CHICAGO — Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird & Co. earlier this month hired two former LaSalle Financial Services Inc. municipal underwriting and sales professionals to open its first New York-area office in Red Bank, N.J.
Charles Massaro and Robert Boytano joined the firm as directors, according to Drew Kanyer, managing director and head of institutional municipal sales, trading, and underwriting at the firm. Massaro will work on underwriting competitively sold transactions in the $10 million to $200 million range nationally, and Boytano will focus on institutional sales and assist Massaro.
The new hires were driven more by the two men’s experience and less by their location and the establishment of a new Northeast office for Baird, Kanyer said. “We are very opportunistic in our hires and go where we find good people,” he said. “The ability to serve as a lead manager on medium-size competitive deals was a missing piece in our puzzle.”
With a new office now in place, Kanyer said the firm might also look to hiring public finance bankers there.
Massaro and Boytano were among the roughly 30 professionals at LaSalle in its Chicago, Michigan, and New York City offices that were fired last month by Bank of America Corp. less than two months after it acquired LaSalle Bank Corp. Just a couple of LaSalle employees remain.
LaSalle provided “generous” compensation packages, providing some cushion for employees to find new positions, according to several former employees. Some members of the municipal group are hoping to stay together and join a firm in Chicago as a team, according to several sources.
The additions follow the firm’s hiring of new banker Rebecca A. Eickley for its Scottsdale office and its announcement earlier this fall of the hiring of Ryan Nelson to work out of its Cincinnati office as part of a new initiative to better link asset management services with its public finance group.
In 2006, Baird was ranked 25th among senior managers, underwriting just over $2 billion of bonds in 252 issues, according to Thomson Financial, but on small issues ranked a higher sixth place with 210 issues totaling $854 million.
