LS Global Advisory Group has swooped to hire Julian Cassells and her team from the Altman Group, which is backing out of the corporate shareholder identification business.
Cassells, a veteran of the IR services industry, spent seven years at the Altman Group where she ran the firm’s shareholder ID division.
Prior to Altman, she held positions at Taylor Rafferty, Citigate Dewe Rogerson and Georgeson.
She joins LS Global, a boutique provider of shareholder ID and market intelligence services, along with three of her senior colleagues, in what LS founder and president Lucas Scheer calls a ‘very big development’ for his firm.
He adds that corporate clients of Cassells from the Altman Group are expected to move over with Cassells, although the details have not yet been finalized.
The news marks the latest step away from the IR services market for the Altman Group, which last summer announced it was pulling back from the corporate proxy solicitation business.
The firm, which was acquired by American Stock Transfer & Trust Company (AST) in January, has spent the last 12 months refocusing on its core business of proxy services for mutual funds and closed-end funds.
The decision to wind up the shareholder ID division was made in the last month, says Paul Torre, executive vice president at the Altman Group.
‘It’s not a reflection on Julian or her group; it just wasn’t part of our core service offering,’ he states. ‘AST wanted to stay close to the core service offering.’
