Former Morgan Stanley sales director replaces Dudzik at high-end brokerage. Deutsche Bank has made former Morgan Stanley executive Michael Burke head of Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown. Based in New York and Baltimore, he will report to Thomas Bowers, head of Deutsche's U.S. Private Wealth Management (PWM) division.

DB Alex. Brown is the private-client piece of Deutsche Bank Securities, the German megabank's U.S. brokerage unit.

Burke takes the helm of DB Alex. Brown from John Dudzik, "who is leaving the Private Wealth Management division but will remain with" Deutsche, according to a written statement.

Bowers describes Burke "as a skilled client-focused business leader with a proven track record" -- qualities that make him "uniquely well-suited to take the business to the next level."

Another opportunity

Burke left his job as director of national sales for Morgan Stanley's retail brokerage in March 2006 "to pursue other opportunities," according to a Morgan Stanley statement released at the time.

That coincided with James Gorman's decision to run retail sales personally in addition to his then-new responsibilities as president and COO of the company's brokerage business.

Gorman had been with Morgan Stanley for about a month when Burke left.

(Street buzz has Gorman's efforts to make Morgan Stanley more competitive in the fight for high-net-worth assets paying off. A top recruiter in the brokerage space recently told FWR that Morgan Stanley has emerged, along with Wachovia Securities, as a destination choice for captive brokers -- something the headhunter says it wasn't 18 months ago.)

Burke held several senior positions during his time at Morgan Stanley, running the company's Southeast and Southern regions and managing its Washington, D.C. office.

As head of DB Alex. Brown, Burke is in charge of about 200 brokers. At Morgan Stanley he shared oversight of around 9,500 brokers.

Burke's appointment comes about two weeks after Deutsche PWM brought Rosemary Vrablic and Dominic Scalzi over from the Private Bank of Bank of America to work as New York-based advisors. Like Mark Chiappara, an ex-Bank of America private banker who joined Deutsche in August, Vrablic and Scalzi were hired to work with ultra-high-net-worth clients and "select institutions." All three are based in New York.

Deutsche puts everyone with more than $5 million in liquid assets in the "ultra" bracket. The epithet is more commonly reserved for those with at least $30 million.

In the U.S., Deutsche's PWM division combines the bank's private banking operations with DB Alex. Brown though they remain parts of distinct business lines. -FWR

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