BTIG Continues Expansion of Fixed Income Team with Key Hires In Structured Finance and Trading


New York – June 10, 2010 – BTIG LLC, a broker dealer specializing in institutional trading and related brokerage services, today announced the continued expansion of its Fixed Income Group with the addition of a Structured Finance Analytics and Strategy Group and several hires in the firm’s Structured Products Group.

BTIG’s Structured Finance Analytics and Strategy Group will be led by industry expert Dan Castro. He will be joined by Glenn Costello, Jennifer Pariseau, and Emily Chiang. This new team will provide analysis and support to the Fixed Income Sales and Trading teams with a focus on mortgage and other asset-backed securities.

“We continue to see a huge opportunity in fixed income and are constantly looking to expand our product offering to match our clients’ needs,” said Scott Kovalik, Co-Founder of BTIG. “With the increased demand for structured products and in particular, asset-backed securities, we saw this as a great opportunity to solidify our position in the structured product space.”

Castro, a managing director for BTIG, joins the firm from Huxley Capital Management, a New York-based structured products investment advisory firm, where he was chief risk officer. Prior to Huxley, Castro was a portfolio manager and chief credit officer at GSC Group, formerly GSC Partners. Prior to that, he spent the majority of his career at Merrill Lynch, where he was the head of asset-backed securities research. With BTIG, Castro and his team will work directly with the firm’s institutional clients to provide them with assistance and advice on asset-backed securities trading and portfolio management decisions.

Costello joins BTIG as a managing director. He is a veteran mortgage-bond analyst who worked alongside Castro during his tenure at Merrill Lynch. Costello joins BTIG from Fitch, where he served as a managing director.

Pariseau joins BTIG as a director. Prior to joining BTIG, Pariseau was a portfolio manager at Huxley Capital Manager, where she oversaw $500mm in consumer ABS investments. Prior to her time at Huxley, Pariseau held roles at West Side Advisors and Bear Stearns.

Chiang joins BTIG as a structured finance desk analyst from GSC Group, where she was an investment analyst focused on ABS, CDOs and RMBS. She brings more than 10 years of credit and structured products experience from Credit Suisse First Boston and JP Morgan.

In addition to Castro and his team, BTIG has hired Gregory Ikhilov, Forrest Kontomitras and Omar Buttari to join its Structured Products Group.

Ikhilov joins BTIG as a director. Prior to BTIG, he was an RMBS trader with Nomura Securities. Before that he traded RMBS for Bank of America and Merrill Lynch.

Kontomitras joins BTIG as a director. Prior to joining BTIG, Kontomitras served as director of structured products for E.J. De La Rosa & Co’s structured mortgage products. He has more than 25 years of experience in sales and trading for financial institutions and specializes in credit sensitive, cash-flow assets for institutional investors.

Buttari joins BTIG as a director. Buttari brings 18 years of experience in fixed income sales and trading. He joins BTIG from De La Rosa & Co. in Los Angeles, and previously spent several years at Jefferies and Sutro & Co.

“We are excited to enhance our Fixed Income offering with the addition of our new Structured Finance Analytics and Strategy Group,” added Jon Bass, Head of Fixed Income. “As we continue to extend our footprint in fixed income, complementing our new Group with additional structured product expertise will enable us to provide our clients with the unmatched level of service they expect from BTIG.”

About BTIG
BTIG LLC is a premier institutional brokerage and fund services company. Founded in 2002, BTIG, including through its affiliates, employs more than 400 professionals. BTIG serves customers from all over the world and offers services from seven divisions: Equity Trading, Fixed Income, Convertible Securities, Prime Brokerage, Outsource Trading, Direct Market Access, Capital Markets, Equity Research and Corporate Access. BTIG has domestic offices in New York, San Francisco, Dallas, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Greenwich, Red Bank, Aspen and Orinda. The firm also has affiliates in London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney.

BTIG LLC is a member of FINRA and SIPC

BTIG Australia Limited is a member of ASIC and ASE

BTIG Hong Kong Limited is an SFC approved broker dealer

BTIG Ltd is a member of the LSE and is authorized and regulated by the FSA

BTIG Singapore Pte. Ltd is registered and licensed with MAS

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