Thane Carlston and William Derrough were joint heads of the recapitalization and restructuring group at Jefferies, where each worked for 10 years. The third hire, Justin Mirro, built Jefferies' franchise advising a broad range of automotive-related companies on deals and financing, according to Moelis. An automotive engineer, Mirro was a design and manufacturing engineer for General Motors and Toyota before becoming a banker. All three appointments take effect in July.

Moelis & Co. was launched last July by Ken Moelis, former president of UBS's investment bank. By February the firm had broken into the U.S. top 10 M&A advisors ranked by deal volume, and employed 40 bankers and 25 support staff at its offices in New York, Boston and Los Angeles.