The big executive shakeup at Merrill Lynch continues with the hiring of Michael DeSa as head of its global foreign-exchange business, responsible for all of Merrill Lynch’s foreign-exchange activities.

As part of his new role, DeSa will also help coordinate foreign-exchange activity across the private client and asset management divisions of Merrill Lynch. DeSa succeeds Keith Jacobson who Merrill says, “will be taking on significant opportunities within Merrill Lynch’s global debt markets group, which will be announced soon”.

DeSa joins Merrill from D&D Partners, a private equity management group and a joint venture between himself and Deutsche Bank. Before D&D Partners, he served as a member of the executive board of Deutsche Bank and chief operating officer of Deutsche Asset Management from 1999 to 2000. “Michael is a talented and well-respected leader who is a welcome addition to our management team,” said Stan O’Neal, president and chief operating officer of Merrill Lynch. “His knowledge and experience will be invaluable as we further build our foreign exchange capabilities across all of our business groups around the world.”

>From 1998 to 1999, DeSa was the deputy group chief executive and chief executive officer of Deutsche Bank Asia Pacific Commercial and Investment Banking. Prior to that, he was Deutsche Bank’s global head of foreign exchange from 1994 to 1997. From 1977 to 1994, Mr. DeSa held a number of senior posts at Citigroup, including head of foreign exchange and other senior management positions in finance and treasury.