Credit Suisse just hired a program trading sales exec from Wells Fargo who is known on the Street as ‘the Whopper’

• Credit Suisse has hired a new head of program trading sales.
• Chris “the Whopper” Johnson is joining from Wells Fargo, where he spent the past decade.
• It fills a void for Credit Suisse, which has seen an exodus in the Archegos aftermath.

Credit Suisse has made a key hire in its equities division, filling a void amid a wave of departures following the Archegos crisis.

Chris Johnson, who is known on the Street as “the Whopper,” has resigned from Wells Fargo, where he spent the past decade and ran equity program trading sales, according to sources familiar with the matter.

He is joining Credit Suisse as head of program trading sales, the sources said, filling a void left when Jason Vickery left earlier this summer to run program trading for Mizuho.

A Credit Suisse spokeswoman declined to comment. A Wells Fargo spokesperson confirmed Johnson’s departure and declined to comment further.

Johnson joined Wells Fargo in 2011 to help build the firm’s program trading desk, a business that sources and trades portfolios of stocks with investors and handles large index rebalance trades. Before Wells, he worked in program trading at Weeden & Co., Merrill Lynch, and Bank of America.

His nickname stems from his days in high school and college playing basketball, sources who know Johnson told Insider, when coaches saw a resemblance to NBA star Billy “the Whopper” Paultz.

Whereas Wells Fargo focuses on domestic US securities, at Credit Suisse Johnson will have a broader, global remit.

The Swiss bank is endeavoring to stabilize its investment bank following two multi-billion dollar blowups — the implosions of Greensill Capital and the family office Archegos Capital Management. An independent investigation into the latter, which hit Credit Suisse with $5.5 billion in losses, revealed severe lapses in management and risk controls.

At least 65 senior employees have left in the aftermath, Insider reported.