Rothschild Global Advisory is further strengthening its North American business by announcing four more senior hires. Rothschild has hired Reza Vahabzadeh and Siddharth Hariharan as Managing Directors on the Consumer team, and Aashis Mehta and Timothy Hotchandani as Managing Directors focused on Healthcare. Vahabzadeh, Mehta and Hotchandani are based in New York and Hariharan is based in Los Angeles.

Commenting on the appointments, Jimmy Neissa, Head of Rothschild & Co North America, stated, “We are excited to have Reza, Sid, Aashis, and Tim join our team in the U.S. As we continue to expand the firm’s presence in North America, their backgrounds and experience will provide our clients with significant additional expertise in the Consumer and Healthcare sectors. They each bring a distinct perspective and strong connections that will benefit our clients and our firm, and we are eager to tap into their in-depth knowledge.”

With over 27 years’ experience, Reza Vahabzadeh has a strong track record in the Consumer sector, having been involved in numerous transactions across the food, beverage, restaurant, and health/personal care industries, for clients including B&G Foods, Henkel, Hostess Brands and Pinnacle Foods. Prior to joining Rothschild, Vahabzadeh was a Senior Advisor to the Global Consumer Practice at Perella Weinberg Partners in New York, after spending 13 years at Lehman/Barclays as their High Yield Research Analyst covering the Consumer Products sector. He achieved Institutional Investor’s #1 ranking in the space for 12 consecutive years. Vahabzadeh started his career at Bank of America in Los Angeles, and also worked at Transamerica Investment Management, Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers. He holds a B.S. in Finance and Accounting, Magna Cum Laude from Boston College and an MBA in Finance from UCLA.

Siddharth Hariharan joins Rothschild after 13 years at J.P. Morgan, where he was most recently the Executive Director and Head of Emerging Brands. While at J.P. Morgan, Hariharan developed a niche expertise in the Consumer sector, working on a number of consumer focused debt, equity and M&A transactions. He has advised clients including Fossil, Clorox, Planet Fitness, Nike and Under Armour, among others. Hariharan received his B.S. degree in Finance from Indiana University.

Aashis Mehta comes to Rothschild from Lazard, where he was a member of their Healthcare Group. While at Lazard, Mehta served as the sole advisor on a number of healthcare M&A, IPO and restructuring transactions, and advised clients including Celerion, Copernicus Group and LabCorp, among others. Before joining Lazard in 2011, he spent seven years in the Healthcare Group at Credit Suisse and three years at Citigroup. Mehta holds an undergraduate degree from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Timothy Hotchandani comes to Rothschild after spending the last seven years at Deutsche Bank, where he was most recently a Managing Director in the firm’s Healthcare Group. During his time at Deutsche Bank, Hotchandani advised on a variety of M&A, debt and equity transactions for clients including Life Technologies, Abbott, Bio-Techne, Danaher, Merck KGaA, Qiagen and Thermo Fisher, among others. Hotchandani has also worked at Lehman Brothers, Macquarie Capital and Thomas Weisel Partners. He is a member of the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute and holds a B.B.A. in finance and economics, with distinction and Beta Gamma Sigma, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“I am excited to expand the depth and breadth of our coverage of the consumer retail landscape with such talented partners as Reza and Sid. Over the past 3 years, our North American franchise has experienced tremendous growth as clients have come to appreciate the differentiated advice and insights that we bring along with the uniquely coordinated reach of our global platform,” said Peter “P.J.” Moses, Managing Director at Rothschild Global Advisory, who leads the Consumer team in North America. “Jimmy and I look forward to working with all of our new colleagues to continue to grow our business in this market.”

This news follows the recent announcement that Chris Gaertner has joined Rothschild Global Advisory as the Global Head of Technology, along with Walid Khiari, who joins the firm as a Managing Director on its Technology team. Gaertner will lead the launch of the firm’s new office in the San Francisco Bay Area.