Merrill Lynch has hired Emmanuel Girod, a senior equity exotics trader at Credit Suisse in London, in a new role as head of equity structured products trading. Girod will be responsible for index and single stock exotics and also correlation trading, reporting to Chris Vogelgesang, head of equity-linked trading. Vogelgesang declined comment and Girod was on gardening leave and could not be reached.
Girod is highly regarded in the equity derivatives market and said to be a big-figure money maker at Credit Suisse. Since the departure of Nick Nassuphis, head of exotics trading, to Barclays Capital last May, Girod had taken on responsibility for the operation. According to one official close to him, he was targeted by several other firms and will have been an expensive hire for Merrill. Amy Thompson, spokeswoman for Credit Suisse, declined comment on any replacement.
Merrill's exotics team was reshuffled last year after the departure of Steven Phan, responsible for fund-linked trading (DW, 2/4/05), and has reportedly been in the hands of single-stock and index exotics co-heads since then, overseen by Vogelgesang. It could not be determined what the new structure will be under Girod.
