West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Citadel Securities has added three former Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs senior investment bankers to the hedge fund company, at the same time launching Citadels Investment Banking division.

Todd Kaplan joined Citadel in March, he will assume the role of Head of Investment Banking for Citadel Securities. Brian Maier joins as Head of Industry Groups and Carl Mayer joins as Head of Leveraged Finance.

“By bringing Todd to Citadel Securities to head up our banking effort, we are executing our strategy of developing a leading, fully integrated, client-facing franchise across investment banking and institutional sales and trading," Rohit D’Souza, CEO of Citadel Securities said "Todd and his team are outstanding investment bankers with strong relationships who have experience across a broad spectrum of capital markets areas."

Commenting on the opportunities for Citadel in the marketplace, Kaplan said, "Now more than ever, corporations are looking for sound, actionable advice. With Citadel Securities’ unique set of assets, I look forward to building our investment banking operation as we provide innovative products and services to a broad group of clients in an increasingly complex environment.”

“We have the foundation of an exceptional team of esteemed banking professionals,” said D’Souza. “Together we will be able to deliver fully developed world class capabilities to meet our clients’ needs.”