People: Masters moves into FNZ, Two Sigma founders step back, and more

Blythe Masters has been appointed group chief executive officer of wealth management platform FNZ. A founding partner of fintech private equity group Motive Partners – a strategic investor in FNZ – Masters is also the former chief executive officer (CEO) of Digital Asset, and was a pioneer of the credit risk transfer market during her 27-year tenure at JP Morgan.

FNZ founder and group CEO Adrian Durham leaves the CEO role and becomes non-executive founding director and senior adviser. He continues to sit on the group board, and remains a significant shareholder in the company.

Roman Regelman has been appointed group president, reporting to Masters. Regelman is the former CEO of securities services and digital at BNY, before which he was chief digital officer at BNY Mellon.

Stephen Daffron becomes a strategic adviser to the group. He has a 30-year history of technology and operational leadership roles at firms including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

John Overdeck and David Siegel, co-founders of quant hedge fund Two Sigma, are stepping down as joint CEOs to become co-chairmen, and will continue to advise on quantitative investment and technology. The two, who have famously feuded, met while working at DE Shaw, which they left to create Two Sigma in 2001. Carter Lyons, Two Sigma’s chief business officer, who has been at the firm for 13 years, and Scott Hoffman, former chief administrative officer and general counsel of Lazard, replace them as co-CEOs.

Goldman Sachs has seen some high-profile exits this summer. Thalia Chryssikou left the firm at the end of July after almost 26 years. Chryssikou was co-head of global sales strategies across fixed income, currencies and commodities (Ficc) and equities. She is replaced by Fernando Rivera and Ryad Yousuf as global co-heads of Ficc sales strategies and structuring. Rivera is currently head of Ficc Americas structuring and Yousuf is co-head of e-Ficc emerging market sales.

Stefan Bollinger has also left Goldman to become CEO of Julius Baer. Bollinger was co-head of private wealth management for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Emea), and headed global sales strategies with Chryssikou. He had been with the firm for 20 years, and will assume his new role no later than February 2025. Philipp Rickenbacher stepped down as CEO of the Swiss wealth manager in February.

Adrian Munday is among a string of exits from Deutsche Bank this summer. He has been appointed global head of operational, technology and cyber risk at Standard Chartered. At Deutsche, he was head of non-financial risk management, and will be replaced internally by Edison Yu, a lead US autos analyst for the bank. In his new role at StanChart, Munday will report to Sadia Ricke, the group chief risk officer (CRO).

Emmanuel Rosner is leaving Deutsche to join Wolfe Research as managing director and senior research analyst for autos, parts and auto tech. He led autos and auto technology coverage at the German lender for almost six years. Rosner will be replaced by David Hoang, who joins as senior biotech analyst this autumn from Citi, where he was a senior analyst. Rosner replaces Rod Lache, who is retiring from Wolfe. 

Amit Mehrotra left the German bank in June to join UBS as a managing director and equity analyst, covering the multi-industry and electrical equipment sector. He was a transport analyst for almost 12 years at Deutsche. Mehrotra will be replaced by Kavita Jacobs, who will head financing distribution for the Americas and institutional client group. Jacobs is joining from Investec, where she headed power and infrastructure in its capital markets team.

Carmine De Franco joins the BNP Paribas quant equity team after a 12-year stint at Ossiam, where he was head of research. He replaces Laurent Lagarde, and reports to Olivier Laplénie, head of quant portfolio management.

Ossiam has appointed Ksenya Rulik as its new head of research and ESG. She rejoins the firm from Kepler Cheuvreux, where she was head of quantitative research, having been a portfolio manager and head of research at Ossiam from 2010 to 2016.

Britta Achmann has been appointed CRO for NatWest’s European markets business. She joins from Bank of America in Paris, where she co-led the European market risk division. Achmann will relocate to Amsterdam in December, when she takes up the new role.

Rob Koch has joined HSBC as global head of controls and cyber security from Citi, where he spent a year as managing director for Asia enterprise, heading operations and technology business risk and controls. He was previously at Standard Chartered for four years as head of technology and risk controls. Koch relocates from Singapore to London.

Max Verheijen, a veteran of the Dutch pension fund advisory sector, has moved to market data and analytics start-up BasisPoint, as previously reported by Risk.net. He had been with Cardano for 24 years, initially joining as head of trading in 2004, before becoming a managing director in 2010 and then director for financial markets in 2020.

Penny Tan joins alternative credit manager Chorus Capital this month as director and senior originator in its investment team. She arrives from ArrowMark Partners, where she was a senior member of the team investing in risk-sharing transactions. Tan was previously at Deutsche Bank and HSBC on securitisation teams working on origination, structuring and placement of structured credit transactions and risk-sharing deals.

Lazard Asset Management has appointed Robert Forsyth as global head of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Based in New York, he is set to drive the development and expansion of Lazard’s active ETF platform. Forsyth joins from State Street Global Advisors, where he was global head of ETF strategy. He will report to Jennifer Ryan, head of North American distribution.

Hedge fund Schonfeld has brought on a brace of bankers. Samuel Adams has joined the fund as lead architect after almost 14 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was a synthetic product strategist. Matt Rupsis has joined as associate portfolio manager from Nomura, where he was a macro trader.

In August, Matthew Sebag-Montefiore was appointed CEO of Rokos Capital. He previously held the role of chief strategy officer, and replaces Mark Edwards, who is now a senior adviser at the firm. Rokos has also hired Ossie Manners from Citi as head of systematic technology. Manners was head of commodities e-trading at Citi, where he spent four years. In June, Rokos also lost partner and co-CRO Dmitry Green, who is now on gardening leave.

Rahul Gumber was appointed CRO of AXA UK & Ireland, replacing David Baker, who held the role for five years. Baker is stepping away to focus on a non-executive portfolio. Gumber joins from Aviva Canada, where he was CRO.

Several moves have taken place at London Stock Exchange Group, which David Byrne joins as group leader for data platforms. He arrives from JP Morgan, where he was head of platform engineering for its fundraising platform, Capital Connect. Dean Bryen also joins LSEG as head of cloud engineering from UBS, where he was chief technology officer.

Meanwhile, Misha Shefter is leaving LSEG, where he was head of analytics research, to join Barclays as head of securitised and credit products and quantitative analytics.

Giles Corner joins US asset manager Baird’s global investment banking business as managing director in its global financial sponsors group this month. He moves from Macquarie Capital, where he was managing director and oversaw the European mid-market private equity coverage, origination, and mergers and acquisitions.

In October, Anat Gourji becomes chief financial officer and head of corporate group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, replacing Helen Mucciolo, who is retiring. Gourji is currently chief operating officer for the technology group, a position she has held since 2013. She will report to first vice-president Sushmita Shukla in her new role.

In a European Commission reshuffle, Tilman Lueder becomes head of insurance and pensions, effective September 16. In his current role as head of the lawmaker’s securities markets unit, Lueder helped shepherd sweeping changes to the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation, which were rubber-stamped in June 2023.

Tatyana Panova, currently head of unit for the EC’s project to further integrate the European Union’s capital markets, will replace Lueder, according to a source. Both Panova and the EC declined to comment on the change.

Frank Smets has been appointed head of economic analysis and statistics and as co-deputy head of the monetary and economic department at the Bank for International Settlements, alongside Gaston Gelos. He joins from the European Central Bank, where he was adviser to the executive board and previously director general of economics. Smets commences his five-year term in December. Economic adviser and head of research Hyun Song Shin assumes the role of economic adviser and head of the monetary and economic department.

Meg Hillier has been elected chair of the UK’s Treasury Committee. She will take up her position when the remaining members of the committee have been appointed.

Tucker Balch has left his role in the artificial intelligence (AI) research group at JP Morgan to teach finance at Emory University. The AI research group, which was formed when Balch joined in 2019, remains under the leadership of Manuela Veloso. Balch relocates from New York to Georgia.

Mark Waters has left the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to become CEO of LoanBook – a platform covering primary, secondary and agency functionality, with a focus on trade loan and direct loan solutions. At ICBC, he was head of loans, having joined in December 2019 as head of global loan syndications and debt markets.

At US brokerage and clearing firm RJ O’Brien, Amber Wright has been promoted to head of Emea sales, alongside her roles as global head of fixed income.

ActiveViam, a global data analytics firm, has elected Shelley Magee to succeed Kathy Perrotte as chief executive officer. Magee joins from Regnology, a reporting solutions firm, where she was chief operating officer. Perrotte will remain on the board, and act as special adviser to the company. Magee and Perrotte will work together during the transition period until the end of 2024.

AccessFintech, provider of real-time financial data, has promoted Christopher Daur to head of global sales from his previous role as head of buy side. He joined the firm in July 2023 after 18 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was managing director focusing on post-trade.

Risk management and specialist analytics consultancy firm 4most has hired Richard Whiting as dedicated client partner to lead the European team in Amsterdam. He joins from PwC Netherlands, where he worked closely with risk functions across Dutch financial institutions.