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Royal Bank of Canada has added 30-year industry veteran Laurence Grafstein to its ranks, as deputy chairman of global investment banking.

Most recently, Mr. Grafstein served as managing director and co-head of mergers and acquisitions in the Americas at UBS. Previously, he was an executive vice-chairman and co-head of mergers and acquisitions at Rothschild, and before that, co-head of telecommunications, media and technology at Lazard.

Mr. Grafstein, the son of former senator Jerry Grafstein, will begin his new role in September, the bank said in an announcement circulated on Monday. He will focus on developing senior client relationships and building the bank’s mergers and acquisitions franchise.

Although Mr. Grafstein will be based in New York, his move to RBC brings him back to his Canadian roots. The Harvard graduate and Rhodes scholar started his investment banking career in 1985 as a summer intern at Canadian private-equity firm Onex.

The news of Mr. Grafstein’s hire comes amid a shakeup in the management ranks of RBC’s capital-markets division.

Mr. Grafstein will report to Matthew Stopnik and Jim Wolfe, who took over as co-heads of U.S. investment banking earlier this month after the abrupt dismissal of Blair Fleming. Mr. Fleming, the man credited with steering an ambitious expansion of RBC’s U.S. investment-banking arm following the global financial crisis, was let go for allegedly violating the bank’s “disclosure and conflict of interest policies relating to workplace relationships.”

Derek Neldner, who most recently served as RBC’s head of Canadian and Asia Pacific investment banking, was also promoted following Mr. Fleming’s sudden departure. Mr. Neldner, who has more than two decades of investment-banking experience at RBC, is taking over global responsibility for investment banking, reporting to Doug McGregor, group head of RBC’s capital-markets division.

Meanwhile, RBC’s head of global equities, Greg Mills, announced that he will retire from the bank at the end of July, clearing the way for new co-heads Bobby Grubert and Ahmed Kachenoura.

“Larry’s appointment comes on the heels of a number of significant hires we’ve made in Global Investment Banking this year, and demonstrates our strong commitment to strategically adding top talent across the platform as we continue to deliver on our key areas of focus and growth strategy,” Mr. Neldner said in a memo to staff.

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