Citi has hired Thomas Regazzi as its new head of prime finance for North America, according to an internal memo, as it continues to build out its equities team. Regazzi came from UBS where he was previously head of synthetic equity trading for the Americas, serving almost seven years at the Swiss bank. According to the memo, Regazzi will “lead prime services, equity finance, agency securities lending, and delta one across the region. Tom will work in close cooperation with the regional leads across sales, operations and technology to execute our growth strategy for prime finance in North America.”

If you have a new job or promotion to report, let me know at jdantona@marketsmedia.com

Agency broker BTIG continues its massive hiring spree by adding several new traders and executives. First, it hired Michael Stewart and Michael Di Felice in its growing fixed-income group in New York. Stewart joins as a Managing Director within the Fixed Income Credit Group, focused on trading convertibles, and selling solutions for other fixed income instruments. A veteran with over 20 years of institutional fixed income sales and trading experience, he comes from Seaport Global Securities. Earlier,  Stewart was a Managing Director of Fixed Income Credit Sales at Jefferies and Barclays.

Di Felice onboards as a Director within the Fixed Income Credit Group, focusing on distressed debt, high yield and convertible bond sales. Prior to BTIG, he was a Senior Vice President of Fixed Income Sales at GMP Securities. Earlier in his career, Di Felice was an Investment Banking Associate at Deutsche Bank.

Both report to Darren Haines and Drew Doscher, Co-Heads of the Fixed Income Credit Group at BTIG.

Also at the broker, BTIG hired Filip Skala and John Curley for its Transition Management and Global Portfolio and ETF Trading Group. Based in New York, Skala will lead the firm’s Transition Management team as Managing Director and Head of Transition Management, while Curley will focus on strengthening and expanding Global Portfolio and ETF Trading client relationships as Director of Global Portfolio and ETF Trading Sales.

Prior to BTIG, Skala was a Managing Director and Head of U.S. Portfolio Solutions at Cantor Fitzgerald. Previously, he was Executive Director and Head of U.S. Transition Management Implementation at J.P. Morgan, a role he also held at Bear Stearns. Earlier in his career, Mr. Skala held a variety of transition management, plans sponsor sales and defined contribution roles at BNY Brokerage, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch.

Curley comes from Deutsche Bank, where he was a Director of Global Program Trading. Previously, he was an Executive Director of Global Portfolio Trading at J.P. Morgan. Earlier in his career, Curley was a Managing Director and Principal of Global Portfolio Trading at Bear Stearns. He began his career within Portfolio Trading at Instinet.

Both executives will report to Thomas Smykowski, Managing Director and Head of Global Portfolio and ETF Trading at BTIG.

Index provider FTSE Russell announced that Sean Smith has joined the firm as Managing Director of Derivatives Licenses, to lead the company’s efforts to further expand its options and futures business. Smith will be based at the Chicago office of FTSE Russell and joins from CME Group, where he served in multiple roles spanning the last 17 years. Most recently, he managed the Strategic Account Management Group servicing CME’s top clients.  Earlier, he held senior roles in the clearing, client development and sales divisions

Deutsche Bank has hired a new head of equity derivatives for the Americas. The bulge broker lured David Silber from Citigroup, according to people familiar with the matter. He is expected to start in the second quarter. At Citigroup, Silber was head of North America execution sales.

Sean Hamilton George was named Partner and Head of Fixed Income Portfolio Management at Swedish hedge fund Granit Fonder. George, a 20 year professional, will shortly launch the Granit Global Credit Opportunity fund. George has headed trading desks for Credit Default Swaps (CDSs) at Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and most recently at Jefferies.

TABB Group has hired Drew Seldin as chief marketing officer (CMO) and Radi Khasawneh, Tim Cave as additions to the analyst team. As members of TABB’s European research team based in London, Khasawneh and Cave will report locally to the newly appointed regional head of European research, Monica Summerville. Khasawneh will re-join TABB as a senior analyst in April from Boston Consulting Group and will be focusing specifically on the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) II and the developments in fixed income, foreign exchange and commodities markets impacting both European and global market participants. Cave’s focus as an analyst will be specifically on equities, equities derivatives, and MiFID II, topics he has covered in-depth in his most recent role as trading and technology editor at Financial News. Prior to his career reporting for Financial News and Dow Jones, Cave was an assistant manager in the corporate tax division at Deloitte.

President Donald Trump picked J. Christopher Giancarlo to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, elevating a critic of the commission’s approach to post crisis rules as its new chief. As the top U.S. regulator of derivatives, Giancarlo is expected to adopt a more industry-friendly approach than his predecessors during the Obama administration. The commission’s sole Republican at the moment, Giancarlo began serving as its acting chairman the day of Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

The President has also made comments that he plans to nominate Goldman Sachs’ Jim Donovan as deputy secretary of the Treasury Department. David Malpass, formerly of Bear Stearns, has been nominated undersecretary for international affairs.

Baymarkets Technology announced the appointment of Per Andersson as Head of Sales and Business Development. Andersson, a 20 years veteran, was previously Head of Sales at Pantor Engineering, recently acquired by Goldman Sachs, and at Orc Software, now Itiviti.

VTB Capital has hired four people to grow its origination business. Raymond O’Leary joined in London as Managing Director, Head of African Origination. Raymond has a wealth of experience in Emerging Markets and joins from Deutsche Bank where his most recent position was as Head of Corporate Finance Africa and Co-Head of CMTS Turkey, Israel and Africa. He was previously Head of Sales and Coverage for Sub-Saharan and South Africa.

Ron Golan onboards in London as Managing Director with responsibility for originating business from Israel and selected African clients. He was previously Global Co-Head of Investment Banking at Renaissance Capital where he was responsible for strategy and business development for Africa and non-Russia new markets. Golan also spent 15 years at Morgan Stanley in a number of roles including as Head of Investment Banking and Capital Markets in Israel, CEE and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Alvaro Baranda Molina came aboard in London as Managing Director with responsibility for selected clients across Southern Europe and for working with the Equities department to create bespoke structured equity solutions to clients across geographies. Before joining VTB Capital, Molina spent over 10 years at J. P. Morgan where he ran Strategic Equity Derivatives for selected regions.

Lastly, Milan Elezovic joins as Managing Director with responsibility for originating business from South Eastern Europe. He was most recently at Credit Suisse where he worked for 8 years including as Managing Director, Emerging Markets Group where he was responsible for originating transactions across CEEMEA.