People: Former SG execs launch multi-commodity discretionary hedge fund

Christophe Cordonnier and Frédéric Lasserre, former managing directors in commodities markets at Société Générale (SG), have joined the bank's former head of metals trading, François Beuzelin, to launch Belaco Capital, a multi-commodity discretionary hedge fund that will be managed from Paris.

Lasserre, who headed SG's commodity research and strategy team, and Cordonnier, who set up and ran the bank's sales and structuring commodity investor business, left SG in May.

Belaco Capital, which aims to raise at least €100 million, will be launched towards the end of 2012, initially targeting private banks and high-net-worth investors. The fund will invest in all types of commodities using a range of strategies, taking account of market fundamentals such as supply and demand and technical signals such as volatility and correlation, as well as risk-on/risk-off signals, says Lasserre.

"The beauty of these strategies is they tend to be less correlated with each other. By mixing them you can deliver robust performance, regardless of market conditions."

Copplestone takes charge of retail products at Morgan Stanley

Frank Copplestone has been promoted to global head of retail structured products at Morgan Stanley. Copplestone replaces Pierre Mendelsohn, who has been named Asia head of derivatives distribution. Copplestone's previous role as head retail structured products for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas has been absorbed into his new role.

Dash exits S&P Indices ahead of Dow Jones merger

Srikant Dash, head of channel management at S&P Indices in New York, has left the company after 12 years "to pursue a new challenge". He is replaced by Jim Bailey, who was most recently senior director of global sales strategy and alternatives at the index provider.

Dash joined S&P Indices in 2000 as manager of global index analysis and has since held several roles at the company. Prior to taking charge of channel management, he was global head of research and design and before that director and index strategist.

The channel management role involves running a team of channel managers responsible for clients working in defined contribution, exchange-traded products, financial advice, insurance, structured products and trading.

Dash's exit comes ahead of a planned merger in July between S&P Indices and Dow Jones Indexes that will see Alex Matturri become chief executive of the combined entity, according to an official at S&P. The US Department of Justice has yet to judge whether the merger will create a monopoly - not least in commodities indexing, as it would result in the two benchmark commodity indexes - the DJ-UBS and the S&P GSCI - being produced by the same company.

Sozzi Sabatini leaves Royal Bank of Scotland

Andrea Sozzi Sabatini, head of equity derivatives and structured products retail sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Royal Bank of Scotland Global Banking and Markets (RBS GBM), has left the bank after his position, along with those of another 2,500 employees, was put at risk of redundancy in January, according to sources at the bank. Sabatini reported to Beat von Gunten, global head of sales for equities and structured retail at RBS GBM in London.

With the disappearance of the regional position, the respective country sales heads will report to von Gunten, according to another, London-based source.

Sabatini was an executive director at ABN Amro when it was bought by RBS after joining ABN in 2005 from Deutsche Bank, where he was head of the Italian derivatives team. Prior to that, he was a vice-president at Merrill Lynch in London.

Sabatini was the main proponent of RBS's developing exchange-traded funds (ETF) platform, which had been built from a business first put in place at ABN. While at Merrill, Sabatini was part of the team that created the first ETFs in Europe.

A spokesperson for RBS refused to comment.

Barclays Wealth poaches senior risk team from UBS

Former UBS executives Mark Cooke and Colin Bell have joined Barclays Wealth as managing director and global chief risk officer and head of risk projects, respectively.

Cooke spent the past 12 years at UBS in a number of roles, most recently as chief operational risk officer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, while Bell was senior operational risk controller for the investment banking division.

Cooke will report to Thomas Kalaris and join the Barclays Wealth senior infrastructure team, according the bank.

The appointments are the latest in an aggressive hiring spree at Barclays Wealth. In the past few weeks, the bank has recruited around 20 people in credit risk, risk management and business continuity management roles, including Craig Lewis, who joined from Credit Suisse to head a new investment advisory unit, and former UBS relationship manager David Zelouf.

SuperDerivatives names new global head of commodities

Raphael Juston has been named global head of commodities at SuperDerivatives to lead the growth of the company's commodities and energy derivatives solutions. Juston joins from Morgan Stanley, where he was global head of structured investments in the commodity division and ran cross-commodities exotic risk trading and structuring.

In his new role, he will head the growth and development of SuperDerivatives' commodities and energy pricing, management and revaluation systems. Juston is based in London and reports to chief technology officer Yuval Levy.

ICICI Securities goes for Govind

L Govind has been appointed head of structured products and corporate debt restructuring at ICICI Securities in Mumbai. Govind previously worked at Reliance Capital, where he monitored investments in corporates for debt and equity. Govind reports to Ajay Saraf, executive director and head of investment banking at ICICI.

Maier joins Macquarie to head Asia distribution

Axel Maier has joined Macquarie Investment Management (MIM), part of the Macquarie Funds Group, in Hong Kong as a managing director and head of Asian distribution. Maier will report to Ben Bruck, global head of MIM. Maier was formerly at Wellington Management, where he was responsible for institutional distribution for South-east Asia, Korea and the Middle East. Prior to that, he was managing director of Baring Asset Management's German subsidiary, and spent stints at Paribas Investment Management and Dresdner Asset Management covering South-east Asia.

Citi Markets hires Hendricks for Netherlands advisory role

Ruud Hendriks has been appointed as a senior advisor for Citi Markets in the Netherlands, working with the US bank's equity and private investor solutions group, which provides risk management and investment solutions to a broad range of investors. Previously, Hendricks co-headed the sales team for Europe (excluding Germany and Austria), the Middle East and Africa for Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM), departing in 2009. Prior to that, he was global head of institutional sales at Dutch asset manager Robeco.

StanChart adds to equities team

Standard Chartered has named Kenneth Olson managing director and global head of equity-linked solutions and Julian Lee managing director for equity corporate finance. Olson will head the origination and structuring of convertible bonds and corporate equity derivatives while Lee will focus on originating and executing equity and equity-linked corporate finance solutions for clients in China.

Based in Hong Kong, Olson reports to David Douglas, global head of equity capital markets, while Lee reports to James Pak, head of equity corporate finance for North-east Asia.

Prior to joining Standard Chartered, Olson spent six years at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) heading the bank's equity-linked capital markets operations for Japan and corporate finance risk structuring for Asia-Pacific. Lee spent 12 years at BAML, most recently as managing director of corporate finance for China.

Credit Suisse names private banking strategy and research head

Credit Suisse has hired Chew Soon Gek in Singapore as head of strategy and economic research for private banking in the Asia-Pacific region. Chew joins from Clariden Leu, where she had been head of portfolio management and investment strategy for Asia since 2009. In her new role, Chew is responsible for Credit Suisse's cross-asset portfolio strategy and macroeconomic research in the region. She reports to Fan Cheuk Wan, head of research for private banking.

Meanwhile, Kum Soek Ching has rejoined Credit Suisse as head of South-east Asia equity research. She was previously head of South-east Asia equity research at Credit Suisse Private Banking Asia-Pacific.

Morrison and Foerster hires ex-Finra VP

Morrison and Foerster has appointed Daniel Nathan as a partner at its Washington, DC office. Nathan joins from the Financial Industry Regulation Authority (Finra), where he spent five years as vice-president and director of regional enforcement. Prior to that, Nathan was with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, as chief of the office of co-operative enforcement, and before that spent 12 years with the Securities and Exchange Commission as special adviser and assistant director.

StanChart's Gupta takes a break

Aniruddh Gupta, global head of capital markets solutions at Standard Chartered in Hong Kong, has taken a year's sabbatical from the firm, beginning in mid-April, according to a spokesperson.

Gupta joined the bank in 2009 from Goldman Sachs, where he was head of structured solutions for Asia ex-Japan. Prior to working at Goldman, he was head of macro structuring for Asia at UBS. At Standard Chartered, Gupta reports to Christian Wait, global head of financial market sales in Singapore.

Blouin replaces Aubenas as CIO at SGPB

Société Générale Private Banking (SGPB) has hired Antoine Blouin as chief investment officer, replacing Olivier Aubenas, who becomes commercial director and member of the executive committee in Switzerland. Blouin joined SGPB in 2008 from HSBC Private Bank in Paris, where he was a product specialist and marketing manager for discretionary management.

David Stevenson joins Parala Capital advisory board

David Stevenson, an investment columnist for the Financial Times, has joined UK-based macro strategy boutique Parala Capital as member of the advisory board. Stevenson started his career as a political economist for the Economist Intelligence Unit and has also worked at the BBC as a senior investigative producer.