Anu Aiyengar of JPMorgan Chase & Co. will become the sole head of global mergers and acquisitions, making her the only woman to lead that franchise at a major wall street bank. According to an internal company memo issued thursday, Dirk Albersmeier, who previously served as M&A co-head alongside Aiyengar, is stepping down to focus on client work. Aiyengar has been with the firm for over 20 years and was recently named co-head of global M&A. As an M&A generalist, the India-born banker has worked on restaurant transactions such as burger king

world wide inc's acquisition of tim hortons Inc and energy transactions such as Saudi aramco's acquisition of valvoline inc's petroleum unit.

Aiyengar Has Been With The Firm For Over 20 Years And Was Recently Named Cohead Of Global M&A

"During their time as global co-heads, we have significantly enhanced our activism defense and sell-side business and firmly established our M&A practice as a core component of our client offering", Jim Casey and Viswas Raghavan, co-heads of global investment banking, wrote in the memo. Albersmeier will now concentrate on providing M&A advice to clients and mentoring the "next generation of M&A leaders", according to the memo. As the M&A market grapples with rising interest rates, a shaky leveraged loan market, and a shaky stock market, Aiyengar assumes sole command of JPMorgan's hefty deal making franchise.