(December 7 – 10:00 ET) – TheMarkets.com, a new portal for institutional investors being built by some of the world’s top investment banks, has appointed a new CEO.

The firm has named David Eisner as CEO. Eisner, 42, has nearly 20 years of combined capital markets and Internet experience. He comes to TheMarkets from his role as founding investor and CEO of iExchange.com.

Before that he was executive vice president, Office of the Chairman of the Jefferies Group Inc. and an M&A specialist at Jefferies. He has also practiced corporate and securities law at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson in New York.

“David combines a unique understanding of the capital markets with strong experience in building sophisticated e-finance products,” said William Harts, a member of the executive committee of TheMarkets.com and managing director of Salomon Smith Barney. “The sponsoring members look forward to providing him with our full support as we build the TheMarkets.com into the premium online resource for institutional investors.”

“TheMarkets.com offers a tremendous opportunity to bring exciting new capabilities to the clients of these leading financial institutions,” said Eisner. “Our focus will be on offering a dynamic, reliable service that helps our clients customize their access to relevant information and maximize the value of their investment strategies.”

Also, TheMarkets.com has announced that Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and J.P. Morgan & Co. have joined the group of seven investment banks (Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Salomon Smith Barney and UBS Warburg) that created TheMarkets.com to meet institutional investors’ need for a single point of immediate access to time-sensitive research and capital markets information.

The firm says that in the last 90 days it has completed the preliminary stages of site development and will shortly begin inviting selected buy-side firms to participate in the initial phases of its launch. It is expected to launch early next year.