(Reuters) -Morgan Stanley on Wednesday named insider Ted Pick as its chief executive officer, replacing James Gorman, 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’S LEGACY
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 humor, grew up in Australia. He earned bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Melbourne and an M.B.A. from Columbia University. He eventually became a U.S. 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.
Earlier this month, Morgan Stanley’s third-quarter profit showed a hit from lethargic dealmaking and shares sank as investors were also disappointed by smaller inflows to the wealth management division and the lack of announcements in the CEO succession.
Shares of the Wall Street powerhouse were down marginally in extended trading on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Manya Saini and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru and Tatiana Bautzer and Lananh Nguyen in New York; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Devika Syamnath)
