Bay Street Buzz

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

RBC Capital Markets has appointed Kurt Halled and Greg Pardy as Co-Heads of Global Energy Research.

Sales Trader, Matt Cohen will be transferring to New York from Toronto on the U.S. Canadian Product Sales Trading Team for RBC.

Also at RBC, Alex Jemetz has joined the Preferred Trading Desk. He was formerly with CIBC World Markets.

On a global front, RBC has hired Vineet Arora as Senior Banker, Private Banking in its Middle East office. Previously, Arora was at IIFL Private Wealth Management.

Norman MacDonald has been promoted to Lead Portfolio Manager from Co-Portfolio Manager at Invesco Trimark.

The Marquee Group, a provider of financial modeling training programs, is adding two Principals who will be joining Ian Schnoor. Tim Benson was previously Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Finance at Retirement Residences REIT. He also worked in Investment Banking and Equity Research at BMO Capital Markets and UBS Securities. Jon Zelman joins from Citigroup, where he was a Director, Investment Banking.

Executive Vice President, Finance, John Pereira has been appointed Chief Financial Officer at DundeeWealth Inc.

Gurdeep Gill has joined National Bank Financial as Vice President of Corporate and Investment Banking in Calgary. Most recently Gurdeep was Vice President, Investment Banking at Tristone Capital.

MFC Global Investment Management has appointed Jean-Francois Courville Chief Executive Officer. Previously he was President and Chief Operating Officer at MFC GIM.

Acorn Global Investments has announced the appointment of Nicholas Markos as Director of Research. Most recently he was Director of Research at Infinity Management.

Andréanne Pagé will be joining Intact Investment Management as Canadian Equities Trader. Previously Andréanne was North American Equities Trader for Fiera Capital.

Alice Tsang is joining Octagon Capital in the role of Institutional Sales. She was previously portfolio manager at Marquest Investment Counsel.

George Rossolatos has started the acquisition vehicle Riverdale Capital. Previously, George was a Partner at TorQuest Partners.

Angela Lam joined Fraser Mackenzie as Equity Research Associate, Mining & Alternative Energy. Previously, Angela was at Clarus Securities.

Gary Williamson has joined the Integral Wealth Securities, Institutional Equities Team. Most recently he was on the Institutional Sales Team at Maison Placements Canada.

Banc of America Securities-Merrill Lynch Research has announced the following hires and appointments:

Ethan Harris as Head of North America Economics. He was previously Chief U.S. Economist at Barclays Group

David Bianco as Head of U.S. Equity Strategy. Most recently, he was Chief U.S. Equity Portfolio Strategist at UBS Securities

Appointment of Michael Hartnett to Chief Global Equity Strategist and Chairman of the Research Investment Committee

Joining the Global Commodities Research team are Michael Widmer, Senior Metals Strategist and Tanapoom Damraks, Commodities Strategist. Previously Michael was at BNP Paribas and Tanapoom will earn a Ph.D in Economics from the University of Chicago in June 2009.

MRM