But 13-year Merrill Lynch veteran John Michel gave up a secure job at the giant firm last month to become president and CEO of tiny Bullrun, which has developed an online portfolio management system for investment managers and financial advisers. John Ricciardi, the former head of global asset allocation at Alliance Capital, founded Princeton, New Jersey-based Bullrun last year. Michel caught the entrepreneurial bug when he headed two Merrill start-ups: a telephone-based investment advisory service and the Merrill Lynch Direct online channel. “You don’t get a lot of opportunities to do that in large corporations,” says the 43-year-old West Point graduate. Michel, who will spearhead the launch of the Bullrun product in October, sees the sophisticated software filling a void at firms with tight technology budgets. “This is something that everybody has on their radar screens but not on their developers’ screens,” he says.
