ING Commercial Banking, the corporate and investment banking division of ING Group, has appointed Mark Pieter de Boer as Head of Western European Equity Markets, as it builds its award-winning equity brokerage business across the European continent. De Boer (36) joins ING from Royal Bank of Scotland, where he was Head of Benelux Equities, responsible for research, sales and trading of Benelux equities, effective 1 January 2011. He was rated number 1 Benelux analyst in the prestigious Extel Pan-European Survey 2010. Prior to that, he held roles including Head of Equity Research at ABN AMRO. Based in Amsterdam, De Boer will report functionally to Dariusz Chrzastowski, Global Head of Equities for ING Commercial Banking, with a hierarchical reporting line to Diederik van Wassenaer, Global Head of Clients, Corporate Finance and Equity Markets. “Mark brings with him a wealth of knowledge and experience in equity markets, which will be invaluable to us as we take our Western European equities business to the next level,” said Diederik van Wassenaer. “We are committed to maintaining our strong focus on sector coverage in order to give our clients the highest-quality equity research and brokerage services.” ING Commercial Banking was named best equities broker in both the Benelux and Eastern Europe in the Extel Pan-European Survey 2010. De Boer succeeds acting Head Western European Equity Markets Arthur Caland, who resumes his position as Head of Trading for Western European Equities in Amsterdam. “We thank Arthur for his invaluable contribution as acting Head,” said Dariusz Chrzastowski.