Bank of America's investment-banking hiring blitz continues with several more star dealmakers - including a Lazard veteran who worked on a $100 billion beer merger
- Bank of America has poached several senior dealmakers just this month as its investment-banking hiring blitz continues.
- The latest to join the firm is Jean Greene, a long-time Lazard banker who worked on a $100 billion brewery merger.
- The bank has made more than two-dozen senior hires amid a substantial turnaround in fortunes from a disappointing 2018.
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Bank of America's efforts to rejuvenate its dealmaking operations and snatch back market share continue unabated, even amid the Wall Street's typically sleepy summer days.
The firm has been on a hiring blitz for senior investment bankers this year, and several more have signed on to join the firm in recent weeks, according to internal memos seen by Business Insider.
The firm announced Monday the hiring of Jean Greene, a long-time Lazard industrials banker, according to an internal memo from Americas mergers-and-acquisitions coheads Kevin Brunner and Ivan Farman.
Greene, who has orchestrated deals including Tyco's $16.5 billion sale to Johnson Controls and Anheuser-Busch InBev's more than $100 billion acquisition of SAB Miller, starts at the firm as a managing director in December, the memo said.
"We are pleased to announce that Jean Greene will join the firm as a managing director with a primary focus on industrial clients. In this role, she will be responsible for enhancing coverage efforts within the industrials and other sectors to drive the further growth of our business," Brunner and Farman wrote in the memo
A bank spokesman confirmed the contents of the memo.
Greene's hiring comes on the heels of two other senior investment banking hires this month: The firm announced last week it had added Omid Ahdieh from Wells Fargo as a managing director in its healthcare group, and on August 5th the bank announced it had hired Amy Lissauer from Evercore as the bank's global head of activism and raid defense, according to internal memos seen by Business Insider.
A little more than halfway through the year, the firm's investment bank has seen its fortunes improve substantially compared with a disappointing campaign in 2018 that saw the firm lose market and key executives.
The firm reclaimed the third-position on the investment-banking league tables in the first half of the year, after falling to fourth in 2018, according to Dealogic. Bank of America edged out Morgan Stanley but still trails JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs.
In US M&A revenue - a sore spot last year - the firm moved up to 6th after dropping to 9th in the first half of 2018, according to Dealogic.
In 2019, under new corporate and investment banking chief Matthew Koder, the firm has made more than two-dozen senior hires this, according to people familiar with the matter.
Here are some of the other hires the bank has made, in addition to Greene, Ahdieh, and Lissauer:
- Janis Vitols left Barclays in July to join Bank of America as head of global asset management investment banking.
- Gregg Polle left Moelis & Company and joined the firm this summer as a managing director and vice chairman in the mergers and acquisitions group.
- Rick Sherlund, previously the co-head of technology investment banking at Perella Weinberg, joined as a vice chairman in technology investment banking.
- Jared Birnbaum, a consumer and retail debt capital markets banker most recently at Deutsche Bank, joined as an MD.
- Jamie Turturici, previously with JPMorgan Chase, joined as an MD in tech equity capital markets.
- John Collmer, previously with JPMorgan, signed on as as head of equity private placements.
- Neil Abromavage, previously with Deutsche Bank, joined as an MD in financial institutions investment banking.
- Tom Bradshaw, previously with Deutsche Bank, joined as an MD in industrials investment banking.
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