People moves and key promotions in securitisation

This week’s roundup of securitisation job swaps sees Interpath Advisory hiring four senior professionals from EY, including a securitisation-focused md. Elsewhere, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) has hired a new md and deputy head of Asia Pacific to oversee structured lending and private wealth, while Natixis has appointed a Paris-based global head of securitised product trading and expanded its real estate and hospitality team for the Americas.

Interpath has expanded its financial services (FS) deal advisory offering with the recruitment of four experienced professionals from EY. Jenna Picken joins the firm as an md and will lead its securitisation debt advisory unit, based in Manchester.

With a broad and varied career in structured finance, she was previously a director within the financial services corporate finance team at EY, primarily operating across mid-market financial services and speciality finance. Before that, Picken worked at Together and RBS in structured finance-related roles.

Also joining Picken in Interpath’s FS deal advisory team are Jack Dutton, Nico Angeliniadis and Olivia Dunning. Dutton joins the firm as a director, having previously spent five years in EY’s financial services corporate finance team, where he specialised in debt advisory. Prior to EY, he worked at RBS in roles spanning structured finance and fund finance.

Angeliniadis arrives as an associate director from the financial services corporate finance team at EY, where his experience included advising a UK asset finance lender on a £275m private securitisation. Prior to that, he worked across financial services audit and valuations, including at KPMG.

Dunning joins the team as a manager, having previously spent over six years at EY, specialising within the debt advisory and turnaround & restructuring practices.

The arrival of the new team follows the hiring of Nick Parkhouse to lead Interpath’s financial services deal advisory offering, beginning in March. He was previously a partner at EY, which he joined in September 2015, having worked at RBS in specialty finance securitisation before that.

Meanwhile, SMBC has appointed Carsten Stoehr as md, deputy head of Asia Pacific. In this new role, he will oversee the firm’s structured lending and private wealth businesses across the region, working closely with its coverage teams to drive further growth and maximise client opportunities.

Based in Singapore, Stoehr will join SMBC on 19 February, reporting to the firm’s co-heads of Asia Pacific. He joins from Credit Suisse, where he spent over 25 years, most recently as md, ceo – Greater China, as well as chair of the board of Credit Suisse (HK) and Credit Suisse Securities (HK). Prior to this role, Stoehr was head of Asia Strategic Products, where he was responsible for the integrated financing platform for all financing and lending, securitisation and syndication activities across the Asia Pacific.

Natixis has promoted Antoine Dulucq to global head of securitised product trading, based in Paris, and made two senior appointments within its real estate and hospitality (REH) Americas team. Christopher LaBianca has joined as md and head of conduit origination, based in New York, and David Kadin has joined as md, senior originator and head of the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Dulucq is promoted from the role of executive director for European ABS and CLO trading, having joined the bank in 2021. He previously worked at NatWest Markets, where he spent 15 years in a number of structured finance roles.

The arrivals of LaBianca and Kadin round out the firm's strategic reinforcement of its real estate platform, which began in June 2022 with the hiring of Priscilla Torres as head of REH Americas. Torres' appointment was followed by the recruitment of Julie Han as head of underwriting and David Schwartz as head of portfolio lending. Additionally, Chuck Lee was hired as the head of CMBS Americas in April 2023.

LaBianca and Kadin, along with Han, Schwartz and Lee report to Torres.

LaBianca has more than 30 years of experience in the real estate debt markets across the commercial and investment banking and private equity space. Most recently, he served as head of origination and business development for the CRE finance division of UBS and led the origination platform for its real estate finance and MBS group.

Kadin has 25 years of broad-based experience in loan originations, acquisitions and the asset/property management of office, industrial, retail, life science, self-storage, hotel and multifamily properties. He joins Natixis from Nuveen Real Estate, where he served as head of debt for the Western US, managing the origination and closing of multi-billion value-add floating rate and core fixed rate loans in major US markets.

Assured Guaranty has appointed Nicholas Proud as global head of origination for its financial guaranty business, a new role that aims to enhance the firm’s strategic approach to generating new business and executing transactions, including in new asset classes and jurisdictions. Reporting to coo Robert Bailenson, Proud is responsible for developing new financial guaranty solutions and will now oversee the US public finance business, in addition to the international infrastructure and global structured finance teams.

Dominic Nathan will assume Proud’s responsibilities as ceo of Assured Guaranty UK (AGUK) and head of international. Nathan was most recently senior md, infrastructure finance and the chief underwriting officer of AGUK, with additional responsibility for the international infrastructure business at AGE.

Reinsurance brokerage firm Augment Risk has launched a dedicated ILS division, enabling its clients to access private, institutional capital backing reinsurance structures. Augment Risk ILS Solutions will be led by Thad Hall, who brings two decades of industry experience across ILS, structured products, finance and asset management at firms including AXA XL and Travelers. Most recently, he was md at Ledger Investing.

Citi has appointed Srikanth Sankaran head of European credit strategy, based in London. He was previously md, head of credit and ABS strategy, Europe at Morgan Stanley, which he joined in 2010. Before that, Sankaran worked at UBS and JPMorgan.

DLA Piper has appointed Joo Kim as a partner in its structured finance practice in New York. She has over 23 years of experience in advising large financial institutions and companies in complex structured finance transactions and securitisations, with a focus on CMBS. Kim was previously special counsel at Cadwalader, which she joined in January 2017, having worked at Mayer Brown before that.

Ian Catterall has joined Howden CAP as executive director, head of project finance advisory within the balance sheet advisory and structuring group. He has 30 years of experience in project finance, most recently as md, head of natural resources at MUFG, which involved deploying the bank’s full product suite, including structured finance.

Alison Coen has joined CMBS advisory firm Brighton Capital Advisors as a principal, based in New York. She was previously a senior md at Greystone, which she joined in May 2021, having worked at Barclays, Natixis, Citi and Fitch before that.

And finally, Johannesburg-headquartered car financing business Planet42 has promoted Richard Kesküla to structured finance lead, based in Tallinn, Estonia. Kesküla is promoted from the role of business analyst and has been with the firm since 2021, when he joined from Swedbank.