It is a popular saying in the custody world that everyone will work at Chase some time in their career. Dick Feehan can cap that – he’s just starting his third stint with the bank.
Now under the banner of JPMorgan, the investor services division is still effectively the former Chase custody operation from before the merger of the two banks in early 2001.
Feehan, who is linking up again with some familiar faces, including Ramy Bourgi, head of the division in London, says he has come home after a somewhat unsettled period following Deutsche Bank’s takeover of Bankers Trust in 1999.
At the time of that takeover, Feehan had been with Bankers Trust for nine years, heading its European custody push. The Bankers and Deutsche deal was never going to be easy, with a strong culture clash between the US and German banks being a common reason, along with imposed redundancies, why many people moved jobs. Feehan stayed on for a few months before moving to Lehman Brothers to market equity finance to institutions.
Feehan was with Lehman for two years and recalls the time as interesting but his heart was elsewhere. “Equity finance is a fine business but it’s a bit tunnel vision,” he says. “There’s more scope in a big custody operation.” After a brief stint in a consultancy role with State Street, he has landed at JPMorgan.
In many ways it seems a natural habitat for him, not least because he is familiar to those around him. As one colleague says: “As soon as he walked in, everyone knew he was back. He’s a good person to have around. He’s great at pepping people up.”
Familiar role
Custody has of course evolved into securities services, including a range of products such as outsourcing, foreign exchange and fund administration. Feehan’s role will involve selling these to institutions – a role similar to his previous stints at the bank. He left the first time when Chase moved much of its operation to Bournemouth. It meant the bank wasn’t going to see too many new business opportunities for a while and Feehan headed to Fidelity where unfortunate timing saw him helping an attempt to launch a stockbroking arm in 1987. “Not the best year for stockbroking,” as he succinctly puts it. His second stint ended when he went to Bankers Trust. At Bankers, Feehan and his team scored notable successes in winning new business and had a strong team spirit, as is clear in the fondness with which former Bankers staff still talk of their old team.
Feehan says he’s ready for a new challenge, as befits someone whose 20-year-plus City career has also taken him to the London Stock Exchange running institutional sales and to Taylor Nelson Financial in market research.
Feehan keenly follows rugby, which he played in the days when players were all still amateurs and expected to squeeze training in after a day’s work. He played as a second-row forward for Wasps, one of England’s leading teams. Other members of his pack included prop forward Paul Rendell, who won Grand Slams with Will Carling’s successful England team of the 1990s.
Feehan looked to be on the verge of an international career when he caught the eye of the Irish national selectors but did not make it to full international honours. He retains a strong enthusiasm for the game, as well as a firm friendship with former England hero Dean Richards, with whom he played at school.
After leaving King Edward VI Grammar School, Nuneaton, Feehan read economics at Lancaster University, then completed an MBA at the University of Sheffield. While considering studying for a doctorate at Oxford, he was lured away to work for Provident Mutual, from where his career in finance took off.
Anyone who has been entertained by Feehan will be aware of his fondness for good food and wine. This has led to him having a second career as a restaurateur, with restaurants in Pimlico and Islington in London.
Feehan, 45, has three children from two marriages. Staying true to the maxim that everyone has worked for Chase at some point, that’s where he met his second wife.
