UBS Warburg has hired two marketers to sell structured credit and interest-rate derivatives products to the insurance sector, said Michael Ice, managing director and head of North American structured marketing and sales within the interest-rate/foreign exchange group in Stamford, Conn. The firm also plans to hire an associate for the group. Glenn Taitz joins from Merrill Lynch as executive director of structured products and will market interest-rate and credit products to life insurance and property and casualty companies. And Wim Ludington, also an executive director, comes via JPMorgan and will focus on selling structured credit products to reinsurance companies. The two form the insurance sales group for interest-rate and structured products. Both report to Ice, who said the hires do not reflect a new effort as "[selling to] insurance companies can't be a new initiative," but he noted they do mark an increased emphasis on the sector.
Both new hires started earlier this month. Taitz was on vacation last week and Ludington declined to comment. Dev Sahai, who had previously filled their roles, now moves to the firm's cross-rates business and will focus on sales to hedge funds.
Both new hires were in similar roles at their previous firms. At Merrill, Taitz reported to Ricus Van Der Lee. He confirmed Taitz's departure but declined further comment. At JPMorgan, Ludington reported to Maylene Syracuse, managing director and head of structured credit sales. She did not return calls. JPMorgan recently lost another credit derivatives sales pro when Lyndsay Lobue joined Goldman Sachs (DW, 6/17).
