Jarrod Yuster, Merrill Lynch's Head of Global Portfolio and Electronic Trading, Leaves FIrm

Jarrod Yuster, a managing director at Merrill Lynch overseeing global portfolio and electronic trading, left the securities firm last Friday, according to an industry source.

During his seven years with the firm, Yuster ran global portfolio and electronic trading. Yuster built the team that developed several of Merrill’s electronic trading businesses from scratch, including algorithmic trading, DMA, high frequency trading, crossing networks and the infrastructure and trading technology globally for those businesses, according to the source. The global team reports up to Michael Stewart, head of global cash and equities at Merrill Lynch.

Yuster left the firm on Friday, the day after Merrill’s former CEO John Thain stepped down from his position at Bank of America, which acquired Merrill Lynch as of Jan. 1st. According to the source Yuster’s departure had nothing to do with the layoffs and consolidation occurring between Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, It was Yuster’s decision to leave the brokerage firm because he felt it was time to pursue other opportunities, the source maintained. The source did not know if Yuster had lined up another job.

In the meantime, Merrill has assigned Yuster’s responsibilities to three members of the team: Michael Lynch, formerly head of global commission management at Merrill Lynch, stepped in to run Americas electronic trading; Ashok Krishnan will continue running electronic trading in Europe and Mark Wheatley will continue running electronic trading in Asia, respectively. “The team is intact and the business is strong,” said the source. Both Krishnan and Wheatley were already responsible for day-to-day operations in Europe and Asia prior to Yuster’s departure, said the source.

A Merrill Lynch spokesperson declined to comment on the story. Calls to Michael Stewart and Michael Lynch were not returned as of press time.

Ivy is Editor-at-Large for Advanced Trading and Wall Street & Technology. Ivy is responsible for writing in-depth feature articles, daily blogs and news articles with a focus on automated trading in the capital markets. As an industry expert, Ivy has reported on a myriad ... View Full Bio