Maurice Mann; Former Head of Stock Exchange
Maurice Mann, who served as chairman of the Pacific Stock Exchange until last January, has died of a heart attack, his family said Thursday from San Francisco. He was 61.
Mann, who lived in San Francisco, was flying from Miami to San Diego for an investment conference when he was fatally stricken aboard a plane Wednesday.
“Dr. Mann served this institution and the many others with which he was affiliated throughout his career with distinction,” Leopold Korins, Mann’s successor, said in a memo announcing the death to the exchange’s 450 employees. “His passing is a loss that will be deeply felt throughout this exchange and around the country.”
After Mann stepped down as chairman, he had continued as a consultant to the exchange.
During his three years at the helm of the regional stock exchange based in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Mann had worked to improve the organization’s identity and establish its place in the growing Pacific Rim economy.
To streamline the exchange, he phased out its money-losing stock clearing and depository operation, and encouraged trading links and joint ventures with other exchanges. He also added directors of marketing, planning, public relations and governmental affairs to boost the exchange’s image and clout and to develop new products.
After the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s dramatic plunge in October, 1987, Mann tried to exert a calming influence, holding eight news conferences in one week. Despite “one of the most significant events in U.S. financial history,” he said repeatedly, “the system is still working.”
A longtime investment banker, Mann had served as vice chairman of Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, and a company it acquired, Becker Paribas, before going to the stock exchange in 1987.
Mann also regulated savings and loan associations as president and chief executive officer of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco from 1973 to 1978. He was credited with introducing new lending products to help member thrifts deal with deregulation.
“He was very innovative in an industry that had not shown much innovation,” said Robert Parry, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. “He told them their world was changing (in ways) that would make their life more difficult.”
Early in the Administration of President Richard M. Nixon, Mann was assistant director of the Office of Management and Budget. He participated in President Gerald R. Ford’s economic summit conference on inflation in 1974, and was a member of President Ronald Reagan’s commission on housing from 1981 to 1982.
Mann also served as vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and vice president of Equibank in Pittsburgh, and taught economics for a time at Ohio Wesleyan University.
A native of Peabody, Mass., he earned his bachelor’s degree at Northeastern University in Boston, his master’s at Boston University and his doctorate at Syracuse University.
Mann is survived by his wife, Betty; two daughters, Debbie and Pamela, and one granddaughter, Melissa Mann Miller.
Services are scheduled for 1 p.m. today at Temple Emanu-el in San Francisco. The family has asked that any memorial contributions be made to a donor’s favorite charity.
