JP Morgan has added five advisors to its private banking offices in Northern California, which the firm said it regards as a dynamic and diversified economy.

JP Morgan has added five new advisors to
its private banking offices in Northern California, which the firm said it regards as a
“dynamic and diversified economy.” 

Tom Catanese, Dennis Hearst, Andy Micallef,
Katie Wert and Jesse Wood join as vice presidents and private bankers, except Micallef who is a VP and investment specialist. They will all report
to managing directors and heads of the Northern California market, Jeremy
Geller and Christine Leong.

JP Morgan opened its San Francisco private banking office in
1990 and a second Palo Alto-based one to serve Northern California in 2011. The
firm’s roots in Northern California date back to 1968 and it now has some 100 advisors dedicated to that region.

The new appointees will join a team that
advises and provides wealth management strategies to individuals, their
families and non-profit organizations.

“Northern California’s dynamic and
diversified economy is driving an enormous amount of wealth creation,” Geller
said. “Beyond the well-known entrepreneur and venture culture here, we have the
largest concentration of public companies in the country, and are seeing a
growing presence of hedge funds and private equity firms in the area.”

Hires

Cantanese has transferred from JP Morgan’s
asset management division to focus on wealth management services for public
company executives. With 14 years of industry experience, Cantanese has spent
time working for JP Morgan, Charles Schwab and Northern Trust. He also spent
five years in corporate development with Advent Software in San Francisco.

Hearst has joined the firm to focus on
wealth management services for hedge fund principals. Hearst has spent 18 years
advising hedge fund clients in the Bay Area, most recently as a vice president
in institutional equity sales with Goldman Sachs. Previously, he was vice president
in institutional equities with Credit Suisse and before that, with Volpe Brown
Whelan.

Meanwhile, Micallef, a vice president and investment specialist, spent the
last nine years at UBS in London, where he held positions in both the private
banking and investment banking divisions. In his new role as an investment specialist,
he will construct and oversee client investment portfolios.

Wert comes across from JP Morgan’s private
bank office in New York to focus on wealth management services for public
company executives and principals at privately-held financial institutions.
Wert spent the last seven years advising some of the “most sophisticated
clients” in New York, JP Morgan said - primarily in the financial services
industry. Wert joined JP Morgan in June 2006 as part of the Private Bank
Analyst program.  

Lastly, Wood will focus on wealth
management services for public company executives and venture capitalists. Wood
spent the last 11 years in the fixed income division at Goldman Sachs, where he
also helped to start a desk for hedge fund financing. He later moved to the Bay
Area to cover corporate bond trading funds. Throughout his career, he has
focused primarily on advising hedge funds, money managers, insurance companies
and pension funds.