Citadel loses three senior executives at securites unit in latest series of depatures
Citadel, the Chicago-based hedge fund manager and investment bank, has lost three senior executives at its securities unit.
These are the latest departures to hit the firm – nine top level employees have so far left the company in the last 15 months.
The executives were named as Chris Boas, head of credit markets for Citadel Securities, Brad Kurtzman, head of equity derivatives sales and trading and Carl Mayer, head of leveraged finance. Boas moved to the investment banking arm of Citadel from its hedge fund division. Mayer and Kurtzman were both previously at Merrill Lynch before joining Citadel.
John Kilgallon, who works in the leveraged finance group, will replace Mayer. A search to replace the other executives is being conducted, according to a Citadel spokesman.
The exodus commenced when Rohit D’Souza left in October 2009. D’Souza was hired as part of Citadel’s strategy to build an investment banking and brokerage arm. In May 2010, Patrik Edsparr, chief executive officer of the securities unit and D’Souza’s replacement, was asked to leave the firm seven months after joining following disagreements with management.
In a letter to employees last year, Citadel founder Ken Griffin said: “Regretfully, the management team and I did not see eye to eye with Patrik Edsparr on the corporate strategy we want to pursue, or the culture we want to cultivate in Citadel Securities.”
Other senior staff who have left recently include Todd Kaplan, chief of investment banking; Peter Santoro, head of institutional markets; Brennan Warble, head of institutional sales and James Boyle, who was in charge of equity derivatives with Kurtzman.
