Bear Stearns

Manager: Jimmy Cayne
Age: 72
Appointed: 1993
Value added: 18% pa (9th)
Chop rating: 3/5

Septuagenarian Jimmy is a legend of the game. With Ace Greenberg still going in every day and well into his 80s, why hand over the reins to Spector and Schwartz just yet?

Star players:
Warren Spector and Allen Schwartz are the template for every forward line on Wall Street, their different strengths in markets and M&A complementing each other perfectly

Rising star: Tom Marano runs Bear Stearns’ all-conquering mortgage-backed securities and growing structured products divisions, and will play a key role in trying to export these outside the European market

Weakest link: Jimmy and his management team know it all too well – Bear lacks presence outside the US. Can Bear build an overseas presence under the watch of experienced international operator Michel Péretié? Can it grow and maintain the small-club culture that serves it so well? And does international success matter when it wins so many trophies at home?

Key transfers 2006:

IN: Antoine Dijkstra and Dominique Favillier (senior managing directors, European strategic finance, from NIBC and ABN Amro, respectively); Joachim Koolman (senior MD, special situations group, from Deutsche Bank); Manfred Puffer (head of strategic finance for Germany, Austria and eastern Europe, from WestLB)

OUT: David Abner (head of exchange-traded fund trading, to BNP Paribas); Richard Lindsay (head of clearing services and prime brokerage)

2006 capital markets performance (▼/▲ 2005)

Overall fees: $1,218mln (+22.5%)