After running one of Baltimore's leading companies for 38 years, Legg Mason Inc. patriarch Raymond A. "Chip" Mason is handing over control to one of his top lieutenants, Mark R. Fetting, the company announced late yesterday.
Fetting's appointment as chief executive capped a long search for a successor to Mason, 71, who will remain nonexecutive chairman. Mason built a stock brokerage he started in Newport News, Va., nearly 46 years ago into a global, Baltimore-based business that manages $1 trillion in assets for its clients.
Fetting, 53, who heads the division that includes mutual funds, was one of several senior insiders passed over for the job when the initial successor to Mason, James W. Hirschmann, was selected in 2006. Hirschmann bowed out in April, saying he wanted to stay in California with his family and remain head of Western Asset Management, Legg Mason's largest subsidiary.
Legg Mason then hired an executive search firm to help a four-member board committee find a new CEO. The list of candidates was whittled down to Fetting and two unidentified outside candidates.
Mason, 71, said Fetting's appointment culminates a succession plan that began more than two years ago. The board voted on the decision yesterday, and Fetting begins his new role immediately.
"In terms of how I feel about it, it's the right thing to do," Mason said in an interview. "Fortunately, my health has been good. Therefore, it's not because of sickness. At my age, it is time. Particularly with a company of this size, it should be a younger person. I don't think many people would argue with that."
Fetting said he was humbled to succeed Mason. The two first met 20 years ago and worked closely after Fetting joined Legg Mason in 2000.
"I'm deeply honored to take the baton from Chip," Fetting said. "Chip is truly revered within our company and throughout the industry."
Fetting and his wife, Georgie Smith, have deep Baltimore roots, which analysts speculated was highly important to the board after what happened with Hirschmann. They were high school sweethearts while she attended Bryn Mawr and he was at Gilman School.
Fetting's father, John Howard Fetting Jr., ran a jewelry business in Towson and served on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond's Baltimore branch.
Before joining Legg Mason, Fetting ran Prudential Financial Group's retirement services business and worked at Legg Mason's hometown rival, T. Rowe Price.
