America's No. 1 financial conglomerate

Chapter 610 Adjustment of Personnel Appointments

"After this market rally is over, we should also step up and give those Wall Street giants who are usually so high and mighty a warning."

In the conference room, everyone straightened their backs involuntarily because of Ernst's words, their eyes sparkling with long-suppressed anticipation and ambition.

They knew that they were not far from making a name for themselves.

Fame and power, two eternally pursued goals in the financial world, are now presented to the public in a way that is within reach.

When Ernst Asset Management announces its earnings, the entire Wall Street stands at attention, as if seeing a reverent God.

By then, public pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, multinational financial institutions, and family offices from around the world will be eager to entrust Ernst Asset Management with huge sums of money.

The assets under management by Ernst Asset Management will experience exponential growth, and the resources and influence that these core managers can control will also increase accordingly.

"At that time, we can completely build the future framework of Ernst Asset Management," Jane Fraser said.

Her face was also filled with barely concealed excitement.

Because then, she will become the most powerful woman on Wall Street.

Ernst did not respond immediately upon hearing this, but instead fell into deep thought. He knew that there was a certain urging in the other party's words, that the adjustment of the power structure was about to begin.

His fingertips tapped lightly on the table, producing a rhythmic sound that was particularly clear in the quiet conference room.

All eyes were on him, hearts pounded uncontrollably, and the air was thick with tension and anticipation.

This personnel appointment is essentially a redistribution of power in a new stage of the company's development, which will directly determine the status and development trajectory of each person in the company for the next few years or even more than a decade.

If all goes as expected, Ernst Asset Management, while not reaching the size and influence of traditional giants like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, will inevitably become a mainstay of large and medium-sized financial institutions on Wall Street, just one step away from the giants.

In such a rapidly growing company, the position of head of a core department means having control over assets worth hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, having a say in setting industry standards, and even more so, immeasurable professional rewards and social status.

The core structure of functional departments such as legal affairs, human resources, finance, risk control, and logistics will remain largely unchanged.

All eyes are on the four core business clusters and how Ernst will adjust the positions of their top executives.

The time was short, but for the few people most likely to experience job changes, every second was agonizing.

After thinking for a long time, Ernst finally spoke, "Ce, Jane Fraser."

This was not unexpected, and no one was even slightly disturbed.

If it weren't for her, that would be the biggest surprise of the day. "Chief Operating Officer, Rob Mario."

As soon as he finished speaking, a subtle commotion arose in the conference room. Many people subconsciously looked at Rob Mario, who was sitting at the very back, with a hint of surprise in their eyes.

However, no one expressed any objection, because this financial elite, who was only 48 years old, had only been with Ernst Asset Management for a little over half a year, yet his abilities had been recognized by everyone.

The headhunter recruited from State Street was originally slated to take over as State Street's Chief Risk Officer.

Unfortunately, his background became an obstacle to his advancement, and disheartened, he was invited by Jane Fraser to Ernst Asset Management Company.

Within three months of joining the company, Rob Mario helped Ernst Asset Management build a highly scalable risk control system covering the entire business process.

Even if Ernst Asset Management's business grows larger and its staff increases in the future, this risk management system can continue to be used.

"Chief Financial Officer, Ovinito. Chief Legal Officer, Chris Mead."

The announcement of these two names was, as everyone expected.

The former was brought in from Google by Ernst, while the latter is a partner at the law firm of Wenger and a well-known financial law expert in California; both can be considered his protégés.

"Chief People Officer, Edmund Harrington."

Edmund Harrington, a Harvard graduate who studied under David Ulrich, the pioneer of human resource management, and worked on Wall Street and at Spencer, one of the top five executive search firms, is irreplaceable. He is not only adept at building talent systems that fit the development of financial institutions, but also has a precise grasp of the pain points of top talents in the financial industry. He has unique methodologies in talent attraction, development, motivation and retention.

Edmund Harrington played a crucial role in Ernst Asset Management's ability to gather so many industry elites in such a short time.

Among the people present, several were recruited by him after he took office.

Subsequently, Ernst announced the heads of the logistics and security departments, but neither of them were in the meeting room.

But these are all secondary positions. What everyone present really cares about is who will fill the vacant Chief Risk Officer position after Rob Mario's promotion to CEO.

The risk control department is the core defense line of an asset management company, directly related to the company's survival and development, and the importance of its head is self-evident.

However, Ernst did not make an announcement, but instead talked about specific business operations.

"Portfolio Management Department, Perkin Houston."

The portfolio management department focuses primarily on fundamental investments, covering the core business segments of traditional asset management, and mainly serves institutional clients and high-net-worth individuals.

The core principle is to achieve long-term preservation and steady appreciation of assets through diversified investment portfolio construction, under the premise of controllable risk.

It's essentially asset management.

"Global business segment..." Ernst paused again, and all eyes, intentionally or unintentionally, focused on O'Shea Ricardo and Ralph Payton. Jane Fraser's proposed future organizational structure for Ernst Asset Management was no secret within the core management team.

Everyone knows that Ernst Asset Management will use this framework to expand and develop in the future.

Basic Investments, which is the portfolio management department of Perkin Houston.

Global business copyrights can also be considered proactive investments.

The remaining two are alternative investments and service integration. Compared to the first two departments, the assets under their management are undoubtedly much smaller, which also means a loss of power.

Since the future financial model will lean towards asset management, it is destined that basic investment and active investment will be the two most important business segments for the company in the future.

Regardless of whether it's alternative investment or active investment, becoming the head of their respective departments represents an increase in power for both of them.

However, there is still a question of quantity here.

"Ralph Payton."

After much deliberation, Ernst decided to appoint Ralph Payton as the head of the active investment department.

One is active investment, which is related to his previous private equity investments, and you could say there's not much difference between them; essentially, they're both in the same sector.

The only differences are the LPs providing the funding, the scale of the funding, and the variety of investment targets. However, in essence, it's still the same old approach of actively seeking investment opportunities for people. Secondly, in addition to private equity, infrastructure investment, real estate funds, and credit investment, alternative investments also include hedge funds.

O'Shea Ricardo is undoubtedly a hedge fund guru at Ernst Asset Management, possessing unique insights.

When he borrowed money to bet on Russian government bonds, only O'Shea Ricardo shared the same view on the market trend, believing that Russian government bonds posed a huge risk and that the US financial market was also facing adjustment pressure.

I relied on foresight, while the other party relied entirely on market sensitivity.

Therefore, he doesn't trust anyone else to lead the department, so he has to continue to be in charge for the time being.

"Oshe Ricardo has also been promoted to Vice President of Ernst Asset Management," Ernst added.

Many people were taken aback, but they quickly offered their congratulations, knowing that Ernst had managed to treat everyone fairly.

In terms of the revenue contributed to Ernst Asset Management, O'Shea Ricardo is undoubtedly the biggest contributor and the company's undisputed profit engine.

Today, Perkin Houston heads the two core business units, while Ralph Payton heads the active investment unit. Ernst promoted O'Shea Ricardo to vice president, giving him higher recognition in terms of position, which not only acknowledges his outstanding contributions but also balances the power structure among the three core business units.

"As for the final service integration department and the chief risk officer, I'll think about it later."

Chief Risk Officer, Rob Mario's deputy is an option.

However, while he was capable, his experience was too limited, which inevitably made it difficult for him to gain the respect of others, and Ernst was not entirely at ease with him. He decided to temporarily entrust Rob Mario with the management, and once Ernst Asset Management officially launched, he would have plenty of talent to choose from.

As for the service integration department, this department is also called service consulting.

Ernst has good candidates for innovative businesses in the future internet technology field, such as data services and fintech solutions, but not here; they are at AXA.

"Although the company has not been officially reorganized yet, that day is not far away. Your task is arduous and the road ahead is long. Go back and prepare yourselves."

"If anyone falls behind when the time comes, don't blame me for turning my back on them."

The faces of the people who had been smiling at each other instantly turned serious.

Under the restructured framework, Ernst Asset Management will adopt a three-tier structure: governance level – management level – business/regional/functional level.

The governance structure includes all shareholders, the board of directors, and committees under the board, but these don't exist yet.

The management team consists of senior core positions such as chairman, CEO, human resources, and finance.

The next level down consists of the four major business groups led by Perkin Houston.

Within these business groups, there are various departments, and then regional heads and management of each regional subsidiary.

Most of these things needed to be set up by themselves, with various departments of management coordinating and assisting according to their requirements. This was no simple task, and everyone exchanged glances, their faces bearing wry smiles.

Everyone knows that for some time to come, even six months to a year, they won't be able to take a vacation. They might not even be able to go home and will have to live at the company.

"However, the most important task at present is to win this battle on Wall Street and let those high and mighty giants on Wall Street know that we are not rats that will not fight back."