Morgan Stanley’s Ted Pick is going to take helm as CEO from James Gorman. Morgan Stanley‘s Ted Pick has won the race to succeed long-time CEO James Gorman. Ted Pick of Morgan Stanley on Wednesday promised to stick to the blue chip Wall Street firm’s strategy as it navigates a deal-making slump and uncertain economic outlook.
Morgan Stanley, the investment bank said Gorman, who has held the top job since 2010 and steered the bank in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, will become executive chairman and may stay a full year to help with the transition.
Ted Pick as new CEO for Morgan Stanley
Ted Pick the new CEO is 54, and is a three-decade company veteran who heads the institutional securities division, home to the bank’s investment banking and trading unit, had been the favorite to win a three-man race against insiders Andy Saperstein and Dan Simkowitz.
“We have two great businesses, the strategy is intact, there is a change in leadership but no change in strategy,” Pick said in an interview.
Still, Pick will have to deal with a tumultuous investment banking backdrop which has damaged earnings, an investigation by U.S. regulators into its block trading practices and managing relationships with the two peers who lost out on the top job.
Saperstein, who leads wealth management, will remain co-president and head of wealth, and take on additional responsibilities overseeing investment management. Simkowitz, head of investment management, will become co-president and head of institutional securities.
All about Ted Pick
Ted Pick will take over as CEO on Jan 1. He joined Morgan Stanley in 1990 and ran equity capital markets during the financial crisis and was appointed head of sales and trading in 2015.
Prior to his current role as CEO, Ted Pick was the global head of sales and trading and engineered a turnaround of the firm’s fixed income division. Gorman said the turnaround was a difficult time in which he saw Pick could make “tough calls” and keep people motivated.
That could stand him in good stead as Wall Street recovers from a dealmaking slump, some analysts said.
Expectations from Ted Pick
The expectation is that the growth of mergers and acquisitions in the next couple of years will be high and that has been Pick’s core competency so we view it as a good move,” said Brian Mulberry, client portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management, which held Morgan Stanley stock in the past.
Mulberry said Pick also added “stability and experience” that the bank had been “missing as this succession discussion has been going on.”
Ted Pick, the CEO acknowledged the market is “challenging” but did not have any “bearing on how we’re thinking about the strategy.”
James Gorman though legacy to follow
Gorman announced in May that he planned to step down within a year, and some investors had hoped the succession would be announced at the bank’s Oct 18 earnings.
Morgan Stanley stock sank, with one analyst citing the lack of a public plan on the new CEO.
Gorman said the bank had kept to timetable and had announced it after its October board meeting, adding that Pick, chosen for his leadership abilities and “mental toughness”, had received a standing ovation from the board after being informed. The bank targeted this month so the new CEO could get a “running start” to begin in January, he said.
