Cowen Group has made three senior hires at Copwen & Co with Michael Wildish, who is based in New York, joining the firm as Managing Director, Mergers & Acquisitions, Iain Franks as Managing Director and Head of Convertible and Equity-Linked Products, and Eric Grant as Managing Director and Senior Trader, Convertible and Equity-Linked Products. Franks and Grant are based in San Francisco.
“We continue to opportunistically enhance our investment banking capabilities in ways that complement our areas of strength,” says Kevin Raidy, Head of Investment Banking. “Our senior bankers have strong client relationships in equity and debt capital markets. With the addition of Michael and our expanded advisory expertise, we are positioned to deepen these relationships across verticals. Michael, a seasoned M&A veteran, brings a wealth of transaction experience and his insights will serve our clients well.
“Our ongoing goal is to provide investment banking clients with a range of solutions that align with their capital raising needs. We established a dedicated convertible and equity-linked product team to enhance our existing product origination effort in this area because we believe convertible and equity-linked securities are highly relevant for growing companies, especially in the current market environment. Iain has a long and successful track record of originating and structuring convertible and equity-linked transactions. We look forward to Iain’s contributions to the team.”
Dan Charney, Head of Equities, says: “Led by Eric, our newly established convertible and equity-linked distribution desk augments our equities platform and supports the convertible and equity-linked product origination effort. Eric is a top-tier sales and trading professional with a proven ability to add value to institutional and corporate relationships.”
Wildish has more than 30 years of experience that includes strategic advice, financial restructuring, investment banking and public accounting. Most recently, he was a Managing Partner at Corporate Partners, a private equity fund. Before that, Wildish was with Miller Buckfire as the Head of Mergers and Acquisitions and GE Capital Market Services as the Leader of Global New Product Introduction and Capital Management. He spent several years at Credit Suisse First Boston as the Head of Media Mergers & Acquisitions and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette as the Head of Technology Mergers & Acquisitions. Prior to that, he was a General Partner at Lazard Freres. Wildish graduated from the University of Virginia with a BS in Commerce and received an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Prior to joining Cowen, Franks was with JMP Securities where he was a Managing Director in the Convertible and Private Capital Markets group. Previously, he was an Executive Director with Oppenheimer’s Convertible and Equity Capital Markets group. He held similar roles at Piper Jaffray and RBC Capital Markets where he originated, structured and priced convertible and equity-linked financing solutions. Franks also worked at Thomas Weisel Partners and UBS in convertible securities and credit analysis. Franks received a BA in Accounting and Finance from The Nottingham Trent University.
Grant joins Cowen from JMP Securities where he was a Director, Senior Convertible Trader and Salesperson. Prior to that, he was a Senior Vice President, Head of Convertible Bond Trading and Senior Salesperson at Sterne, Agee & Leach. Before that, he was an assistant portfolio manager for investment grade portfolios at Zazove Associates. Grant was also with several other financial institutions such as Morgan Stanley, Bank One Capital Markets, Thomas Weisel Partners and CIBC World Markets where he was a convertible trader and salesperson. Grant graduated from Syracuse University with a BA in Political Science.
