Chris Bartlett, a long time equities trading executive, has left Wells Fargo Securities for a money management post in Baltimore.
Bartlett’s departure comes in the midst of a restructuring at Wells Fargo that saw the merger of the firm’s equities group with its fixed income group. The combined group is now headed by the two former heads of the fixed income department.
Bartlett has joined Brown Advisory, a money manager with about $31 billion in client assets, as a senior portfolio manager to families, non-profits and other institutions in the U.S. and abroad. Bartlett was most recently in charge of equities sales and trading at Wells Fargo Securities in New York. He oversaw 250 staffers involved in trading, sales trading, and research sales.
Bartlett could not be reached for comment.
Wells Fargo spokesperson Elise Wilkinson said Bartlett left the firm at the end of August for personal reasons. With the restructuring, Wilkinson said, there is no longer a head of equities or fixed income. The new group is called the Markets Division, and is headed by Walter Dohare and Tim Mullins. Both were formerly co-heads of the fixed income group.
Bartlett joined Wells Fargo at the end of 2008 when it acquired Wachovia, a North Carolina-based banking firm faltering under the weight of bad mortgage loans. At the time of the acquisition, Bartlett was head of equity sales and trading at Wachovia Securities, having been promoted from director of equity trading.
Bartlett had joined Wachovia in 1999 as a result of that bank’s takeover of First Union, another East Coast bank. The exec had joined First Union’s Nasdaq trading desk in Baltimore in 1999 from Alex. Brown & Sons, shortly after the takeover of the boutique by Deutsche Bank. Bartlett had spent about 12 years at Alex. Brown, a top market maker in over-the-counter stocks, on its Nasdaq desk.
Despite the restructuring at Wells Fargo, most, if not all, of the senior managers in the firm’s equities’ business are still in place, Wilkinson said. Geoff Snyder is still in charge of equities sales. Matt Brown is still in charge of cash trading. Ed Gonzalez still runs electronic trading. Tom Richardson still heads up market structure.
The new Markets Division also encompasses commodities, prime brokerage, and futures clearing.
