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“‘Jamie is a phenomenal bank executive. I think he’s the best bank executive in the world, honestly. And I’ve seen them all.’ ”
That’s Morgan Stanley
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CEO James Gorman in a CNBC interview Thursday talking about Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of rival bank JPMorgan Chase & Co.
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His remarks marked a relatively rare instance of one master of the universe on Wall Street acknowledging the accomplishments of another.
Gorman did not elaborate on his admiration for Dimon, however — only mentioning the JPMorgan executive briefly when asked about why he had decided to retire from the bank in 2024 after 14 years at the helm of Morgan Stanley.
“It was my decision that I’d had enough, and it’s healthy for an organization to innovate and move on,” Gorman said.
The bank “landed the plane really well” with its decision to name Ted Pick as chief executive starting in 2024, he said.
Morgan Stanley Co-President Andy Saperstein is becoming head of wealth and investment management. Another candidate, Dan Simkowitz, will become co-president and the head of institutional securities. The two were also up for the chief executive job, but have opted to remain at the bank under their new titles.
Asked if Pick will pursue acquisitions to grow the firm after Morgan Stanley bought Smith Barney in 2009, followed by E*Trade in 2020 and Eaton Vance in 2021, Gorman said it was likely more deals were on the horizon, but suggested they would be overseas.
“There are always opportunities,” Gorman said. “I think Ted [Pick] has a whole plateful of things to do. … We’re more likely to do more non-U.S.”
The revived strength of the Japanese economy for the first time in 40 years is fascinating, he added. “You have to be aware that the world changes and there are opportunities opening up,” Gorman said.
Consolidation in the asset-management business will continue, as well as in the world of alternatives, the outgoing Morgan Stanley exec said.
“There will unquestionably be consolidation in the asset-management space for the next decade,” Gorman said. “It is one of the last non-consolidated parts of the whole financial-service spectrum. And it is inevitable, because scale matters.”
Gorman plans to stay on as Morgan Stanley’s executive chairman for no more than a year. He’ll also become a board member at Walt Disney Co.
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in 2024, and is planning to teach at Columbia University.
Gorman said he enjoyed working directly with clients during his career, and will do some of that work again as executive chairman. He enjoyed “making big calls,” he added, such as his decision to buy E*Trade.
From the archives (October 2023): Morgan Stanley’s new CEO Ted Pick has ‘big shoes to fill’ as he faces challenging markets, analyst says
