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by Baz Hiralal
Bank of America Merrill Lynch hired Loh Boon Chye as head of global markets, Asia Pacific. He also becomes deputy president of the region. Chye was most recently head of the corporate and investment bank for Asia Pacific at Deutsche Bank AG, where he spent 17 years. Earlier, he was Deutsche's global markets head for Asia. Chye started his career as an investment officer with the Monetary Authority of Singapore in 1989. He was an independent director of Singapore Exchange Ltd. from October 2003 to September this year.
Separately, BofA named Rupert Hume-Kendall as chairman of corporate and investment banking, Europe. In 2008, he was named Merrill Lynch's chairman of global equity capital markets and was also vice chairman of investment banking, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He joined Merrill in 1998.
Barclays named Peter Young as chairman of Australia. He has been nonexecutive chairman of Queensland Investment Corp. since October 2009. Young had been an advisory board member at Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc in Australia. Earlier, he was chairman of investment banking for ABN AMRO in Australia and New Zealand.
Newmark Grubb Knight Frank adds Helios Capital Advisors to its capital markets advisory platform. Helios was headed by Steven Schultz, who co-founded The Schultz Organization LLC in 1990. He joins NGKF as executive managing director and will continue to lead his six-person team, including directors Josh Malka and Tony Georgiev and associate Joseph Villani.
NBGI Private Equity, investing in the lower-middle-market, tapped David Turner as an investment manager for the U.K. team. Turner was a member of the corporate development team at Experian plc, responsible for acquisitions and commercial joint ventures.
Best Buy Co. is looking for a new chief financial officer. Jim Muehlbauer, executive vice president and CFO, will continue with the company through the end of the 2013 fiscal year. He joined in 2002 and has held his current role since 2008. Earlier, he spent 10 years with Pillsbury Co.
Founder, former CEO and leading shareholder of Best Buy, Richard Schulze recently offered to acquire full control of the retailer in a deal that values the company at up to $8.84 billion. Best Buy also named turnaround expert Hubert Joly as CEO several months after Brian Dunn left in the wake of an ethics investigation involving him and a female employee.
London-based brokerage United First Partners opened a New York office, targeting North American mutual and hedge funds. UFP was founded in 2009 by Stephane Mardel and Michael Hadjedj, who previously co-managed ICAP's special situations and merger arbitrage division. Hadjedj relocated to New York, as did trader John Wheelhouse.
The firm also hired Adam Theriault, formerly with Bear, Stearns & Co.'s and JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s risk arbitrage desks; sales trader Craig Johnson, who began his career at Fidelity before joining the founders at Tullett Prebon in London; and legal specialist Jennifer Donaker from Thompson Hine LLP, where she covered in mergers and acquisitions.
UFP plans more hires.
Riveron Consulting recruited Leigh Ann Schultz for its new Washington/Virginia office as a managing director. Schultz joins from the Securities and Exchange Commission's division of corporation finance. Prior to that, she was a consultant at AlixPartners.
New York investment adviser CIFC Corp. tapped Stan Sokolowski as a senior portfolio manager and head of corporate credit funds management. He was a portfolio manager with Lucidus Capital Partners, a credit trading firm that was spun out of Caxton Associates in 2011. Before joining Caxton in 2006, Sokolowski was a managing director with JPMorgan Chase & Co., where he founded and managed the European par and distressed loan trading business in London.
Accounting and consulting firms J.H. Cohn LLP and Reznick Group PC have combined, forming CohnReznick LLP, with 25 offices, 2,000 employees and combined revenues of more than $450 million. J.H. Cohn CEO Thomas Marino and Reznick Group CEO Kenneth Baggett are co-CEOs of the New York-based firm.
Quarles & Brady LLP said David Johnson joined the firm's Phoenix office as a partner in the real estate practice from Gammage & Burnham. He focuses on complex real estate acquisitions, development, financing, leasing, management and dispositions.
Separately, the firm named six partners: Kerry Moskol and Christine Cassetta, health; Andrew Beilfuss, litigation and corporate services; Thomas Krumenacher, intellectual property; and commercial litigators David Funkhouser III and S. Douglas Knox.
Clippings from the next column:
-- Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking expands cash equity trading and sales, hiring Mario Arace, Sunny Duggal, Gregory Henry, Brian Chamberlain, Will Morlock and Nick Shevloff.
-- Luca Cordero di Montezemolo to become deputy chairman of UniCredit SpA.
-- Carl Marks Advisory Group LLC adds Joseph D'Angelo as a managing director.
-- Sandy Edmonstone joins Macquarie Capital as deputy head of global oil and gas.
Riveron Consulting recruited Leigh Ann Schultz from the Securities and Exchange Commission for its new Washington/Virginia office as a managing director.
