Barclays Capital has hiredHarris Cohen as a structured credit quantitative analyst in its New York-based global collateralized debt obligation department. He reports to Eileen Murphy who heads the department. Cohen's last position was president of Bio-Dynamics, a start-up which built wireless devices. His company ceased operations in the aftermath of the World Trade Center tragedy, says Cohen. Prior to this high-tech interlude, he worked for Barclays from 1998 to 2000 as both an asset-backed securities analyst and an investment banker. In his last position at Barclays, Cohen worked as an associate investment banker within the Financial Institutions Group, a division headed by managing director Eric Jaeger.
Murphy says she is still looking to hire a banker in charge of marketing CDO transactions (BW, 10/1). Cohen says his main focus will be to create proprietary CDO models for investors on the Web. In addition, he will develop mathematical models to examine the pricing and risk of CDO tranches using rating agencies-based models.