Gorman to step down within a year

Morgan Stanley chief James Gorman said on Friday he plans to step down as CEO within the year, starting a succession race at the helm of one of Wall Street’s dominant companies.

Gorman told shareholders at the New York-based company’s annual meeting that the bank’s board has narrowed the search for CEOs to three “very strong” internal candidates.

He said Gorman, 64, would take over as CEO “for a while” after stepping down as CEO.

“The exact timing of the CEO transition has not been determined, but the board and my prediction is that it will happen at some point in the next 12 months,” Gorman said.

“This is the current expectation given the lack of a significant change in the external environment,” he added.

since he took over 2010, Gorman pulled off one of the most successful turnarounds on Wall Street. Through a series of shrewd acquisitions, Morgan Stanley has reversed course after being nearly flipped during the 2008 financial crisis to become a widely respected wealth management juggernaut.

The company’s investors have rewarded it with one of the best valuations among major banks’ peers. That’s because shareholders prefer the more steady revenue streams from wealth and asset management over the more volatile fees from the trading and advisory businesses.

Announcing Gorman’s official desire to hand over control to another executive. Gorman said publicly Over the past few years he hasn’t been planning on staying longer as CEO, and on Friday he joked he wouldn’t die holding the title.

Gorman “has no plans to come out like Logan Roythe fictional CEO of the HBO series Succession, he told investors.

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