Cowen Group adds to its equity sales staff as Convergex picks a managing director for its options team. In London, CME Europe names a head of commercial development.
Cowen Group Adds Equity Salespersons and Equity Trader
Cowen Group, Inc. reports that Brian Fitzgerald and Todd Bertsch, two veteran equity salespersons, and David Hartnett, a veteran equity sales trader, have joined Cowen and Company’s equity sales and trading team. All three are based in New York.
Fitzgerald and Bertsch report to Philip Cushman, Cowen’s head of equity sales, and David Seaburg, Cowen’s head of sales trading, and Hartnett reports to Seaburg, according to a Cowen statement.
Fitzgerald, with 25 years of equity sales experience, joins from CRT Capital, where he was managing director, head of equity research sales, according to the statement.
“Previously, he was a managing director at Imperial Capital. Prior to that, Mr. Fitzgerald spent several years at CIBC World Markets, followed by Oppenheimer, in roles of increasing responsibility, including co-head of Institutional Equity Research Sales & Trading, Head of US Institutional Equity Research Sales and Head of US Middle Market Equity Research Sales,” Cowen officials say.
Bertsch joins from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he was the director of middle markets, Cowen says. “He was previously a managing director at Lighthouse Financial Group and a senior managing director at Bear Stearns, where he served in a similar capacity. Mr. Bertsch also spent eight years as chief executive officer of A.W. Bertsch, a direct access business, and was the co-founder and chief executive officer of Gateway Financial Technologies, a technology service provider for NYSE-based companies.”
Hartnett, who joins with 30 years of sales trading experience, was with RBC Capital Markets, where he was a director and senior sales trader, according to the statement. Before that, he was an executive director and senior sales trader at Credit Suisse First Boston.
Cowen Group, founded in 1918 and based in New York, notes also that it consists of two business segments. “Ramius and its affiliates make up the company’s alternative investment segment, while Cowen and Company and its affiliates make up the company’s broker-dealer segment,” Cowen officials say. “Ramius provides alternative asset management solutions to a global client base and manages a significant portion of Cowen’s proprietary capital. Cowen and Company and its affiliates offer industry focused investment banking for growth-oriented companies, domain knowledge-driven research, a sales and trading platform for institutional investors and a comprehensive suite of prime brokerage services.”
Convergex Appoints Options Team Managing Director
Convergex Group, a New York-based brokerage and trading services provider for institutional investors and financial intermediaries, reports that Jon Simblist has been named managing director of the options unit.
The industry veteran will oversee “buy-side institutional sales initiatives as well as focus on options trading strategies,” Convergex says.
Most recently, Simblist “worked at Instinet where he was head of electronic derivative sales,” according to a statement that also takes notes of his “strong background in options trading and technology as well as [in] creating and implementing trading solutions in listed options for hedge funds, asset managers, banks and broker dealers.”
Convergex reports that its nearly 3,000 clients access over 100 global market centers.
CME Europe Names Head of Commercial Development
CME Group, owner of derivatives and clearing marketplaces, reports the appointment of Joanne Shannon as executive director and head of commercial development for CME Europe, its London-based derivatives exchange that launched in April 2014.
Shannon, who will report to Cees Vermaas, CME Europe’s managing director and CEO, will be “responsible for developing and executing the sales strategy for CME Europe and for helping to expand the infrastructure around CME Europe’s trading, clearing and reporting proposition,” according to a statement.
Shannon is a derivatives industry veteran, with “over 15 years at market operator NYSE Euronext, where she held a variety of sales and relationship management roles in Europe and Asia for its Liffe markets,” CME notes, adding that prior to her appointment she was a consultant for the London Stock Exchange.
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