Austin, TX, September 25, 2008 – Amherst Securities Group LP, a broker-dealer specializing in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), today announced that it has hired six senior-level sales and trading professionals as part of its continued growth. The new members of the Amherst team are Craig Krandel, most recently of Merrill Lynch; Felix Partow, previously at Washington Mutual Capital Corp.; Eli Goldschmiedt, who joins Amherst from JPMorgan Securities; Michael Scara and Michael Scanlon, who both most recently worked at Countrywide Capital Markets; and Konrad Kothmann, who previously was at Bear Stearns. Additionally, Amherst announced that it has opened new offices in New York City and Santa Monica, CA. 

 

“Our highly experienced team and industry leading analytics position us well to capitalize on a number of opportunities for long term growth amid the current market dislocation,” said Sean Dobson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Amherst. “Each of our new colleagues brings considerable experience and expertise that will enable us to expand the services we offer our clients and the MBS products in which we do business. With new offices in New York City and Santa Monica, we are now better able to serve clients across the country. We look forward to the many contributions of our new executives as we continue to work to generate value in the MBS marketplace for our clients and our firm.”

 

Mr. Krandel joins Amherst’s New York office in sales. He most recently worked as a senior salesperson at Merrill Lynch from 2002 until 2008, where he was primarily responsible for coverage of commercial banks, Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBs) and hedge funds. He also oversaw Merrill Lynch's efforts in the mortgage origination area. Prior to that, Mr. Krandel spent 20 years working in the MBS sector at various financial services companies, including Credit Suisse First Boston, Farm and Home Savings Association, and Commonwealth Mortgage Corp. Mr. Krandel graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BBA in Finance and Accounting.

 

Mr. Partow, who will also work out of Amherst’s New York office as a salesperson, brings deep experience trading a variety of mortgage-related products, having spent the past 11 years as a trader with several firms. Most recently, he was the head of the ARMS Conduit and Derivative desks at Washington Mutual Capital Corp. Prior to that, he held positions at Deutsche Bank, Nomura Securities, Kidder/Paine Webber and JPMorgan. Mr. Partow graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a BS in Mathematics.

 

Mr. Goldschmiedt brings substantial knowledge of fixed income investments to Amherst. Most recently he worked at JP Morgan Securities, where he was a Vice President in the Securitized Products sales group focused on covering U.S. and foreign banks. Prior to that, he worked at Prudential Securities for several years where he held various roles, including middle market fixed income sales. Mr. Goldschmiedt, who will be based in New York and work in sales, received an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business.

 

Mr. Scara comes to Amherst with almost 30 years experience trading and selling MBSs. For the past nine years he worked as a Senior Vice President and the Manager of Dealer Sales for Countrywide Capital Markets. Previously, Mr. Scara spent 19 years at Merrill Lynch, where he was Director of Regional Dealer Sales. He earned a BA from Vassar College. Mr. Scara will be based in Amherst’s Santa Monica office.

 

Mr. Scanlon, who also will be based in Santa Monica, has worked for more than 18 years in fixed income securities, most recently as Vice President of Fixed Income Sales at Countrywide Capital Markets. Prior to that, he worked at FTN Financial, Western Asset Management, BARRA, Dinner Key Advisors and Global Advanced Technology. 

 

Mr. Kothmann joins Amherst after working for 19 years at Bear Stearns as a Managing Director of Institutional Fixed Income Structured Product Sales. He specializes in all MBS-related securities, indices, derivatives and synthetics. Mr. Kothmann graduated from the University of Texas with a BA in Economics and Finance.

 

 

Amherst Securities Group LP is a privately held, specialized broker-dealer with more than 15 years experience analyzing and trading residential mortgage-backed securities. Our 75 experienced professionals, utilizing our proprietary analytics, develop and provide actionable intelligence that helps clients understand the complexities and inherent risks of the world’s largest debt market and identify trading opportunities that help minimize risk and meet their objectives throughout different economic cycles. More information about Amherst can be found on the firm’s Web site at www.amherstsecurities.com

 

 

 

Tom Johnson/Michael Pascale/Chuck Dohrenwend

The Abernathy MacGregor Group

(212) 371-5999