BankBoston Exec Exits to Start Merchant Bank

BankBoston Corp.'s head of corporate finance, John K. Giannuzzi, has left the company to launch a merchant banking operation.

In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Giannuzzi, who had been at BankBoston since late 1987, said he resigned last month to join Sherbrooke Associates, a Lexington, Mass., management consulting firm.

Mr. Giannuzzi has launched a new group, Sherbrooke Capital, which is raising sector-specific merchant banking funds, he said. He left BankBoston, he said, to take advantage of a "trend in the private equity markets coupling strategic consulting experience with merchant banking and capital markets expertise."

BankBoston said Tuesday it had formed a new unit, U.S. capital markets, as part of a continuing reorganization of its corporate and investment banking businesses.

Steven A. Shenfeld, a managing director, has been named head of the new unit, which groups the bank's high-yield securities team with its private finance and asset securitization operations.