CHICAGO - Prominent Chicago-based public finance banker Carole L. Brown has resigned from Barclays Capital to return to Mesirow Financial Inc. and help build a larger public finance banking practice for the growing firm.
Brown, a veteran local banker who Chicago Mayor Richard Daley tapped in 2003 to serve as chair of the Chicago Transit Authority board, will soon rejoin Mesirow, officials said. Brown rejoins the firm as a senior managing director for the public finance banking group and will serve as a co-head of tax-exempt capital markets.
Brown could not be reached for comment.
Brown, who was a managing director and head of the Chicago Barclays office, left Mesirow nearly a decade ago to join Lehman Brothers, whose public finance group was recently acquired by Barclays. Before joining Mesirow, she held positions at the former First National Bank of Chicago and Midwest Management Consultants.
Lawrence P. Morris, a senior managing director and member of the firm's executive committee, currently manages the banking group. He will remain after Brown returns. Brown has called Morris a mentor stemming from the early days in her business career at First National. Morris hired Brown at Mesirow in 1994.
Mesirow chief executive officer James C. Tyree, who heads the City Colleges of Chicago board, recruited Brown, sources said. Brown was lured by the opportunity to help expand the firm's business in the Midwest and nationally. "It's an incredible opportunity to take a leadership position at a firm and build its practice," said one source.
"We think it's a great time to expand," Tyree said in an interview yesterday, citing the exit and consolidation of other broker-dealers. "We really want to grow the business ... we want to expand in the Midwest and we are already expanding in Nashville and the Northeast. Carole has broad list of clients."
"It's a great time to have bankers like Carole and Larry," who Tyree said offer up experience and solid client relationships to take advantage of other firms' contractions. He added that Morris would continue to work with his Chicago and Illinois clients, although Brown will wear the title of head of public finance.
The move from a national brokerage to a regional firm might have raised some eyebrows - even to take a leadership post - a year ago, but the dramatic changes on Wall Street, with some firms leaving the business and others being absorbed by competitors, has elevated the role of regional firms in public finance.
Officials at Barclays - which did not have a municipal group prior to its acquisition of Lehman - have said they are committed to the public finance business, but market participants note the uncertainty of such commitments given the turbulent market and weakening economy. They cite the stunning news of UBS Financial Services' exit from municipals last year and the collapse of Bear, Stearns & Co. and Lehman this summer and rounds of layoffs at most Wall Street firms.
The 71-year-old employee-owned Mesirow has sought to take advantage of the problems at its larger competitors. The firm recently hired prominent portfolio manager Joseph Piraro who previously worked at Van Kampen Funds Inc. and veteran sales manager Dominick Mondi who worked at Bear Stearns. Brown also will bring with her two analysts. The firm has also made a handful of other trading hires in recent months.
The firm's main office is in Chicago with others in New York City and Pittsburgh. The firm has about 20 individuals in the sales and trading group who work in municipals, or on both municipal and corporate securities.
For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2008, Mesirow posted $490 million in revenue, with more than $245 million in capital. With the expanded sales and trading capabilities, the firm has said it wants to add to its current staff of about eight bankers to generate more product.
The firm did not rank in the top 25 list of senior managers in Illinois or the Midwest last year but is among the top five financial advisers in Illinois and top 25 in the Midwest, working for clients that included Cook County, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, and the state of Illinois.
Barclays banker Omar Daghestani, who was hired by Brown in July, will manage the small Barclays office here that includes health care banker Benjamin Klemz. Daghestani joined the firm from Citi after his position was cut amid a round of layoffs there. He specializes in pension bond issues and is a general government banker. Before joining Citi he worked at UBS.
