Global heads at Merrill over the last decade
The revolving door has spun once again at Merrill Lynch. Harry Culham, who started as the bank’s global head of foreign exchange little more than a year ago, has suddenly left the bank. Sources say that although Culham and his team had posted record results in 2007, he was seen as being too expensive. Merrill has stated that it wishes to flatten out its management structure, which is likely to have played an important part in Culham’s exit.
The decision to make yet another change to its FX operation will strike most market particpants as odd, though it may not cause much surprise. However, Merrill has a long history of chopping and changing its team – few of its global heads of FX over the past decade have ever survived more than a couple of years in the job.
As a former Merrill Lynch employee, Culham may have been very aware of what he was letting himself in for when he rejoined the bank. He served a stint there until early 2002, when he left for AIG. He then moved on to Dresdner Kleinwort, before returning with a team to Merrill at the start of 2007.