Chris Birosak, a managing director in Merrill Lynch's loan group, will be leaving the firm in the coming months. Birosak is still at Merrill but is winding down, a source familiar with the situation said. Birosak and a Merrill spokesman declined comment and the exact date of his departure could not be determined. "I heard it was his own choice," a banker at another institution commented. "He's been around for a while. It's kind of surprising since Merrill is starting to turn the engine on again." Sources said Birosak will be taking some time off from the market.
Birosak and approximately 15 others from Merrill's U.S. leveraged finance group were laid off in November 2001 as part of a drastic cost-cutting operation by CEO Stanley O'Neal. Birosak was then rehired in June 2002, as the bank sought to rebuild the franchise. They brought on board Bill Gates, formerly of Lehman Brothers, last fall, and in the last few months have hired Steve Winograd, a managing director from Deutsche Bank and David Stith, a senior managing director from Bear Stearns, to build up the leveraged finance group.