Morgan Stanley (MS) has named Co-President Ted Pick to assume the role of CEO to succeed James Gorman, effective January 1, 2024. Over 1,400 CEOs have left their jobs in 2023 alone, as the Great Resignation moves on to the C-suite.

Puck News Founding Partner William Cohan sits down with Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the role of a CEO and the great amount of detail and care that went into choosing Pick as Gorman's successor.

"Ted Pick has done a pretty darn good job resurrecting Morgan Stanley's investment banking business and trading business since the near calamity of the 2008 financial crisis," Cohan says. "So I wasn't surprised that he got the job because I think the pendulum does swing back and forth — James Gorman was an asset management, wealth management guy, and, so, now time for Ted Pick, the investment banker, to take control."

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Video Transcript

JOSH LIPTON: Well, Gorman, though, has been focused on growing wealth management. And he incomes Ted Pick, obviously, head of banking and trading. They thought they were interested in that sort of turn there. Did that-- did that get your curiosity up at all or, no, you thought that made sense?

WILLIAM COHAN: Well, I think I wrote a piece in Puck last May, predicting that Ted Pick would be the winner. And here we are in almost November. And he is the winner. So obviously, I was not surprised Ted was chosen. I've never met Ted, which I find sort of interesting. Maybe that'll change now.

But look, the pendulum swings. You know, James Gorman came from the brokerage wealth management, asset management side of Merrill, and then at Morgan Stanley, engineered the acquisitions of Smith Barney, e-trade, Etienne Vance. So yoyu know, I think it was-- Ted Pick has done a pretty darn good job resurrecting a Morgan Stanley's investment banking business and trading business since the near calamity of the 2008 financial crisis.

So I'm not-- I wasn't surprised that he got the job, because I think the pendulum does swing back and forth. It was James Gorman was asset management, wealth management guy. And so now, time for Ted Pick, the investment banker to take control. And I think Ted is sort of a central casting kind of CEO guy, probably more than the other two. And, yoyu know, to me, this was a clear choice.

And you know, again, at least to Morgan Stanley's credit, they set up a succession. It was clear it was going to happen this year. It was clear it was going to be one of three guys, really one of two guys. And that's more than you can say about either JPMorgan Chase or Bank of America.

JULIE HYMAN: Well, and I want to ask about those two, right? Because you mentioned the financial crisis. And those two have CEOs that have been hanging around since then. And I think most investors have been relatively pleased with their performance. But at some point, they got to go, right? It can't last forever. So what do you see as the path there?

WILLIAM COHAN: Well, Julie, as we both know, no one gets out alive. And the path is he's going to have to choose a successor at Jamie Dimon and Brian Moynihan. And everybody has to choose a successor. It's the most important thing a CEO does. And hopefully, they get it right.

You know, I just wrote a book about GE, where Jack Welch, you know, unfortunately, was keen to tell me that he made a mistake in his success in succession choice. Jamie still and Brian still have a big opportunity here to get it right. It's not the easiest thing in the world. A lot of people have left both companies waiting to see whether they would be in line to succeed these long-serving CEOs.

And so they've lost a lot of talented people who've got tired of waiting, especially so at JPMorgan Chase, where there's a lot of people now CEOs of other banks and financial institutions that were got tired of waiting for Jamie to give up the role. I understand completely why he doesn't do it. It's the greatest job in the world. He's doing a fabulous job. The board keeps rewarding him. You know, he's got this special award that he received in 2021 that he gets in 2026 if he sticks around.

So I don't think he's leaving. Until then, at the very least, this stock sale is something probably his first one ever. And he certainly deserves to do that. So that's not an indication of anything. They need to be-- if I were both of those CEOs, I would be much more explicit than they have been, like James Gorman was, about the succession timing and candidates to be in that race.