Goldman Nabs CS VP Amid Brazil Growth

Goldman Sachs’ Brazil investment banking buildout has been fuelled by mostly internal hires thus far, but the shop is also looking to hire selectively from outside. It recently poached Claudio Sassaki, an investment banking VP at Credit Suisse who experienced in the education and pulp and paper, among other sectors. Sassaki is on gardening leave and his areas of coverage are to be decided when he starts at Goldman in July. Goldman has also tapped Peterson Paz to head institutional sales in the asset management team. He was previously head of institutional sales at Schroders. Among the internal hires for Brazil are Santiago Rubin, a seasoned MD who moves from New York to cover telecoms, tech, education and healthcare. Pedro Leite is moving from Asia to run ECM, while Andre Laport will also relocate to Sao Paulo from New York in a few weeks to run the equity trading effort. Laport is heard bringing with him a team of traders. Goldman is expected to appoint more to its Brazil team, including an investment banking VP in the short term. “There is very strong momentum in building the team,” says a source familiar with the Sao Paulo expansion. Goldman is heard taking a gradual approach, hiring selectively to boost technical skills on the ground in Brazil, rather than poaching a full team from outside. Goldman’s global board earlier this week wrapped up a Sao Paulo visit, its first ever meeting in LatAm.