James Gorman will step down as chairman of Morgan Stanley at the end of the year. During nearly two decades in office,scooppokerHe rescued Morgan Stanley from the brink of collapse and built it into a wealth management giant.
Gorman, 65, announced his plans at the annual shareholders meeting on Thursday. The company did not immediately announce a successor, but it is expected that CEO Ted Pick will eventually take over the position.
After stepping down as CEO in January, the latest decision was seen as a vote of confidence in Pick's leadership. When Gorman initially rose to the top of the then-troubled company in 2010, his predecessor John Mack stayed as chairman for another two years, before Gorman began serving as both chairman and CEO.
Gorman did a rare thing on Wall Street last year, selecting a successor and persuading the defeated candidate to stay. The former McKinsey executive has not been shy about publicly discussing his departure schedule and has earlier hinted that he will step down as chairman at the end of this year.
The Australia-born banker joined Morgan Stanley in 2006 from Merrill Lynch to help revitalize the latter's wealth management business. By the time he became CEO, the company had been hit hard by the financial crisis and was on the verge of bankruptcy. Gorman has promoted the revival of Morgan Stanley's investment banking business and injected strong impetus into its money management business, which has so far managed as US$7 trillion in assets.
Pick, 55, must convince investors that the company still has bright growth prospects. Although Morgan Stanley shares have risen 8% this year, they are among the lowest among major U.S. banks.
Investors are cautious about Morgan Stanley's ability to continue to deliver strong results in wealth management, while its investment banking business is at a disadvantage to competition from archrival Goldman Sachs. Pick promises to continue to achieve Morgan Stanley's goals in wealth management while making more progress in investment banking.
"I think we are in the early stages of a multi-year M & A cycle," he said on an earnings conference call in April. "For traditional investment banking and capital markets businesses around the world, it's in the early to mid-cycle, and I feel good about it."
