Merrill Lynch hired Chris Ricciardi from Credit Suisse First Boston as global head of collateralized debt obligation origination and structuring, according to an internal memo obtained by Bond Week. Ricciardi will report to Mac Taylor, managing director and head of global structured products. He will be in charge of all CDO asset classes, working closely with the CDO trading and distribution team. Taylor declined to comment. Ricciardi resigned from CSFB last Tuesday. Michael Duvally, a spokesman at Merrill Lynch, declined to comment. Ricciardi could not be reached for comment. He is expected to join Merrill Lynch in the coming weeks.
At CSFB, Ricciardi was head of U.S. structured credit products, in charge of origination for structured finance CDOs or esoteric CDO asset classes such as trust preferred or project finance CDOs. He did not oversee high-yield CDOs, which is handled by Jerry DeVito. DeVito did not return calls. John Gallagher, a spokesman at CSFB, did not return calls seeking comment on Ricciardi's potential replacement.