Wachovia Securities announced today that it hired CDO industry veteran Arturo Cifuentes as a managing director and senior CDO analyst. Cifuentes was formerly at Triton Partners, where he was co-head of the Structured Products Group. Widely hailed for developing standard methodology for rating CDO securities, the hiring of signifies a strong effort by Wachovia to boost its performance in the CDO sector.
Based out of Wachovia’s New York offices, Cifuentes will report to Brian Lancaster, managing director and head of Structured Products research in the firm’s Fixed Income Division.
“Arturo is a great addition to our team. He brings a depth of experience from structuring and rating CDO securities and will take our already strong CDO research efforts to the top,” said Lancaster.
Cifuentes time at Triton ended on an up note, as he co-managed Triton Opportunities Fund I, a $307M CDO of CDOs. Prior to his time at Triton, Cifuentes worked at Moody’s Investor Service, where he was a major contributor to the development of a methodology used by the rating agency to assign CDO ratings; Cifuentes rated more than 50 CDO transactions at Moody’s.
“Working with Wachovia, which I believe has one of the most intelligent and well thought out CDO platforms in the market, as well as being a part of Brian Lancaster’s team, is an incredible opportunity,” said Cifuentes. “Wachovia has a solid record in terms of innovation and deal performance.”
Cifuentes holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mechanics and a M.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the California Institute of Technology. He received an MBA in Finance from New York University, where he was honored with the Stern Scholar Award. He holds an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Chile.