The Structured Finance Industry Group (SFIG) has hired Falcon Capital Advisors and Boulder Advisors to help it attract new members and pursue its legislative agenda. Armando Falcon is the CEO of the former consultancy, Kristie Leo runs the latter.
Leo will assist members, especially investors, with education and advocacy. She had been a managing director at Deutsche Bank, co-managing U.S. origination and banking in structured finance.
Falcon’s contributions will have more of a regulatory bent and will center on mortgage-related issues. He has a quarter century under his belt working on legislative issues in the financial sphere.
Last February Falcon cut ties with the American Securitization Forum (ASF), which hired him as a senior policy advisor in mid-2010. The SFIG was founded by ASF defectors.
From 1999 to 2005 Falcon served as director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, now the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Sallie Mae Promotes Steven McGarry
Sallie Mae has appointed Steven McGarry as senior vice president of corporate finance.
The move comes after Sallie Mae announced plans to split into two separate entities, an education loan management company and a consumer banking company. A spokeswoman said the agency had yet to decide for which entity McGarry will eventually work.
For now, he is charged with overseeing all of the company’s funding activities as well as managing its relationships with rating agencies, stock and bond investors.
McGarry has worked for Sallie Mae’s corporate finance team since 1997, leading equity investor relations starting in 2003 and fixed income investor relations in 2011. Before joining Sallie Mae, he worked for the Toronto Dominion Bank.
Ian Gilday to Lead CLO Origination at Goldman
Goldman Sachs named Ian Gilday to the newly created position of head of origination for collateralized loan obligations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, according to an internal memo obtained by ASR.
Formerly, Gilday was head of EMEA syndicate and leveraged capital markets. According to the memo, he has been relocated to the securities division.
CLO issuance is expected to surge as high as $70-to-$80 billion this year from around $50 billion in 2012. Gilday joined Goldman in 2005. Prior to that, he was head of the European leveraged capital markets team at Merrill Lynch.
ICG Makes Hires in Debt Business
Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) recently made four hires as part of an effort to expand its North American debt business and, more specifically, grow its presence in collateralized debt obligations.
Seth Katzenstein joins ICG as a managing director in the firm’s North American debt division and will serve as portfolio manager for syndicated loan products, particularly focused on CLOs. Before joining ICG, Katzenstein was at Black Diamond Capital Management.
Brian Spenner joined ICG earlier this year as a managing director in the firm’s North American debt business. Previously, Spenner worked for the Blackstone Group with Salvatore Gentile, head of ICG’s North American operations.
ICG also recently hired Michael Sproul and Robert Kiesel as principals in the firm’s North American debt business. Sproul previously worked in Blackstone’s corporate debt group; Kiesel at HD Capital, Fifth Street Capital, and ORIX Merchant Banking.
“ICG has ambitious growth plans for its North American, operations,” said Gentile. “This is an exciting time to develop a credit business.”
Pillar Capital Names Stephen Velotti CEO
Pillar Capital has appointed Stephen A. Velotti chief executive officer. Velotti was formerly the chief investment officer of the Bermuda-based insurance asset management company.
Velotti has nearly 25 years of insurance and reinsurance experience. He joined Pillar as portfolio manager upon its formation in 2008.
Pillar is a Bermuda-based investment manager focused on investing in insurance related instruments, such as catastrophe bonds. Pillar was formerly at Juniperus Capital. The New York-based re-insurer Transatlantic Holdings is Pillar’s largest non-management investor.
