[ by Larry Goldfarb]

There’s an old adage that says a good house needs a strong foundation.  Well Deutsche Bank clearly destabilized the foundation of its Asset & Wealth Management unit after announcing last year that it planned to sell all or part of it.  What followed was a rash of defections that has severely impaired the unit. 

The dominos began ot fall when Deutsche Bank's talks to sell the business to Guggenheim Partners fell through. After the negotiations fell apart in June, Deutsche Bank concluded a strategic review of its asset management division without finding a buyer. Kevin Parker, who was head of the asset management unit at the time, left Deutsche Bank in late June, sources said.  Recently, the departures are coming fast and furious.  Some of those exiting recently include:

• Colleen Sellers, who is credited with building the private-equity funds-of-funds business, is leaving.  
• John McCarthy, who had been global head of RREEF infrastructure.
• Chris Minter, the global head of DB Private Equity.
• John Crocker was let go in mid-December, just a few weeks after being promoted to co-head of private markets.
• Mark Schroeder, a managing director in the RREEF unit, also exited in December.
• Chris Burnham, who joined Deutsche Bank in 2006 as vice chairman and managing director of the asset management unit, left the bank at the end of 2012.

While sources attributed most of the departures to Deutsche Bank's failure to sell part of its asset management unit", a number of folks said the new management had scared some senior executives away. Michele Faissolawho was hired  to head the newly formed asset and wealth management group, combining  what had been separate asset management and wealth management businesses into one large unit. 

Following his appointment, executives began to depart who were extremely senior.  Chris Burnham, for instance, had previously served as Under-Secretary General of the United Nations, as well as an adviser to Mitt Romney in his recent run for President. Before his promotion and departure from Deutsche Bank, Crocker was a managing director in the RREEF group, where he sold and marketed alternative asset products. Prior to that he worked on origination at placement agency Atlantic-Pacific Capital.

For further details, go to:  [ Reuters, 2/14/13 ].