Jatin Suryawanshi has joined Jefferies as a Managing Director and Head of Global Quantitative Strategies responsible for developing the firm's algorithmic trading product strategy and offering. Partha Sarkar and Sanjay Girdhar have also joined Jefferies as Senior Vice Presidents within the firm's Quantitative Strategies Trading team, which is part of Jefferies' Global Electronic Trading Services Group.

Additionally, Michael Healey, James Gibbins and Stephanie Libien have joined Jefferies' algorithmic specialist sales effort. Messrs. Healey and Gibbons join as Senior Vice President and Vice President, respectively, based in Jefferies' New York headquarters office. Ms. Libien joins as a Vice President based in the firm's San Francisco office.

In a statement, Jason Griffith, Head of Global Equities at Jefferies, said: "These proven professionals significantly expand and enhance Jefferies' capabilities in electronic trading services for our institutional clients. Their joining also demonstrates the energy and momentum of our platform as we look to leverage our expanded offering and provide enhanced service to our sales and trading clients. We are confident these new partners will make meaningful and immediate contributions to our overall equities platform."

"We're very excited about the addition of these seasoned professionals to our team and see this as a major step in our efforts to become a leader in global electronic trading solutions for institutional investors," added Daniel Charney, Head of Global Electronic Trading Services at Jefferies.

"Jefferies' thriving, full-service equities platform, global capabilities, and commitment to developing innovative, high-quality equity products were primary drivers in my decision to join the firm," commented Mr. Suryawanshi. "I am excited to leverage my experience in quantitative trading and market microstructure to help the firm leverage its vast pool of natural liquidity, sophisticated trading desks and strong client relationships."

The expansion of Jefferies' Electronic Trading Services Group and other equity financial products, including derivatives, prime brokerage and securities finance, is key to the continued growth and diversification of the firm's equity sales and trading platform. Jefferies' global equities effort integrates one of the largest teams of sales, sales-trading, trading and research professionals in the US, Europe and Asia. A recognized leader in institutional equity trading, Jefferies ranked #1 in both Traditional Execution and Trading Expertise & Market Knowledge in a 2008 survey of hedge funds by Alpha Magazine, an Institutional Investor publication.

Mr. Suryawanshi joins Jefferies from UBS, where he was Head of Algorithmic Trading, Americas. At that firm he led a team of quants and developers responsible for the algorithmic trading offering. During Mr. Suryawanshi's tenure at UBS, the firm was able to gain significant market share in electronic trading backed by an innovative product suite which was responsive to the rapidly evolving market structure. Previously, Mr. Suryawanshi was with Goldman Sachs, where he worked for six years and was the Head US Strategist for the Goldman Sachs Algorithmic Trading team (GSAT). He received a MS in Financial Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology and an MBA in Finance from The Indian Institute of Management.

Messrs. Sarkar and Girdhar were most recently at UBS, for ten and five years, respectively, where they were part of the Algorithmic Development team and were key architects in the development of that firm's algorithmic platform and product suite. Mr. Sarkar received an MS in Financial Mathematics from University of Chicago and a BS in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology. Mr. Girdhar received a BS in Electronic Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology.

Mr. Healey joins Jefferies from UBS, where he spent more than ten years and held a variety of equity product management roles, including, most recently, Executive Director for Direct Execution Sales. Before joining UBS, he was a product manager at Instinet. Mr. Healey received a BA in Psychology from Rider University.

Mr. Gibbons joins Jefferies from Liquidnet, where he was a Relationship Manager. Previously, he worked at Miletus Trading before that firm's acquisition by Liquidnet. Mr. Gibbons started his career at Brown Brothers and Harriman and received a BA in Business from King College.

Ms. Libien joins Jefferies from UBS, where she was a Director focusing on Direct Execution Sales. Previously, she held a similar sales role at Bloomberg. Ms. Libien received a BA in French from Vanderbilt University.