CIBC Unit Hires Loan Portfolio Chief

CIBC Wood Gundy Securities Inc. appointed Loretta Hennessey managing director for U.S. loan portfolio management last week.

As the bank loan market matures and syndicated loans become an increasingly liquid asset class, the role of loan portfolio managers like Ms. Hennessey is growing in importance, said bankers familiar with her move to CIBC.

"She's clearly one of the pioneers in instituting this portfolio management discipline in a commercial bank," said Steven Miller, principal of Portfolio Management Data LLC, New York.

Ms. Hennessey, 48, was most recently a managing director at Bank of Montreal, for whose U.S. large corporate loan portfolio she was responsible for the past three years. At Bank of Montreal, which she joined in 1985, Ms. Hennessey worked in London, Tokyo, and New York, where she headed underwriting and distribution of all senior debt facilities originated in the United States.

"What Loretta has been critical in building at Bank of Montreal is the analytics to manage a (sizable) portfolio," said Hans Christensen, vice president for credit risk at Citibank.

Her hiring by CIBC Wood Gundy is a sign that her approach to actively managing a loan portfolio is catching on, observers said.

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