Dan Case couldn't do it. Roddy Fleming couldn't do it. Even Neal Garonzik, long-time friend of Chase CEO William Harrison, couldn't do it. Through all the quiet discussions to buy a top investment bank and the change of tack last year to build through smaller acquisitions, vice-chairman Jimmy Lee remained king of Chase's investment banking heap.
Case at Hambrecht&Quist (bought by Chase last December for $1.35 billion), and Fleming at Fleming's (Chase is spending $7.78 billion on that one) have either been subsumed into Lee's world or are leaving. Garonzik, a former equities co-head at Morgan Stanley, joined Chase last summer to spearhead an equities push, but now covers asset management and private...
