Coats, 2 Others Resign Posts at Salomon Bros.

The long wave of turnover among key management personnel at Salomon Bros. continued Wednesday with the announcement that three respected department heads were quitting the firm to pursue personal investment interests.

Salomon Bros., a major Wall Street bond trading and investment banking firm, confirmed that E. Craig Coats Jr., head of government trading and firm finance at Salomon, had resigned. Coats is among Wall Street’s most respected traders of government securities and is considered to have been a major force in making Salomon one of the leading traders in the field.

The firm also announced the resignations of Ronald M. Stuart, the head of mortgage trading, and John L. O’Grady, the head of the firm’s New York general sales department, a key division that sells bonds and other fixed-income securities in the New York area.

A spokesman for the firm said the three decided to leave after efforts by top management to persuade them to stay failed. None of the three could be reached immediately for comment after the announcement.

Salomon said Paul Mozer would replace Coats as head of government trading, Robert Dunne will become head of New York general sales and William J. Voute was named to oversee the firm’s mortgage business, while Mason Haupt was named the new head of mortgage trading.