Good help is hard to find, and perhaps even harder when you’re managing complicated structured credit products.
Brian James and Joseph Messineo certainly found that to be the case in their prior jobs as managing directors and co-heads of fixed income at Cohen & Co., a Philadelphia-based alternative investment manager with $42 billion in assets under management.
“You really need a specialist recruiter to help you find the right people to manage CDOs and other structured finance products. When Joe and I were in a position in which we were hiring a lot of them, we found that most recruiters were not specialized enough,” Mr. James said.
Realizing that their decade of experience in the fixed-income area — and their “full Rolodexes” — could help fill a void, Messrs. James and Messineo formed Link Global Solutions LLC, a global executive recruitment and consulting firm focused on the financial sector. Both credit specialists are partners in the firm, which is based in New York and has offices in London and Tokyo.
Mr. James said the recruitment side of the business will initially focus on structured credit, but other asset classes will be added over time. The firm will also offer investment consulting services to buy-side investors such as pension funds, endowments and foundations. “The growth of the structured finance market has, to date, been driven almost entirely by arrangers and issuers. Given the (recent) repricing of risk, the opportunities for buy-side participants have greatly increased. We intend to play an active role in helping clients identify the right talent to take advantage of these new opportunities.”
