Two senior Citadel Securities women are now joining hedge funds

Citadel Securities is having a very good 2024. Bloomberg reported yesterday that revenues at the firm were up 81% year-on-year, a greater percentage increase than at Jane Street. Despite the good times rolling, some senior female figures have been leaving for new gigs.

Both Kelly Brennan and Katja Hawkins have left in the past year and recently resurfaced. 

Brennan was a managing director and head of Citadel Securities' ETF trading business. It's not clear when exactly she left, but has now joined hedge fund Balyasny as a senior portfolio manager.

Hawkins, meanwhile, was Citadel Securities' EMEA COO.  She departed the firm last November, and has been on gardening leave until yesterday. She's now joining the fast-growing quant hedge fund Qube Research & Technologies, also as its EMEA COO. 

Both women have long backgrounds in financial services. Before joining Citadel Securities in 2018, Brennan spent 12 years at Goldman Sachs, where she was an MD and head of Americas ETF sales and trading. She also spent five years as a trader at high-frequency trading firm Susquehanna.

Hawkins joined Citadel Securities in 2019 from its sister hedge fund, Citadel, where she was EMEA head of operations. Prior to that, she spent six years at UBS in the middle office.

It's not all outgoings at Citadel Securities. The most prominent arrival in recent months is its new president, Jim Esposito, formerly co-head of global banking and markets at Goldman Sachs. He left Goldman back in January, but is only starting his new role this week.

Citadel Securities declined to comment

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