Stephen Crawford resigns as co-president of Morgan Stanley

Stephen Crawford resigns as co-president of Morgan Stanley

Stephen Crawford has decided to take the offer Morgan Stanley gave it to resign and take a booty worth USD 32 million as the severance payment. He is now stepping down as the co-president of the brokerage firm. He was one of the losers in the company’s decision to appoint their new head in John Mack who himself refused to accept a fixed salary and opted for a performance based incentive from the company.

The company said in a statement that Crawford was leaving the company “to pursue other interests” and the co-president Zoe Cruz would be taking over his position for the time being. Both Cruz and Crawford were appointed as the co-president of the company under the leadership of former chairman and chief executive Phil Purcell who himself retired last month after coming under pressure for declining profits of the company.

The appointment and the working style of Purcell resulted in many more executives leaving the company for other destinations hurting the company both financially and economically. As a result, the company brought back John Mack who had earlier resigned after a bitter struggle for power against Purcell a couple of years back. Crawford would be receiving $US32 million, which includes two years’ worth of salary, bonuses and long-term compensation – as well as all of his accrued retirement benefits. Morgan Stanley would also vest his pending stock options immediately.

The payout to Crawford and Purcell are costing the company a lot and has further blown the company’s morale. However, John Mack is confident that the company would recover from these bad years of mismanagement and grow back to become one of the best financial institutions in the world again.