Lehman Veteran Puts a Brokerage Spin On Selling to Wells' Retail

Dennis J. Mooradian is making Montgomery Street-this city's financial hub-seem a bit more like Wall Street.

The former New York broker, who is now running the retail investment business at Wells Fargo & Co., is putting his stamp on the place by importing an aggressive sales mentality.

One morning last week, he was standing at his desk before 7 a.m., placing calls to recruit more salespeople.

Mr. Mooradian, who just clinched an alliance with Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. to give Wells clients access to the full-service brokerage, wants Wells to sell, sell, sell-and not just Wells investment products.

Instead he wants bankers to put themselves in a "consultative position." For instance, Wells will get products from Dean Witter that are invested in markets the bank does not follow.

"Banks generally have limited lines of business compared to brokerage firms," Mr. Mooradian said. Because brokerage firms "haven't focused on proprietary product," he said, they have done "a great job taking money away from banks."

Mr. Mooradian, who joined Wells last year from Lehman Brothers, is installing a philosophy common at investment banks and brokerages: Get your clients access to the best investment opportunities available, not just what you can do.

"Our focus is to transition from a pure service culture to a little more sales culture-to create the type of growth Wells is known for in other businesses," he said.

The investment services division, which encompasses a brokerage, private banking, asset management, and trust services, will not start entirely from scratch.

Thanks to its acquisition of First Interstate Bancorp, Wells has 27 private banking offices in 10 states. Mr. Mooradian has 2,000 people- bankers, brokers, trust officers, portfolio managers, marketers, and operations staff-reporting to him.

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