AXA Investment Management’s (IM) head of trading and industry heavyweight Paul Squires is to leave after 21 years with the firm, a spokesperson has confirmed.
Squires first joined the firm in 1996 as an equity trader in the UK before moving to trade European equities in 1999 and then to fixed income in 2003.
In 2005, he was promoted to head of trading after AXA IM’s trading group merged with the securities financing team.
As head of trading, Squires was responsible for 31 traders in London, Paris and Greenwich in the US covering equities, fixed income FX and derivatives.
AXA Investment Management said in a statement: “AXA IM can confirm that Paul Squires will leave the firm. Paul has been an integral part of the AXA IM Trading and Securities Finance team for 21 years and we wish him every success for the future.”
The asset manager added the trading and securities finance team will be led by Daniel Leon, head of engineering and execution in the interim, with further details to be announced in due course.
Leon first joined AXA in 2000 as CIO of investment solutions, before leaving to join BNP Paribas as head of rates and as head of solution trading group with the French investment bank.
He returned to AXA in 2014 as head of client solutions development.