Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research has announced that Athanasios Vamvakidis will be joining the group as head of European G10 foreign FX strategy, reporting to David Woo, head of global rates and currencies research. Vamvakidis will be based in London.
Vamvakidis joins BAML from the IMF, where he held a variety of positions over the last 13 years, most recently as deputy division chief. He has an economics degree from the University of Macedonia and a masters and PhD from Harvard. Woo also began his career at the IMF.
Woo says that Vamvakidis “further broadens the scope of and skill sets within our foreign exchange strategy team. His extensive experience in public policy will provide an original perspective on the interaction between government policies and the currency markets.”
BAML says that the goal of its global research team is to be “the premier global research franchise”. It has certainly strengthened its London-based research team of late. As well as Vamvakidis and Woo, who joined from Barclays in July, the bank captured rising star Naeem Wahid from Lloyds in December 2009 and relocated Richard Cochinos, who had joined the FX strategy team in 2006, from New York to London.