S&P Capital IQ Power Moves

RBC Capital Markets has added Michael Lexton to lead RBC’s transportation finance business. He started work at RBC on April 23.

Lexton works in the U.S. municipal finance section of RBC’s New York City office as a managing director and the manager of the municipal transportation sector, overseeing transportation transactions for the entire country. He will pursue bond underwriting business from transportation issuers – toll roads, highways, airports, bridges, tunnels and ports as well as other projects.

Lexton reports to Jim Tricolli, head of RBC’s munil finance for the Eastern region. -The Bond Buyer

RBC Capital Markets announced a series of high-profile appointments and additions within its U.S. investment banking business, all based in New York.

Frank Napolitano was appointed to head the formation of a new U.S. power and utilities group.

Napolitano brings to RBC more than 23 years of experience in the energy power and utilities space.

Kevin Smith will head the U.S. industrials group.

Smith joins RBC from the Silverfern Group, where he led the firm’s diversified industrial business. Previously, he was head of the diversified industrials and business services group at Wachovia Securities and spent more than a decade with JP Morgan Chase prior to that.

Ron Eliasek will co-head U.S. technology investment banking.

Eliasek will partner with co-head John Brew to continue to grow RBC Capital Markets’ technology investment banking practice and expand coverage across various industry sectors.

Eliasek brings more than 15 years of investment banking experience to RBC, most recently as head of the software & systems group for Sagent Advisors, an M&A advisory firm.

Joining Smith is Ian Woods as a director in RBC’s U.S. industrials group, with a focus on building products and packaging.

Woods joins from UBS, where he was most recently an executive director in the firm’s global industrials group.

Jeff Abt joins RBC as a managing director in the U.S. loan capital markets group.

Abt brings over 20 years of experience to RBC, including stints at Lehman Brothers and most recently at Goldman Sachs, where he was a managing director covering a variety of industries including consumer and industrials.

Andrew Rosenbaum joins as a director in the U.S. leveraged finance group.

Rosenbaum spent seven years with Lehman Brothers, most recently as a senior vice president in the firm’s global leveraged finance and private capital markets’ investment banking group, with a focus on the energy sector.

Michael Davis joins as a managing director in the equity capital markets (ECM) group.

Davis will have direct responsibility for RBC’s U.S. energy coverage effort within ECM.

Jon Huerta joins RBC as a director in the aerospace & defense group, where he will focus on the government services and defense technology sectors.

Prior to joining RBC, Huerta was a senior vice president at Macquarie, responsible for starting the firm’s aviation, aerospace & defense advisory practice.

David Archibald joins as a director in the financial sponsors group, with general coverage responsibility.

Archibald spent more than 15 years with Wachovia Securities, where he was most recently a director in the financial sponsors group. -PR Newswire

RBC Capital Markets, a unit of RBC, has appointed Stamos Fokianos as a managing director and global head of forex electronic trading.

Forkianos is to be based in London and would report to the global head of foreign exchange, Ed Monaghan.

Fokianos was earlier global head of eChannels with Standard Charted Bank.

RBC Capital Markets, the corporate and investment banking arm of Royal Bank of Canada, has hired Marc Fleischman as a managing director and head of hedge fund sales, Europe. Fleischman joins RBC Capital Markets with 17 years’ experience, most recently at Citigroup where he was a managing director. -Hedgeweek

RBC Capital Markets, the corporate and investment banking arm of Royal Bank of Canada, has hired Chris Tam as director in its fixed income and currencies sales team in Hong Kong and Minako Endo as director, head of institutional fixed income sales in its Tokyo office. Tam joins RBC Capital Markets from Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong, where he was co-head of wholesale marketing for north Asia. At RBC Capital Markets, he will be focused on clients in Taiwan. Endo joins RBC Capital Markets from Merrill Lynch in Japan, where she was director of non-yen bond sales. Prior to this, she was a vice president at Deutsche Bank, focusing on non-yen bond sales. -Datamonitor NewsWire

RBC Capital Markets announced the appointment of Deborah Freer as managing director and chief operating officer for its U.S. operations. She will report to Mark Hughes, RBC Capital Markets global chief operating officer/head of global credit. As Freer will be based in New York, she will also work closely with Mark Standish, President and co-CEO of RBC Capital Markets. In this role, Freer will participate in the management of RBC’s U.S. capital markets business. She will partner with business unit leaders and operating executives, and serve as a key point of local contact and coordination for the firm’s functional support teams in the U.S. Prior to joining RBC, Freer spent 20 years with Merrill Lynch in a variety of senior management roles within the firm’s global capital markets, systems, technology, marketing and business development functions. Freer has extensive experience in the rationalization and consolidation of business processes, including specific expertise in re-engineering futures, security services and financing operations. Her most recent role at Merrill Lynch was head of global client services for Capital Markets, where she was accountable for the day-to-day operations of the firm’s capital markets clients. Freer was most recently with Citigroup’s global financing services business, where she was head of client integration, responsible for client relationships and all aspects of new business processing.

RBC Capital Markets hired Jeremy Low as director in its oil and gas investment banking team in London. Low was most recently a director at Deutsche Bank AG. He previously worked at Lehman Brothers, Dresdner Kleinwort and Royal Dutch Shell.-Daily Deal/The Deal

RBC Capital Markets appointed Kevin Lewis as a managing director and head of the U.S. investment banking consumer/retail group. Based in New York, he reports to Peter de Vos, head of U.S. investment banking. Lewis joins RBC after 10 years with Lehman Brothers Holdings where he was a managing director in the firm’s global consumer/retail group.-Daily Deal/The Deal

RBC Capital Markets Corporation announced the appointment of Jim Wolfe as managing director and head of U.S. leveraged finance as the company continues to bolster its leveraged finance platform globally. He will report to Blair Fleming, the company’s head of global syndicated and leveraged finance, and will be based in New York.

As part of his mandate, Wolfe will partner with Miguel Roman, the company’s U.S. head of global syndicated finance and Nick Daifotis, head of high yield capital markets, to continue to drive growth in the origination and distribution of leveraged finance transactions in the U.S. market.

Wolfe will be primarily focused on deal origination and execution, and, accordingly, will coordinate closely with the company’s financials sponsors team to continue to deliver world-class execution of acquisition financings to the firm’s sponsor clients. Prior to joining RBC, Wolfe spent 15 years with Bear Stearns, most recently as senior managing director in the leveraged finance group.-PR Newswire

Joseph Radecki will rejoin RBC Capital Markets Corporation’s U.S. technology banking group in Denver. Previously, he was head of the technology group at Headwaters Merchant Bank and before that, head of the communication technologies and semiconductor groups with RBC Capital Markets. -The Daily Deal

RBC Capital Markets appointed Russell Jones as head of fixed income and currencies, global research. Adam Cole was named head of global FX strategy research. Jones joins from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, where he was a senior economist. Before that, he spent nine years at Lehman Brothers, where he was chief international economist and head of FX research. Cole joined RBC Capital Markets in 2004.

Separately, Eric Olson and Ron Goldschmidt were added to RBC’s emerging markets trading platform. Olson joins as a managing director and head of emerging markets USA trading, Goldschmidt as a director. Both are based in New York. Olson was most recently with HSBC, where he was head of Latin American trading. Previously, he spent 11 years with Deutsche Bank in London, Moscow, Sao Paulo and New York. Goldschmidt joins RBC from UBS, where he headed the firm’s local markets fixed income and derivatives trading operation, specializing in Latin America and Eastern Europe. -The Daily Deal