On Aug. 19, Morgan Stanley International’s chairman, Jonathan Bloomer, died in the Mediterranean Sea aboard the Bayesian yacht, alongside his wife, Judy; Autonomy founder Mike Lynch; and four others. While the human cost of the tragedy is still being felt around the world, Morgan Stanley must now address a very real hole on its leadership team.
“Jonathan’s leadership and experience helped the firm manage a period of complex change for our international businesses,” said Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick in a statement provided to Fortune. “He has been a friend and mentor to many and we will all greatly miss his wise counsel and spirit of kindness.”
Bloomer ran the board of Morgan Stanley International (MSI), a London-based subsidiary of Morgan Stanley, regulated in the United Kingdom, and doing business in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. While MSI chief executive Clare Woodman runs the business side of the subsidiary, the board Bloomer oversaw "determines the strategy" of the company, according to a 2017 regulatory disclosure, "and provides oversight of the key risk and control issues that the execution of the strategy presents."
Over the course of Bloomer’s tenure governing Morgan’s international board, the United Kingdom left the European Union, the Middle East economy emerged on the global stage, and Africa forged complex ties with China. Now, as populist political currents continue to surge throughout Europe, Bloomer’s replacement could find himself leading in equally or more difficult conditions.
Big shoes to fill
Jane Edison Stevenson, global vice chair at C-suite hiring firm Korn Ferry, says that with the passing of a chair, the bank "will need to take a look at what they anticipate to be the biggest challenges and opportunities for their business,” adding, “I can't imagine that it would not include someone who's equally comfortable being connected to and in a network with heads of state, as they are with heads of businesses.”
Had Bloomer been on the board of the Morgan Stanley parent, a standing committee specifically established “to oversee plans for management development and succession” would directly help select the replacement. But a source with knowledge of the matter says, “A new non-executive chair will be selected by Morgan Stanley executives in London.”
Though Morgan is being tight-lipped on the actual succession process, Edison Stevenson says it’s not unusual for bank subsidiaries to conduct their own research, and nominate their own leaders, to a certain point. “It needs to be interconnected,” she says. “So typically, there would be oversight directly from the parent organization. And it depends on the way they're structured and the way it works as to whether they would have veto power.”
Fortune asked Morgan Stanley how the hiring process was being structured, but the company did not provide a response.
A look at others to hold the position provides some insight into the type of executive Morgan Stanley is likely to seek. Those include Bloomer’s immediate predecessor, Ian Plenderleith, who worked as an executive director at the Bank of England and was deputy governor of the South African Reserve Bank before being appointed a Morgan Stanley director in 2011. He was named chairman in January 2014, and eventually bequeathed the title to Bloomer.
By contrast, another previous chairman of the MSI board was Walid Chammah, who was at Morgan Stanley for 14 years before being appointed director in 2007. The decision to alternate between a chair who’d been at the firm for a decade and a relative newcomer is typical, according to Charles Shanley, cofounder of Shanley Search Partners. He says about half of bank execs are promoted from within the company, while Edison Stevenson puts the number closer to 70%.
“So you have a little bit of refreshment,” she says. “And yet people have confidence that they have a career trajectory, that there are places to go, things to do.”
A hard-charging leader
In the early 2000s Bloomer made a name for himself as a hard-driving if controversial leader, when as the CEO of London-based insurance giant Prudential he tried to raise £1 billion to expand beyond the U.K. Though the effort was eventually unsuccessful, after Bloomer’s passing, Prudential credited him for helping expand its focus beyond the U.K. “We wouldn’t be the company we are today if it wasn’t for him,” the company said in a statement.
Bloomer was appointed as a non-executive director of MSI in November 2016, according to regulator documents, and two years later, as Brexit was picking up momentum, was appointed chair.
One of Bloomer’s successors has already been appointed. Earlier this month, U.K.-based insurance firm Hiscox—for which he served as chair since last year—announced it had named independent non-executive director Colin Keogh as interim leader. “We are deeply shocked and saddened by this tragic event,” said Hiscox CEO Aki Hussain in a statement provided to Fortune prior to the discovery of Bloomer’s body. “Our thoughts are with all those affected.”
