Kevin Sullivan, the outgoing CEO of GMP Capital Inc., was long viewed as one of the few who could hold together the strong personalities that made up GMP and keep them all pulling in the same direction. It was a kind of smooth diplomacy that made one of the most profitable dealers on the street work, but it can't have been easy to do all day. Still, he made a go of it and managed to remain a working investment banker while doing it.
Now, after a run of tough times for the firm, he's stepping back from management and handing the challenge to the man long groomed to be a successor.
The new guy, Harris Fricker, brings a much different flavour to the job. He isn't much on formalities, his appearance calls to mind a bull terrier and he's known as a martial artist. In short, he's no-nonsense and he'll be charged with cleaning up some of the messier situations at the firm.
Mr. Fricker has chops as a banker, having earned the firm a pile of fees helping to merge and sell many of Canada's steel companies, among other deals on his resumé. He's also honed his management abilities, moving up from head of investment banking to president and now to chief executive officer.
He's also sampled life outside banking, trying his hand as an entrepreneur prior to GMP. He was a founder of a financial services dotcom that tried to become an online advice centre for young people without financial advisers.
In fact, he had no intention of being a banker as a student, taking political science as an undergraduate and then studying politics, economics and philosophy while at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. But those university bills were adding up, and financial services paid well, so he got into the business.
He'll need some of that big thinking he cultivated at Oxford as he tries to repair some of the problems at GMP.
The firm struggled in recent years, which is reflected in its sagging stock. Some strategies failed to pay off, including a move into private equity that led to a big write-off and an attempt to build a private-client network has been costly and so far unprofitable.
Most recently, there was also the bad publicity from the Athabasca Oil Sands initial public offering, for which GMP was a lead underwriter even though many GMP employees owned Athabasca stock. The IPO was priced at $18 a share, and the stock immediately went into a swoon, leaving many investors angry and disappointed. Athabasca now trades near $10.
There was even talk that GMP would seek a buyer, perhaps a U.S. boutique such as Jefferies Group Inc.
For all that, Mr. Fricker still inherits a pretty solid franchise that Mr. Sullivan did much to build. The firm is a leading trader and remains a top underwriter, especially for energy and mining stocks. There's also a presence in niches in areas such as non-bank financial services and technology.