Dow Kim

The phone area code gives it away. Dow Kim, like thousands of other New York bankers, has been relocated to Jersey City following the terrorist attacks of September 11. "Unfortunately I was in the office at the time," he recalls. "The window looked out onto the World Trade Centre, and I saw the second plane go in."

Unlike Salomon Brothers' office, Merrill Lynch's headquarters building remains structurally sound (though access has been the problem) and senior management has already started to move back in. It won't be long, says Kim, before everyone follows.

Dow Kim is one of Merrill Lynch's rising stars but has nevertheless maintained a fairly low profile. A strong trader with a background in derivatives, he was appointed in the midst of the recent management reshuffle to succeed Kelly Martin as Merrill's head of fixed income (Martin having become head of the firm's international private client group).