Frank Yeary, Citigroup’s head of global mergers and acquisitions, is leaving the bank to serve as vice-chancellor of his alma mater, the University of Cali­fornia, Berkeley.

Mr Yeary has helped Cititgroup win advisory roles on a range of big-name deals over the past five years.

His M&A operation recently advised Electronic Data Systems in its takeover by Hewlett-Packard, and Alltel in its sale to Verizon Wireless.

He will work to develop Berkeley’s long-term financial plan and build links between the university and the business community, Citigroup said.

Mr Yeary, who is based in New York, will stay with Citigroup until mid-July.

At that point, global investment banking co-head Raymond McGuire will assume control of the M&A group until a replacement is announced.

Last year, Mr Yeary helped push the bank towards the top of the merger advisory league tables, boosted by the firepower of the lending business Citigroup supported with its formidable balance sheet.

Citigroup has retrenched sharply this year, however, after announcing billions of dollars in writedowns and quarterly losses.

Some of the M&A advisory work it had reaped because of its ability to underwrite large deals has been soaked up by other banks, including JPMorgan.

However, people close to the company say Citigroup was pulled in to help advise Anheuser-Busch after it received an unsolicited bid from InBev, in a move based partly on its potential lending capacity.

In an investment banking career spanning more than two decades, Mr Yeary worked first at Lehman Brothers, then at Citigroup takeover target Salomon Brothers before joining private equity firm Carlyle Group in 1998, where he opened its New York office.

He returned to Citigroup in 2001 to be head of global telecoms, media and technology investment banking.