Avondale Partners has brought to town a former New York-based senior analyst who covers a wide swath of the retail world.

Jeff Black joins Avondale as a senior analyst from Citigroup, where he was a director and senior coverage analyst and led the bank's specialty retailing coverage. Before that, he also worked at Barclays Capital and Lehman Brothers. He has been highly rated in Institutional Investor magazine’s annual poll of buy-side firms and cited as a top research source for investors in the Greenwich survey. He will focus on mall-based retailers, supplementing the coverage of Mark Montagna, who covers dollar and drug stores as well as other specialty retailers.

“Our research product has long been central to our firm’s business model and Jeff’s talents and expertise will continue to enhance its value,” said Pat Shepherd, CEO of Avondale.

West End-based Avondale is home to an equity research group of about 25 people, focused primarily on health care, business services and industrial companies.