CHICAGO - RBC Dain Rauscher Inc. announced yesterday that Chris Hamel, a 19-year veteran of the firm's public finance group and the current director of the sector's special finance group, will replace Bob Vanosky, the longtime head of fixed-income banking, who will retire next year.
The change in leadership will take effect Feb. 1, although Vanosky will remain at the firm until his retirement at the end of next year. Vanosky's retirement marks the end of a 35-year career with a firm that eventually evolved into RBC Dain Rauscher.
Both Vanosky, 53, and Hamel, 48, came from Rauscher Pierce Refsnes Inc., which merged with Dain Bosworth Inc. in 1997. Since then, the firm has undergone major changes, with Vanosky at the helm of the division whose primary business is public finance banking but also includes the student loan and asset securitization sectors.
After the Dain-Rauscher merger, several other smaller ones followed and then the Royal Bank of Canada bought the firm in 2000. Much of the last year was spent merging the capital markets groups of Dain with another of its parent bank's acquisitions -- Tucker Anthony Sutro.
The Dain merger with Boston-based Tucker Anthony and San Francisco-based Sutro boosted the firm from a strong regional player in the Midwest and the Southwest to a national level, providing inroads to the Northeast and West Coast.
"Mergers of this size are generally challenging but this one has been the best one I've ever been through ... there were fewer conflicts than if we had been in each other's backyards," Vanosky said in an interview along with Hamel and Larry Holtz, the president of fixed-income capital markets .
Hamel inherits a group of 150 employees in 22 offices in 12 states. Hamel will report to Holtz, who manages a group that totals 450 employees. Though the Tucker merger resulted in the layoffs of about 30 employees, Holtz said the overall staff under his purview has grown by 60% to 450. The public finance group is based in Minneapolis and Hamel plans to relocate from Arizona.
The combination of the added geographical presence helped push the firm up a few notches in lead manager rankings, allowing it to crack the top 10 in the third quarter of this year with $6.7 billion in deals underwritten, according to Thomson Financial Securities Data. The combination of the merger and a stellar year in tax-exempt issuance pushed the fixed-income capital markets group revenues up to $94 million, a 25% profit margin, at the close of its fiscal year Oct. 31 compared to $47 million the previous year.
In moving forward, Hamel said he believes it is his mission to stay the course established under Vanosky. "I think what Larry seeks is continuity with the success that Bob has had and consistency with respect to strategy, which is based on focused growth," Hamel said.
Holtz said that despite the increased national presence, he is intent on maintaining the culture of a regional banking firm focused on its relationships with clients, managing those mid-range deals around $50 million.
On the horizon, Holtz said the group's parent RBC remains committed to the public finance arena and the firm continues to look for "strategic" acquisitions aimed at targeted growth and Hamel said he is always interested in talking with "senior productive bankers."
Several Dain sources said the transition from Vanosky to Hamel is moving smoothly and was anticipated among the firm's staff as Hamel was being groomed for the post.
"We've been working on a succession plan for some time and Chris has been a key member of our banking management team whose served in increasing important" roles, Vanosky said.
