>> Rory O’Kane joins Knight Equity Markets in Chicago as a director of broker-dealer sales for options. O’Kane, a 27-year veteran, was previously a managing director and president of TD Professional Execution, where he spent eight years. He reports to Stephen Kay, who oversees broker-dealer sales. O’Kane has been active on numerous industry committees over the last decade and currently co-chairs the Security Traders Association’s Options Committee.
>> Jason Valdez joins Penserra Securities as a managing director and will lead the firm’s effort to expand program trading. Valdez, a 16-year veteran, came from Rosenblatt Securities, where he spent four years in New York as director of trading. Earlier, he worked on the transition management desk at Russell Investment Services. Initially he will be based in New York, but will then move to the company’s California trading desk. Valdez reports to George Madrigal, Penserra’s CEO and president.
>> Puma Capital has beefed up its trading staff in New York. Bernadette T. Princiotta joins as a sales trader. Princiotta, a 25-year veteran and longtime buysider at Fiduciary Trust, joins from UBS Securities after a decade there. Stephen Cudjoe comes to Puma as a trader after eight years as a market maker at UBS’ wholesale desk. In September, Puma tapped Carmine Gizze as director of international trading. Gizze, a 30-year veteran formerly of HSBC, was hired to build an international equities sales and trading desk. All report to Steven Kosson, who heads trading.
>> Brian Crowley joined high-frequency trading platform developer FTEN to lead its global expansion as a managing director. Crowley is building a service and support team in the firm’s New York headquarters, which he’ll expand to include offices on Europe and Asia. Crowley arrived from JPMorgan, where he was an executive director in electronic trading product development for broker-dealer services.
>> Gary Hill joins Jefferies & Co. as a managing director and senior international equity trader. He is responsible for Latin American cash equity trading. Hill, a veteran of more than 17 years, spent his last seven years at Deutsche Bank, where he was the North American head of emerging markets cash equity trading. Before Deutsche Bank, Hill was a director and senior trader for Europe and emerging markets at ING Barings, where he spent six years.
>> Madison Williams and Co., which recently bought the principal capital markets business of Sanders Morris Harris Group, hired Michael Gantcher as head of equity sales and trading and Chris Weekes as head of equity trading. Gantcher was most recently director of marketing and investor relations at an energy hedge fund. Before that, he was head of institutional equity sales at Oppenheimer & Co. Weekes was most recently on the trading desk at Oppenheimer & Co.
>> Deutsche Bank Securities added two sales traders in Chicago. Chris O’Hea and Robert Garofolo have joined as directors. O’Hea was previously with Credit Suisse for nine years, covering the Midwest. Garofolo came from Cantor Fitzgerald, where he was a director and Midwest equity sales trader. Prior to joining Cantor in 2006, Garofolo worked at Lehman Brothers for seven years. They report to Greg Kiesel, a managing director who heads equity sales in Chicago.
>> Andrew Fletcher opened Resolute Capital Markets, an execution broker in Chatham, N.J. During his 19 years on Wall Street, Fletcher has worked as a Nasdaq trader (Oppenheimer & Co. and Fleet Trading), a sales trader (Fimat USA) and a prop trader. He is a proponent of technical analysis.
>> Sean McDonald will join Susquehanna Financial Group on April 5 as head of cash sales trading in New York. McDonald, an 18-year veteran, was previously a senior sales trader with Sanford Bernstein for three years. Prior to Bernstein, McDonald spent two years as the head of sales trading at HSBC, after 12 years at Merrill Lynch, where he held various sales and trading positions in both New York and San Francisco. He began his career with Soundview Financial as a Nasdaq trader. He reports to Charles Sweeney, who heads SFG’s cash equity trading and sales trading.
>> MF Global Holdings has realigned and expanded its U.S. equities business. Kumaran Vijayakumar joins to lead its new U.S. equity derivatives business, focused on making markets and generating ideas for investors. Vijayakumar was previously with Bank of America Securities, where he was a managing director and head of volatility trading. Bryan Street joins to oversee the portfolio trading business. Previously, Street served in a similar role at Pali Capital. Matthew Shatz joins to lead electronic trading services sales and trading. He previously was head of institutional sales for the North American equities division at Newedge Group.
