Jack DiMaio, the departing head of fixed-income for North America at Credit Suisse First Boston (BW, 2/17), plans to start a hedge fund when he joins Credit Suisse Asset Management. He has also enlisted three senior traders to follow him to CSAM, including Nasser Ahmad and Tim Joyce, managing directors and co-heads of corporate bond trading at CSFB.
Calls to DiMaio were referred to Cristina von Bargen, a CSFB spokeswoman, who said further announcements will be made after the firm fills the position of global ceo, which has been vacant for almost a year. She did say, however, that the hedge fund will not be proprietary. Speculation had been that he would start a proprietary credit fund modeled after UBS Principal Finance--versions of which have been popping up at several Wall Street firms in recent months.
In addition to Ahmad and Joyce, Larry Wolfson, a CSFB managing director who trades the difficult but highly profitable crossover and distressed book, will go to CSAM. All three traders either did not respond to calls or referred them to von Bargen.
The three traders were all part of a roughly 40-person group that left with DiMaio at Barclays Capital two years ago, but was bid back by CSFB. Regarding the question of whether there would be further departures from CSFB to CSAM, von Bargen says, "I know there will be some individuals joining him in the move who are in the global credit products area at CSFB. I don't have details yet." However, she says it will likely be "a small handful," possibly no more than three.