Private wealth maven Donald Herrema, who used acquisitions to grow Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management, where he landed after being ousted as CEO of Bessemer Trust in 2000, is moving on to a new post with parent Amvescap, the British money management conglomerate. In a memo to staffers last month, Amvescap chairman Charles Brady said that Herrema is shifting to a newly created strategic role in which he will work on the parent company’s merger and acquisition activities. “Don Herrema has successfully completed his initial task of building a solid foundation for Amvescap’s private client business in the U.S.,” Brady said in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by Institutional Investor.
Over three years Herrema successfully built Atlantic’s asset base by, among other things, engineering the 2001 acquisition of $8 billion-in-assets high-net-worth boutique Pell, Rudman & Co. Now, in another Herrema-led deal, Atlantic is on the verge of buying Stein Roe Investment Counsel, which has $9 billion in assets.
But while Atlantic’s assets grew, top talent left. Sources say that Herrema, who had clashed with board members at Bessemer, had alienated senior managers at Pell Rudman -- most of whom, save for co-founder Ed Rudman, left following the deal, apparently unhappy with Herrema’s hands-on management style. Firm insiders speculate that Herrema has been reassigned to forestall any internal friction following the Stein Roe acquisition.
Brady, however, emphatically denies that this is the motivation behind Herrema’s job change, simply saying, “That’s bull.” He adds that Herrema’s new post -- director of new acquisitions -- will include some of the responsibilities of James Robertson, who is succeeding the retiring Robert McCullough as CFO. Herrema’s successor at Atlantic is former head of client development Jack Markwalter, a former Morgan Stanley private wealth executive. Herrema was out of the office and did not respond to phone messages seeking comment.
