Author: Philip Eade
The latest high-profile recruit to arrive at the headquarters of Barclays Capital on London’s Canary Wharf is Cyrus Ardalan, a quietly charming Iranian-born former World Bank executive and subsequently one of the best-known coverage officials during his 10 years at Paribas where he ran the global bond business.
Ardalan becomes Barclays Capital’s third vice-chairman, joining Euan Harkness and Sir Brian Appleyard. His job will be to help – in a “hands-on, client-facing role” – the bank’s push into continental Europe, concentrating on Scandinavia, the Netherlands and southern Europe. He reports to Naguib Kheraj, global head of investment banking, and to chairman Hans-Joerg Rudloff.
Ardalan says he was attracted by what he calls Barclays Capital’s “fully-integrated debt business”. This, he says, “can provide clients with all debt-related products, looking after all their funding needs under one integrated platform. Very few banks do that. The approach here is to engage clients in strategic and corporate finance dialogue at the most senior level on financing and risk management. Again this is relatively rare.”
Cyrus Ardalan was born in 1950 in Tehran, but had a peripatetic childhood. His father was variously Iran’s ambassador to the Soviet Union, Germany, the US and the UN in New York.