Union Backed Investment Firm Seeks De-linkage of CEO/Chairman Post At Morgan Stanley

Jed Horowitz of Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal had a story today discussing CtW Investment Group's efforts to convince investors to vote against Morgan Stanley's CEO, John Mack, and two other directors continuation on the bank's board of directors at next month's annual meeting.

In a letter, the CtW Investment Group urged votes against Mr. Mack, Howard Davies and Robert Kidder, each of whom has been nominated for re-election. The letter said Messrs. Davies and Kidder acquiesced in allowing Mr. Mack to radically increase the company's risk-taking shortly after he took the top job at Morgan Stanley.

"As members of the Board's audit committee in fall 2005, we believe that directors Davies and Kidder failed to maintain the integrity of Morgan Stanley's risk management, and thus bear central responsibility for the firm's $9.4 billion in subprime-related write-downs in 2007," the letter said.

Mack is fighting to resist the calls of CtW but the reeling credit crisis may work in the union backed asset management firm's favor.

Stay tuned for the April 8th annual meeting.

For more:

MarketWatch 3/22
Portfolio.com 3/14