Merrill Lynch has made four new hires to its recently merged debt and equity team (DW, 2/22). Joachim Willnow, co-head of the group, said, "We are strengthening our client coverage where we see market openings."
Two of the hires will focus on emerging markets, which is a growing business area for structured product desks. Gene Linetsky, who covered equity derivatives to Russia at UBS, will cover the same market for Merrill, and Ewran Mersian, previously marketing equity derivatives to Scandinavia at Credit Suisse First Boston, has been added to the team to cover both Scandinavia and emerging markets for Merrill.
In addition, Donald Leitch, head of structuring in the equity and fund derivatives group at Commerzbank, will take a similar role at Merrill, as will Marco Stauffacher, previously marketing structured products in Switzerland for Lehman Brothers.
