People moves and key promotions in securitisation

This week’s roundup of securitisation job swaps sees ARMOUR Residential REIT announce successors to outgoing cio Mark Gruber. Elsewhere, Palliser Capital has hired a securitisation veteran as chair of its US division, while Simmons & Simmons has appointed a new London-based partner in its financial markets practice.

ARMOUR Residential REIT has promoted Sergey Losyev and Desmond Macauley to co-cios, succeeding Mark Gruber, who has stepped down. Macauley will also serve as ARMOUR’s head of risk management.

Losyev joined ARMOUR in 2016 and has served as deputy cio since January 2020. Prior to ARMOUR, he served as an agency MBS portfolio analyst at Deutsche Asset Management, co-managing more than US$25bn of agency MBS assets from 2009 to 2016.

Macauley has served as the director of investment strategies at ARMOUR since May 2013. He has 25 years of experience in the MBS market and prior to ARMOUR, was an md in the MBS Strategy group of RBS Greenwich Capital and a vp in the MBS research group at Merrill Lynch.

Separately, ARMOUR Capital Management (ARMOUR’s external manager) has promoted Shane Rand to senior portfolio manager and head of trading, and Michael Schweizer to portfolio manager.

Meanwhile, Global multi-strategy investment firm Palliser Capital has appointed former Elliott Management Equity partner Steve Kasoff as chair of its US division. Kasoff oversaw global investments spanning structured credit, real estate, ABS and CDOs at Elliot, and left his position as partner and senior portfolio in 2020 after 17 years with the firm.

Kasoff’s appointment is part of Palliser’s strategy to expand into a “broader set of markets and strategies globally”, the firm said in a statement. He will work alongside chief investment officer James Smith in carrying out an evaluation of the firm’s portfolio.

Prior to Elliot, Kasoff had spells working at Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank.

Simmons & Simmons has hired Jones Day’s corporate trust and structured finance specialist Hannah Ward as partner in its financial markets practice, based in London. Ward has a history of advising corporate trust and agency clients on multi-jurisdictional finance transactions, in addition to related restructurings, defaults, litigation and special situations.

Monroe Capital is opening a Middle East office in Dubai and has hired former Commerzbank md Waleed Noor to lead the firm’s presence in the region. Noor will take on the role of md and head of Middle East distribution. He left his position as md for structured solutions sales in the Middle East and Africa at Commerzbank in 2022 after nine years with the bank. Noor previously worked at Crédit Agricole CIB and Goldman Sachs.

Newmark has promoted Nick DiPaolo to executive vp and regional md for the southwest, overseeing the southern California, Arizona, and Nevada markets. Based in Los Angeles, DiPaolo joined Newmark in 2021, is promoted from executive vp and market leader for the Los Angeles region, and has been responsible for building out the firm’s capital markets, office leasing, industrial, life sciences, and debt and structured finance teams. He previously worked at Cushman & Wakefield, CBRE and the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation.

Axis Capital has promoted Kyle Freeman to head of its insurance-linked securities (ILS) division, working out of its Boston office. Freeman joined the firm from AXA XL in 2021 and is promoted from head of ILS structuring, property. He formerly spent seven years as a nuclear engineer and submarine officer in the US Navy, which was followed by almost 10 years working as an actuary at military-focused financial services organisation USAA. He then worked at AIR Worldwide and JP Morgan, before joining AXA.

And finally, the Mortgage Bankers Association has appointed Madisyn Rhone, currently a member of the board of directors on the Structured Finance Association's Structured Finance Coalition, as vice president of legislative affairs. Rhone leaves her role as director of government & industry relations at Enact Mortgage Insurance after five and a half years with the business.

Notice board
BMO Capital Markets is recruiting for a director, risk and capital solutions, within its Toronto-based capital markets sales and service group. The firm is seeking a candidate to assist in the sourcing, structuring and portfolio management of a variety of risk management and credit portfolio management tools, in line with its risk and capital solutions mandate and capital markets strategy.

Among the skills necessary for the job is fluency with bank capital rules and capital relief techniques. Additional knowledge of insurance capital rules is also beneficial.

Candidates must have 8-10 years of relevant experience at a financial institution in capital markets, with emphasis on investment and corporate banking, trading products, private credit, structured credit, regulatory capital, funding management or credit portfolio management.

The application deadline is 17 April. For more information on the position, click here.

To submit your securitisation-related job posting for publication in SCI’s Job Swaps round-up, e-mail editorial@structuredcreditinvestor.com.

Corinne Smith, Kenny Wastell