Ex-JPMorgan Chase exec heads GunnAllen subsidiary
A longtime advocate of the area's financial services sector will develop a new GunnAllen growth strategy.
By KRIS HUNDLEY
Published April 27, 2005
GunnAllen Financial of Tampa has picked former JPMorgan Chase executive Irv Cohen to head its new bank subsidiary.
Cohen, 54, is president of GunnAllen Bank Holdings and GunnAllen Bank, as well as executive vice president of GunnAllen Financial, an independent brokerage firm.
In his new role, which he assumed this month, Cohen will be responsible for developing the financial service company's newest growth strategy: providing banking products for GunnAllen's brokerage clients.
"We'll be building a commercial bank with national reach, which will leverage the network built under GunnAllen Financial," said Cohen, who anticipates creating an Internet bank with one brick-and-mortar operation at GunnAllen's Tampa headquarters. "We're working through our plans at the moment."
Cohen left JPMorgan Chase's Treasury Technologies unit at the end of February after five years as president. He supervised the unit's move to Tampa from New York in 2001 and its growth to more than 1,900 employees. On Tuesday, he said his departure was in part because of changes in the giant financial company after its merger with Bank One Corp. last year.
"Once there are massive mergers, things change," said Cohen, who was succeeded as head of Treasury Technologies by Linda McLaughlin-Moore. "The company has to put all its resources into executing the merger."
When he announced his career change two months ago, Cohen said he wanted to pursue other entrepreneurial opportunities. On Tuesday he said the job at GunnAllen fits that description perfectly.
"It's a ground-floor opportunity and I thrive on that," said Cohen, who declined to say how much of an investment GunnAllen was devoting to its new banking operation.
Cohen said the job also complements his longstanding goal of expanding the financial services sector in the Tampa Bay area. For the past two years, he has chaired the Florida Financial Services Cluster Initiative in partnership with Enterprise Florida.
"I have a great deal of respect for what GunnAllen has built so far," Cohen said of GunnAllen Financial, which has more than 900 registered representatives nationwide. "It's a nice growth story for the broker-dealer and holding company. Now we'll build a viable financial entity, headquartered right here in Tampa."
Information from Times files was used in this report. Kris Hundley can be reached at hundley@sptimes.com or 727 892-2996.