Fidelity Investments yesterday named Michael K. Clark, former chief executive officer in charge of JPMorgan’s $15 trillion Worldwide Securities Services business, to head its institutional services business.
“Mike Clark is an industry leader who brought innovation and outstanding performance to JPMorgan’s securities services business,” says Fidelity Investments President Rodger A. Lawson. “Fidelity’s strong presence with banks, broker-dealers, insurers, registered investment advisers and other intermediaries opens huge growth possibilities for us as we align the businesses that serve these clients under Mike’s leadership. We are very committed to these markets and to building on our past successes in them.”
Clark will join Fidelity reporting to Lawson as president of Fidelity Institutional Services and based in Boston. The organization comprises National Financial, Capital Markets, Institutional Wealth Services, Fidelity Investments Institutional Services, all brokerage operations, and the risk and brokerage technology functions.
The Boston Globe reports that Lawson began an extensive reorganization last week that included putting more sales and marketing power in the hands of Abigail Johnson, daughter of Fidelity chairman Edward C. “Ned” Johnson III.
According to The Globe, Lawson said in a memo to employees he had started an outside search for an executive to lead the company’s technology operations, and that he was close to naming a new leader to oversee business Fidelity conducts with intermediaries such as banks, insurers, and registered investment advisers. The latter is the position Clark is filling as head of Fidelity Institutional Services.
Clark joined JPMorgan in 1994, and was made head of its Institutional Trust Services business in 2000. In January 2005, while retaining his Trust role, Clark assumed the leadership of JPMorgan’s Investor Services business. The firm combined its investor and issuer capabilities under the name JPMorgan Worldwide Securities Services in April 2005, with Clark as CEO.
The news came as a surprise, as Clark personified the changes that have taken place at the bank over the two years since WSS was created in 2005 including high-level personnel changes, technology upgrades and push into alternative investment services. The business is also growing strongly, with $1 billion in net revenue in the second quarter of this year.
Before joining JPMorgan, Clark held a number of management and product development positions at Bankers Trust Company, where he developed servicing models and products for the retirement services, global custody and institutional trust business lines.