NEW YORK, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Fenchurch Advisory

Partners, the boutique investment bank focused on the financial

services industry, is hiring Gautam Chawla as co-head of its

operations in the United States, people familiar with the matter

said on Thursday.

Chawla will join the firm in November from Barclays ( BCS )

, where he has been serving as global co-head of its

financial institutions group, said the people, who spoke on

condition of anonymity to discuss the move, which has not been

announced publicly.

At Fenchurch, an affiliate of French investment bank Natixis

, Chawla will work alongside John Sipp, the current

head of the bank's U.S. operations who joined Fenchurch when it

opened its office in New York in 2022.

Fenchurch declined comment. Barclays ( BCS ) did not respond to a

request for comment.

Chawla has more than 30 years of investment banking

experience, with the last five years at Barclays ( BCS ). Prior to that,

he spent nearly three decades at Citigroup ( C/PN ), including as

co-head of global insurance investment banking, according to his

LinkedIn profile.

Fenchurch was founded in London in 2003 by Malik Karim, a

veteran dealmaker and former treasurer of Britain's Conservative

Party. It has subsequently grown to around 70 bankers in London,

Paris and New York, all focused on providing advisory services

to financial companies on mergers and acquisitions, raising

capital, and shareholder activism.