New Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick.
NEW YORK: Morgan Stanley named insider Ted Pick as its chief executive officer, replacing James Gorman (pic), who has held the top job for more than a decade and steered the bank in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
Pick, 54, is a three-decade company veteran and heads the institutional securities division, home to the bank’s investment banking and trading unit.
Prior to his current role, Pick was the global head of sales and trading and engineered a turnaround of the firm’s fixed income division.
Gorman, who announced in May that he planned to step down within a year, will become the investment bank’s executive chairman.
Morgan Stanley also said Andy Saperstein will become the bank’s co-president and head of wealth and investment management, while Dan Simkowitz will take on the role of co-president and head of institutional securities.
Saperstein leads wealth management, which generates the most revenue of Morgan Stanley’s businesses. Strong performances from the unit in recent quarters has helped the firm mitigate a slump in dealmaking.
Simkowitz, a three-decade veteran of the banking industry, is the head of investment management at Morgan Stanley.
He is also the co-head of the firm’s strategy and execution.
Gorman joined Morgan Stanley in February 2006 and was named co-president the following year.
As the 2008 financial crisis unfolded, threatening to topple some of Wall Street’s biggest firms, Gorman had a front-row seat alongside then-CEO John Mack.
“James Gorman is an exceptional visionary banker, having guided a traditional, white-shoe investment bank through a transformative and successful evolution into a diversified, dynamic wealth management institution,” said Ana Arsov, managing director at Moody’s.
“As with all his endeavors, his succession has been well-planned, facilitating a smooth transition.”
The executive, a music fan also known for his dry sense of humour, grew up in Australia.
He earned bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Melbourne and an MBA from Columbia University. He eventually became a US citizen.
Gorman was named CEO in January 2010 at the same time as his counterpart Brian Moynihan at Bank of America.
Both executives, along with JPMorgan Chase & Co’s Jamie Dimon, have led their respective firms through the wreckage of the financial crisis. — Reuters
