Author: Philip Eade
Last November Hans-Joerg Rudloff, chairman of Barclays Capital, announced that in addition to his role as chairman he would take direct responsibility for continental Europe, to “increase strategic momentum” in the region. The hiring of Alberto Francioni, an old associate from Rudloff’s CSFB days, was perhaps one of the more significant events after this announcement. Francioni comes with an impressive track record in fixed income, although he left ABN Amro in June 1999 in rather mysterious circumstances – he had only recently been appointed joint head of global markets, but says that he left of his own accord. “There’s no point in asking why,” he says. “They were private reasons.” The position Francioni now occupies at Barclays Capital is less senior to his job at ABN Amro, but he claims he was won over by “the commitment of the senior people to make things happen in a very fast way”. He says: “I’ve committed myself to putting Barclays on the map on the distribution side in continental Europe very quickly. It also gives me the fun of having client contact again – something I didn’t really have much opportunity for while running a big department at ABN Amro.”