Morgan Stanley Boss James Gorman said Friday he plans to step down as CEO within a year, setting off a race for succession at the highest of certainly one of Wall Street’s dominant firms.
The bank’s board has narrowed its seek for CEOs to three “very strong” internal candidates, Gorman told shareholders on the Latest York firm’s annual meeting.
He said the 64-year-old Gorman would take over as executive chairman “for a while” after stepping down as CEO.
“The precise timing of the transition to CEO has not been specified, however the board and my expectation that it would be within the subsequent 12 months,” said Gorman.
“That is the present expectation within the absence of major changes within the external environment,” he added.
Because the takeover of 2010, Gorman led certainly one of Wall Street’s most successful transformations. Through a series of shrewd acquisitions, Morgan Stanley reversed course after nearly capsizing throughout the 2008 financial crisis and have become a widely respected wealth management giant.
The corporate’s investors awarded it certainly one of the best valuations amongst large banks. It is because shareholders prefer the more stable income streams generated by wealth and asset management over the more volatile fees from trading and advisory firms.
Morgan Stanley shares under CEO James Gorman.
The announcement officially expresses Gorman’s desire to hand over the reins to one other director. Gorman said publicly he had no plans to stay as CEO for the previous couple of years, and on Friday he joked that while holding that title, he wouldn’t die.
Gorman has “no plans to exit like that Logan Roythe fictional CEO of the HBO series Succession told investors.
Morgan Stanley’s internal CEO candidates are men running three major banks businessaccording to people conversant in the situation.
As of 2021, Ted Pick and Andy Saperstein are also co-chairs, who manage the bank’s capital markets and wealth management departments, respectively. Dan Simkowitz he heads the bank’s smallest department, investment management, and in 2021 he was appointed co-head of strategy.
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