Thomas Saylak stepped down as Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc.'s head of commercial real estate, extending a series of departures since a July management shake-up at the New York firm's trading and investment banking unit.
Mr. Saylak joined Merrill in April 2004 and initially reported to Jeff Kronthal, who was displaced in July as the head of principal investments and secured financing.
Jessica Oppenheim, a Merrill spokeswoman, said Monday that Mr. Saylak is no longer with the firm. She would not comment further.
At least seven top executives have left Merrill, the world's third-largest securities firm by market value, in the eight weeks since Osman Semerci and Rohit D'Souza were installed as heads of fixed income and equities.
Mr. Saylak was supposed to stay at the firm and continue to run commercial real estate "across investment banking, financing and principal investing," according to an Aug. 4 memorandum from Mr. Semerci.
Before joining Merrill, Mr. Saylak was a managing partner at Fortress Investment Group LLC from January 2003 through October 2003. Earlier he had worked at Blackstone Group LP for nine years.
He co-founded Blackstone's real estate unit and helped create four investment partnerships with more than $4 billion of equity, according to a Merrill press release from 2004.
