CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS
Deloitte
The accountancy firm has appointed Zahir Bokhari to lead its UK banking and capital markets audit business.
Bokhari brings over 20 years of experience to the role, having provided audit, assurance and advisory services to numerous listed clients in the retail banking, inter-dealer brokers and capital markets sectors in his previous capacity as senior banking audit partner.
“These are challenging times for all financial services companies, with significant demand for audit, assurance and advisory services,” said Bokhari. “I look forward to taking on this role and helping our clients to address these issues.”
Brit Insurance
The insurance group has nominated Scott Egan as its new group chief financial officer, replacing Matthew Scales, who announced his intention to step down earlier this year.
Egan’s appointment will be put to a shareholder vote at the next general meeting, which the firm said would be held no later than January next year. Scales will remain at the group until Egan arrives.
Egan joins from Zurich Financial Services, where he has held various roles including group financial controller, based in Switzerland, and UK chief financial officer.
His appointment comes at an uncertain time for Brit, which last month finally agreed to open its books to suitor Apollo for due diligence after it submitted a third bid for the group at £10.75 a share. Two previous bids from Apollo at £10 and £10.50 a share had already been roundly rebuffed by Brit.
Edison Investment Research
Ian McLelland has joined the independent investment research house to bolster its oil and gas team.
McLelland has spent his 20-year career to date with oil giant BP, where he worked in the refining and petrochemicals sectors in a range of technical and engineering management positions.
He later moved to the group’s London headquarters, where he advised the various executive committees on issues such as strategy development, financial planning and performance management.
Capco
The business and technology consultancy has expanded its European capital markets team with the appointment of Jonathan Davis as its UK lead.
Davis joins from Accenture, where he spent 22 years after graduating from university. He worked in the UK financial services team, where he was latterly a member of the ten-strong UK leadership group. Davis said these are particularly interesting times for consultancy businesses, as firms reconsider their strategies, cost structures and internal controls in the aftermath of the economic crisis.
Mercer
The consulting and outsourcing group is to set up a new financial strategy group based in Edinburgh, providing specialist advice to Scottish and Northern Irish companies on how to manage risks in their occupational pension schemes.
Mercer said the move comes in light of the raft of challenges currently facing UK pension funds, including the continuing rise in longevity, the fall in global equity market and corporate bond yields, and the current fiscal squeeze. FTSE 350 company pension deficits stood as high as £85bn at the end of June, according to Mercer.
The new Edinburgh group will be headed up by Sathish Ramdayal, who has over 15 years of experience in the industry and joins from P-Solve Asset Solutions, the investment advisory and management arm of Punter Southall.
Rothschild
The bank said yesterday that Oliver Goetz and James Ankers have moved over to its South-east Asia office from Frankfurt and London respectively. In Singapore, Goetz will be head of transport for Asia and Ankers will be head of financial institutions in the region.
Threadneedle Communications
The City public relations firm has poached Terry Garrett from rival Weber Shandwick.
Garrett was formerly co-head of capital markets at Weber Shandwick, which he joined in 2000. He is an ex-journalist, having spent eight years as UK company news editor at the Financial Times.