The brokers at Merrill Lynch (MER) are tired of the lack of respect that they have had over the last several years. Stan O’Neal, the former CEO, treated them and their chief like dirt.
Now that Merrill is in trouble. the retail sales staff at the firm is making the point that it has been an anchor during the storm which has washed over the company. And, they want some credit for that in the form of having the head of the private client group being named to a senior job at the parent. According to Reuters "twenty-one Merrill brokers recently wrote a letter to the board requesting that Robert McCann, head of the global private client business, be considered as a president or co-president of the company."
New CEO John Thain will have to figure this one out fairly quickly because there are almost certainly other large departments who want to see their top person sitting down the hall from the chief.
With Thain’s Goldman Sachs (GS) background, the private client group should not hold its breath.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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