Barclays Wealth hired three executives from rival firms Thursday as part of its expansion strategy in the Americas.
Donald Gershuny, formerly Bank of America-Merrill Lynch general counsel for global wealth management, joined Barclays Wealth as general counsel for the Americas; Peter Reynolds joined as chief risk officer for the region after giving up his post as head of regulatory risk and compliance for RBS Americas; and Caroline Simko, previously with AllianceBernstein, was hired as head of global research & investments marketing.
All three were also named managing directors.
"We are extremely pleased to welcome senior legal and risk professionals of Don and Peter's caliber and experience," said Mitch Cox, head of Barclays Wealth in the Americas and head of research and investments for the firm globally, in a press release about the hiring of Gershuny and Reynolds.
In a separate statement regarding Simko's new role, Cox said, "Having a marketing professional of Caroline's expertise and thoughtfulness drive our communication and delivery of research and products will be a great business asset."
Cox joined Barclays Wealth in October 2009 after 12 years with Merrill Lynch, where he most recently led Merrill's global investment solutions group after previously running its global private client market investment and origination division and its structured products origination and sales operations.
Gershuny joins Barclays Wealth after spending 34 years at Merrill, where he most recently was responsible for all legal, regulatory and compliance services for wealth management.
"It makes sense that Mitch Cox is bringing over more professionals from Merrill Lynch, given his position within the firm before he left," said Mark Elzweig, an executive search consultant. "Plus, Barclays Wealth is a well-capitalized firm with an unsullied name, and there's a dearth of such boutique firms in the business."
For his part, Reynolds spent the last three years as for RBS Americas and prior to that worked at Citigroup for a decade. And Simko was head of marketing for Bernstein Global Wealth Management over the past eight years.
At Barclays, Simko will be responsible for leveraging the firm's intellectual capital and its tailored global product offering in support of client service, business development and strategy, the firm says.
