Barclays has hired Scott McDavid from Morgan Stanley as global head of equities, and former Goldman Sachs banker Ronnie Wexler as head of equities distribution, tasked with delivering a new phase of growth for the business.
They fill a gap left after the departure of Paul Leech and Todd Sandoz as co-heads of equities in February. Stephen Dainton, co-head of global markets, is running equities on an interim basis. Barclays is aiming to be a top five bank for its markets business by 2025, and it said on Tuesday the hiring of McDavid and Wexler will help those ambitions.
McDavid will join in September in New York and be responsible for equities distribution and prime services, according to a memo to staff, seen by IFR. He will report to Adeel Khan, the other co-head of markets.
McDavid has been at Morgan Stanley for 18 years, most recently as co-head of equities trading for Americas. He previously spent eight years with Susquehanna Investment Group in equity derivatives trading.
Wexler will join in June in New York and be responsible for growing the equities client franchise, especially with the top 100 clients, and increasing collaboration across sales, trading and research, the memo said. He will report to Dainton.
Wexler joins from bitcoin company NYDIG, where he has headed business development since August 2020. Before that, he spent 19 years at Goldman, where he was a partner and co-head of Americas equities distribution and execution.
Barclays said the appointments reflect its ambitions for its equities business, where it said success is critical to overall corporate and investment bank goals. It has increased its market share in equities trading revenues in recent years, with particular gains in prime services and areas of derivatives.