-- Cathy Cunningham
Mitchell Harris, a 24-year Wall Street veteran, has left his position as head of treasury and funding at Eurohypo in New York. Harris is now considering other opportunities in the securitization space in both the public and private spheres, as well as also developing a U.S. covered bond structure. "I'm looking to further develop the U.S. covered model," he said, "And the application of covered bond technology in the U.S. market." Joseph Koerbel, Eurohypo spokesman, declined comment on the departure.
Unlike other recent industry departures, Harris left amicably this week. "It was very undramatic," said Harris, "I wanted to further pursue, on a large scale, business models pertaining to this market's evolution."
Harris was hired to form the Eurohypo branch in New York in July 2002, and created the infrastructure of the bank's commercial mortgage-backed securities business. In 2003, he formed its Times Square Funding ABCP program, also the first short-term covered bond program. Harris' career includes positions such as the head of asset-backed securities warehouse lending at Prudential Securities and one of the heads of Deutsche Bank's securitization business in the 1990s before returning to Prudential Securities in 1999 as manager of its residential whole loan lending conduit.
Before finding his next spot, Harris in the meantime is also pursuing other interests. He is currently the executive producer on a documentary about Motorhead lead singer Lemmy's life.