Jefferies just poached 5 top Credit Suisse bankers

Wall Street firm Jefferies has poached five top technology investment bankers from Credit Suisse, Yahoo Finance has learned.

The following technology bankers, who were all managing directors, have left Credit Suisse:

Cully Davis, (co-head of the Americas equity capital markets origination group)
Bill Brady, (chairman of the global technology investment banking group)
Steve West, (co-head of software investment banking)
Cameron Lester, (head of global internet investment banking)
John Metz, (head of global enterprise technology banking)

Those five, who are based in San Francisco, will join the Jefferies technology banking team currently led by Phil Berkowitz, a banker with over 20 years of experience ^[1].

Lester, who has over 20 years of experience in technology venture capital and investment banking, will serve as a managing director and global head of internet investment banking based in San Francisco. In addition, he will serve as the global co-head of technology investment banking alongside Berkowitz based in New York and Dominic Lester based in London.

Davis will join as a managing director and head of West Coast technology investment banking and also vice chairman of Jefferies equity capital markets group.

Brady, a technology investment banker with 23 years experience, will Jefferies as vice chairman and chairman of technology investment banking.

West, who spent 18 years at Credit Suisse, will be the managing director and global head of software investment banking.

Credit Suisse and Jefferies declined to comment.

The banking business has been in turmoil

In recent months, Wall Street firms have suffered as market volatility made it challenging to execute deals. Neither Credit Suisse nor Jefferies, which is a subsidiary of Leucadia National Corporation (LUK), have been immune to this.

Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam of Swiss bank Credit Suisse speaks to the media during a news conference in Zurich, …

"In the first quarter of 2016 and particularly in January and February, we operated in some of the most difficult markets on record with volumes and client activity drastically reduced," Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam said ^[2]. "While we saw tentative signs of a pick-up in activity in March and then in April, subdued market conditions and low levels of client activity are likely to persist in the second quarter of 2016 and possibly beyond."

Credit Suisse, which has been suffering from its own unique set of woes, accelerated its restructuring plans amid the banking industry slump. In March, management announced it would cut 2,000 investment banking jobs ^[3] in addition to already-planned cuts. Management is targeting a headcount reduction of 3,500 by the end of this year ^[4].

"Leucadia's first quarter 2016 results were impacted by the volatile and turbulent period in the capital markets, which primarily impacted Jefferies and our other market sensitive businesses," Jefferies CEO Richard Handler said earlier this month ^[5].

But the industry may be turning around.

"[B]enefiting from improved market conditions, the range of changes we implemented last year and in the first quarter, as well as the continuing hard work of our entire team, Jefferies' performance in March and April has improved significantly," Handler said.

--
Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance.

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