Grahame Cook, former chief executive officer of Panmure UK, the WestLB subsidiary up for sale, has joined Equity i, a research boutique, as a non-executive director seven months after he and other senior bankers left the UK stockbroker.

John Tacchi has joined the company to replace Brian Basham as chief executive officer. Basham, a former journalist, fund manager and PR executive, founded Equity i in 1999. Tacchi was formerly head of research marketing at Merrill Lynch, before leaving in December 2001 to write a book. Before Merrill, he was head of European cash distribution in the US for Morgan Stanley.