At 80, Greenberg proves he's still an ace at selling stocks
When Michael Nolan walked into his office on the 26th floor of the former Bear Stearns Cos building on June 2, after the JPMorgan Chase & Co takeover was completed, he found a packet on his desk. Inside: a JPMorgan security badge, a list of contacts and business cards that read, "Bear Stearns: a JPMorgan Company".
Nolan, 52, and 325 other Bear Stearns retail brokers will carry on the name after a crisis of confidence among customers and lenders forced the investment bank to sell itself to JPMorgan in March. Alan "Ace" Greenberg, Bear Stearns' best-known trader and its former chairman, will continue selling stocks to clients, 59 years after joining the New York-based company as a clerk.
"I'm thrilled the name lives on," said Nolan, who joined Bear Stearns in 1991. "I believe in branding, and I don't see a reason to kill it after 85 years of building it."
