By Will Caiger-Smith
NEW YORK (IFR) - Morgan Stanley's global treasurer Celeste Brown is leaving the bank to move to Fannie Mae.
She will be replaced by John Ryan, formerly chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Bank N.A., the holding company's national bank-level subsidiary, a Morgan Stanley spokesperson said.
Brown will become deputy CFO at government-backed mortgage lender Fannie Mae, a spokesperson there confirmed.
Brown, who was promoted to treasurer in November 2014, had been tipped as a possible successor to CEO James Gorman.
She joined the bank as a research analyst in 1999 and became head of investor relations in 2010.
As part of the transition, Ryan has already begun soliciting meetings with market participants over the coming weeks, a source away from the bank told IFR.
Ryan joined Morgan Stanley in 2004 on the fixed income financing desk, becoming a managing director in 2007 and joining the corporate treasury team as assistant treasurer in 2011.
Most recently, he was head of balance sheet management for Morgan Stanley Private Bank as well as CIO for Morgan Stanley Bank N.A.
Morgan Stanley's senior management has seen several high-profile departures since Gorman took over as CEO in 2010.
Paul Taubman, who jointly ran investment banking and trading, left the bank in 2012. Ruth Porat, formerly the bank's CFO, left in 2014 to take up the same position at Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL).
Both had also been seen as potential successors to Gorman.
In January 2016, the bank named Colm Kelleher - who had previously run investment banking and trading with Taubman - as president.
That move prompted co-president Gregory Fleming, who had also been considered as a potential future CEO, to leave the bank.