Deutsche Bank's ex-head of leveraged finance seems to be hiring her ex-colleagues

Alexandra Barth has been at Wells Fargo for a while now. Long enough to hire people. And more than long enough to hire people from her previous employer without falling foul of any non-solicitation agreements.

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Accordingly, Barth - who joined Wells Fargo from Deutsche Bank in 2024 as co-head of leveraged finance, appears to have recruited Joe Devine, with whom she worked at Deutsche for 16 years.

Deutsche Bank declined to comment on Devine's disappearance. Wells Fargo didn't respond to a request to comment on his arrival. 

Devine was a managing director in leveraged finance at DB, where he worked for 17 years before leaving in July 2025. Barth spent 25 years at DB and was co-head of leveraged finance when she left in July 2024. Both are based in New York. 

Deutsche Bank has lost various people from its US leveraged finance team. Celine Catherin, another former Deutsche Bank MD, joined Wells Fargo at the same time as Barth and is now co-head of leveraged debt capital markets there. Bloomberg noted in July that at least four other people have left too, including Anastasia Chernetskaya (now at Barclays), Daniel Stevenson (now at Hayfin Capital Management), Brad Dunkin (now at Morgan Stanley) and Greg Driscoll, who resigned after 15 months. 

Four months ago, Bloomberg noted that Deutsche Bank ranked eighth for leveraged finance. In 2014, it was first. It's been under regulatory pressure to shrink the business. 

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