Canaccord Financial has appointed former Lazard and Lehman Brothers manager Alexis de Rosnay as chief executive of Canaccord Genuity Limited, the company’s UK and European operations.

Canaccord Financial has appointed former Lazard and Lehman Brothers manager Alexis de Rosnay as chief executive of Canaccord Genuity Limited, the company’s UK and European operations that was renamed after buying Collins Stewart Hawkpoint.

The firm said de Rosnay is taking the post left vacant by Mark Brown, who has resigned from the role; Brown will continue working with Canaccord Genuity Limited, as a consultant, until March 2013, Canaccord said in a statement today.

Canaccord is expanding in Europe: the Canadian firm bought Collins Stewart Hawkpoint for around £253.1 million ($401.6 million) in March this year.

“Our acquisition of Collins Stewart Hawkpoint has positioned Canaccord Genuity as a leading investment bank in the UK, and Mark Brown’s dedication to the business combination was a key driver of its success,” Paul Reynolds, President and CEO of Canaccord Financial, said.

Previous to his new job, de Rosnay was co-head of UK investment banking at Lazard and vice chairman of Lazard International. Prior to that job, he was co-head of global healthcare investment banking and co-head of investment banking in Europe and the Middle East at Lehman Brothers.

At the time of Cannaccord's purchase of the Collins Stewart Hawkpoint business, media reports said almost 100 staff would lose their jobs, split roughly equally between the two businesses. 

Canaccord's wealth management business in the UK and Europe had C$12.6 billion ($12.8 billion) of assets at the end of June.