CIBC World Markets has named Bruce McCarthy head of the firm’s U.S. Mergers and Acquisitions Group and to its Corporate and Leveraged Finance Executive Committee.

McCarthy will lead a group of 32 professionals. He has been a senior member of the M&A group and has completed numerous mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and hostile defenses in a variety of sectors.

Prior to joining CIBC World Markets in 1998, McCarthy spent nine years with the mergers and acquisitions group of Salomon Smith Barney, rising to director. There he focused on transactions involving consumer products companies and industrial firms.

“The M&A group has been a critical part of CIBC World Market’s success in the U.S. and we have every expectation that will continue with Bruce,” said Paul Rogers, president of CIBC World Markets Corp. “Bruce has been instrumental in the growth of the M&A team and we are recognizing that contribution by promoting him to head up the group.”

“I’m extremely excited about our prospects,” said McCarthy, who holds a MBA from Columbia Business School and an undergraduate degree in economics from Boston College. “We’ve increased completed transaction volume from $8 billion in 1998 to approximately $60 billion in 2000. We expect this growth to continue by focusing on mid-sized companies in industries where CIBC has a clear presence.”