NEW YORK, July 7 (Reuters) - Barclays Plc has hired Jim Birchenough from Wells Fargo & Co as its chairman of global healthcare investment banking, a spokesperson for the British bank confirmed, after Reuters reported on the appointment on Friday.
Birchenough last served as vice chairman of biopharma investment banking at Wells Fargo. A Wells Fargo spokesperson declined to comment.
Birchenough, who will be based in San Francisco, had previously worked at Barclays as a research analyst covering biotech companies. He held similar roles at BMO Capital Markets and Lehman Brothers in the early part of his career.
In his new role, Birchenough will also lead Barclays' global biopharma investment banking unit alongside Alexis de Rosnay, who joined the bank last year and is taking on an expanded role in addition to his responsibilities as chairman of global healthcare investment banking.
Birchenough is expected to boost Barclays' healthcare investment banking unit, following the exit of its former Vice Chairman Darren Campili for Wells Fargo.
More than two dozen U.S. investment bankers have left Barclays since January when it named two new global co-heads of investment banking. They are Cathal Deasy, former co-head of Credit Suisse Group AG investment banking and capital markets, and Taylor Wright, former co-head of Morgan Stanley global capital markets. (Reporting by David Carnevali in New York; Editing by Anirban Sen, Mark Porter and Richard Chang)