HERD ON THE STREET

When the mainstream press hailed the pending absorption of Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc. by Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co. as an opportunity for Smith Barney to leverage the technological resources of Shearson, they clearly weren't thinking of retail brokerage systems technologists. Smith Barney Shearson won't be requiring the services of Shearson's most senior executive overseeing broker systems development, executive vice president Rich Capliss, according to sources. Once the merger has been completed in four to six months, sources say, Capliss will be out, unless work can be found for him elsewhere at Shearson. Many of Smith Barney's mid-level to senior technologists came from Shearson, leaving a vacuum that was never completely filled. Capliss moved into his post following the departure -- to Smith Barney -- of applications systems director Dorothy Leo. More recently, gone from Shearson is Ann Saggio, who as retail branch systems manager oversaw infrastructure development.

Scott Burton, a chief developer at the EJV Partners L.P. left ten days ago to join Kidder Peabody & Co. Two other developers also took to the streets recently, one for Merrill Lynch & Co., another non-EJV partner.

When Mike Mazzola, Reuters Americas' midtown New York district head, heads south to Mexico (IMD, June 7), sources say Brian DeLacy will also be moving south, from his current post in Boston as Northeast regional manager, to run New York's midtown district. DeLacy was considered for the job last year, which became available when Will Kennedy left Reuters, New York and the market data industry (IMD, Oct. 12, 1992). At that time, Mazzola moved up from downtown to head midtown, and Janet Pistone assumed responsibility for downtown (IMD, Nov. 23, 1992). "No management changes have taken place," says the spokesperson for Reuters.

Also moving, from Reuters to Bankers Trust -- and from Chicago to New York -- is Patrick Dolan, until ten days ago a Reuters marketing manager for derivatives. Beginning today, Dolan will be a vice president in Bankers Trust's global assets group. As such, he will have product marketing responsibilities for BT's GlobeSet, a 24-hour, multi- currency settlement system aimed at the futures and options market.

Beta Systems Inc. has hired a managing director and chief operating officer, John Diesem. Although he was most recently chief technology officer at New York-based Paramount Publishing, Diesem will be more familiar to market data hounds from his tenure as senior vice president and chief information officer at the American Stock Exchange from 1989 to 1992. Diesem will be charged with injecting new life into Beta's efforts to market its BetaQuotes quote service and back-office services. He will also handle day- to-day operations. Beta's marketing efforts have languished of late as the vendor focused on merging systems that support its parent (and largest customer) Kemper Securities Inc. and those that support its other customers.

Acting fast following the announcement last month that managing director Paul Cooper would step down (IMD, May 24), Knight-Ridder has appointed a director of sales and shuffled its marketing group to form a new Product Management Department. The posts of director of marketing, director of customer support and managing director remain vacant. But to head sales, the vendor has promoted Chris Devitt, who has been regional sales manager for the eastern seaboard and part of New York City since 1991. Prior to that, Devitt was director of customer support at Knight-Ridder.

Meanwhile, product management director Gene Shimshock has elevated two of his staff into newly created management posts. Mark Daniels becomes manager of financial products, while Michael O'Brien will head financial markets. Deputy director John Henke will add to his current tasks that of information management, and an as-yet unnamed executive will head up a commodity markets group.