Morgan Stanley said Thursday that CEO Ted Pick will be its next chairman, succeeding James Gorman, whose appointment has been filed Chairman of the Board of Walt Disney After stepping down as executive chairman of the Wall Street titan at the end of the year.
Gorman will also retire from Morgan Stanley’s employment and be named chairman emeritus, the bank said. However, he will serve as a non-employee advisor to the bank from January 2025 to the end of 2026.
“I am confident that with Ted’s tremendous leadership, Morgan Stanley will continue its strong trajectory to even greater heights and new successes in the years to come,” Gorman said in a statement.
The bank is keeping with Wall Street tradition by consolidating the roles of CEO and chairman – a practice that sometimes comes under criticism for potentially concentrating too much power in a single person. Jamie Dimon and David Solomon both hold roles at JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, respectively.
However, proponents argue that such integration speeds up decision making. He says a lead independent director on the board can offer adequate oversight to ensure accountability.
Although he is relatively new to the CEO seat, he has certainly been with the company for a long time. Stephen Biggar, financial services analyst at Argus Research, said it took a lot of scrutiny to put him in the CEO role and, by all measures, so far he has followed in Gorman’s footsteps.
Pick then took over the reins earlier this year Winning the race to succeed longtime CEO Gorman,
Pick joined Morgan Stanley in 1990 and ran equity capital markets during the financial crisis. He was appointed head of sales and trading in 2015.
Earlier this week, Disney said Gorman would become chairman of its board on Jan. 2.
