Derek Jeter's Banker Joins Rockefellers in New Wall Street Venture
October 04 2017 - 9:10AM
Dow Jones News
By Liz Hoffman
Greg Fleming, a well-known Wall Street executive, is resurfacing
nearly two years after leaving his role at Morgan Stanley as a top
lieutenant of Chief Executive James Gorman.
Rockefeller & Co., the family office of 19th-century oil
baron John D. Rockefeller, is expected on Wednesday to name Mr.
Fleming its new CEO, part of a deal in which the firm will be
acquired by hedge-fund firm Viking Global Investors LP and recast
as an adviser and asset manager to the ultrawealthy.
The deal is a reboot for the 135-year-old firm and a comeback
for the 54-year-old Mr. Fleming, who came close to the top jobs at
Merrill Lynch & Co. and Morgan Stanley but fell short at
both.
Since leaving Morgan Stanley in 2016 amid signs he wouldn't
succeed Mr. Gorman, he has flirted with a few high-profile Wall
Street firms and tended to a client roster that includes Canadian
billionaire Paul Desmarais and former New York Yankee Derek Jeter,
whom Mr. Fleming advised on the $1.2 billion consortium purchase of
the Miami Marlins baseball team.
Now with Viking's backing, Mr. Fleming will be charged with
turning a storied family office with only $16.6 billion in assets
into a broader concierge for the Rockefellers' peer set -- wealthy
families, endowments, nonprofit foundations and other institutional
investors. The idea is to bolt merger and other strategic advice
onto the firm's existing wealth advisory and fund-management
arms.
"The resonance of the [Rockefeller] name is huge," Mr. Fleming
said. "Rather than having to spend time putting the brand on the
map, I can focus on operating it and talking to clients."
Viking, which has about $25 billion under management, will buy a
majority of the firm and rebrand it as Rockefeller Capital
Management. The purchase price isn't being disclosed, but a person
familiar with the matter pegged it at low nine-figures, plus a
commitment from Viking to invest more.
Rockefeller family members will continue to own about 10% of the
company. Mr. Fleming will invest as well.
"This deal gives us the ability to reinvest in the business and
offer our clients a broader array of services, neither of which we
had before, " said David Rockefeller Jr., the firm's chairman.
Viking is one of the world's largest stock-focused hedge funds.
It is led by the billionaire Andreas Halvorsen, a triathlete who
earlier worked for the hedge-fund luminary Julian Robertson.
Wealth management, asset management and corporate advice are
prized on Wall Street these days for their stable returns and
little need for capital. Still, they are competitive and
fragmented, with hundreds of small shops vying with the major
banks.
Rockefeller & Co. traces its roots to 1882, when John D.
Rockefeller launched an office to manage his oil fortune. It began
taking outside money in 1979, and today the family accounts for
about one-third of its assets, which are at about half their 2012
level.
CEO Reuben Jeffery III, a former Goldman Sachs partner who later
worked in President George W. Bush's state department, will remain
on Rockefeller's reconstituted board.
Mr. Fleming rose up the ranks as a Merrill Lynch investment
banker, brokering deals for money managers and other financial
firms. His crowning achievement: helping wrangle $50 billion out of
Bank of America for a teetering Merrill in September 2008.
He joined Morgan Stanley a year later, where he reunited with
his former Merrill colleague, Mr. Gorman, to run the firm's asset-
and wealth-management business, which came to drive nearly half of
Morgan Stanley's revenue after the financial crisis.
Seen as ambitious and well-rounded, he joined the board of fund
manager Putnam Investments and taught at his law school alma mater,
Yale University.
He also considered joining Pacific Investment Management Co. and
private-equity firm Blackstone Group LP in senior roles, according
to people familiar with the matter.
"I spent half my career in senior executive positions at public
companies," he said. "I was looking for something else."
Write to Liz Hoffman at liz.hoffman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 04, 2017 08:55 ET (12:55 GMT)
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