Barclays PLC BCLYF-OTC is adding two veteran investment bankers to its Canadian ranks as the British bank recovers from an exodus of Canada-based employees.
Ken Davis will join the bank’s Calgary office in October as head of Western Canadian coverage, and in December Greg Petit will start with Barclays in Toronto as head of Canadian infrastructure, power and utilities, Barclays announced Friday.
Both new hires will report to head of Canadian investment banking Ryan Voegeli, although the bank said Mr. Davis will also collaborate closely with Mike Cormier, global head of Barclays’s energy transition group.
Mr. Davis spent the past six years as head of Canadian natural resources and clean energy transition investment banking at Citi and worked at Goldman Sachs before that.
He is changing jobs during a challenging time for the Calgary investment banking community. In June, U.S. investment bank Stifel Financial Corp., previously known as FirstEnergy Capital Corp., closed its office in the city, eliminating 35 jobs.
Mr. Petit has been with Bank of Montreal since 2006, most recently as managing director and head of Canadian power, utilities and infrastructure. He is also a chartered financial analyst and a chartered professional accountant.
They are joining the London-based bank roughly one year after Barclays lost more than a dozen of its senior Canadian bankers to the Canadian arm of Wall Street investment dealer Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Over a roughly six-week period in 2023, Jefferies hired Barclays’s Canadian head of mergers and acquisitions, its head of equity capital markets, several other investment bankers and three analysts, who covered financial institutions, mining and energy.
Bruce Rothney, who had previously spent 13 years as chief executive officer of Barclays Canada, also joined Jefferies as CEO of its Canadian division in late 2023. Jefferies added a total of 40 new staff to its Canadian operations last year, with most of those new hires coming over from Barclays.
Since then, Barclays has hired several banking executives away from major Canadian financial institutions in an effort to rebuild its ranks. Geoffrey Belsher was hired as Barclays Canada CEO in October, 2023, marking the second time he has led its operations. He briefly served as president of Barclays Canada in 2008 when he joined the company as part of its acquisition of Lehman Brothers.
“Greg and Ken will continue to build on our strong momentum in Canada by deepening our coverage of the infrastructure and energy transition sectors across North America as well as reinforcing our commitment to Western Canadian clients more broadly,” Mr. Belsher said in a statement.
Less than three months after hiring Mr. Belsher, Mr. Voegeli joined Barclays in January, 2024, after having spent 13 years with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Last month, Stephen Stewart was hired as Barclays’s new head of Canadian merger and acquisition execution after having spent 16 years with Toronto-Dominion Bank.
Barclays has maintained a Canadian presence for more than a century and prominent politicians – including former prime minister Robert Borden and former finance minister Michael Wilson – have previously led its office here.