Steve Davenport, managing director and head of over-the-counter trading at Merrill Lynch & Co. in New York, transferred to Sydney to run the firm's Australian equity sales and trading operations. Davenport, who will also oversee equity trading in New Zealand, will continue to report to Bob McCann, managing director and head of global equities, as well as Greg Bundy and John Magowan, chief executives of Merrill Lynch Australia. Tom Wright will replace Davenport in New York. Wright will also continue in his previous duties as head of institutional OTC trading at Merrill.
Capital Institutional Services, a Dallas-based institutional brokerage firm, named R. Douglas Jones director of research and product marketing. Jones, previously a compliance analyst director at Fidelity Investments in Dallas, will oversee the firm's research marketing and public-relations functions.
Joseph S. Rizzello, executive vice president of business development, marketing and new product development at the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, resigned from his position to join The Vanguard Group as a principal. Rizzello will manage the firm's brokerage arm, Vanguard Brokerage Services, in Malvern, Pa.
Frank Angelilli left New York soft-dollar firm Standard & Poor's Securities to join Vandham Securities as a vice president of institutional sales. Angelilli, a vice president of sales at Standard & Poor's, will be based in New York.
William Hotchkiss, a project manager for peer review and liaison with the Securities and Exchange Commission, retired from the National Association of Securities Dealers. Hotchkiss, a 34-year NASD veteran and former director of compliance, is 58.
Chicago's ABN AMRO Incorporated named James Keeney director and senior analyst of the equity-research department. Keeney, previously a senior director in the research department at Rodman & Renshaw in Chicago, will cover domestic pharmaceutical and drug-delivery stocks.
Warren G. Shore, former president of clearing firm First Options of Chicago, joined Durango, Colo.-based Optimark Technologies as a senior vice president of market-maker relations. He will be responsible for communications between OptiMark and its market-maker customers.
SBC Warburg Dillon Read named Bill Schneider director of its U.S. equity block-trading desk. Schneider, previously head of the equity block-trading desk at Salomon Smith Barney in New York, will be based in the firm's new Stamford office complex. He will report to Daniel Coleman, managing director of all U.S. equity trading.
EVEREN Securities added six traders in their main offices in Chicago.
Equity traders Richard Friedman and Ryan Spencer joined EVEREN from Rodman & Renshaw in Chicago.
Steve Roy and Jeff Snower joined the Chicago-based firm from the Second City equity desk of Nesbitt Burns. Both will trade on the equity desk.
Maria Gonzalez was named a trader on the equity desk at EVEREN. She was previously an assistant on the agency desk at the firm.
And Kristina Thorlakson joined EVEREN as an agency trader. She was previously an agency trader at Olde Discount Corp. in Detroit.
Matt Higgins, an equity trader at Hill, Thompson, Magid & Co., left the Jersey City firm to join New York-based Fidelity Capital Markets on their equity desk. He will report to Tom Stones, head equity trader at Fidelity.
Preferred Capital Markets in San Francisco hired Edward Albert as co-director of equity trading. Albert was formerly a senior equity trader at Hambrecht & Quist in San Francisco.
Preferred also added Steve Boeckmann to the equity desk as a trader. Boeckmann was previously an equity trader at BancAmerica Robertson Stephens in San Francisco.
Jim Gallagher was named chief operating officer of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PSE), replacing current COO Tony Ward. Gallagher was hired as a consultant at the PSE by outgoing chairman and chief exeutive Lee Korins in December.
Gallagher is a former president of the Pacific Exchange and executive vice president of the Toronto Stock Exchange.
New York's Nash, Weiss, a market-making division of Fleet Securities, appointed Neil Feldman its president and chief executive. Feldman will manage the trading floor for Nash, Weiss. A 33-year Wall Street veteran, Feldman joined the firm from Prime Charter in New York, where he headed Nasdaq trading as a partner and managing director.
Nash, Weiss also named James J. Welsh an executive vice president. He will assist Feldman in the management of the trading floor.
Welsh was previously head Nasdaq trader at New York's Highlander Asset Management.
Both Feldman and Welsh will report to Pascal J. Mercurio, chairman of Nash, Weiss.
Looking to expand its brokerage operations in the U.S., Waterhouse Investor Services, a unit of Canada's Toronto-Dominion Bank, agreed to acquire La Jolla, Calif.-based Jack White & Co. for $100 million.
EVEREN Securities opened its ninth branch office in the Chicago metropolitan area. The new Orland Park office currently has six employees. EVEREN is a Chicago-based firm.
