CS 1st Boston Promotes Archibald Cox Jr.
CS First Boston Inc. named Archibald Cox Jr. as president and chief executive of its Wall Street subsidiary after just four months at the firm.
Cox, 50, succeeds John M. Hennessey, who will remain as president and chief executive of the parent company. James Maher, 40, was named vice chairman of First Boston after two years as co-head of its investment banking division. The changes take effect Thursday.
The shift caps a series of top management moves this year at the firm, which has suffered some setbacks during a securities industry slowdown.
Cox was chief executive of Morgan Stanley International from 1977 to 1988, where he started and directed the firm’s London-based international operations. He joined First Boston as a member of senior management in May and helped complete a business plan for its operating companies.
Hennessey, 54, took over the investment bank in January, after the firm shifted then-Chairman William Mayer to a subsidiary to monitor its investments in Campeau Corp.’s troubled retailing divisions. First Boston said it had $293 million exposed in Campeau, and the retailer’s problems hurt the privately held investment bank’s 1989 earnings.
CS First Boston owns the subsidiaries First Boston Corp., which operates in the Americas; Financiere Credit Suisse-First Boston in Europe and the Middle East, and CS First Boston Pacific in the Pacific Rim.
“These appointments will allow me to spend my time running CS First Boston,” Hennessey said in a statement. “Now I will be able to more effectively coordinate the strengths of our three operating units.”
Cox, son of the former Watergate prosecutor, started his career at Morgan Stanley in the 1960s. From 1986 to 1988 he was a member of the Securities and Investment Board, which regulates the securities industry in Britain.
First Boston went private last year when it merged with its London-based sister company, Financiere Credit Suisse-First Boston, in a $1.1-billion deal. The combined entity is 45% owned by Credit Suisse, the Swiss bank holding company.
