Mercantile Bankshares of Baltimore has selected a managing director of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. to succeed its longtime chief executive officer.
Edward J. Kelley 3d, 47, will take over from H. Furlong Baldwin, who plans to retire March 1 after 25 years leading the $8.9 billion-asset company.
Mr. Kelley, a lawyer who served as law clerk for the late Justice William J. Brennan Jr. in 1982-83, joined J.P. Morgan as its general counsel and secretary in 1994.
When Mr. Baldwin became its CEO in 1976, Mercantile owned 10 banks and had assets of $783 million. Today it is the holding company for 21 banks in Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia.
Mr. Baldwin, 69, will remain with Mercantile as its nonexecutive chairman of the board.