Bank of America Corp. BAC-N tapped Drew McDonald to be its new country head for Canada, promoting a long-time corporate banker to succeed its outgoing leader.
Mr. McDonald, currently co-head of corporate and investment banking in Canada, is taking over from Adam Howard, who announced his retirement in March, according to an internal memo obtained by The Globe and Mail.
Mr. McDonald has been with BofA for close to a decade, and corporate lending is one of the main levers American banks pull to win merger and acquisition advisory roles that pay large fees. Most mega-mergers, for instance, need bridge financing to execute the transaction, and large U.S. banks have massive balance sheets that can extend the credit.
In recent years BofA has advised on large takeovers that involve Canadian companies, including Rogers Communications Inc.’s purchase of Shaw Communications Inc., Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd.’s purchase of Kansas City Southern and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP’s purchase of Triton International Ltd.
BofA’s leadership change adds to the management shuffles at multiple foreign investment banks in Canada over the past year. In January, Morgan Stanley announced the retirement of long-time Canadian investment banking head Dougal Macdonald and named his successor, mining specialist Richard Tory. Last fall, Jefferies Financial Group hired a number of veteran bankers and analysts from Barclays PLC, including country head Bruce Rothney. In turn, Barclays hired Geoff Belsher as its new Canadian head.
At the same time, a number of Canadian investment banks have shuffled their leadership teams. Royal Bank of Canada announced this week that it had named Matthew Stopnik as its global head of investment banking, and Bank of Nova Scotia recently hired Travis Machen from Morgan Stanley to run its global banking and markets business.
In its memo to staff, BofA said the bank will share more details on its Canadian leadership team in the near future.
Tim Kiladze