Piper Jaffray, a leading investment bank and asset management firm, is pleased to announce that senior bankers Len Sheer, Amrit Agrawal and Bob Lauria joined the Piper Jaffray debt capital markets group to help lead the expansion of the firm’s debt capabilities. They each bring a strong track record for providing creative and market-leading debt advisory and fundraising services to middle-market clients.

Sheer will assume the role of global head of debt capital markets, joining James Chiarelli who will serve as co-head of debt capital markets. Agrawal and Lauria will fill out the senior team as head of debt private placements and principal, respectively. Sheer, Agrawal and Lauria will be based in the firm’s New York office, while Chiarelli will continue to be based in the firm’s Chicago office.

“Len, Amrit and Bob together with James will be highly valuable advisors to both our corporate and private equity clients and their experience complements the firm’s deep industry and full-service product expertise,” said Ted Christianson, head of the Piper Jaffray capital advisory group. “We look forward to accelerating our already fast-growing DCM and broader capital advisory (debt restructuring and private placement) platform into the next phase of growth.”

“The strength of our existing business has positioned us to attract extremely talented professionals to drive the expansion of our franchise. We are excited to leverage the talents of our new DCM bankers to enhance the services we provide to corporate and private equity clients,” said Chad Abraham, global co-head of the Piper Jaffray investment banking and capital markets group.

Len Sheer brings 20 years of banking experience, having most recently served as managing director and co-head of debt capital markets at Cowen Group, Inc. Previously, he was a managing director in debt capital markets at Gleacher & Company and a senior analyst at the debt- and equity-specialized hedge fund, Pardus Capital. Prior to Pardus, Sheer was an M&A officer at Lehman Brothers and BNY Mellon. He began his career as an associate at Fieldstone Private Capital Group.

Amrit Agrawal joins Piper Jaffray from Cowen Group, Inc. where he served as a managing director in the debt capital markets group. He was previously a managing director and co-head of technology, media & telecom strategic finance at Bear Stearns. Prior to that, Agrawal worked in the capital markets group at Bankers Trust.

Bob Lauria joins Piper Jaffray from Cowen Group, Inc. where he was a director in the debt capital markets group. He previously worked in investment banking at Moelis & Company and Lehman Brothers.