March 8 (Reuters) - Barclays Plc's head ofwealth and investment management in the Americas has steppeddown, the British bank said on Friday.
Mitch Cox, who had overseen the division since October 2009,has decided to leave London-based Barclays to "pursue interestsoutside the firm," the company said in a statement.
Cox reported to Thomas Kalaris, chief executive of thebank's global wealth and investment management business, and wasbased at Barclays' Park Avenue offices in Manhattan. Kalaris,who also serves as an executive chairman of Barclays Americas,will run the Americas wealth unit until the company selects areplacement for Cox.
Kalaris last year moved to New York from London to beef upmanagement of the Americas unit.
The departure of Cox, effective Friday, comes a year afteran independent report criticized an aggressive managementculture at its U.S. wealth management arm.
Cox, a former Merrill Lynch veteran, was hired to build awealth franchise out of the small retail brokerage businessBarclays inherited when it purchased the now defunct LehmanBrothers' banking and trading businesses in late 2008.
Under Cox, Barclays had been bulking up its wealthmanagement presence in the United States, aggressively hiringveteran advisers from rival firms. The unit currently has 14offices, including its trust company office. (Reporting by Ashley Lau in New York, editing by G Crosse)