McColgan's exit from Morgan raises service issues

The departure of Ellyn McColgan after just 10 months as president and chief operating officer of Morgan Stanley's Global Wealth Management Group robs the company of some much-needed client service talent, a consultant said. "It's too bad she's leaving, because the firm needs to figure out how to do a better job for clients," said Bill Doyle, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Re-search Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. "She improved customer satisfaction at Fidelity, and she might have done the same thing here." Ms. McColgan's exit follows the announcement of Morgan Stanley's joint venture with New York-based rival Smith Barney, a unit of Citigroup Inc. of New York. The new Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, which will be controlled by Morgan Stanley, will be one of the world's largest retail brokers as measured by the number of adviser. Ms. McColgan, 55, began her stint at New York-based Morgan Stanley in April after 17 years at Fidelity Investments, where she ran the Boston-based fund company's sprawling brokerage operations before being pushed aside in 2007. A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman said Ms. McColgan wasn't available to comment on her plans. In an internal memo Wednesday, Morgan Stanley chief executive John Mack and James Gorman, the bank's co-president, said that she provided strong leadership "during one of the more tumultuous periods our industry has ever seen," adding that they respect Ms. McColgan's decision to leave at this time. E-mail Jed Horowitz at [email protected].