Alexandra & James LLC, the family business run by Jim Lebenthal and his daughter Alexandra, announced three key hires this month as the firm ramps up its wealth management and syndicate businesses.
The firm in August hired Eileen Foley to work in the public finance division. Foley worked at JPMorgan for a decade.
The firm last month also hired Rick Folgiano of Natixis to work in institutional sales, and in August hired Jennifer Gonzalez as a portfolio manager.
Alexandra Lebenthal said the company has been expanding rapidly since last year, and now has 35 employees.
Lebenthal founded the firm with her father Jim, a long-time municipal booster and author of the books “Confessions of a Municipal Bond Salesman” and “Lebenthal on Munis.”
Since the credit crisis last year, the market has become more favorable for smaller firms, she said.
People who work at bigger banks are more willing to consider switching to smaller companies, and the exit of names like Lehman and UBS from the market has created new opportunities, she said.
“There’s been a recognition that bigger isn’t necessarily better,” she said. “It’s been great for us.”
Another boon to the firm has been an initiative in New York State designed to boost participation of women- and minority-owned firms in underwriting syndicates.
For instance, last month the Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority switched its bond broker-dealer from Citi and JPMorgan to Lebenthal.
That move fulfilled its obligation under a state initiative “to expand opportunities in the financial industry to minority- and women-owned businesses,” the authority said in a statement.
“We’ve done well in terms of our inclusion in syndicates in New York State,” Lebenthal said. She added that the firm will likely continue expanding as its assets under management grow and it sees new opportunities.
“We’ve been really building up in the last couple of years, and had been just searching for the right people,” she said. “We’re still probably going to be bringing in some more people.”
Lebenthal has been co-manager on $230.4 million in municipal underwritings this year, the 87th-ranked underwriter in the U.S., according to Thomson Reuters.
