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* Cox's departure effective Friday
* Follows report of aggressive management culture at thefirm
* Barclays' global wealth head to run Americas unit (Adds context of Cox's departure, statement from Barclays)
By Ashley Lau
NEW YORK, March 8 (Reuters) - Mitch Cox, a former MerrillLynch executive who Barclays Plc hired in 2009to revive its Americas wealth business, has left the Britishbank, not long after a report shed light on the over-aggressivemanagement culture he had fostered at the New York-baseddivision.
London-based Barclays said on Friday that Cox, who hadheaded its Americas wealth and investment management unit sinceOctober 2009, has stepped down to "pursue interests outside thefirm."
The departure of Cox, effective immediately, follows thesudden resignation in January of Barclays Wealth's London-basedchief operating officer, Andrew Tinney after he was found tohave suppressed the independent report.
The report, which Barclays had commissioned from consultingfirm Genesis Ventures in February 2012, criticized the privatebank's "revenue-at-all costs" management culture, especially inNew York, London-based media reported widely in January.
Barclays declined to comment on the extent to which thereport was tied to Cox's departure. Cox could not be reached forcomment.
"Independent reports, like the one commissioned in early2012 for Barclays Wealth in America, are intended to identifyareas where change is required and to recommend remedial steps,"Barclays said in a statement. "These types of exercise neverresult in comfortable reading, but we have been, and will,remain absolutely committed to taking the necessary steps toaddress the issues raised."
GLOBAL WEALTH HEAD KALARIS TO TAKE OVER
Barclays' global wealth head, Thomas Kalaris, will run theAmericas wealth unit until the company selects a replacement forCox. Kalaris, who also serves as an executive chairman ofBarclays Americas, moved to New York from London last year tobeef up management of the Americas unit.
Cox, also based out of Barclays' Park Avenue office inManhattan, was brought on board to build a wealth franchise outof the small retail brokerage business Barclays inherited whenit purchased the now defunct Lehman Brothers' banking andtrading businesses in late 2008.
He was not far from completing a $500 million, five-yearplan, begun in 2009, to build a brokerage franchise aimed atwealthy Americans. Under Cox, Barclays had been bulking up itswealth management presence in the United States, aggressivelyhiring veteran advisers from rival firms.
The unit, which employs more than 250 brokers, has 14offices, including its trust company office.
Cox said in an interview last May that he aimed by the endof 2014 to have 400 advisers selling estate planning, mortgages,hedge funds and other investment products to people with about$10 million or more of investable assets.
The unit would have about the same number of advisers asCredit Suisse's wealth management unit in theAmericas, though Barclays sees its primary competition asJPMorgan Chase's private banking group and the smallprivate wealth management unit of Goldman Sachs Group. (Reporting by Ashley Lau; Additional reporting by Jed Horowitz;Editing by G Crosse and Richard Chang)
