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Incoming Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick and his two top lieutenants have been granted restricted stock units that could pay them tens of millions of dollars each in connection with their new roles.
Morgan Stanley said the shares were awarded equally to three executives, Pick, Andy Saperstein and Dan Simkowitz, as disclosed in a filing with the SEC Friday afternoon. Each package was worth $20 million at the time of grant, but the final value will be determined by the performance of Morgan Stanley’s share price over the next three years. The one-off grants will not be fully vested until 2027.
Earlier this week, Morgan Stanley announced that Pick would take over as the company’s CEO next year, replacing James Gorman, who held the bank’s top job for nearly 14 years. Gorman will then become chairman of the board.
Gorman’s announcement at Morgan Stanley’s annual meeting earlier this year that he would retire triggered a rare public runoff for one of the most coveted jobs on Wall Street. Saperstein and Simkowitz were also in the running for the top job, but were given other leadership positions instead.
It’s common for a newly appointed CEO of a Wall Street company to receive a large stock grant upon taking office. However, it is less common for other leaders to receive similar awards. For example, in 2021, David Solomon, who became CEO of Goldman Sachs in 2018, received a $30 million stock award. Goldman’s second-highest executive, John Waldron, received $20 million at the same time.
That same year, JPMorgan Chase gave its CEO Jamie Dimon a “special bonus” of 1.5 million stock options, which after 10 years was then valued at $49.5 million. On Friday, JPMorgan said Dimon would redeem up to 1 million shares next year, which would be worth $140 million at the bank’s current share price.
Gorman, Morgan Stanley’s outgoing chief executive, has sought to hand the company to the next generation of leaders without the backstabbing that leadership change often brings. Before this week’s announcement, Gorman had praised all three executives and expressed hope that they would all remain with the company regardless of who was named as his successor.
This story has been changed to clarify that the executives were granted restricted stock units rather than options