Fitch Ratings Appoints Three New Heads for EMEA

Fitch Ratings has made three new appointments to its Global Structured Finance team. Ian Linnell will replace Huxley Somerville as head of EMEA Structured Finance. Somerville is returning to the agency's New York office to focus on strategic and operational initiatives. The agency has yet to name a replacement for Linnell as head of EMEA banking. John Olert will head global structured credit and Philip McDuell will head structured credit for EMEA and Asia-Pacific. Olert and Linnell will report to Paul Taylor, who is the group's managing director and head of global structured finance. McDuell will report to Olert. Additionally, Managing Director Stuart Jennings, will lead the newly formed EMEA structured finance special projects and research group. Jennings was previously head of EMEA RMBS. Senior director Gregg Kohansky will now assume that position. Among other changes in EMEA at the rating agency include the combination of the EMEA performance analytics teams for ABS, CMBS and RMBS into one surveillance group. The teams will now report to Managing Director Rodney Pelletier. The EMEA CMBS team, which will be managed by Managing Director Andrew Currie, also reports to Pelletier. Jennings, Pelletier and Walsh will all report to Linnell.