Lehman Brothers brings back former executives

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc LEH.N, the investment bank which last week posted its first quarterly loss as a public company, said it was rehiring two executives who had left in 2007 for unspecified reasons.

Lehman said it was hiring Michael Gelband, who resigned last year as global head of fixed income, to the newly created post of global head of capital markets.

It also rehired Alex Kirk, co-chief operating officer for the fixed income division until 2007, to the post of global head of principal investing, succeeding Dave Goldfarb.

Goldfarb, in turn, will take up the newly created post of chief strategy officer.

A Lehman Brothers spokesman declined to comment on why Gelband, 49, and Kirk, 48, had left in the first place. At the time of his resignation in May 2007, Lehman said Gelband was leaving to "pursue other interests."

Gelband, Kirk and Goldfarb, 51, will report to Herbert (Bart) McDade, who was named chief operating officer and president of Lehman in a surprise shake-up last week after it announced the loss and plans to raise $6 billion in capital.

Lehman also named Gerald Donini, former head of Americas Equities, as global head of equities, succeeding McDade. Donini, 44, will report to Gelband.

Shares of Lehman, the smallest remaining Wall Street independent brokerage, have fallen 62 percent so far this year, more than double the decline in the Amex Securities Broker Dealer index .XBD.

(Reporting by Christian Plumb, editing by Richard Chang)