Drexel Gives Sher Additional Post

Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. on Tuesday named Allan Sher, 58, the senior management official assigned last year to supervise the firm’s Beverly Hills operations, to the additional post of vice chairman.

With the addition of Sher, the firm will have three vice chairmen, including Fred Joseph, the firm’s chief executive, and Herbert Bachelor, who oversees corporate finance activities.

Sher, who has been with Drexel since 1983, was already on Drexel’s board and continues as a member of the firm’s executive committee. Sher’s appointment last year to oversee Drexel’s Beverly Hills-based corporate finance, high-yield and capital markets departments was a result of the firm’s settlement of securities fraud charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Claiming that the Beverly Hills operations had been inadequately supervised from Drexel’s New York headquarters while Michael Milken was head of the high yield junk bond department, the SEC had insisted that Drexel name a senior management official who would live in the Los Angeles area to oversee the West Coast operations. Before Sher was given that job, he had served as head of Drexel’s retail division. The firm eliminated that division last year.

Steven Anreder, Drexel’s spokesman, said Sher’s promotion had nothing to do with the SEC settlement. He said it was based simply on a decision by the firm’s board to give Sher additional recognition.

Securities industry analysts noted that during Joseph’s term as chief executive a variety of executives in addition to Joseph have been vice chairmen, and they said the Sher’s promotion doesn’t appear to change Joseph’s status within the firm. Perrin Long, an analyst at Lipper Analytical Services, said Sher’s promotion appeared to be part of a current Drexel policy “to reward people by giving them bigger titles.”

Drexel also named three new senior vice presidents, including John H. Kissick, 48, who last year was named to succeed Milken as head of Drexel’s high-yield department. The other two new senior vice presidents are Burton M. Siegel, 54, in charge of the firm’s international activities, and Richard J. Wright, 38, the firm’s chief financial officer.