People: Citi unveils quant strategies group

A round-up of the latest industry moves

After some careful and considered hiring in the past nine months, Citi has created Citi Investment Strategies (CIS), a dedicated quantitative investment strategies group. The equities & hybrids segment of this group is led by Emanuele Di Stefano, former head of investment strategies and hybrids structuring at Deutsche Bank in London, who joined Citi in 2010.

Di Stefano's 12-strong team is drawn from within the bank, as well as Goldman Sachs, Deutsche, Société Générale, Pioneer Investments, Banca Leonardo and Alpha Financial Technologies.

Aaron Stambulich, head of structured products for Australia at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in Sydney, has left the bank. Stambulich was previously the bank's Hong Kong-based head of public distribution for Asia, and was head of equity structured products at ABN Amro before joining RBS when the two banks merged in 2009.

Garry Frenklah, head of Southeast Asia sales at RBS, has also left the bank.

Scott Stewart, executive director and head of equity derivatives trading at UBS in Australia, has left the bank after 12 years as part of an internal restructure. Steve Boxall, managing director and head of equity derivatives in Australia and New Zealand, and the local head of trading at UBS, will have direct responsibility for his former role.

Mark Small, head of equity structured solutions at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Sydney, has left the bank, as has Andrew Page, an associate in derivatives sales and structuring in Sydney.

Former iShares executives Lee Kranefuss and Rory Tobin have created ETF Opportunity Partners in London. Kranefuss was founder and former global chief executive of iShares before leaving in April 2010. Tobin was chief executive of iShares International in London before his departure in July the same year.

Robert Picard, head of managed accounts at Lyxor Asset Management in New York, has left the Société Générale subsidiary. Picard reported to Lionel Erdely, chief executive of Lyxor US.

Several senior executives at Daiwa Capital Markets, the investment banking arm of Daiwa Securities, have left the bank in a global reorganisation that has led to the loss of 20 employees overall. "These measures are part of a streamlining of our business. We remain committed to the derivatives market in Asia," says Dominique Blanchard, global head of derivatives in Hong Kong.

Martial Rouyère, global head of equity derivatives, Edouard Hoepffner, head of structuring for Asia ex-Japan, and Adam Cowperthwaite, head of equity derivatives sales for Asia ex-Japan, left Daiwa in August.

The bank has brought its equity, rates, forex and fixed-income derivatives teams under one umbrella headed by Tony Wong, previously head of fixed-income derivatives sales, and now head of derivatives sales for structuring in Asia ex-Japan across all asset classes, reporting to Blanchard.

Daiwa is looking at hiring in other areas, including corporate derivatives, says Blanchard.

MSCI has hired Peter Zangari to head its equity portfolio management analytics business in New York. Zangari moves from Goldman Sachs Asset Management, where he was managing director and head of risk for quantitative investment strategies. He reports to MSCI chief executive Henry Fernandez.

Jonathan Howie has joined BlackRock's iShares exchange-traded funds arm in Sydney as director of product and capital markets. Howie will report to Adam Seccombe, director at iShares Asia-Pacific. He joins from Macquarie, where he held various roles in equity structured products and the delta one trading desk.

Alice Yurke left law firm Ashurst in New York in September to join Jones Day.

Citi has hired Jacob Killion from Credit Suisse to head Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) equity derivatives distribution into the US. The bank has also hired Toby Peters from Royal Bank of Scotland for complex flow sales to US and UK accounts, and Ben Sturgeon from Bank of America Merrill Lynch to sell US equity derivatives into Europe.

All join as directors and will be based in London, reporting to Daniel Petherick and Manvir Nijhar, co-heads of EMEA equity derivatives flow sales.

Kiran Russell, formerly vice-president of foreign exchange sales at Barclays Capital, has joined the corporate and institutional treasury sales, capital markets division at Investec in London. Russell will report to James Arnold, head of corporate and institutional treasury sales at Investec

Barry Cowen has joined Principal Investment Management to lead the investment and development of retail investment products. Cowen will report to chief information officer Stephen Jones. He joins from Titan Fund Management.