Citigroup has named new leaders for its product and regional investment banking teams as the US bank reshuffles top deal makers to fit Chief Executive Jane Fraser’s new structure.
The U.S. bank has reshuffled a number of top bankers, filling out a new regional structure introduced by Fraser in her September review of Citigroup’s business, according to people familiar with the matter.
Barry Weir and Robin Russo, who were appointed co-heads of M&A for Europe, Middle East and Africa last year following the departure of Alison Harding-Jones, have been given new roles. Weir takes responsibility for the UK, Middle East and Africa, while Russo, who is based in Paris, will oversee Europe.
Meanwhile, the infrastructure finance unit has been moved to Citi’s investment banking division and will be led by David Dubin in Europe.
Paul Gibbs, who is co-head of loans and leveraged finance at Emea, will take over debt finance in Europe following the departure of Simon Francis earlier in January. Will Weaver, who was Emea’s head of debt capital markets, has become vice chairman in the unit.
Citi has moved a number of senior bankers from top management positions to vice president positions, which will allow them to focus on clients. Linos Lekas and Patrick Frowein, who were promoted to co-heads of Citigroup’s banking, capital markets and advisory division in Europe, excluding France, Italy and Ireland, in September – shortly before the reorganization was announced – also moved into such roles.
Citigroup has been contacted for comment. The changes were introduced to traders on 23 January.
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Other changes observed by Financial news means many long-serving bankers are taking on new, similar roles to fit into the reshaped regional structure. Other senior traders have maintained their positions.
In addition to changing some units, Citi is reorganizing its traditional regions, which include Emea, into seven so-called “clusters”: Europe, the UK, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, South Asia, North Asia and Australia and Japan.
Fraser also promised to eliminate co-chair roles in an effort to simplify the organization. This affects large parts of the deals unit, which has installed at least two leaders from different sector, geographic and product divisions in recent years.
The reorganization comes amid a wider cost-cutting exercise, with the bank outlining plans to cut staff by 20,000 over the next two years. About 5,000 job losses are a direct result of the overhaul, Fraser said on Citi’s fourth-quarter earnings call, with 1,500 affecting managers as it eliminates five levels of management.
Fraser also said the bank would try to minimize redundancies in revenue-generating roles.
Citi appointed Tyler Dixon as sole head of its investment bank in September, with former co-head Manolo Falco moving to a new unit that focuses on the bank’s biggest clients.
Meanwhile, former Credit Suisse trader Jens Welter was appointed head of Emea and UK investment banking in November as his former co-head Nacho Gutierrez-Orantia became banking and cluster head for Europe.
Here are the senior professional roles at Citi Financial news learn from acquaintances:
Barry Weir, Head of M&A UK and Middle East
Robin Russo, Head of M&A Europe
Paul Gibbs, Head of Debt Financing, Europe
David Dubin, Head of Infrastructure Finance, Europe
Will Weaver, Deputy Chairman, DCM
Linos Lekas, Vice President, Europe and MEA
Patrick Frowine, Vice President, Europe
Doug McKenzie, Vice President, Natural Resources UK, Europe and Middle East
Paul Ibrahimzadeh and Russell Chong, Co-Heads of North American Capital Markets
Valery Barrier and Suneel Hargunani, Heads of ECM Origination and Solutions for UK, Europe and MEA
Peter Brown, Head of Brokerage
Ken Chow and Uday Furtado, Heads of Asia North, Australia, Asia South ECM Products and Implementation
John Colmer, Head of Private Placements, ECM
Ken Robbins, Vice President, UK, Europe ECM
Robert Way, Head of UK Investment Banking
Marcelo Millen, Head of Latin America ECM
Taji Nagasaka, Head of Japan Investment Banking and ECM
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