Morgan Stanley finance chief to resign at year-end
NEW YORK -- Morgan Stanley chief financial officer David Sidwell will leave the world's second-biggest securities firm by market value at year-end. Colm Kelleher, head of global capital markets, will succeed him.
Sidwell, a 54-year-old Briton, said yesterday he is leaving after less than four years at the firm to devote his time to philanthropic work in New York City. Kelleher, a 49-year-old with British and Irish citizenship, joined Morgan Stanley in 1989.
Chairman and chief executive John Mack has reassigned many of the most senior executives since he replaced Philip Purcell in 2005, a year after Sidwell joined. Like Mack and copresident Zoe Cruz, Kelleher has spent most of his career at Morgan Stanley and helped oversee the fixed-income department, the firm's biggest source of revenue.
"Morgan Stanley's CFOs have been mostly investment bankers," said Brad Hintz, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein in New York and a former treasurer at Morgan Stanley and CFO at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. "It tends not to be an accountant type and so I'd view Sidwell as an aberration."
Sidwell joined Morgan Stanley as chief financial officer in March 2004, replacing Stephen Crawford, after 20 years at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and nine years at PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York and London. Sidwell was recruited by Purcell, who was ousted as chairman and chief executive a year later.
"I haven't been fired, I don't view myself as burnt out, I view myself as wanting to move on to do more," Sidwell said "I am leaving at a high, not at a low. I really want to give something back."
Kelleher previously served as cohead of fixed-income in Europe and also helped establish the firm's European financial institutions department, which advises banks, insurers, fund managers, and other financial services companies. Before joining Morgan Stanley he worked for four years at accounting firm Arthur Andersen in London.
"David informed me last year of his intention to retire, but agreed to stay on through the end of 2007 to ensure a smooth transition," Mack said yesterday.
