Cruttenden & Co., the Irvine brokerage and...

Cruttenden & Co., the Irvine brokerage and investment bank, said it has hired four new senior managers.

Will Porter, a former Cruttenden employee who left to join the Irvine brokerage L.H. Friend, will return as director of trading for institutional markets. Rick Sample, formerly of Related Capital Co. of Rancho Santa Margarita, will join Cruttenden as retail branch manager, replacing Brad Weddon.

The company has also created two positions. Gordon Jones, formerly with Kidder Peabody & Co. in New York, joins the firm as institutional equity manager, and David Hirschhorn of Nikko Securities in New York will become vice president for corporate finance.

“Their expertise in the institutional and retail brokerage arenas will help maintain our current aggressive rate of growth and help us to continue to provide quality service to our clients,” Chairman Walter C. Cruttenden III said.