| Stephen Zimmerman |
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After the initial shock following the announcement in March that both Carol Galley and Stephen Zimmerman were to retire this year, it turns out that very little has changed.
Peter Gibbs is the new public face of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers in Europe following his promotion to sole global chief operating officer, a role his former bosses shared. But he has been head of the Europe, Middle East and Africa region since late 1999, as well as being co-head of global equities since 1996, so already has hands-on control of investments and organization.
His promotion marks the symbolic end of a difficult five-year period for the old Mercury Asset Management. Along with its new brethren in Princeton, Mercury was enduring a period of poor investment performance in the mid- to late-1990s, capped by Unilever's decision to take the company to court with the accusation of poorly managing its pension funds.