UBS has hired Ryan Birtel from Deutsche Bank to start up a commercial real estate collateralized debt obligation business. The firm, which is ramping up in CDOs (SN, 3/20), has not done any CRE CDO deals to date. Birtel will join at the end of April as executive director and senior CDO structurer, reporting to Lirenn Tsai, who heads the bank's New York CDO group. Tsai did not return a call.

Birtel structured CRE CDOs at Deutsche Bank, reporting to Adam Behlman, head of CMBS structuring. Birtel said he will be working in the wider UBS CDO team, rather than in a small CRE CDO group. "Working for a larger CDO team, the arbitrage opportunities between different types of collateral are more robust," he said. Birtel is currently on gardening leave. Behlman declined comment.