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Leerink Partners adds Josh Ezrin, Tom McCaffrey and Brian Furbush to launch event-driven trading team. October 5, 2026 Josh Ezrin, Tom McCaffrey and Brian Furbush Leerink Partners has launched an Event-Driven Sales and Trading team within its Institutional Equities platform, hiring industry veterans Josh Ezrin, Tom McCaffrey and Brian Furbush as the healthcare-focused investment bank expands its capabilities for institutional investors. The new team will provide event-driven sales, trading and analysis across the broader equity market, including merger arbitrage and special situations. It will also draw on Leerink's healthcare research and investment banking expertise to provide sector-specific insight around transactions and other market-moving events. Ezrin joins as senior managing director and head of Event-Driven Sales and Trading, leading the new platform. McCaffrey will focus on event-driven trading and serve as a principal market maker, while Furbush joins as director and Event-Driven Desk Analyst. The three executives bring complementary backgrounds spanning institutional sales, trading, market intelligence and event-driven investment strategies. "They are highly respected professionals who bring deep event-driven expertise, strong market knowledge, and a proven record of building and maintaining relationships across the institutional investment community," Rob Leerink, head of Institutional Equities at Leerink Partners, said. Ezrin brings more than 30 years of experience building and managing teams serving institutional investors with event-driven research, market intelligence and investment ideas. McCaffrey has more than 25 years of trading experience and will lead trading and client facilitation for the new team. His responsibilities will include supporting institutional investors executing strategies around corporate transactions and other events that can create pricing dislocations or trading opportunities. Furbush brings more than 15 years of experience across equity sales, trading and analysis. He will provide analysis, desk commentary and investment insights across event-driven situations. The expansion adds another layer to Leerink's Institutional Equities business while creating closer links between trading and the firm's existing research, capital markets and investment banking operations. Event-driven investing often depends on evaluating how corporate actions - including mergers, acquisitions, restructurings and other strategic developments - could affect securities prices. In healthcare, those situations can carry additional complexity because transactions and valuations may also be influenced by clinical, regulatory, financing and commercial developments. Leerink's strategy is to combine a dedicated event-driven team with the healthcare expertise already distributed across its broader platform. "By combining broad event-driven capabilities with Leerink's unmatched depth in healthcare, we believe we can build a differentiated platform that provides significant value to institutional investors," Ezrin said. The team will work with Leerink's equity research, sales and trading, capital markets and investment banking professionals, giving institutional clients access to multiple perspectives when analyzing transactions and special situations. The move also represents an expansion beyond Leerink's traditional healthcare specialization without abandoning the sector focus that has defined the firm. While the Event-Driven Sales and Trading team will cover opportunities across the broader equity market, healthcare is expected to provide an area where Leerink can combine trading capabilities with its existing industry knowledge and relationships. Leerink Partners has advised on $95 billion of mergers and acquisitions since inception and has helped clients raise more than $225 billion in capital. Those advisory and capital markets operations provide the firm with substantial exposure to the types of corporate activity that drive event-oriented investment strategies, although its institutional equities business operates within applicable information barriers and regulatory requirements. For Leerink, adding Ezrin, McCaffrey and Furbush expands the services it can provide institutional investors around those market events. The new team adds dedicated merger arbitrage, special situations and event-driven expertise to a platform already built around healthcare research and capital markets activity. The launch ultimately broadens Leerink's institutional offering from sector research and traditional equity execution toward a more specialized trading capability, with the firm betting that combining experienced event-driven professionals with its healthcare franchise can create a differentiated platform for institutional clients.