Citi's big new equities hire has one of the bank's most important but difficult jobs
Citi has made a big new hire for its equities sales and trading business. The bank isn't commenting, but Bloomberg reported last week that Adam Inzirillo will be joining from CBOE in October as global head of the execution platform in Citi's equities business. Inzirillo will spearhead Citi's algorithmic trading offering as the bank valiantly attempts to increase the amount of business it does with hedge funds via its prime broking business.
Prime broking is a big deal for Citi. Speaking last year, Andy Morton, the head of Citi's markets business, said his equities strategy was simple: "Grow prime." Prime business brings in hedge funds, which provide steady income streams, both from facilitating trades and from financing (lending). As Morgan Stanley's co-head of equities observed last year: “It’s very hard to run an equities business that is full scale without having a full-scale prime brokerage business." And as Goldman Sachs' then-CFO Stephen Scherr noted in 2021, a successful prime business feeds revenues across the bank.
Citi's prime broking business, however, is not as prime as others. The bank typically ranks towards the bottom of the top 10 globally for prime broking, while Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley take the top three slots. It's not for want of trying: Citi has spoken about growing its prime business for decades, but has been hit by losses and bouts of reorganisation.
Citi has also been hit by what insiders say are years of underinvestment in its electronic trading business. Winning hedge fund clients requires a state-of-the-art systematic trading platform: both JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley recognised this and invested in electronic offerings before growing prime. Now Citi must do the same.
This appears to be Inzirillo's task. He has a background in running low latency trading systems at Bank of America and at CBOE, where he worked on data vantage, a suite of real time risk analytics and trading indicators. At Citi, Inzirillo will report to Sebastian Mailleux, the bank's global head of prime services, who joined from BNP Paribas in 2017.
Inzirillo's job will not be easy, though. Many have tried to tackle the beast at Citi already.
Insiders point to comings and goings from Citi's prime and electronic equities businesses over the years that have included: Adam Herrman, a former head of global prime finance in 2020; John Lowrey, a former head of electronic equities in 2021; Sabrina Wilson, the global head of FX prime brokerage and listed electronic execution in 2021; Gordon Ball, the head of electronic execution and algorithmic trading in Citi's listed derivatives business in Europe in 2024; and Alastair Hawker, the head of electronic execution (futures) in North America earlier this year. David Alloco, a Citi director in futures and clearing in prime broking also left after 20 years in July, and is now at Wells Fargo.
Some turnover is normal, but Citi's senior turnover in equities and prime has been heavy. "It's a place that should be great, but that churns through management," says one top headhunter. "They underspent on the electronic, futures and prime broking business," he adds.
Some of Citi's recent hires in the space have been shunted into different jobs. In July 2023, for example, Citi hired Yashar Asl as head of electronic trading for EMEA from BMO Capital Markets. But in August 2025, Asl was moved into a new role as 'head of cash execution risk and quantitative services' after Citi appointed existing staff Jamie Miller and Abdul Satti as co-heads of EMEA electronic execution instead. Asl's new role is about developing a quant product for Citi, but his displacement has raised eyebrows nonetheless.
As he sets about pulling up Citi's socks, Inzirillo will need to get to grips with these moving parts. He will also need to navigate the power brokers in Citi's prime and electronic equities businesses. They include the likes of Sam Baig, the head of cash execution who joined from Goldman in 2015; Greg Collett, the EMEA head of prime broking sales who joined from Goldman last year; and Jenny Hadiaris, the head of US electronic execution services, who only joined last October from Cowen.
The fact that Inzirillo is reporting directly to Mailleux might help him sidestep Citi's hierarchy. It's also a measure of his importance. Good luck to him. He'll need it. If it doesn't work out, BNP Paribas or Barclays might hire him instead.
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