
Forbes has advised clients including Anthem, Ventas, Bain Capital, and KKR, according to The Wall Street Journal.
He helped orchestrate one of the largest leveraged buyouts in history: Hospital Corporation of America's $33 billion take-private deal in 2006 with a consortium of investors including Bain, KKR, Merrill Lynch, and the Frist family.
Jeremy Fox: Deutsche Bank to Credit Suisse
Old role: Head of equity capital markets, Americas
New role: Cohead of real-estate investment banking, Americas
Month: August
Fox is one of a handful of senior bankers to decamp not long after Deutsche Bank's monumental investment-banking overhaul this summer.
The equity-capital-markets banker already has a stable of real-estate relationships — he worked on IPOs for companies including Hilton Worldwide and Blackstone's Invitation Homes — but now he's pivoting to full-time coverage banking as the cohead of the group in the US for Credit Suisse.
Robert Giammarco: Bank of America to The Amynta Group
Old role: Head of financial-institutions investment banking, Americas
New role: Chairman and CEO
Month: April
One of the industry's top insurance dealmakers, Giammarco left Bank of America this spring after two decades for a corporate role in a company he had a hand in creating.
Giammarco, who was the head of the financial-institutions group in the US at Bank of America since 2014, advised AmTrust Financial in its 2017 sale of a majority stake in one of its US businesses to Madison Dearborn Partners, according to Bloomberg. He now is chairman and CEO of the new company, an insurance-distribution and insurances company called The Amynta Group.
Jean Greene: Lazard to Bank of America
Old role: MD
New role: MD, industrials M&A
Month: August
After two decades at Lazard orchestrating monster deals, Greene left for Bank of America this summer amid the firm's investment-banking hiring blitz.
Among Greene's deal trophies are Tyco's $16.5 billion sale to Johnson Controls and Anheuser-Busch InBev's more than $100 billion acquisition of SABMiller, both in 2016.
Celeste Guth: Deutsche Bank to PJT Partners
Old role: Global head of M&A
New role: Partner
Month: October
Guth lasted all of four months as Deutsche Bank's global head of M&A before ditching the troubled bank for calmer waters at the advisory boutique PJT Partners.
Guth was named to the high-profile post this summer amid a massive overhaul that saw the German lender split its investment bank into three divisions and lay off thousands of employees.
She previously ran the firm's global financial-institutions group and was poached in 2015 from Goldman Sachs, where she spent nearly three decades and was made partner in 2002.
Mark Hantho: Deutsche Bank to Citigroup
Old role: Chairman of global capital markets and global head of ECM
New role: Vice chairman, investment banking
Month: June
Few have capitalized on Deutsche Bank's mass exodus of bankers as favorably as Citigroup, which nabbed a trio of senior rainmakers over the summer: Keene, the technology, media, and telecom cohead; Hantho, the global investment-banking chairman and capital-markets head; and Eydenberg, the North America investment-banking chairman.
After 13 years at Deutsche, the Montreal native Hantho — who has spent long stints in both London and Hong Kong — will continue coordinating capital underwriting for large corporates from New York as a vice chairman at Citi.
Gary Howe: Lazard to Bank of America
Old role: Head of financial-institutions investment banking, North America
New role: Cohead of financial-institutions investment banking, Americas
Month: October
After an eight-year run, the longtime financial-institutions dealmaker left Lazard, which is revamping its merger-advisory business amid declining revenues — cutting jobs and closing several offices.
He joined a Bank of America dealmaking unit that has been on a hiring spree in 2019 and appears to be on the other side of its own investment-banking overhaul.
Zaheed Kajani: Citigroup to Evercore
Old role: Head of internet and digital-media investment banking
New role: Senior MD, internet and digital-media investment banking
Month: January
One of the industry's top internet investment bankers, the nearly two-decade veteran Kajani has more than 100 transactions under his belt, including M&A deals, IPOs, and private-capital injections, according to a press release.
The Menlo Park, California-based banker has advised companies including Alibaba, Bonobos, Grubhub, Roku, The Trade Desk, Wayfair, and Zillow.
Michal Katz: RBC to Mizuho
Old role: Cohead of global technology investment banking
New role: Head of banking, Americas
Month: August
Katz, one of Wall Street's most powerful women, surprised many this summer when she vacated the top technology-investment-banking role at RBC, which has been gaining momentum and is one of the top tech IPO performers in 2019.
Now she has the top banking job in the US at Mizuho, and she'll be responsible for boosting the Japanese giant's relevance in the largest investment-banking market. Her ambitions were larger than just technology, but her expertise will be essential as tech disruption redefines companies across sectors.
She told American Banker in September that her experience "has put me in a very unique position to think through this. Whether it be technology as a sector, where my old world used to be, or in my new role, which is going to be touching across nine or 10 industry groups that are being impacted by technology across the board."
Mark Keene: Deutsche Bank to Citigroup
Old role: Global cohead of technology, media, and telecom investment banking
New role: Global cohead of technology investment banking
Month: June
Few have capitalized on Deutsche Bank's mass exodus of bankers as favorably as Citigroup, which nabbed a trio of senior rainmakers over the summer: Keene, the technology, media, and telecom cohead; Hantho, the global investment-banking chairman and capital-markets head; and Eydenberg, the North America investment-banking chairman.
Keene, a 13-year Deutsche veteran and semiconductor expert, will corun technology investment banking at Citi alongside Herb Yeh.
Sam Kendall: departed UBS
Old role: Head of investment banking, Americas
New role: Unclear
Month: October
Another year, another head of investment banking in the US for UBS. Last year, it was Joe Reece who left as head of corporate client solutions in the Americas only four months after replacing Ros Stephenson, who stepped back into an executive-vice-chairman role.
Kendall outlasted Reece in the role — during his tenure, he also made headlines for cobbling together a handy staff reading list for uncertain times — but it was a brief reign as well. The two-decade UBS veteran stepped down from the role in September amid yet another organizational shake-up at the Swiss giant's investment bank, and in October, Kendall departed to pursue other interests, according to Bloomberg.
Stephenson, meanwhile, is back on top, coheading the firm's dealmaking unit alongside Javier Oficialdegui.
Sam Kumar: Citigroup to Bank of America
Old role: Global cohead of software investment banking
New role: Cohead of emerging growth and regional-coverage investment banking
Month: August
As part of its investment-banking overhaul, Bank of America is on a mission to chase more middle-market deals in regional locales like Portland, Oregon, and Nashville, Tennessee, as well as provide coverage of emerging rapidly growing tech firms.
The firm poached Kumar, Citi's head of internet investment banking in North America and global cohead of software, to jointly run the new group alongside Brendan Hanley, a Bank of America veteran. Kumar's client roster includes heavy hitters like Alibaba, SoftBank, Uber, and Fitbit.
Amy Lissauer: Evercore to Bank of America
Old role: MD, shareholder defense
New role: Global head of activism and raid defense
Month: August
As investor activism proliferates, investment bankers who can step in and mount a quick and effective defense for companies have become a hot commodity on Wall Street. Lissauer worked alongside star raid-defense banker Bill Anderson at Evercore; now she'll be running the show herself at Bank of America.
At just 35, Lissauer has already advised more than 150 companies facing activism campaigns, according to a Bank of America memo announcing her hire, including Bristol-Myers Squibb, Envision Healthcare, and WageWorks. She also worked with Whole Foods in its defense against Jana Partners and eventual industry-rattling sale to Amazon in 2017.
Kathleen McCabe: Morgan Stanley to PJT
Old role: Head of marketing and business development in investment banking
New role: Partner, strategic advisory group
Month: August
The longtime Morgan Stanley investment banker has most recently held senior posts in investor relations and business development at the firm, but now she's back in an advisory role as a partner in PJT's strategic advisory group.
During her 21 years at Morgan Stanley, McCabe held relationships with some of the firm's largest clients, especially within the private-equity world.
Umi Mehta: Bank of America to Morgan Stanley
Old role: Head of US internet investment banking
New role: Global cohead of internet investment banking
Month: August
Bank of America has poached talented bankers over the past year, but they haven't been immune to competitors luring away their own: RBC claimed Callaway; Giammarco left to run an insurance company; and Morgan Stanley hired standouts Bischof, an insurance expert, and Mehta, one of the top internet bankers and nearly 10-year veteran of the firm.
Morgan Stanley further bolstered its prodigious tech-banking practice with the hire of Mehta, who will cohead global internet banking in the Menlo Park, California, office alongside veteran Kate Claassen. Mehta has advised the likes of Uber, Carvana, Rent the Runway, and Zynga, according to Bloomberg.
Elizabeth Milonopoulos: Goldman Sachs to Citigroup
Old role: MD, head of digital media and advertising investment banking
New role: Global cohead of internet investment banking
Month: June
Tech is the most competitive sector for talent in investment banking, so landing a top internet banker is a tall order. Citigroup poached two of them this summer amid a flurry of senior hires: Milonopoulos from Goldman Sachs and Brian Yick from Barclays.
Milonopolous started her career in consulting with Accenture. Then she joined Goldman as an associate in 2008 after business school, earning a promotion to managing director in 2015.
She'll now corun Citi's global internet group alongside Yick.
Gregg Polle: Moelis to Bank of America
Old role: MD
New role: Vice chairman of M&A
Month: June
Polle — a 25-year Citi veteran who coheaded M&A and ran the industrials group before retiring in 2008 — was part of a slew of senior bankers hired by Moelis & Co. in the early 2010s. Now he's headed back to bulge-bracket investment-banking world, where he'll cover industrial giants, as well as other sectors, for Bank of America.
He's part of a wave of splashy senior hires amid the firm's investment-banking turnaround.
Michael O'Donovan: UBS to PJT
Old role: Head of equity capital markets, Americas
New role: Partner, strategic advisory group
Month: May
O'Donovan joins PJT as partner after three years running IPOs, private placements, and other equity transactions as UBS's head of equity capital markets in the Americas.
Before UBS, O'Donovan worked in KKR's capital-markets unit and also had stints with Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and Bear Stearns.
Glenn Riedman: RBC to Jefferies
Old role: Cohead of industrials investment banking
New role: Vice chairman, global head of capital goods
Month: June
Jefferies adds depth to its industrials coverage with the hiring this summer of Riedman, who spent eight years at RBC looking after industrial giants, as well as those focused on building products and metals and mining.
Before RBC, Riedman spent time at JPMorgan and more than a decade at Bear Stearns.
Rick Sherlund: Perella Weinberg to Bank of America
Old role: Partner, cohead of technology investment banking
New role: Vice chairman, technology investment banking
Month: May
The top-ranked software research analyst turned investment banker has been making the rounds since leaving Goldman Sachs in 2007 after a quarter of a century at the firm. After a couple hedge-fund stops, the ex-Goldman partner spent four years at Nomura before moving on to short stints at Barclays in 2015 and Perella Weinberg in 2017, where he was tasked with building out their tech-investment-banking practice.
Now it's on to Bank of America, where Sherlund — along with his fellow newcomer Johnny Williams, who joined from UBS in August — will bolster the firm's Palo Alto, California, office with veteran tech expertise.
Karen Simon: retired from JPMorgan
Old role: Global head of director advisory services
New role: Retired
Month: August
In her 36 years at JPMorgan, Simon held a number of senior roles, including top jobs at the bank overseeing coverage of oil and gas, debt capital markets, and buyout firms. Up until 2016, she oversaw a team of 25 bankers that advised more than 120 private-equity firms as a vice chairman and head of financial sponsors.
For the past three years, she ran the firm's director-advisory-services group, a Jamie Dimon brainchild launched in 2016 that advises and facilitates connections for corporate boards. Under Simon's leadership, the group recommended more than 700 candidates to 70 companies in its first year, according to The Wall Street Journal.
But after nearly four decades at the firm and its precursors, Simon, one the most senior female investment bankers on Wall Street, retired in August.
Terry Sullivan: Victory Capital to UBS
Old role: Chief financial officer
New role: Global cohead of financial-institutions investment banking
Month: March
Sullivan returns to bulge-bracket investment banking with UBS after nearly two years on the buy side as chief financial officer of Victory Capital, a Cleveland-based private-equity giant with nearly $150 billion in assets.
He was a regular adviser to Victory's leadership even before joining in 2016 from Morgan Stanley, where he spent nearly 15 years as a financial-sponsors banker.
Now he'll corun financial-institutions coverage globally for UBS.
Rob Sweeney: Goldman Sachs to Sycamore Partners
Old role: Global head of consumer and retail investment banking
New role: President
Month: April
A 22-year company veteran and consumer-retail-banking heavyweight, Goldman Sachs' Sweeney split for the buy side this spring, joining the private-equity giant Sycamore. He's part of a wave of departures among the partner ranks at Goldman Sachs in 2019.
Among the clients Sweeney advised during his time at Goldman are Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, Campbell's, J. Crew, Lululemon, Target, Under Armour, and Yum! Brands, the corporate parent of Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut.
As president at Sycamore, he'll continue to work relationships with the CEOs and board members of those firms and others to win business for the investment firm.
Stephanie Sze: Barclays to Credit Suisse
Old role: MD, M&A
New role: Cohead of sell-side M&A
Month: October
Part of the wave of senior departures in Barclays' investment bank in 2019, Sze left for Credit Suisse, where she'll run the firm's sell-side M&A practice, specializing in scenarios where companies — or their private-equity owners — put themselves up for sale or divest assets.
Sze spent more than a decade at Barclays, joining from Lehman Brothers in 2008.
Joe Todd: Goldman Sachs to Evercore
Old role: Partner, financial-institutions investment banking
New role: Senior MD, financial-institutions investment banking
Month: September
Amid Goldman Sachs' efforts to thin its partner ranks, longtime finance dealmaker Todd jumped ship to Evercore — and secured a six-year contract from the boutique in the process, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Todd started his career with Goldman in 2001 and made partner in the 2014 class.
Janis Vitols: Barclays to Bank of America
Old role: Global head of asset-management investment banking
New role: Global head of asset-management investment banking
Month: July
Vitols, a Barclays veteran of more than a decade, was among a cadre of senior financial-institutions investment bankers to quit the British bank within a month of each other over the summer.
While Barclays has seen an outflow of talent amid a shake-up to the investment bank and compensation cuts, Bank of America has been snatching senior bankers left and right. Vitols will handle the same tasks at Bank of America as he did at Barclays.
John Welsh: Barclays to Guggenheim
Old role: Cohead of global industrials investment banking
New role: Senior MD, industrials investment banking
Month: June
Guggenheim roped in a pair of senior industrials bankers from Barclays in June: Eken and Welsh.
After joining Barclays from Lehman Brothers in 2008, Welsh ascended the ranks and coheaded Barclays' global industrial group before joining Guggenheim.
Johnny Williams: UBS to Bank of America
Old role: Vice chairman, strategic clients and partnerships
New role: Vice chairman, technology investment banking
Month: August
Yet another vice chairman hire for Bank of America, Williams returns to the firm after a six-year stint with UBS, bringing with him more than two decades of tech-banking experience. Williams has worked on more than 150 IPOs during his career and advised clients including Dell, IBM, Workday, Atlassian, and Palantir.
He'll join forces with Sherlund, who joined the firm on the West Coast as a tech vice chairman earlier in the year from Perella Weinberg.
Taylor Wright: Morgan Stanley to Barclays
Old role: Head of financial institutions equity capital markets
New role: Cohead of US equity capital markets
Month: May
Barclays poached a pair of high-profile bankers to run equity capital markets in the US this year: DeClark and Wright.
Wright, a 24-year veteran of Morgan Stanley and head of its US financial institutions equity-capital-markets group, joined in May. He has worked on public listings for AXA Equitable Holdings, Citizens Financial, Moelis & Co., Tradeweb, and Yext.
DeClark, who also moonlights as a competitive ultramarathoner, joined a couple months earlier from Deutsche Bank and specializes in hot tech IPOs. Among the IPOs she has worked on are Dropbox, Snap, Fitbit, Square, and GoDaddy.
Brian Yick: Barclays to Citigroup
Old role: Cohead of internet investment banking, Americas
New role: Global cohead of internet investment banking
Month: June
Tech is the most competitive sector for talent in investment banking, so landing a top internet banker is tall order. Citigroup poached two of them this summer amid a flurry of senior hires: Milonopoulos from Goldman Sachs and Yick from Barclays.
For Yick, it's something of a homecoming. He started his career at Citigroup in 1999, leaving in 2006 to join Lehman Brothers and then joining Barclays in 2008, where he rose to become the head of the internet group in the Americas.
He'll now corun Citi's global internet group alongside Milonopoulos.
Tommaso Zanobini: Deutsche Bank to Moelis
Old role: Global head of fintech investment banking
New role: Managing director, fintech investment banking
Month: September
Yet another senior Deutsche defection, Zanobini's departure for Moelis leaves a hole for the firm in the simmering financial-technology sector.
Zanobini, who joined the German bank in 2017, has 25 years of tech-investment banking experience, holding senior roles at Jefferies, Barclays, and Lehman Brothers during his career.
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