Family Office

Jefferies hires veteran exec to sharpen WM focus

FWR Staff 16 April 2009

Jefferies hires veteran exec to sharpen WM focus

Peters to lead investment bank's campaign to profit from rivals' failings. New York-based investment bank Jefferies sees the collapse and dislocation suffered by some of its larger Wall Street rivals in the course of this market downturn as a green light for the expansion of its private-client business. To help it flesh out this insight, it has hired Mark Peters, formerly head of Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks ' high-net-worth segment.

"We see a terrific opportunity to grow Jefferies' wealth-management business given the reduction in the number of full service Wall Street firms serving this market,'' says Jefferies' chairman and CEO Richard Handler. "Mark Peters, with his tremendous relationships and experience in building successful platforms at other firms, is the ideal person to lead Jefferies' wealth management effort, and his hiring reflects our increased commitment to expand the services we offer executives, families and high net worth individuals."

Shots in the dark

Jefferies wasn't available to say who Peters has replaced. Nor was it ready to tell what services its wealth-management business provides.

As of late 2007 Charles Baber was head of Jefferies' Private Client Services group -- of which Wealth Management was a segment aimed at helping wealthy individuals and families achieve long-term goals. Along with Wealth Management, Jefferies' Private Client Services included Corporate and Executive Services, Managed Asset Programs, Venture Services and Cash Management -- segment names still appear under the "Private Client Services" rubric on Jefferies' website.

Still, it seems likely that Peters has replaced Baber (or some short-run fill-in for him), and that Jeffries is in the process of re-naming its Private Client Services division as "Wealth Management."

Brian Friedman, chairman of Jefferies Executive Committee, comes close to confirming this interpretation. "Our private client business brings together a number of Jefferies' core capabilities, and we expect Mark Peters to provide substantial leadership and drive the growth of this business," he says.

Peters comes to Jefferies fresh from a three-year stint as head of SunTrust's private-banking and investment-advisory businesses. For a brief period before that, he led the U.S. ultra-high-net-worth services at Deutsche Bank -- and before that, he led a similar group at Citigroup's private bank. Earlier he was a managing director of private-client services at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette's retail brokerage (now part of Credit Suisse) and a private-client advisor with Goldman Sachs.

"I'm excited to join a thriving platform so well-positioned on Wall Street," says Peters. "My experience working in brokerage and private banking, coupled with having helped build or restructure three wealth-management franchises, will enable me to drive the expansion of Jefferies' wealth-management business in this time of unique opportunity."

Jefferies has private-client personnel in New York, Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco. -FWR

Purchase reproduction rights to this article

Register for WealthBriefing today

Gain access to regular and exclusive research on the global wealth management sector along with the opportunity to attend industry events such as exclusive invites to Breakfast Briefings and Summits in the major wealth management centres and industry leading awards programmes