Bay Street Buzz

This information courtesy of Bill Vlaad, of Vlaad & Co.:

“Toronto-based rating company, DBRS, cut approximately a quarter of its workforce and Moody’s Investors Service also has announced a 7.5% reduction.

In addition, JP Morgan Canada has apparently shuttered its Bonds and FX desks in Toronto.

TSX Group Inc. has appointed Rik Parkhill, Executive Vice-President of TSX Group and President of TSX Markets, and Michael Ptasznik, Chief Financial Officer of TSX Group as interim Co-Chief Executive Officers of the corporation. TSX Group Chief Executive Officer Richard Nesbitt announced his resignation earlier this week to accept the CEO role at CIBC World Markets, replacing Brian Shaw.

Other important changes at CIBC include:

Tom Woods, currently Chief Financial Officer of CIBC, becomes Chief Risk Officer, replacing Ken Kilgore;

David Williamson, formerly President and Chief Executive Officer of Atlas Cold Storage and CFO of Clarica Life Insurance Co., becomes Chief Financial Officer;

Gary Whitfield, former Head of Business Development for Barclays Private Bank in the U.K. and Head of the U.K. expatriate team at Barclays Wealth is now Vice-President at CIBC Private Wealth Management;

Matthew Akman, Power, Pipeline and Utilities Analyst at CIBC World Markets and recently appointed Deputy Head of Research (BB Jan. 4) has left to become the Utilities Analyst at Macquarie; and

Michael Brinkman who led CIBC World Markets biotechnology efforts on the U.S. West Coast has moved to Piper Jaffray as a Managing Director in its healthcare banking group.

Media Analyst, Andrew Mitchell left Scotia Capital to become an Institutional Portfolio Manager with Phillips, Hager & North in Toronto.

Candace MacGibbon has left RBC Capital Markets Institutional Equity Sales team where she focused on Mining to become the CFO of a mining company.

Rick Byers is leaving BMO Capital Markets to join Borealis Infrastructure. Byers will be a member of the senior management team responsible for the acquisition and management of global infrastructure assets for Borealis.

Lawrence Casse, formerly of M Partners, has landed as a Research Analyst at LOM in Alternative/Sustainable Energy research previously covered by Massimo Fiore who left for Versant Partners late in 2007 (BB Nov. 30).

RioCan REIT has hired real estate group investment banking director at TD Securities, Rags Davloor, as its new CFO.

Institutional Equity Salesperson Aaron Burley has moved from Scotia Capital to National Bank Financial.

Bill Vlaad
647-426-3890 (Direct)”

MRM