Eric Personne has been named chief administration officer (CAO) for Citi's equities business. Personne remains in London reporting to co-heads of global equities Murray Roos (pictured) and Dan Keegan. Personne headed the bank's multi-asset group (MAG) structuring activities until March when Citi launched its new 'product-aligned' equity structuring group which is led by Quentin Andre as global head of equities structuring for Investor Clients, and global head of equity solutions sales. Andre also reports to Keegan and Roos at Citi.

Personne headed the multi-asset group since the end of 2014 when he was promoted from his previous roles as head of Europe, Middle East & Africe (Emea) multi-asset group. Personne joined the US bank in 2013 from Bank of America Merrill Lynch (Baml) where he was head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Emea) fund solutions. He was part of a raft of appointments in 2009 within Baml's combined global equities business which saw him taking new responsibilities as co-head of Emea cross-asset retail distribution and head of equity and fund structuring. Personne joined Baml in 2007 as global head of equity derivatives structuring from Societe Generale, where he had been European head of hedge fund exotic trading and an alternative exotic trader since 2006. He also had a three-year stint as chief executive officer at Lyxor Asset Management.

Citi has also appointed Ashu Khullar as head of Asia Pacific capital markets origination. Khullar will be based in Hong Kong and reports to Tyler Dickson, global head of capital markets origination and regionally to Patrick Dewilde, head of markets and securities services Asia Pacific.

Khullar started his career with Citi in India and has been with Citi in London since 1996 in capital markets, client coverage and corporate banking roles in Emea, most recently as co-head of Emea corporate banking. He has worked for both some of the largest European clients as well as across a wide range of emerging market issuers. During his 29-year career, Khullar has a strong track record of leading complex financings across the entire credit spectrum. These include transformational acquisitions, restructurings, corporate spin offs and structured and infrastructure financings.

Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking (SG CIB) has appointed Jose Enrique Concejo as global head of financial institution group (FIG). His appointment will be effective from 1 January 2018. Based in Paris, Jose Enrique will report to Thierry d'Argent and Sylvie Rémond, co-heads of coverage and investment banking. He will replace Pierre-Yves Bonnet who will take new responsibilities within the bank. Bonnet's new role will be announced at a later date.

Bonnet retains his current role within the financial institution group until the end of 2017 and will focus on ensuring, since beginning of September, a smooth transition with Concejo in coordination with Richard Kuras, deputy head of financial institution group. SG's financial institution group was created in 2012 to reinforce the bank's sectoral expertise and to enrich its services and advisory offer for financial institutions. The department provides an integrated investment banking's offer to banks, insurance, fund managers, pension funds as well as the public sector around capital structuring, capital markets and mergers & acquisitions.

Schroders has appointed Charles Prideaux as head of solutions with responsibility for the firm's solutions business which delivers strategic advice, customisation and risk management to institutional and intermediary investors globally. Prideaux, who joins Schroders on October 2, will report into Richard Mountford, global head of the product division.

Prideaux's appointment follows a decision by John McLaughlin to retire from the asset management industry at the end of this year. Prior to joining Schroders, Prideaux worked for BlackRock and its former companies since 1988, where his past roles included being head of institutional client business for Emea, and most recently as head of active investments for Emea covering equities, fixed income and multi-asset.

S&P Global Platts, a provider of information and benchmark prices for the commodities and energy markets, has appointed Chris Midgley, as head of analytics content. Based in London and reporting to S&P Global Platts president, Martin Fraenkel, Midgley will lead and execute the strategy for the firm's analytics, which combines commodity and energy market knowledge, analysis and algorithms with fundamental data to support customers' strategic decisions. It encompasses organic businesses developed within Platts as well as acquisitions, including Pira Energy, RigData, Eclipse Energy, cFlow and Bentek Energy.

Midgley brings over 25 years of oil industry experience, 20 years of which working with Shell, primarily in manufacturing, supply, trading and strategy. For the past four years, Midgley headed up Shell's Oil Markets Analysis division, where he developed long-term outlooks to support the Group's investment decisions and strategies and as Shell trading's chief economist providing short-term market views to inform trading positions. Midgley has also been a director of a number of shipping and oil-related companies.

Provasi Capital Partners has appointed John Guthery, CFA, as managing director, product and marketing. Guthery will report to Frank Muller, CEO of Provasi Capital Partners and will lead all product-related research, marketing, due diligence, and development initiatives for the firm.

Prior to joining Provasi Capital, Guthery served as senior vice president and head of W. P. Carey's Product Management division, where he led the strategy, design and structuring of new products. Guthery also served as a senior vice president and head of manager due-diligence and strategy with LPL Financial Research. In his role, Guthery oversaw research and due-diligence of active managers, including mutual funds, separate accounts, hedge funds, private equity funds, real estate products, structured products and other non-traditional asset classes. Provasi Capital Partners LP offers access to specialized investment strategies through a multi-manager approach presenting advisors and their clients with unique options for allocating capital, managing risk and diversifying assets.

Julius Baer has appointed Oliver Bartholet as chief risk officer and member of the executive boards of Julius Baer Group and Bank Julius Baer effective April 1, 2018. Bernhard Hodler, who has held this role since 2001, will remain a member of the executive board of Bank Julius Baer and act as the deputy to the CEO, supporting the implementation of strategic projects and continuing to lead the Credit function.

Bartholet is currently head legal group regulatory & governance at UBS. He started his banking career in 1995, after working in public service, and held several senior positions at UBS, among others as global head of tax and as general counsel for the wealth management & Swiss bank division. Bartholet is an attorney at law and a member of the International Bar Association. At Julius Baer, he will be responsible for the management and control of market, operational, compliance and bank-related legal risks.

Natixis has appointed Joseph Lavorgna as chief economist for the Americas. Based in New York, he reports globally to Denis Prouteau, head of global markets research, and locally to Kevin Alexander, head of global markets and investment banking Americas. Lavorgna is in charge of leading Natixis' economic research team for the Americas, and of promoting Natixis' cross asset research in the region, including foreign exchange, fixed income, commodities and equity markets research by the global research teams.

He has 25 years of financial services experience, the last 20 of which he spent at Deutsche Bank Securities, where he had been managing director, chief US economist - global markets division since 2004. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, Lavorgna was an economist at Lehman Brothers, UBS Securities, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Equity derivatives clearing organization Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) has made several promotions to its leadership team.

Jim Kustusch, currently senior vice president, operations, is being promoted to executive vice president, strategic clearing initiatives - functionality.  He will continue to report to John Davidson, OCC president and chief operating officer.

Jean Cawley, currently senior vice president, senior adviser to the executive chairman and CEO, is being promoted to executive vice president, senior adviser to the executive chairman and CEO.

Dan Busby, currently first vice president, business operations, is being promoted to senior vice president, operations, where he will be responsible for national operations, corporate actions, membership services and collateral services. Busby will report to Davidson.

Denise Knabjian, currently vice president, process innovation, is being promoted to first vice president, process innovation, where she is responsible for leading the teams implementing digital solutions that transform OCC's manual processes and work.  Knabjian, who has worked at OCC for 20 years, will continue to report directly to Davidson.

Kirstin Wells, currently vice president, enterprise risk management, is being promoted to the newly created role of first vice president, regulatory policy. She will be responsible for analyzing regulatory and policy initiatives and working with OCC management to formulate OCC's policy positions. Additionally, Wells will establish a function whose purpose will be to monitor, evaluate and communicate internally and externally the impact of regulatory changes on OCC and the industry. She will report to Julie Bauer, senior vice president, government relations.

Carole Bovard, currently first vice president, compliance advising, is taking on a new role as first vice president, regulatory relationship management and reporting. This role will allow OCC's leadership team to have even greater visibility and line of sight into managing its regulatory exam obligations and commitments, as well as a deeper understanding of the regulatory reporting requirements across OCC. Bovard will now report directly to Davidson.

Luke Moranda, currently senior vice president and senior special information technology adviser, will take on a newly created position as senior vice president, strategic clearing initiatives - technology. Moranda will oversee the highly complex information technology elements of OCC's ENCORE replacement project. He will continue to report to Davidson.