Ex-Citi exec Trop to head commercial RE lending to bank's private clients. Deustche Bank has hired former Citigroup Private Bank executive Laura Trop to run real-estate lending in its U.S. Private Wealth Management (PWM) business. Based in New York, she reports to PWM structured lending head Tim Schantz.

"Laura is a seasoned and well-known real estate professional with strong ties to the commercial real-estate community," says Thomas Bowers, head of Deutsche's U.S. private-wealth group. "The strategic development of our real estate lending business is critical to PWM's success."

Staffing up

Trop was a director of commercial real estate in Citi's private banking business. Earlier she was a partner of real-estate advisory Foray Capital. She has also held worked at Chemical Bank (now part of JPMorgan Chase), Drexel Burnham Lambert and Bankers Trust (now part of Deutsche).

As part of Deutsche PWM's effort to increase commercial real-estate opportunities, Trop will expand the unit's structured lending business to entrepreneurs and realty developers. She will also coordinate PWM's commercial real-estate business with Deutsche's global banking efforts.

Deutsche PWM seems to be in the grips of a hiring frenzy. Earlier this month it put Michael Burke, formerly national sales director for Morgan Stanley's retail brokerage, in charge of Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown. Last month it brought Rosemary Vrablic and Dominic Scalzi over from the Private Bank of Bank of America to work as New York-based advisors. In August ex-Bank of America private banker Mark Chiappara made the same move.

In the U.S., Deutsche's PWM division combines the bank's private banking operations with DB Alex. Brown's fee-based business. -FWR

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