Nomura's big new hire stands to attract talent from Goldman, BofA

Kevin Connors has landed. As we reported a few weeks ago, the former global co-head of FX sales at Goldman Sachs and ex-global head of FX sales at Bank of America, is joining Nomura. Today the Japanese bank confirmed his appointment, saying that Connors will occupy a role seemingly created especially for him, as global head of FX & emerging market sales and EMEA head of FX & EM. 

He starts today.

Nomura doesn't say explicitly that Connors will be hiring (he will be, "responsible for driving the evolution of Nomura’s Global FX & EM client franchise"), but this is the expectation. 

"I've heard that he's going to be hiring aggressively in all sorts of areas," says one headhunter. Another says he's expected to, "aggressively build a content and derivatives driven trading team and sales force." Connors, who spent 10 years at Goldman and four years at BofA is "a bit of a transformation agent," said the first headhunter. In his last full year at BofA, the bank ranked sixth for FX trading in the Euromoney survey; it's slipped down rankings since he left, and last year ranked 10th. 

Many of the key FX players in the London market are Connors' hires from the past. At Goldman Sachs, for example, Adam Crook, the partner who runs FX sales for the bank out of London was one of Connors' people. So too was Eric Murciano, co-head of emerging markets and FX sales, hired by Connors from ABN AMRO in 2004. Rebecca Anderton-Davies, the Goldman Sachs relationship management MD and yoga guru also worked with Connors at GS. So did Kristen Macleod, who now heads global FX sales for Barclays in New York.   

Other key players in the London market have worked with Connors at pivotal points in their careers. Mauricio Sada-Paz, the current global head of eFICC product and distribution at Barclays worked with Connors at both Bank of America and Barclays. James Fauset, the co-head of OTC FX and rates political strategy at COEX partners, worked with Connors at Goldman Sachs before leaving for Brevan Howard.  James Westwood, another former member of Connors' team at Goldman is now at Ascent Robotics. 

"Kevin has attracted some of the best talent in the market, and has helped them onto greater and better roles," says one headhunter. The other points out that while Connors has a reputation for inspiring extreme loyalty, he's not for everyone. "He can be a bit Marmite," he says. "He has a reputation as a hard-driving, hard-working banker. If you like that kind of high energy, go-get 'em style, then you will get along."

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