Merrill Lynch Vice Chairman Says Departure Unrelated To Research Probe

by Carla Johnson, Investors Offshore.com

06 May 2002

The Wall Street Journal revealed on Friday that Merrill Lynch Vice-Chairman, Tom Davis is to leave the brokerage firm after 25 years of service, in November.

In an internal memo circulated on Thursday, Mr Davis explained that he was leaving the company which he joined as an investment banking associate in 1977, in order 'to focus on other personal and professional goals'.

The WSJ reports that Mr Davis categorically denied that his departure is related to a probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into potentially misleading research circulated to small investors. However, the ML Vice Chairman declined to elaborate further on the reasons for his departure.

Questioned by the Wall Street Journal, Mr Davis revealed that he intends to work on improving Merrill's reserach policies and procedures until his resignation becomes effective in November. However, the paper reported on Friday that he seemed relatively unconcerned about the probe and its possible consequences:

'In my 25 years with Merrill, we've had many different storms to navigate and have come through them all,' he explained. 'I'm confident we will do the same with this one.'

Meanwhile, it emerged recently that Mr Davis was one of almost 100 ML executives who invested in a complex Enron partnership, LJM2, which although not illegal, was established in order to allow the collapsed energy trading giant to keep debt off its books.

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