SAN FRANCISCO - J.P. Morgan H&Q has shuffled its senior executive ranks because of an illness that has forced chairman and chief executive officer Daniel H. Case 3d to relinquish most of his responsibilities.
The San Francisco-based investment banking unit of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. split Mr. Case's job in two. David G. Golden and Julie Richardson will be co-heads of the firm's core businesses: technology, media, and telecommunications investment banking. Cristina M. Morgan, who was co-head of technology investment banking with Mr. Golden, was named vice chairman and senior banker and will focus on client relationships.
Ms. Morgan is also taking on Mr. Case's former duty as a roving ambassador, representing Morgan H&Q at industry conferences. She'll be one of the more visible faces of Morgan Chase, working closely with the banking company's largest corporate clients that need a link to smaller growth companies.
The moves were announced Monday, the kickoff of J.P. Morgan H&Q's annual four-day technology conference here. Mr. Case, who was recently diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, is retaining his title of chairman but will step down from his day-to-day responsibilities.
Mr. Case was not at the media briefing Monday morning but was keeping up a busy schedule of one-on-one meetings with executives at the conference. A spokeswoman said he would introduce his brother, AOL Time Warner chairman Steve Case, at a Thursday presentation.
Mr. Case, 43, has spent his entire career at the former Hambrecht & Quist, starting as an associate in 1981 and rising to CEO in 1992. In brokering its sale to Chase Manhattan Corp. in 1999, he said Hambrecht & Quist needed the broader distribution capabilities and bigger customer base of a larger institution if it was to keep expanding its core business - arranging initial public offerings for emerging technology firms.
Buying Hambrecht & Quist gave Chase a new-economy foothold and an equities presence among growth companies, one it solidified by acquiring J.P. Morgan & Co. - and its vast roster of blue-chip corporate clients and technology practice - in late 2000. Mr. Case assumed a broader role in the new organization, taking charge of all technology, media, and telecom investment banking.
Since then a dearth of activity in the equity markets, particularly in technology stocks, has forced many firms, Chase included, to downsize. During a first-quarter conference call Morgan Chase executives said the company was cutting expenses in most parts of investment banking, except for equities, to offset the market downturn. Morgan Chase says it has eliminated 2,200 jobs from the combined investment banking operations, about 8% of the unit's work force, since the start of its merger integration.
At the conference, Geoffrey Boisi, co-head of investment banking, said that because of the integration, the company was earlier than some of its competitors in eliminating jobs. He added that on an ongoing review indicates the cuts will probably exceed original targets of 3,000 jobs.
"The cuts will be slightly deeper than they were originally anticipated," Mr. Boisi said Monday. "But most of those people have already been communicated with, and I would hope within a month or so to have that part of the process be complete."
