Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain continues to tap his former firm, Goldman Sachs, for talent. Peter Kraus, who resigned as co-head of Goldman Sachs Asset Management in March, joins Merrill as head of strategy and investments, including acquisitions. He follows other recent Goldman recruits Thomas Montag, Merrill’s head of global sales and trading, and Noel Donohoe, co-head of risk management, and brings the number of Thain nominees on the 11-member management committee to five. Merrill is starting to look like “an occupied country,” says Brad Hintz, a senior banking analyst at Sanford Bernstein in New York, predicting a possible clash with Merrill’s “very strong culture.” Kraus, 55, who starts in September, was responsible for Goldman’s wealthiest individual clients. It’s not clear what role, if any, he will have in the growth of wealth management or the handling of Merrill’s stake in BlackRock, the $1 trillion-in-assets investment manager almost half-owned by the brokerage.
