Seven strange career moves of former Morgan Stanley bankers

It’s no secret that bulge bracket investment banks are struggling to hold on to talent – or are simply getting by with fewer people – but over the past few weeks a number of mid to senior staff at Morgan Stanley have been moving on for roles that are a little off the beaten track.

One example is Chris van Aeken, a managing director and chief executive officer of Morgan Stanley AG in Zurich. Van Aeken worked in various roles during his 20 years at Morgan Stanley, including equity derivatives trading, head of risk management, and wealth management product development.

He’s now launched his own consultancy, Van Aeken Advisors, which offers investment advice and…consultancy on wine. He’s also an angel investor in wine-related companies.

Meanwhile, Shintaro Maeda, who was an executive director within Morgan Stanley’s structuring business in Japan, departed last month to join a household robot manufacturer.

Groove X was founded late last year, and is aiming to develop the “next generation household robot” that “truly touches people’s hearts and inspires real affection”. This is likely to be released by 2019, and Maeda is involved in finance and corporate strategy.

Less strangely, but still something of a sideways step, is Steven Williams, an executive director in the transportation investment banking division of Morgan Stanley in New York, who has just joined Delta Airlines as a managing director in corporate strategy in Atlanta, Georgia.

Meanwhile, senior bankers who held chief operating officer roles over the past few years at Morgan Stanley, have moved on. John Giannotto, global COO of fixed income sales, has joined PwC in an advisory role in its capital markets division. Gordon Fraser, latterly a managing director at Morgan Stanley and head of EMEA commodities, also held various COO roles during his 15 years at the bank. Now, he’s launched COO & Co, an advisory firm that officers ‘chief operating officer’ services to sales and trading organisations.

Finally, there are the tech moves. Doug McNamara, an executive director who worked at Morgan Stanley for over 11 years, has just joined Google as a technology operations manager. Meanwhile, Dan Evison, who also worked at Morgan Stanley for 11 years, latterly as an executive director in automated trading, recently launched Stellwagon Technology in Dublin. It develops technology for aircraft finance and investments.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com