NEW YORK (Reuters) – Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman plans to step down as chief executive within the next year, ending 13 years at the helm of the bank, during which he turned the Wall Street firm into a wealth management giant.
James Gorman, 64, told shareholders on Friday that the bank’s board had identified three strong candidates to succeed him and that he would become executive chairman once a new chief executive was chosen.
Morgan Stanley co-chairmen Ted Pick and Andy Saperstein, as well as chief investment officer Dan Simkowitz, are considered candidates for chief executive.
“James Gorman has worked hard to strengthen the ranks of leaders and to train and promote potential successors,” said John Guarnera, principal analyst at RBC BlueBay Asset Management. “I don’t foresee any major change in strategic direction and I think the transition will be relatively orderly.”
Since his appointment as CEO in 2010, James Gorman has reframed the Wall Street firm into a more diversified business, less reliant on its traditional strengths of trading and investment banking.
The less volatile wealth management business accounted for 45% of the bank’s turnover in the first quarter.
(Reporting Tatiana Bautzer, Lananh Nguyen, Saeed Azhar; with assistance from Vansh Agarwal, Jaiveer Shekhavat, Ankika Biswas; Nathan Vifflin, editing by)
Copyright © 2023 Thomson Reuters
I have over 8 years of experience working in the news industry. I have worked as a reporter, editor, and now managing editor at 247 News Agency. I am responsible for the day-to-day operations of the news website and overseeing all of the content that is published. I also write a column for the website, covering mostly market news.
