Barclays appoints US investment banking chief

Barclays Capital has named Joseph Gatto as the new chairman of investment banking for the Americas.

Gatto will be based in New York for this newly created role, and will continue to report to Hugh McGee, head of global investment banking.

Gatto previously worked as co-head of corporate finance in Barclays Capital’s investment banking division. Before joining Lehman Brothers in 2005, Gatto spent 21 years at Goldman Sachs, becoming a partner in 1994 and serving as chairman of consumer products banking. Over the course of the last five years, he has advised clients on more than $100 billion of transactions, primarily in the consumer sector.

Thomas King will replace Gatto as co-head of corporate finance, partnering Ros Stephenson. Both bankers will report to McGee, but King will be based in London, and Stephenson will continue to work from New York.

King joins Barclays from Citi, where he was most recently head of banking for Europe, Middle East and Africa. King joined Salomon Brothers in 1989 and moved to London in 1999 when he was appointed global head of mergers and acquisitions. He was named head of the EMEA investment banking division in 2005, and head of the combined corporate and investment banking business in 2008.

King has led numerous marquee merger and acquisitions and strategic financing transactions. These include BHP Billiton’s $147 billion offer to acquire Rio Tinto, Portugal Telecom’s defence from Sonae’s €12 billion unsolicited offer, and Vivendi’s sale of Universal Entertainment to NBC.