Buildings are seen in Toronto’s financial district.© Mark Blinch / Reuters
The new chief at Canaccord Genuity is wasting little time putting his team in place – and one of the central tenets is a hire from outside the organization.
In September, Dan Daviau was named the independent investment bank's next chief executive officer, ending months of speculation that he would be tapped for the position. Acting quickly to establish the new order, the new CEO unveiled the lineup of executives under him on Thursday.
Central to the struggle is the hire of Pat Burke to run the dealer's Canadian capital markets arm. Mr. Burke used to be head of global equity and co-head of investment banking at Scotia Capital, but left the bank suddenly last September, surprising Bay Street. At Canaccord, Mr. Burke fills a hole created by the departure of former Canadian capital markets head Matt Gaasenbeek earlier this year.
As part of the shuffle, Stuart Raftus is taking on an expanded role and becomes chief administrative officer, which will oversee operations information technology and human resources. Mr. Stuart has been president of the dealer's wealth management arm since 2014.
Brad Kotush has also been handed extra responsibility. Already chief financial officer, Mr. Kotush will become chief risk officer as well, which is a new role at Canaccord Genuity. Since the financial crisis, risk has become one of the most important divisions at any financial institution and the new role helps the dealer evolve in this new environment.
Additional executive moves include the appointment of Mark Whaling as global head of sales and trading, whereas he used to oversee only equities, and the promotion of Jeff Barlow to the head of Canaccord's U.S. division, where he used to be responsible for investment banking.
The new appointments extend a string of executive changes at the dealer this year – some of which were planned and others that were surprises.
Major changes include the recent departures of former banking head Phil Evershed, global head of mergers and acquisitions Barry Goldberg and Canada head Mr. Gaasenbeek, as well as the death of former Canaccord Genuity CEO Paul Reynolds last April.
After Mr. Reynolds passed, executive chairman David Kassie took over as interim CEO, but has since taken a step back after Mr. Daviau was formally given the role.
At the same time, Alexis de Rosnay, who runs Canaccord's European arm and was the other contender for the top job, was appointed senior executive vice-president of the entire company, as well as global head of investment banking.