Barclays Hires Technology Banker Akhil Ahuja From Wells Fargo

(Bloomberg) -- Barclays Plc hired Akhil Ahuja, a managing director from Wells Fargo & Co. to be head of enterprise and communications technology banking at its Menlo Park, California office.

The London-based investment bank has been bulking up its hiring to cover technology, as the sector remains one of the strongest areas of dealmaking. About $122 billion of U.S. technology deals have been announced this year, up more than 60% from a year ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Last week, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Co. agreed to buy U.S. supercomputer maker Cray Inc. in a deal valued at about $1.4 billion.

Ahuja was mostly recently head of systems and infrastructure software banking at Wells Fargo. A Wells Fargo representative declined to comment.

Ahuja joined Wells Fargo in 2011 from JPMorgan Chase & Co. He has advised clients such as Plantronics Inc.

He will start in August and report to the co-heads of the technology group, Laurence Braham and Greg Dalvito.

Ahuja is the fourth banker Barclays has hired this year to advise technology companies. The bank previously hired Robert Peck, an internet banker from Credit Suisse Group AG, as well as two bankers from Deutsche Bank AG: Kristin DeClark, who focuses on equity capital markets; and Riaz Ladhabhoy, who covers internet companies.

Barclays was one of the banks that worked on Uber Technologies Inc.’s initial public offering this month. It also advised Cisco on its acquisition of cybersecurity company Duo Security Inc. last year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Liana Baker in New York at lbaker75@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.