Dallas, Texas 01/29/2014 (FINANCIALSTRENDS) – Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), the $58 billion market capped global financial services provider announced a change of guard at its top echelons today. It has indicated that Mr Erskine Bowles has been anointed as the new Lead Director of the company board of directors and will assume responsibilities on 1st February. He will be replacing its current lead director Mr Robert Kidder.
This change at the top of one of U.S largest financial institutions which boasts of managing on behalf its clients, close to $1,649 billion worth assets is being pointed out by analysts as a desirable template for all other publicly traded financial institutions. This is because the new appointment was made based on the specific advice of only the independent directors who are serving on the board. The New York based major board has over the recent years has made a conscious effort to rotate the Lead Director role at regular intervals.
The new lead director Mr. Bowles boasts of a impressive resume and has been Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) for close to a decade. He has held major positions of importance like being the “Chair of the Compensation Committee, Management Development Committee and Succession Committee” over the past five years and has had the distinction of having been nominated as the “Co-Chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform” which was formed by the Federal Government in 2010 to help it draw up recommendations on structural reforms in Banks to safeguard investor and depositor interests. He is also of academic bent of mind and had held the role of “President of The University of North Carolina” during the 2006 to 2010 time frame.
Welcoming Mr Bowles into his new role, Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Chairman and CEO ) James Gorman has been quoted to have said that, “We are extremely pleased to welcome Erskine as our Lead Director. Erskine brings strong leadership to the Board with over four decades of distinguished experience in financial services and public service.”
