President Obama picked Nancy-Ann DeParle, a managing director at New York buyout firm CCMP Capital Advisors LLC, as counselor to him and director of the White House Office for Health Reform. From 1997 through 2000, DeParle (pictured left) was administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. She was also a health policy adviser to former President Clinton and Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala.

From 1987 to 1989, DeParle was Tennessee Commissioner of Human Services under Governor Ned McWherter. DeParle sits on the boards of Medco Health Solutions Inc., Boston Scientific Corp. and health IT company Cerner Corp.

Merrill Lynch & Co. has lost another set of bankers to Deustche Bank AG. Marc Pandraud becomes chief country officer of France. Three senior people joined the corporate finance group in Deustche's global banking business: Bruno Hallak and Julien Fabre, corporate finance client coverage; and Emmanuel Hasbanian, head of mergers and acquisitions for France.

Pandraud will report to Jürgen Fitschen, head of regional management, and will take over from Jacques-Henri David, in the second quarter. David's new role has yet to be announced. Pandraud most recently was chairman of France at the combined Bank of America Corp.-Merrill Lynch. He joined Merrill in 1998 from Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, where he was co-head of corporate finance in France.

Last month, Deustche Bank hired 12 dealmakers from Merrill for its financial institutions group, led by managing directors Eric Heaton and David Heaton in New York, Richard Slimmon in London and Richard Gibb in Hong Kong.

Separately, Deutsche Securities Inc. appointed Naoki Kamiyama as a managing director and chief equity strategist in its global markets research department, effective May 4. Kamiyama was Japanese equity strategist for Morgan Stanley Japan Ltd. Earlier, he worked at Goldman Sachs Japan Co. Ltd. He had begun his career with Nikko Securities Co. Ltd. in 1985, becoming head of quantitative research at Nikko Asset Management Co. Ltd. in 1999.

Abu Dhabi Investment Co. hired Anders Ljungqvist as chief investment officer from Volvo AB, where he was director of corporate finance for the past three years. Ljungqvist was previously head of asset management and fixed income and head of treasury in the Americas. Thierry Gimonnet joins as head of finance after more than a decade at Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Independent investment bank Broadpoint Securities Group Inc. is acquiring Gleacher Partners Inc. The combined firm will be known as Broadpoint Gleacher and employ 285 people, with Lee Fensterstock as CEO and Eric Gleacher as chairman. Fensterstock is currently chair and chief executive of Broadpoint, while Gleacher is chair of the firm he founded in 1990.

Gleacher Partners is known for its mergers and acquisitions advisory business, having recently represented General Dynamics Corp. on its $2.2 billion acquisition of Jet Aviation Management AG and Hexion Specialty Chemicals Inc. in its $10 billion bid for Huntsman Corp.

Silicon Valley veteran Pierre Lamond, 78, decided to put off retirement and join Khosla Ventures as a senior partner, focusing on clean technology. Lamond has worked at Sequoia Capital since 1981 and will leave the firm in April. Menlo Park, Calif.-based Khosla was founded in 2004 by Vinod Khosla, formerly a general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and founder of Sun Microsystems Inc.

In New York, Ronald Pillar joined Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. as vice chairman, head of institutional client group and co-head of investment banking. Pillar was head of technology investment banking at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

Bank of America Corp. recently named Mark Linsz corporate treasurer. Linsz was risk executive for global banking and securities. Before that, he was chief risk officer for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Linsz replaced Jeff Brown, who is leaving to pursue other opportunities.

Linsz began his career with the Chicago Research and Trading Group in 1987. He advanced to the head of market risk for CRT before the firm was purchased by NationsBank Corp., a predecessor of Bank of America.

Cantor Fitzgerald LP promoted Shawn Matthews, executive managing director and head of debt capital markets, to CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., responsible for the DCM, investment banking and equity capital markets businesses.

Philip Marber, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald's ECM group, who will remain a partner, will step aside from day-to-day management of the institutional equities business to focus on strategic direction and recruiting.

This is Matthews' third promotion at Cantor within 18 months. His current role was assumed in March 2008, following his promotion in September 2007 as senior managing director and co-head of mortgage-backed sales and trading.