Houlihan Lokey hired Robert Hyer Jr. as a managing director in charge of its new financial technology banking group. He joins from Greenhill & Co., where he was a managing director.

"We continue to aggressively add senior talent to the firm and this is another example of that happening in a key area," Scott Adelson, a Houlihan senior managing director and global co-head of corporate finance, said in a press release about the establishment of the new division. "Rapid change in the financial technology industry is presenting new opportunities and Bob's history of successful advisory work in this area will be instrumental to our growth going forward."

At Greenhill, Hyer advised Kohlberg Kravis Roberts on its $27 billion acquisition of First Data and Ceridian on its proxy defense and $5.2 billion sale to Thomas H. Lee Partners. He previously spent 19 years at Citigroup, where he founded the firm's global electronic services group. Hyer's Citi client roster included MasterCard, PayPal, E*Trade and MoneyGram. Hyer graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and the University of California-Berkeley's Haas School of Business.

Bruce Urbanek, a financial technology specialist, has come aboard Houlihan Lokey as a vice president on Hyer's team. He previously worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.

Career moves Financial services industry