BNP Paribas Securities, a unit of BNP Paribas, appointed Matt O’Connor head and Annabella Espina chief operating officer of its new Miami office, which will open in Q4/23.

“We welcome Matt and Annabella to these new roles and look forward to the official opening of our Miami office later this year,” José Placido, CEO of BNP Paribas USA and CIB Americas, said. “Since our announcement in January of launching this office, we’ve put every effort towards achieving today’s milestone to further expand our global markets franchise in the Americas, with more to come.”

“We’re excited to share the news that we have finalized the selection for the Miami office management and that these are the first of many significant hires in this important new chapter for our business,” John Gallo, head of global markets Americas and global head of the institutional client group at BNP Paribas, said. “The new office is consistent with our strategy of being close to the clients we serve and will be an important office for our global markets business. I am confident Matt, Annabella and our office will be very successful.”

O’Connor is currently a managing director of global macro institutional sales at BNP Paribas in New York. He joined the bank in 2014 and has more than 20 years of experience in financial markets. Prior to BNP Paribas, he was head of commodity investor sales at Deutsche Bank and held various positions with Lehman Brothers.

Espina is currently the CFO of CIB Mexico and has been with BNP Paribas for more than 17 years. She has held several senior positions within the bank in Paris, New York and Mexico City, including chief of staff for finance and tax and head of financial management and corporate development for CIB Americas.