Rising star at Merrill in New York lands at JP Morgan Chase

Racquel Oden to oversee branch and wealth management teams for tri-state area.

Racquel Oden, who abruptly bolted Merrill Lynch last month as the manager of its flagship 5th Avenue branch in Manhattan, is landing at JP Morgan Chase, where in March she will become divisional director of the northeast.

According to an internal announcement to employees on Tuesday morning, Ms. Oden will report to Pam Codispoti, who until recently was head of branded credit cards, including the Sapphire card, and is now head of branch banking and wealth management.

Ms. Oden “will oversee our branch and wealth management teams in the Tri-state area and help drive the transformative initiatives we have under way to evolve how we serve customers,” according to the memo.

Elizabeth Seymour, a spokeswoman for JP Morgan Chase, declined to comment about the specific nature of the initiatives in wealth management that the bank has underway.

Ms. Oden was a rising star at Merrill Lynch.

Ms. Oden, 44, joined Merrill Lynch in 2010. Prior to that, she worked at UBS Financial Services Inc., according to her BrokerCheck report.

She was promoted in March 2016 to manage Merrill’s Fifth Avenue office, replacing Jeffrey Tucker, who had been promoted but later left Merrill Lynch to work at Morgan Stanley. Ms. Oden last month was named one of the financial advice industry’s leading innovators by InvestmentNews and was profiled in its Icons and Innovators issue.