James M. Neissa will join Rothschild & Co as head of Rothschild North America. She will lead the continued development of the North American business, primarily focusing on Rothschild Global Advisory.

Lee LeBrun will join Rothschild Global Advisory as head of M&A in North America. Both Neissa and LeBrun will assume their positions in September.

“We see a lot of opportunities to grow Rothschild & Co’s North American presence, building on our record performance in the most recent fiscal year,” said Robert Leitão, head of Rothschild Global Advisory. “Jimmy Neissa is one of the finest bankers in the industry and his experience, knowledge and vision will serve our clients well. He brings broad industry expertise and a robust track record of developing successful investment banking businesses in the U.S., Europe and Latin America. We are delighted that Jimmy is continuing his career with Rothschild.

Neissa joins Rothschild after more than 20 years as an M&A professional at UBS Investment Bank (UBS) and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ). While at UBS, he was most recently joint global head of Investment Banking and a member of the Global Executive Committee. Prior to these roles, Neissa was co-head of Global M&A at UBS, based in London and New York, where he helped build a M&A franchise in the U.S. Before joining UBS, he was co-head of European M&A at DLJ. Over the course of his distinguished career in the U.S., Europe and Latin America, Neissa built up extensive experience in a broad variety of sectors, including industrials, telecom, technology and media.

LeBrun was also previously at UBS, where he served as co-head of M&A – Americas. Before joining UBS, he was a senior M&A banker in New York and London at DLJ.

Over the last several years, the North American office has advised on a number of high profile transactions, including Intel’s $16.7 billion acquisition of Altera, Solera’s $6.5 billion sale to Vista Equity Partners, Hostess Brands’ $2.3 billion merger with Gores Holdings, Alpha Natural Resources’ $3.9 billion Chapter 11 restructuring process, Visteon’s $3.6 billion sale of its 70% stake in Halla Visteon Climate control and others.