American Capital Access has hired Laura Schwartz as a managing director responsible for asset-backed securities and mortgage-backed securities, says Cathy Bailey, a spokeswoman at the buy-side firm. Schwartz, who joins from Merrill Lynch, where she was a director in the asset-backed finance group, replaces Ken Mulford, who recently joined Salomon Smith Barney's mortgage finance division (BW, 8/4). She will directly report to Maryam Muessel, coo. ACA is a New York-based insurance company that originates ABS and collateralized debt obligations as well as managing a portfolio of structured finance investments.
In her last position, Schwartz was responsible for Merrill's origination and execution of U.S. sub-prime residential mortgage-backed securities and whole loan mortgage pool purchases. Prior to this, and while still at Merrill, she was a director in the global real estate finance group, responsible for origination of CMBS and RMBS outside of the U.S., primarily in Canada and Latin America. She began her career at New York Life Insurance as a senior analyst in the commercial mortgage loan group. In her last position there, she managed the public and private ABS and CMBS portfolios of the insurance company.