People moves and key promotions in securitisation

This week’s roundup of securitisation job swaps sees a Credit Suisse veteran take on a senior ESG- and structured-credit role at UBS Group following the latter’s acquisition of the former. Elsewhere, Colliers has lured two ex-George Smith Partners (GSP) executives as vice presidents, while a senior Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) exec has joined Guy Carpenter.

Credit Suisse veteran Ramzi Issa, widely credited as the pioneer of the ESG debt-swap market, is to take up a new role at UBS Group, according to multiple reports. The development comes five months after UBS completed the acquisition of its crisis-hit Swiss competitor. 

Issa joined Credit Suisse in 2007 and has most recently served as global head of credit investor products structuring at the bank. He will reportedly oversee global structured credit and sustainable credit products in his new role at UBS.

Meanwhile, Toronto-headquartered commercial real estate group Colliers has hired two former GSP executives as vps in its structured finance division, both working out of its Los Angeles office. The moves come shortly after the firm snapped up industry veterans Jonathan Lee and Shahin Yazdi from GSP as LA-based executive mds. 

Institutional Property Advisors’ (IPA) Tommy Adelson has joined the firm 10 months after joining IPA from GSP as a director. He spent two years at GSP following spells at Elkwood and CBRE. 

Jessica Mania has joined directly from GSP where she spent two and a half years, most recently as director of research and marketing. She previously worked at Business Finance Capital and Avison Young.

Michael Shemi has left the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to join Guy Carpenter, the leading reinsurer. He becomes North America structured credit leader, a newly created role, and reports to Jeffrey Krohn, global mortgage and structured credit leader. 

Shemi will be responsible for developing credit risk transfer solutions in addition to analytics to support the growth of the reinsurance market to asset classes beyond the traditional buckets of property and casualty risks. He had been principal advisor with the FHFA since 2020 and before that worked at Moelis and Co and Cristofferson, Robb and Co.

Miami-based private lender Rok Lending has hired Avi Zukerman as managing director for debt and structured finance. Zukerman will divide his time between New York and Miami, and leaves his role as director for real estate acquisitions asset management at QRST Properties after two years with the firm. He previously spent three years as md of structured finance at Lev and had spells at ASG Equities, The Zar Group and Credit Suisse.

Property finance group Octane Capital has promoted Jamie Oxley to senior structured finance manager, amidst a raft of promotions. Oxley joined Octane from Wellesley Group in 2017 and is promoted from the role of senior credit manager. The business has also promoted Richard Hollingsworth, Chris Harrison and Nicky Pack to the roles of head of short-term credit, senior credit and portfolio manager and senior credit manager respectively.

Tradeteq has appointed a new cfo, Doris Yeung, to its team as it pursues European and North American expansion. Yeung will work closely with the private debt and trade finance marketplace’s ceo, Christoph Gugelmann, in its London office to scale its securitisation service. She has previously served in senior financial strategy roles at MessageBird, Okta and KPMG.

Pivot Energy has expanded its structured finance team by hiring Jennifer Lyman to serve as senior director in Denver, Colorado. Lyman joins the firm from Amber Kinetics where she was a vp on the strategic development team, and in her new role will work on construction/term debt and tax equity transactions for renewable energy projects.

Moody’s Analytics has promoted Joel Penn to associate director in its structured finance team, based in Frankfurt. Penn is promoted from the role of assistant director two and a half years after joining the agency from European DataWarehouse, where he spent four and a half years. He previously worked at Inatec Payment, Logic Investments and Alexander David Securities.

S&P has hired DBRS Morningstar’s Cameron Moore as a senior analyst in its structured finance team, working out of Chicago. Moore leaves his position as a CMBS-focused senior analyst at DBRS Morningstar after four years with the agency. 

And finally, Sidley Austin has hired Allen & Overy’s Greg Lavigne as a partner in its energy, transportation and infrastructure group, based in its New York office. Lavigne specialises in renewables, alternative energy and energy transition, and works on transactions spanning structured credit, tax equity, private equity, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions and project finance. He leaves his role as partner at Allen & Overy after two and half years with the firm and was also previously a partner at Akin Gump.