May 6 (Reuters) - British bank Barclays Plc's senior technology banker in the United States will become thefifth top investment banker to leave the bank ahead of astrategic overhaul due this week, the Financial Times reported,citing people familiar with the matter.
Stuart Francis, head of technology banking business and avice chairman at Barclays, will leave the lender and is planningto join investment bank Evercore Partners Inc, thenewspaper quoted the people as saying.
Francis, who has worked with Smith Barney and LehmanBrothers, worked under Hugh 'Skip' McGee, the head of the bank'sU.S. business, who quit last week.
Barclays will announce on Thursday the creation of a badbank portfolio of assets it deems non-core that it intends tosell or run down as part of a streamlining of its investmentbank.
Paul Parker, Barclays' head of mergers and acquisitions, isalso expected to quit, according to some media reports.
Barclays' U.S. head of communications, Michael O'Looney, isalso expected to leave, Financial Times reported on Monday.
Spokesmen at Barclays and Evercore could not be reached forcomment outside regular U.S. business hours. (Reporting by Anannya Pramanick and Aman Shah in Bangalore;Editing by Eric Walsh)