Lehman Brothers Holdings hired a prominent executive to advance its global private-client business.
Charles S. Hopper, an expert on managing money for extremely well-to-do families, individuals, and small institutions, has been recruited as deputy director of investment services in the private client services group, the New York firm announced last week.
Mr. Hopper comes to Lehman from Graystone Partners, Chicago, a subsidiary of Boston-based New England Investment Cos. that is a consultant to wealthy families.
"Charlie's experience in working in the high-net-worth world is very helpful to us," said Jan P. Greer, to whom he will report. "One of the things we want to do is assist our investment representatives to form advisory relationships with their clients."
Mr. Greer, director of investment services, joined Lehman a year ago from William E. Simon & Sons, a private investment company in Morristown, N.J. He was brought to Lehman by managing director Edward M. Feigeles, the head of private client services.
Mr. Feigeles joined Lehman early last year from Morgan Stanley & Co. to rev up the group, whose 300 brokers handle more than $5 billion of assets from 24 offices worldwide.
Mr. Hopper began his career at Lehman Brothers, Kuhn Loeb, but today's Lehman Brothers is a very different firm. Indeed, Mr. Greer said Mr. Hopper was brought in to help the investment bank outgrow its brokerage heritage to become a financial adviser.
Dealing with the client's broad investment concerns instead of just taking orders means more profit for the client and the firm, Mr. Greer said.
Lehman is introducing a family of funds to "provide access to the best in the world of money management," Mr. Greer said. For example the Lehman Value Equity Fund, which opens today, is advised by Michael F. Price of Franklin Mutual Advisors, Short Hills, N.J., as well as Institutional Capital Corp., Chicago.
Mr. Hopper's experience should dovetail with Lehman's aspirations. Before Graystone he worked for Northern Trust Corp., also in Chicago, where he helped David B. Horn develop a wealth management group that works for families whose net worth is typically more than $100 million. Then, in 1993, Mr. Horn founded Graystone with Mr. Hopper and two other principals.
But last year Mr. Hopper expressed interest in returning to the sell side, Mr. Horn said in a press statement. "We encouraged him to look around and were delighted for him when the Lehman offer came through."
