Private equity and venture capital firm Morgenthaler brought in Kevin Macdonald as co-managing partner of its private equity team alongside Al Stanley.

Macdonald (pictured), who works from Boston, was most recently founder and managing partner of Monitor Clipper Partners, a $2 billion middle-market investment firm based in Cambridge, Mass. Macdonald was also a founding member of Clipper Group, an investment firm affiliated with Credit Suisse Group, where he also worked. Earlier, Macdonald was with Morgan Stanley and Boston Consulting Group.

Greenhill & Co. hired Alejandro Przygoda as a managing director in New York to lead its advisory efforts in the insurance sector. Przygoda was head of the global insurance practice at UBS, where he was a managing director for six years. Before that, he was a managing director at Credit Suisse Group in the financial institutions group, where he spent nearly 10 years. Before CS, he was chief financial officer of General Re Corp.'s Argentine subsidiary.

HSBC Holdings plc is closing its stock-research and trading businesses in Japan. About 5% of the 1,100-member Japanese workforce will lose their jobs.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc appointed Robert Brennan as head of short-term markets and financing. He will report locally to Philippe Avril, branch manager and representative in Japan, and to Vijayan Subramani, head of STMF, Asia-Pacific. Brennan was head of group treasury at Shinsei Bank, Tokyo.

Broker-dealer Amherst Securities Group LP enlisted Michael McSweeney as an agency mortgage-backed securities pass-through trader, focused on the specified pool markets. He will be a managing director in New York. McSweeney joins Amherst after 11 years at UBS.

Check The Deal Pipeline for updates on these Movers & shakers:

• Janes Capital Partners recently tapped Richard Phillips as a managing director.
• Capula Investment Management LLP said Suresh Sundaresan arrived as head of research.
• Adam Penny joined Brown Rudnick LLP's London office as a partner in the corporate and securities department.