CastleOak Securities LP has hired two veterans for its municipal bond underwriting and trading divisions.
On Monday it announced that Beth Wolchock and David Frank had joined the firm in its New York office.
Wolchock is managing director of municipal underwriting in public finance. Frank is managing director of muni trading. Wolchock has 34 years of experience working with munis and Frank has 35 years.
Wolchock and Frank are two of six public finance managing directors at CastleOak.
While Cathy Bell is head of public finance at CastleOak, both Wolchock and Frank will report directly to chief executive officer David Jones. “We hope to become a player,” Wolchock said regarding CastleOak’s municipal side.
Wolchock has held leadership roles in underwriting at Kidder Peabody, Dean Witter Reynolds, Greenwich Partners and, most recently, Jackson Securities. At Jackson she managed a wide variety of muni bonds.
She also opened a regional office in Stamford, Conn., where both she and Frank worked.
Wolchock said she thought there were two keys to succeeding in underwriting: being aware of investors’ needs and knowing the history of how bonds were trading.
Frank was the lead tax-exempt trader at Jackson Securities, where he worked for 11 years. Previously, he was head general market trader at Greenwich Partners for six years. He has also worked at Belle Haven Investments, Chemical Bank and FNB Chicago.
Frank said there were two key skills for trading: one, being responsive to customers by way of what one hears about them from salespeople, and two, have a valid opinion of the market and an understanding of your own risk level.
In addition to hiring Wolchock and Frank, CastleOak has brought aboard Kevin Di Russa as senior managing director for sales in the firm’s fixed income and sales and trading division and Omar Buttari, Kevin Ghomashchi and Kimberly Sullivan as managing directors of the division.
Finally, CastleOak has recently opened an office in Los Angeles for sales and trading.
