As the new year kicks off, we look back at the most relevant people moves stories in 2023 highlighting new hires and exits at the main issuers of structured products across markets.

BNP Paribas

The French bank began the year with the appointment of Stéphanie Maarek (right) as head of compliance and member of the group’s executive committee.

Maarek joined BNP Paribas in 2006 within global markets, having been chief conduct and control officer for global markets and CIB since 2017. She reports to Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, director and chief executive officer of BNP Paribas.

BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Bank (CIB) started to reshuffle its equity derivatives ranks at the beginning of Q2 23 with the promotion of Daniel Cable as global head of equity derivatives and synthetic prime brokerage trade validation.

Based in London, Cable served as global head of equity derivatives trade validation and as global head of securities lending trade support BNP Paribas CIB for nearly three years.

Before joining the global investment banking arm of the French bank, he worked at Deutsche Bank for nearly five years, most recently as vice president, global head of securities lending and FRM. Previously, he was with UniCredit where he was an associate director in structured equity derivatives having spent three years as an equity derivatives sales trader at CFI Group in London.

Looking at the Apac market, in June Lemuel Lee (right) was promoted to head of wealth management (WM) in Hong Kong. His extended role amides to implement wealth management’s growth strategy while supporting a team of bankers to deliver solutions to clients. Having joined as head of investment services in 2017, Lee most recently worked as managing director, head of WM, Hong Kong markets at the French bank.

Michael Yong-Haron, head of WM, North Asia and CEO of WM, Hong Kong, whom Lee used to report to, left the bank. Lee now reports to Arnaud Tellier, the bank’s Asia CEO of WM and functionally to Hugo Leung, CEO of BNP Paribas, Hong Kong.

Etienne Grisey (right) headed to New York after being appointed as co-head of equity derivatives (EQD) structuring, Americas at BNP Paribas in August. He served as managing director, head of global equities structuring, Apac, at the French bank most recently.

Grisey relocated to Singapore from Hong Kong in July 2022 for his previous role. Previously, he spent 13 years in Hong Kong as head of EQD structuring, Apac. He also spent two years in Japan in the bank’s equity derivatives structuring team after a four-year stint in equity derivatives pricing, in New York. Grisey joined BNP Paribas in 2002 as an equity derivatives quant researcher in Sydney before moving to New York as an equity derivatives trader covering Latin America.

Frederic Cosmao, the bank’s head of structuring equity derivatives, Japan, took Grisey’s previous role. Having been with the French bank for almost two decades, Cosmao has held different senior roles in equity derivatives and QIS structuring across the region, including leading the team in Japan successfully for the past five years.

Based in Hong Kong, he has been charged with growing BNP Paribas’ private banking & distribution and institutional solutions businesses in Apac. He reports to Vincent Desmarest, head of global equities, Apac, and Hamzah Kahloon, head of global markets structuring, Apac. Globally, Cosmao reports to Azad Mahavar, global head of equity derivatives structuring.

Jakub Sarna (right) was appointed managing director of the financial markets division at BNP Paribas Poland in September. He took the role in addition to his position as director of financial markets sales at the bank.

Sarna joined BNP Paribas Poland in 2018 as head of corporate sales global markets for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) after spending 13 years at Deutsche Bank, including in his former role of head of corporate treasury sales, DCM financing & solution group. In his new role, Sarna is responsible for the overall global markets business in CEE including equity derivatives sales, corporate sales, institutional sales, trading, global markets business development and financial markets.

In October, Joshua Dunivant (below right) was appointed as head of global equities sales in addition to his role as managing director, co-head of equity derivatives hedge fund asset manager (HFAM) sales for the Americas. He is based in the bank's Miami office, which opened in late 2023.

Having joined the French bank from Barclays in mid-2015, Dunivant served as head of delta-1 sales, Americas, before his mandate expanded to equity derivatives serving asset managers and hedge funds. Dunivant’s extended role amides to grow the French bank's footprint in South Florida and across the Americas and work closely with Matthew O’Connor, head of the Miami office.

Shovit Sahai, head of structured products and derivatives, Asia at BNP Paribas Wealth Management, departed in December to join Bank of Singapore's Dubai International Financial Centre branch as head of product management group. He joined the wealth management arm of the French bank in 2018. He was previously with Citi in Singapore for over 14 years, most recently as director at Citi Private Bank where he worked on cross-asset structured products origination and marketing.

BBVA

BBVA promoted Eric Michl (right) as head of global markets, Asia in July 2023.

Michl joined the Spanish bank as head of global equities, Asia, since July 2021. He is responsible for fostering the bank’s cross-selling and promoting its cross-border business. Previously, he served as head of Apac equity trading at Natixis after spending 12 years at Commerzbank. Based in Hong Kong, Michl reports to Antonio Ordás, head of global markets and Pablo Riquelme, head of CIB, Asia.

The Spanish bank also boosted the credit markets team in 2023 with the appointment of Juan Blasco as the new head of the global credit markets unit to replace Regina Gil, who has moved to lead BBVA CIB’s division in the US.

Since 2016, Blasco has been the head of global syndicate and leveraged finance Europe, the Middle East and Africa at BBVA, previously leading different teams in the global credit markets unit.

Main image: Bluraz/Adobe Stock.