Jean-François Astier: Dealing with debt

IN ADDITION

Fifty years of capital markets Jim Amine Samir Assaf Allegra Berman Mandy DeFilippo Jerry del Missier Bob Diamond Tyler Dickson Eric Dobkin Martin Egan Jim Esposito Peter Hancock Guy Hands Jeremy Isaacs Conor Killeen John McNiven Chris O'Malley Vikram Pandit Hans-Joerg Rudloff John St John Paul Tregidgo Matthew Westerman

Jean-François Astier became head of global capital markets at Barclays in May 2017 after a career heavily focused on leveraged finance. 

“I started in this business in early 1990s, at the time of the Drexel bankruptcy and the recession in 1992 and 1993,” he tells Euromoney. 

“I started in high yield when it was still the creation of Michael Milken and an embryonic business. My coach in those years was Ken Buckfire. He was one of the best professionals in restructuring and I learned a tremendous amount from him. I learned the art of negotiation too.” 

 Astier was Barclays’ head of global leveraged finance from 2012 until his move to his current role.

“The period from 2004 to 2008 was one of the most dynamic times in investment banking – maybe too dynamic,” he recalls.