Rockefeller & Co. comes up with new name, but no new CEO

Rockefeller & Co., Inc., the wealth management firm that has been looking for a chief executive since the suicide of CEO James McDonald last fall, has changed its name to Rockefeller Financial.
JUL 27, 2010
Rockefeller & Co., Inc., the wealth management firm that has been looking for a chief executive since the suicide of CEO James McDonald last fall, has changed its name to Rockefeller Financial. The 125-year-old firm, partly owned by French bank Societe Generale SA, and originally formed to handle the Rockefeller family fortune, has about $25 billion in assets under administration, according to a company statement released today. The firm said that the rebranding is intended to help clarify what it does. “We believe this brand evolution, an initiative under way for nearly a year, both honors our legacy and positions the full range of our capabilities in today's marketplace with clarity,” Austin V. Shapard, president and chief operating officer, said in the release. Mr. Shapard has been running the business as chief operating officer since last fall. Rockefeller Financial's lines of business will now be organized along the following lines: Rockefeller Wealth Advisors, the family office segment of the business; Rockefeller Asset Management, offering customized global equity and fixed-income portfolios; Rockefeller Capital Partners, its alternative investment offerings; and Rockit, the financial reporting part of the business. Rockefeller currently has five offices around the United States. In addition to operations in New York, Boston and Washington, the firm has offices in Stamford, Conn. and Wilmington, Del. Part of the rebranding effort for Rockefeller Financial includes a new logo, which is a simple rendering of Lee Lawrie's art deco statue of Atlas. The statue, which dates from the late 1930s, is situated on the Fifth Avenue side of Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan.

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