Nomura Securities International Inc., announced that it has hired Jon Block as Head of International Trading in the Americas, with responsibility for trading and sales-trading of non-US stocks. His mandate is to grow Nomura’s already strong franchise in trading EMEA, Asian and Japanese stocks with US clients, and to build further product capabilities, including Latin America and Canada. He will act as head of the business in addition to being a client facing trader and risk manager.
Block worked at Goldman Sachs for ten years starting in 1994, where he traded international stocks and the financials sector. He also led UBS’s Canadian trading and sales trading franchise for four years starting in 2005. He graduated from Harvard College in 1990 and New York University Law School in 1994.
Block will join the firm later this month pending registration and will be based in New York. He will report directly to Ciaran O’Kelly, Head of Equities, Americas, and regionally to Dean Schulberg, Head of EMEA Cash Equities, and John Adair, Co-Head of Asia-Pacific Equity Sales.
Ciaran O’Kelly noted, “Investor clients now expect access to global themes and flows, and with our dominant international research franchise and comprehensive execution platform Nomura is well positioned to deliver an integrated global product few of our competitors can match. We offer our clients unparalleled access to Asia and Japan, and full equities capabilities in EMEA. As we complete our US build, Jon elevates our ability to harness the power and depth of Nomura’s international resources and deliver them to clients.”
Nomura is a leader in execution and research globally and holds #1 trading rankings on both the London Stock Exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The firm has superior research capabilities with 71 ranked teams in Institutional Investor’s 2010 research polls for EMEA, Asia and Japan, and covers over 1750 stocks outside the US. Its integrated global distribution network makes it a leading liquidity provider throughout international markets.
The hire comes amid Nomura’s rapid organic expansion in the US, which includes Fixed Income, Investment Banking and Equities. Over the past two years, Nomura has established active client businesses with leading teams in derivatives, convertibles, program trading and electronic trading, adding to its existing capabilities in equity finance and quantitative research. The firm is now establishing its fundamental equity research, cash trading and sales-trading, research sales and prime brokerage platforms, and has made dozens of prominent senior hires over the past several months. Nomura doubled its US Equities revenue-producing staff last fiscal year and will again this year as it completes its global build.