Paul Santucci recently left Wachovia Securities, where he had been a regional manager, to move to UBS Securities, where he will be covering the New Jersey region. He had been at Prudential for four years prior to its acquisition by Richmond-based Wachovia.
Bear Stearns continues to raid the ranks of Oppenheimer. First, it brought in top producer Michael Silverstein from Oppenheimer. Silverstein manages more than $500 million and is based in New York, and the firm also brought in Oppenheimer's Richard Devine and Howard Franzblau as managing directors in the private client division. The duo has more than $550 million assets under management between them. They will also be based in New York. The firm also hired Betsy Bliss as managing director in the private client services division, based in San Francisco — she had been executive director of investments and an asset management consultant at Oppenheimer since 1974.
J.J.B. Hilliard, W.L. Lyons has acquired an office in Birmingham, Mich., that was formerly operated by RBC Dain Rauscher. Manager Steve Kus and rep Francis Plummer, along with several support staff members, staff the office. The firm, which has more than 850 financial consultants, according to the SIA, is consolidating a nearby office in Troy, Mich., into this newly acquired office.
Quick & Reilly has formed a new national investment sales team, and they've tagged Stan Gregor to run it. Gregor is formerly Q&R's executive vice president and managing director of investments and has worked for the firm for two years. Quick & Reilly is the brokerage arm of FleetBoston Financial. Previously, Gregor worked for Citigroup. The new division of Q&R will have more than 2,300 reps.
Alliance Bernstein hired Steve Scanlon as a senior vice president and senior regional manager. He will head up the firm's Texas branches. Scanlon comes to Alliance Bernstein from Manulife Wood Logan, and he will be in charge of retail distribution for the Texas market.
Dennis Ferro was named the new CEO of Evergreen Investments. Ferro had been serving as Evergreen's Chief Investment Offer. He was worked for Evergreen since 1999, where he helped build the Boston-based company into the country's 12th largest mutual fund complex. Ferro will remain CIO as well.